Kutter_0311 wrote:AK47Heaven wrote:(something about finding stuff) I have found 100 dollars on a sidewalk before,it doesn't happen every fucking day but it definitely happens.
Yes, sometimes you find stuff. I find money here and there, too. Other neat and useful stuff, too, like a 9/16" socket, a little pocket knife, about a dozen camelbak bite valves, etc.
But I've never planned on finding any of it.
Since the idea is planning, we don't count on finding things that don't generally show up in nature. Water is common in my AO, so I plan on finding it. Firewood, too. Mags? Ammo? Never seen those lying around, not here. Found a flat M16 mag on a range in Korea once, but that was A) flat, like a pancake, as in garbage, and B) on a live fire range in Korea. Generally, these things have value, so people don't just discard them. If people don't discard them, it's still someone's property, thus illegal to take. Illegal activity is a NO-GO here, so please don't ever mention it again. I'm cool with planning for a common caliber, there are way more reasons for this than 'finding ammo and mags' (cuz that just ain't gonna happen). Use another reason.
This is exactly my thinking as well. My wife has found a $100 bill before. My dad once found a wad of $700 (:shock:), presumably some drug dealer lost his wad. I've found twenties once or twice; once I was swimming in the ocean and found one stuck to me. This happens with guns, too: every story you hear about a cop "losing" their gun, going back for it, and it's gone...someone "found" (stole) that gun. This happened most recently with that German security guard who left her gun in the bathroom while she was taking a piss.
So yes, most emphatically yes, it does happen, even now. In the present day, with a situation less life-or-death on a daily basis, we're less careful with our possessions than we would be if each and every thing we carried could save our life. And we're less curious about flipping over every likely-looking piece of trash in case there is something of value in there. On the other hand, there aren't that many bodies laying in the street, either, so who knows?
But in either case, "finding shit" is never going to be regular or predictable enough to become part of one's planning, except for those things which are a common part of the landscape: in most areas, water and firewood can be found, though the former may need purification and the latter drying. In a city, there is no need to hoard chucks of concrete and scrap metal (well, maybe copper). But mags, ammo, etc., are never going to be commonly found enough that a responsible planner would base any aspect of his or her planning around it.
In the same way, you'd never allow yourself to be $100 short of your rent, hoping that you'll find $100 on the ground that day. That's how it is with mags and ammo: in a disaster/end of the world scenario, you won't be able to reliably scrounge ammo or mags, so plan as though you won't be able to do so at all. If you get lucky and find something, cool, that's frosting. But don't count on it.
Also, I never saw the logic in selecting a weapon in the hopes of finding abandoned mags and ammo for it. If someone dies with a full (or partial) load of ammo left, odds are their weapon will be with them. If someone snags the weapon, they'll more than likely snag the weapon too. I imagine the aftermath of a fight will be strewn with more empty weapons than full mags.
We Were Soldiers wrote:Lt. Colonel Hal Moore: I think you oughta get yourself an M-16.
Sergeant Major Basil Plumley: Sir, if the time comes I need one, there'll be plenty lying on the ground.
