Yesterday was ammo day: Academy Sports has a $30 off deal on a $50 purchase* (doesn’t have to be ammo) if you get their credit card. They let you pay it off at the store, so, although I don’t like having another account to keep track of, by paying it off right away I don’t have anything extra to track - at least for now. I only make purchases @ Academy every blue moon, and don’t have any advantage in using this card for anything else.
*That may be an incorrect figure for the minimum purchase - I wasn’t paying close attention.
I only needed a few specifics:
9 mm shotshell rounds for the little 9mm handgun I picked up on sale last year for something more compact to tote, either for CC or for my pack when fishing / camping. These shotshells are just for the rare instance of running into a poisonous snake in an “unavoidable” situation, or if kids are around or frequent the area.
Hollow point 9 mm rounds for personal defense. I really would have preferred heavier subsonic rounds, but, 115 gram was all they had. (In almost any personal defense situation where I’d be using 9 mm hollow point rounds with this little pistol, the “advantages” of higher fps are not, so far as I can see...) (I already have plenty of FMJ for target practice.)
Hollow point 22WMR rounds for scoped .22 Magnum rifle my Dad gave me. (Dang nice gun.) Basically just in case I need to take out a large vicious dog or maybe an exceptionally big raccoon. Possible “backup” uses or for wifey if the New Madrid fault repeats its 1811-12 antics, which it will do someday, the question being if I’ll still be around and “functional” for the experience. Essentially no transportation in for months - yeah, that could get dicey! But, I have heavier / more capable weapons for that scenario...
Subsonic 22LR hollow point rounds. I haven’t been exceptionally happy with using my .22 1000 fps (with alloy pellet) pellet rifle to take out these raccoons the last few days, 3 of which have been ~ 25+ lb. animals. Even with near perfect head shots, sometimes it takes them 30 seconds or so to die. I want to minimize their suffering without waking up the neighborhood at 3 a.m.... These should of course be good in our .22 rifle for small game in the “New Madrid Shakeup” situation too, and should be great in my .22 long barrel revolver: It makes for a better / flexible light but not too light weapon than my other presently owned options for 3 a.m. chicken house commotion investigations too...
Follow up on that: The last raccoon I’ve had to kill is a 31 lb. female! I feel a bit bad about it*, as there may be kits left behind, but, I’d feel worse if “Mom” tore into or burrowed into the chicken house. The .22 pellet rifle has to be a perfect shot to get an instant kill, so, I definitely think getting those (just) subsonic .22 LR hollow point rounds for the .22 revolver or the .22 (scoped) regular rifle was a good idea, even if the rounds are a bit pricey...
*OTOH, she’s butchered and slow simmering overnight. The chickens will be getting lots of good protein the next 3 days. :-)