I've Heard You Can Never Have Enough Ammo...
...but that may not be entirely true. I have a fair amount in the calibers I like to shoot. I thought it was a pretty fair amount anyway.
Yesterday I came across a large, plastic tote box and when I tried to move it discovered it was REALLY heavy. I opened it up and it was like opening a pirate's treasure chest. I found ammo in there...some of it I haven't seen in probably 20 years or more.
I found 4 or 5 boxes of old Winchester Silvertip 9mm and .45 ammo in the original style box. I found a box of Winchester treasury department .38 loads. Black Talons in 9mm and .45. I found a box of Federal Nyclad .357 ammo I think I got from the sheriff's department in the late 80s. There was also .45 from Winchester in the long, skinny boxes where they only packed it in rows of 2 rounds x 10 rounds. How long has that been? There were 2 boxes marked 11.43mm (.45) with some type of eastern European writing on it I didn't recognize with a lot number from 1957. All of this old ammo is in perfect condition. 2 bricks of Peters .22LR in new condition that I think I bought when I was stationed at Offutt AFB in the 80s. Several 50 round boxes of Winchester Ranger T-Series "Law Enforcement Only" in 9mm and .45 in regular, +P and bonded. One of the more sobering finds was two boxes of Federal American Eagle .45ACP with the red price stickers still on it... $8.99 SALE. I probably bitched about having to pay $9 a box for .45 ammo back then!
Most of the older, vintage stuff was packed on the bottom underneath some old targets and an old Russian parachute I picked up somewhere along the way (no idea now why I even had that). Laying on top was several boxes of newer stuff...the CCI 300 round packs of Mini-Mags with that "choot 'em" guy on the front of the box. I started stacking the .22LR stuff in a cabinet and realized I have a LOT of .22LR ammo in unopened boxes. I counted up all the boxes I had stored in my ammo cabinet (including the stuff I found in the tote)...19,975 rounds total. Oh, wait. What's this? A box of 400 rounds of CCI .22LR shotshells. So, over 20,000 rounds. And a lamp made from a wide-mouthed glass jar that probably holds 1.5 gallons that's full of .22LR ammo...no idea how much...but it looks cool in the gun room! That doesn't even include the stuff in another shed stored in ammo cans. I'm guessing there's another 10,000 rounds of .22LR and .22Mag, at least.
I'll never shoot it all. I don't know how I accumulated all of that stuff. Aside from two boxes of 50 rounds when I bought a Glock 44 a few months ago at the BX (just because it was there and pre-panic/shortage cheap) I haven't bought .22 ammo in years in any significant quantity.
I even found an old Mondial 1900 starter/tear gas/flare gun pistol that shoots those little 6mm Flobert cartridges...with some tear gas and other (unknown) cartridges in the box. I have no idea where that came from but it's in near mint condition.
It's kind of staggering to think about how much money I've spent on ammo over the last 35 years. I'm almost ashamed to think about it.
I'll probably go out and rummage thru some more old boxes and totes today and see what else I can dig up. I have a LOT of crap tucked away.
What about you? Find anything interesting recently you completely forgot about? Maybe it's time to start looking thru those old boxes shoved in the back of, or buried in, the sheds, attics, garages and basements. Never know what you might find.
