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I wonder what ATF would do


Alpo

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The threat about ammo prices got me fantasizing.

 

I get in my handy-dandy time machine and go back to 1977, with several thousand dollars in 1977 era money. And buy ammunition.

 

I was originally thinking of back when I was buying Winchester Western 38 Wadcutters for $8 a box, because I could not buy new brass and reload it that cheap. I was buying loaded ammunition to get the brass.

 

Then I remembered I was paying $9 a box for 115 ball 9 mm in the early 2000s. I figure it was probably around $5 in the mid 70s. So just tell my handy-dandy gun pusher to order me up 20/30 thousand rounds.

 

Then I remembered that between 1968 and 1986 you had to sign the ammo book.

 

And I visualized the ATF guy looking down the pages, where this guy bought one box, and this next guy bought three boxes, and this next guy bought 30 cases. :o:o:o

 

:lol::P

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Why not take all that money and buy stock in computer companies and related industries.   Then now you could afford

about everything you wanted, including a lot of land to shoot on.

 

..........Widder

 

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Ammo book? I don’t recall that.

But I don’t recall what my tire pressure should be either. ;)

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AHH !

DOC, DOC, DOC,

Where are you and Marty with that DeLorean??

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25 minutes ago, Utah Bob #35998 said:

Ammo book? I don’t recall that.

But I don’t recall what my tire pressure should be either. ;)

Huh. That's why I know my driver's license number. When you bought ammunition or primers (I'm not sure about other components - brass, powder, projectiles - but definitely for primers) you had to sign the book. Name, address, driver's license number, signature. That went away with FOPA86 (thank you Ronald Reagan). Also had to buy your ammunition and components at a brick-and-mortar store. Could not buy onli - well, online did not exist yet - could not buy over the telephone. That's another thing we have now because of FOPA86.

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Speaking of the ammunition book - I wonder if they still have the poison book?

 

When I was a kid, you could go down to the drugstore and buy a bottle of paregoric (well, I couldn't buy it. I was a kid. But Mama could). You had to sign the poison book.

 

Then they made paregoric prescription, and the next best thing was parapectalin. And to buy parapectalin, you had to sign the poison book.

 

Then they made parapectalin prescription.

 

Now I use Imodium, which does not rely on opium to work. No book signing required.

 

But it seems like I've heard that because of its use in meth cooking, if you want to buy Sudafed you have to sign a book. Maybe the same book.

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Does not matter when you bought them. If you bought them with the intention of reselling them for profit, according to ATF you are a dealer.

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Poison book?  I don't remember that.

 

Dad used to have to sign for dynamite to blow stumps and beaver dams.

 

I don't remember signing to buy anything but guns,(and an occasional prescription  medicine if the VA sent me to a civilian pharmacy), not even in California.

 

Wait!  I do remember signing the paper ticket to use a credit card when they were still using the wrist breaker machine.

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My question was not so much what would they do to me, because as you said, I've got back in my time machine and return to the future.

 

I was wondering about the reaction of the agent when he read the book a couple of weeks, or a couple of months later, and saw that some customer bought 30 cases of ammunition.

 

Would he call for a SWAT team, and they make a raid at the address I gave them? Because there's no reason in the world for somebody to buy that much ammunition. :rolleyes:

 

And then I realized that I could not make the purchase at all, as I had neglected to supply myself with mid-70s ID, when I got the mid-70s currency.

 

So I would need to go back even farther - prior to GCA 68. Then I would not need to show any ID, and if ATF got upset (did ATF even exist back then?), there would be no way to track who bought all that bang bang stuff.

 

But then I wonder - would the storekeeper order me that much?

 

There was a movie a few years back about Frank Hamer - Texas Ranger who was after Bonnie and Clyde. And he goes into a gunstore and makes a few purchases. Thompson submachine gun, couple of BARs, three or four 1911s, six or seven other guns, several magazines for the Thompson and the BARs, and beaucoup ammunition. The owner and his helper just kept taking the guns off the wall and stacking them on the counter, and after they were paid for they helped him carry it out into the car. They asked. Didn't get no answer.

 

 

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3 hours ago, Widder, SASS #59054 said:

Why not take all that money and buy stock in computer companies and related industries.   Then now you could afford

about everything you wanted, including a lot of land to shoot on.

 

..........Widder

 

 

Back in 1988 when my friend and I graduated high school he told me he was going to start using his first few paychecks to buy stock. He mentioned one called Micro-something or the other and said it was a local Redmond company that sold PC software. I told him he was wasting his time and money.

 

Fast forward to 2022... :(

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Anybody that bought pistol or revolver ammo had to sign a book, up until 1986. If you bought .22 rimfire, the clerk would ask if it was for a rifle or a handgun. of course, you said rifle, even if you DID intend to put in into your Single Six or Colt Woodsman. :D

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  ....... well, ... we now have a law here (in NSW Australia) that requires the ammunition dealer (licenced) to fill out a book when you buy ammo.

                           this book lists name, shooters licence #, type of ammo, how much ....... and at one stage you had to prove that you owned a (registered and licenced) handgun of a specific calibre to buy ammo for it.

          AND you have to show your shooters licence to buy any ammo at all ...... 

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4 hours ago, Ozark Huckleberry said:

 

What’s ATF going to do? Nothing. When they go looking for you, you won’t be then anymore. 

 

His 1977 version would still be there with no clue as to why the ATF was breaking down his door.

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Making me wonder of some of the mint condition NIB firearms took a shortcut in time. :D

 

Or buy a piece of land, go back and buy gold, sneak onto the land you will "someday" buy, then go home (calendar and location) and dig it up.

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11 hours ago, Sedalia Dave said:

 

His 1977 version would still be there with no clue as to why the ATF was breaking down his door.

Knowing he was doing something that could bring the ATF down on him, going back to the same place, using the same identity, and leaving info that would trace back to his earlier self?

 

Nah, don't think so. Alpo's more clever than that.

 

 

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21 hours ago, Sixgun Sheridan said:

 

Back in 1988 when my friend and I graduated high school he told me he was going to start using his first few paychecks to buy stock. He mentioned one called Micro-something or the other and said it was a local Redmond company that sold PC software. I told him he was wasting his time and money.

 

Fast forward to 2022... :(

My father's best friend in High School worked in Sam Walton's first store as a department manager.  His wife didn't like the one hour drive back to OK to visit her family, so he quit and bought a sporting goods store in OK.  

 

All the people who stayed with Sam Walton from that first store went on to be top echelon managers in Wal-Mart.  

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