When It Comes To Stockpiling 22 Long Rifle For SHTF
Kevin Felts 01.21.19
The reader may be wondering what the difference is between stockpiling 22 long rifle and stockpiling 22 long rifle for a SHTF / Doomsday event?
When it comes to picking up a few boxes of 22 long rifle for plinking and hunting small game, hopefully one’s life does not depend on their rifle and choice of ammunition. During hard economic times, a lot of families across the nation depending on someone bring home a rabbit or squirrel.
So when it comes to stockpiling 22 long rifle ammunition, is it worth stockpiling slightly more expensive ammo over the cheap stuff?
Buy Cheap Stack Deep
In the prepping community, there is an old saying that goes like this – “Buy cheap and stack deep.” However, chances are the reader could tell stories of cheap magazines, and cheap ammo giving less than desirable results?
Several months ago a buddy of mine was taking an AR-15 class. During the class the base plate feel off his low cost magazine. Just a few months before that he talked about how he found a great deal on magazines that were on sale.
My opinion was to spend a few dollars more and get P-mags. My buddy came up with the reasoning that he could buy more of the cheap magazines than P-mags. There was no real use in talking about cost:quality ratio as he felt he was justified in buying the cheap stuff.
Then the class came along and the low cost magazines started falling apart. Luckily he had some P-mags in his range bag, and was able to finish the class. He has since pulled all of those cheap magazines from his stockpile and only uses them for target shooting.
With all of that in mind, should we be buying ultra low cost 22 long rifle ammo?
Difference in Brand Names
When it comes to stockpiling 22 long rifle, there are certain brand names I refuse to buy. Even if the ammo is on sale, or if it is the only thing the store has in stock, I will not buy it.
Why is that? The stuff misfires in every firearm I have tested it in:
- Ruger 10/22
- Marlin Model 60
- Remington Speedmaster
- Walther 22 pistol
I will not mention brand names, but there is ultra low quality 22 long rifle ammunition on the market that can not make it through a full magazine without a misfire. Then again, for plinking what is a misfire here or there?
Of course there are people who justify buying low quality ammo under the old excuse of “Buy cheap and stack deep.”
Good Quality or Middle of the Road?
Is there middle of the road stuff? Sure there is. How much of your 22 long rifle stockpile should be middle of the road and good quality? Maybe 50:50? That means someone who has 5,000 rounds stockpiled, 2,500 is middle of the road?
Isn’t putting food on the table worth more than 50%?
How about 75% good quality? Then again, it takes a state of mind that we are going to pay a price for a quality product. When it comes time to buy 22 long rifle ammunition, it is easy to justify buying 1,000 rounds as compared to 100 rounds.
It gives us a warm feeling inside to say, “I have thousands of rounds of 22 long rifle stockpiled.” The uncomfortable reality is those thousands of round may have a 25% misfire rate. How many times is the shooter going to miss a rabbit or squirrel because they passed up the better quality ammunition?
Final Thoughts
Would we put our family in a vehicle that has a terrible safety record? Would we say, “The brakes may fail 20% of the time, but at least I saved money.” So why would we stockpile 22 long for for a SHTF event knowing our 22 long rifle ammunition is of questionable quality?
What kind of 22 long rifle do I stockpile? This is the only time I personally want to mention brand names. When it comes to my SHTF 22 long rifle ammunition, I stockpile CCI Stinger, CCI Mini-Mag and just about anything made by Federal. Everything is is pretty much plinking ammo.
In all honesty, I am trying to shoot up everything in my stockpile that is not CCI or Federal. The end goal is to have one or two bricks of plinking ammo, say no more than 1,000 rounds, and everything else be good quality.
