My sister asked my nephew and I this exact question,, in 1973,,,

"I am going to K-Mart today to buy your Christmas presents,,
what $20 worth of ammo do each of you want as a gift this year?"

I would bet we got more than the $500 gets today,,

IIRC,, I got 3 bricks of 22LR,, a brick of 22 shorts,, and a carton of Winston's,,

What would that cost today,,??

I have some of those and seeing your post got me to thinking.... I just got a Henry 357, that could be an interesting combination.

Back to the subject, I'd get 5.56 and 357 Magnum.

At say 17 dollars a brick average for cheap .22 when times are normal, plus say 60 bucks for a Carton of smokes leaves you at $128 dollars.

Your $20 in 1973 is worth about $120 dollars today. So the real cost is about the same.

In todays situation? Here's your 3 small rifle primers and 20 round box of Winchester White Box .223. Before Tax.

$500 to spend on ammo today? With what I've got stored or stashed right now, I'd spend the $500 on gold... I've got enough ammo to defend it, and gold is only ridiculous now, as opposed to aim that is totally insane!!

I try to never let my ammo supply get to the point of desperation, and have been pretty successful so far.

Froggie

I only spent a little more than that on .45GAP from GT distributers 1,000rnds of good range ammo and 500 GD hollow points for my .45acp revolvers. Real Speer ammo for cheap. About the cost of components...........

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dd884
JMHO-YMMV

Equal amounts of 38 Special and 9MM.

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I could still get a decent amount of .455 Webley for that....

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10mm, .38/200 for my Enfield, .455 Webley and 7.62 Nagant revolver

I just finished a cross country ski trip, VT to NW Montana, via I 70 out and I 90 back.
I found most stores had little pistol ammo, except in Montana, where I picked up 500 rounds of 9mm and a few hundred .223.
.22lr was scarce or off the charts expensive.
One shop in Iowa had a surprising amount variety of pistol ammo; 38 super, 9mm, 45 acp, .32 acp sp 32 S&W 357 Sig. and a few others.

Most shops had only 9mm, 40 S&W.

I saw almost zero .38 spl and one box of .375 mag - for $70.

Prices ranged from fair - 50 9mm - $14.95 to ridiculous.

One shop in Erie PA, had a wide variety of large caliber hunting ammo, .357 H&H magnum,, 257 Weatherby etc.
Shot gun ammo, 12 GA 20 GA and 28 Ga are in stock in many places and zero .410.

High prices, rationed stock for the most part and lots of dry trips.

I'm thinking of buying a 20 ga shotgun - and getting back into archery.

158 grain 357 SWC

230 grain 45 acp hardvall

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Pete
I ain't no fortunate son

[QUOTE=Riverboys;141075031

I'm thinking of buying a 20 ga shotgun - and getting back into archery.[/QUOTE]

I would think a bow and some arrows would work better. Larry

Good investment. Mid Way had theirs on sale a coupla years ago and free weekend shipping. I stocked up then. It will work in .45 Colt, too..........

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dd884
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Edit: Nevermind. LOL @ self ... I just noticed this thread was from 2016.

I enjoy shooting reduced recoil 12 gauge 00 Buckshot from my riot guns, but my favorite brand is often hard to find. Just got a Mossberg 500 with an 18.5" barrel, so with $500 burning a hole in my pocket I would get Fiocchi 12LE00BK.

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With a $500 ammunition budget to spend today I would stock up on 12 and 20 ga shotgun shells in any available variety and .22LR even tho the OP stated not being interested in that round. Those are things I can't handload for myself and have to rely on being able to buy. Expand the parameters to include reloading components and I would spend the whole $500 on small pistol primers if there were any to be had at some kind of reasonable price. I just balked at paying 20 cents a round for .22LR I used to pay 3-4 cents a round for and feel pretty much the same about primers, so...bring on the birdshot if it's all that we can find!

So one round of 9mm or two rounds of 40?

I'll play

If I'm already set (as I feel I am), and I have $500 that I must spend on ammo...

I'm going boutique, non-standard caliber for lower-priced surplus pistols.

I've found 2 places that load for 9x23 Largo (new Starline brass, good quality components), and their prices haven't skyrocketed compared to the rest of the market. One sells 50 rds FMJ for $30, the other sells 50 rds JHP for $36. I've shot some of the FMJ already and it ran great. We have a pair of Star Modelo Supers, each has a 9x19 and a 9x23 barrel. Mags etc work with both, just swap barrels and you're good.
Right now, it's cheaper to shoot new Largo than new 9mm Parabellum, so we've been playing with them.

Another I'm highly interested in, 7.65 French Long (Longue). I remember seeing the French pistols a number of years back, at the time ammo was non-existent. Which was a shame, because the guns seemed to be very well made, basically precursor to the Sig P210. One of those ammo makers now rolls that stuff for $27 a box of 50, and I'd really love to pick one of those guns up if I could.

9mm
45ACP
20 gauge 5shot
12 gauge 5shot
410

For me it would be split 70/30 for 223 and 380. I am in clover on most others that I shoot.

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Robert
SWCA #2906, SWHF #760