Buying anything before the 2016 presidential election JIC?

I want a PTR sooooo bad. Atlantic firearms has one with the old-school wide G3 handguards. So sexy. I'm still "meh" on AR-10s. Sweet set-up, b35!

I'll buy the familiarity part of it, I'm more familiar with the AR myself. A few times I've been confused at the lack of a BHO and then after I realized that I need to lock it open I've almost reached back to the charging handle at the rear of the receiver on the PTR before I remembered that I was firing a different rifle and that it was up front. I'm better on its operation now, but the urge to reach the AR controls was there. It just seems like every time I hear about someone buying a lower end AR-10 variant they seem like they end up having trouble with it if they start putting a lot of rds through it.

A lot of guys out here have them as hunting rifles, especially for hogs. My father-in-law had a RRA .308 Win LAR-8, another had a DPMS and still another had a CMMG MK-something and they all had trouble with them. At first they were okay since they were just firing rds to sight in in and then single shots to down hogs or deer. Not like it takes a huge amount of rds to go hunting. Eventually they started shooting them quite often in practice and that's where the trouble started popping up. Not to mention Gingerbread's epic struggles with them to find one that'll work, so I would kinda rather stick with the big 3 old school .308's (M1A/FAL/H&K) or pony up for a FN SCAR.

I completely realize that this is all somewhat anecdotal, but from my narrow view of the AR-10 variants is that they're not that great until you get up to something like an LMT. Then from what I understand they work pretty well.

To each their own. I'm probably going to stay away from the AR-10's though.

Right now from a quick scan of gunbroker it looks like PTR's are going for between $900 and $1175. Much of that is from the elections. 6 months ago you'd see some of them going for between $675 and $1100 with most of them going for around $800. 

Century came out with a H&K copy called the C-308 that's supposed to be okay. Those are going for $619 and $750 on gunbroker. Those use a Cetme sight though, the receiver is made by PTR for Century. Don't know where they got the rest of it. I usually have a tendency to veer away from Century, but that one actually looks okay. Not sure if that's justified or not.

I'm not as in  love with RMR's as I was before either.   Maybe as a piggy back on a x4 scope, but on a pistol...nope.
With the admittedly limited range time I get, I'm finding that old school "point shooting" ala Fairbain works quite nicely. Beyond 25m or so I start leaning on the use of the iron sights. 
Inside of that....I just put 2-3 rounds down range on the theory that anything worth being shot once should be shot twice.

To me there's your answer.

I'd probably buy 2 to 3 times as much pistol as rifle ammo. I'm more thinking of this as future practice ammo to be bled out over the months or years to stay somewhat current with your skills rather than some kind of end time ragnarok/apocalypse civil war 2 ammo (where rifle ammo would presumably be more helpful).

Besides, presumably you have several thousand rifle rds that you don't shoot that much of to fall back on if shit gets real.

Dan- how many pistols are you feeding vs how many rifles? I think 1k per rifle is a fair amount and if memory serves you have 2-3 in the house? 6920, Bushy and a Spikes mid. So another K wouldn't hurt. Wolf Gold is fantastic M193 spec ammo and affordable.

I honestly think pistols are more useful but I've just got a thing for rifles. I shoot more rifle for sure. My view is get AR mags, parts and ammo now cuz those days are gone soon. Pistol mags and ammo will be around for awhile I think.

Plus truth be told I'm not too concerned about mag cap in pistols...if I had to carry a 5 shot snub or a 7 shot 1911 I wouldn't be upset. If I had to use 5 shot AR mags I wouldn't be a happy camper.

I would buy the pistol 2 months, rifle 1 month.

I usually shoot pistol more because convenience, but now that I'm a member of a cheap $100 a year range (that's it!) I shoot rifle more than previously because I can.

I don't think we will every feel like we have enough for all the just in case's. Do the best you can and don't get sucked into the panics when they roll around.

I agree with all your concerns being pretty real possibilities. I feel like I have all the hardware I could possibly 'need', but man there is still a pile I want haha. I agree ammo is the tangible stuff that could really put a damper on everything pretty quick. I think mag capacity will be the first thing to go, then rifle features, then ammo online. But I'm just a simple farmer and what do I know?

That being said, I also have several years worth of ammo at my current rate. I should get more 22 since I have a suppressor on the way and will want to shoot the hell out of it when it breaks free... And we all know 22 is somehow the first to go.