Q&A: Inflation Protection, Civil Unrest And What Ammo I Recommend.
I got a couple of good questions the other day while lurking around on Halloween and I think you’d benefit so let’s get into it:
What Specifically Should I Do To Protect myself From Inflation? This is going to be very individual and I don’t give specific financial advice but here’s what I’m doing:
I bought something called an ibond which is a Treasury with a high interest rate. You can only buy $10,000 a year and rate change during certain periods but I was able to get in when the rate was 9%, the new issued ones are at 6%. Still good.
I use sites like Bankrate to find savings accounts and CDs with good interest rates. While doing this I cut spending where I can to have more cash on hand to put to work.
I frontload purchases of long lasting goods like toothbrushes or pants). I also buy long lasting food (canned food for example) now with the thought next year I’ll buy much less because prices are high.
I am switching to dividend stocks to keep a little income coming in to investment accounts so I can buy the market at the bottom (which I don’t think is here yet)
I’m looking for areas to cut expenses.
You have to determine which of these, if any, is applicable to your situation.
So How Do I Prepare Civil Unrest? Again this will depend on your individual experiences. If you live in a city like Portland where civil unrest is common you can see what, in a general sense, it looks like. In that situation you clearly would need equipment like helmets, fire extinguishers etc. If you live in a relatively sedate area you may skip some thing and concentrate more on things to create working defenses with neighbors. If you’re in a rural area drones and long range rifles are in order.
You need to do a area study and then work out from there. Also thing like do you rent or own (can you make alterations to your domicile) or what self defense laws in your area will effect planning for this.
So what ammo do you use? At this point I take what I can get.
I’m assuming we’re talking about for use on goblins and other predators though. For my precious .45 Colts I use Underwood Ammo for my revolvers, I like their 250gr FMJ. It’s nice flat nose copper jacketed lead bullet going at 960fps which gives you about 511 foot pounds, which according to the chart I use puts it right between 9mm and .357 magnum in performance, beating most 9mms. I also just got some 225gr Hardcast wadcutters which is listed at 1050fps. I haven’t shot it yet so I can’t tell you if I like it. That should be about 550 foot pounds which would make me comfortable in bear country.
I have hotter stuff from Grizzly ammo for my H&R Survivor. In terms of range ammo or just stocking up I like Black Hills and HSM cowboy loads. In both I prefer 200gr loads. Black Hills also makes the best carry ammo for the .32 H&R Magnum in my opinion. Cowboy loads can be pushed into self defense though, most would be equivalent to .38 Special in power.
Since I’m a revolver guy I can’t talk much about .22 ammo reliability in semiautos but for me my preferred round is now Aguila Super Extras. It’s what I put in my “survival” kits. It’s just a nice shooting round.
In shotguns I recommend any quality buckshot in a 12 gauge, slugs in 20ga and whatever floats your boat in .410. Monarch makes a 9 pellet #1 buck for 20ga which looks promising. Many of you will have #3 buck as your only option for 20ga self defense and it’s fine. Low recoil 12ga is OK but not so low on the recoil it’s worth spending too much for but that’s personal opinion.
My eyes are bad so I spend most of my time shooting handguns so I can’t speak to what is the best rifle round. The .223/5.56 is the best rifle round for new shooters because it’s easy on the shoulder and inherently accurate so you can build that newby’s confidence.