how many shells ?

[xbox360]

how many shotgun shells should you have own hand incase of a major event? you cant get ammo for a while? :uhoh:

[xbox360]

I know for like rifles you need 500-1,000's+ but how many for shotguns?

[Gunfighter123]

I reload 12ga. ---- I keep 500 rds. of birdshot , 100 rds. of factory Buckshot and 50/100 rds. of slugs.

[Hungry Seagull]

Right now I have approx 80 to 100 12 gauge and 80 to 100 20 gauge. I intend to triple that count to fill the case by year's end. Next 1/3 of that order goes out next month and the rest a few months after that.

I intend to keep at least 1000 tmj and 500 Hollow dutys on hand max.

Never have more ammuntion than you can carry. =)

[Gunfighter123]

Hiya Seagull,

Never have more ammuntion than you can carry.

For me , it's ALWAYS have more ammo then you can carry !!!!

[Hungry Seagull]

Ok I will meet you half way.

I will carry what I cannot shoot off.

hows that? :neener:

[xbox360]

well I dont want to much in my house because if they went off thats bad..... I have heard freak storys, gun ammo explodes in house. no reason.

100-150 sounds about right.

[throdgrain]

I generally have between 500 to 1000 shotgun shells in my house.

[Big Daddy Grim]

I shoot shotguns alot I have somewhere around 1000 rds for my 20, and 5000 for my 12s.

[vicdotcom]

how many shotgun shells should you have own hand incase of a major event? you cant get ammo for a while?


It depends on where you live and how bad the "major event" is. I personally feel that 200 is a good count. I live in a suburbish area but there are plenty of houses and stores arround. If something "major" 200 would be enough to keep me and my family safe for a while and maybe even get some food if I had to. If anything "more major" happened, I wouldnt stay at this house, in which case I would have to worry about transporting anything 200 shells. They start to weight a lot after that many. I would rather pack a bunch of 22lr if it came down to it.

[JImbothefiveth]

Probably less than 200. Maybe less than 100. Most of it's birdshot, there's some bigger stuff, not even sure if I have any slugs.

[auschip]

How much you have depends on how much you typically shoot. I keep alot, but I shoot alot. Same thing for the rest of my ammo. I wouldn't be worried about it going off though.

[Ben Shepherd]

Absolute minimum on hand? Remember: Money can get tight, avalibility can get tight at times, etc.

100 rounds of 00 buck along with 100 rounds slugs for serious use. Many folks, myself included, keep much more than that around because of the above reasons.

However-
Before you decide on which ammo, buy several different kinds, see which ones pattern/group best out of YOUR gun. Then stock up on those particular rounds.

[AcceptableUserName]

so who told you the magic rifle number? There is no magic number for anything. 100 rounds of buckshot would be perfectly ok in a crisis in which you want to protect yourself. And maybe 500 lowbase lead shot 7.5 or 8 shot to subsist off of take some game. 30 or 40 slugs for a bigger animal if you so happened upon one.

[wnycollector]

I have ~200 rounds of a mixture of #4 and 00 buck, ~100 slugs and ~200 birdshot for my 12ga. Maybe 1/2 that for my 16ga.

[Kind of Blued]

well I dont want to much in my house because if they went off thats bad..... I have heard freak storys, gun ammo explodes in house. no reason.

You should share those stories with us. Many of us have ammunition that is well over fifty years old and it just continues to sit there... and be unfired ammunition.

[Kayback]

I've still got paper hulled ammo lying around somewhere. Some nice old shotgun ammo. Hasn't blowded anything up yet.

I've got about 240 rounds of 12 guage, a mixed bag of 7 - 71/2 and 00. It normally floats around there. I shoot what I buy.

KBK

[AKMS]

I have a good amount of 12ga shells, but you can only carry so much

[huntsman]

how many shotgun shells should you have own hand incase of a major event? you cant get ammo for a while?

Ammo and enough components to last quite awhile.

[Schutzen]

Xbox360,

The tales you hear of ammunition exploding in fires are just that, "tall tales". Our home burned in 1998. I had 15 cases of shotgun shells and 10,000 rounds mixed rim fire & center fire ammunition in the garage.
They just laid there and burned. What did cause problems were the 15 gallons of concrete sealer in the garage and the 5 gallons of cooking oil in the pantry. The cans of sealer BLEVE’ed (boiling liquid expanding vapor explosion). Granted, this probably was aggravated by the heat from the ammunition burning on the other side of the room, but it did not scatter the remains of the ammunition. The cooking oil generated enough heat to cause the canned food in the pantry to explode and launch the cans into the air.

The moral here is you commonly store more explosive/dangerous items in you home and think nothing of it. (lawn mower gas, paint, varnish, cooking oils, spray paint, solvents, etc.) That is because they are not likely to cause a problem and neither is your ammunition.

[rbernie]

Excellent feedback - thanks.

I normally have 3-4 cases of field loads set aside, simply because I tend to buy them when they're on sale and buy it in bulk. That probably equates to about 1000 rounds in the closet at any given point in time. Last fall, Academy was selling their bottom-feeder Win SuperX ammo for $4/box or $40/case. I bought a NUMBER of cases, simply because it was half the price of STS or AA loads and that meant double the amount of shootin' practice for the same budget.

I have been buying buckshot from online resellers, and that normally means I buy a 250rd lot. At any given point, I probably have 500rds of 00 buck in the closet.

[Lee Lapin]

Birdshot, several cases. Buckshot and slugs, a couple of cases each. At least enough to take a class from one of the major instructors without wiping out your on-hand supply, IMHO.

lpl
=====
http://www.yfainc.com/courses.html

Tactical Shotgun - Stage I

As with the Stage I Handgun, this course is designed to create reflexive gunhandling, competent marksmanship and tactical thinking. In addition it places strong emphasis on learning what the shotgun will, and most particularly WILL NOT, do. The importance of patterning the shotgun properly is discussed at length. The course also covers ammunition selection, loading and unloading, reloading and ammunition selection while involved in a shooting scenario, shooting from several ready positions and various tactical body positions, dim-light and flashlight shooting, shooting on the move, moving targets, multiple targets and weapon retention. Transition to a pistol is covered for those clients who have taken prior pistol training.

Ammunition requirement is 400 Birdshot, 50 Buckshot and 70 Slugs. Fifty (50) rounds of Pistol ammunition is required if the client wishes to participate in the Shotgun/Pistol transition portion of the course.

[Birdhunter1]

Big Daddy Grim
Senior Member


Join Date: 06-16-08
Location: Idaho
Posts: 501

I shoot shotguns alot I have somewhere around 1000 rds for my 20, and 5000 for my 12s.

Now we're talking, but for my tastes it is about the same numbers but opposite gauges as I rarely shoot my 12 gauge anymore.

[Titan6]

- Major Event? Like a major clays sporting event?

Several dozen cases of 7.5-8 shot.

- Major event like Katrina?

Hmmmm.... probably enough to load the gun and then enough to reload it in case you have to use it.

- Major event like a gun grabber becoming your governor?

Sky is the limit! Buy enough to insure that even Walmart can't keep bird shot in stock.

- Major Event like the end of the world?

Gee... you won't need any because the world just ended... bye!

[coloradokevin]

Well this question just sort of begs for a lot of possible answers. First, what do you define as a "major event"? Second, what is your risk tolerance? Third, what is your definition of "prepared"?

I recently responded to a somewhat similar question in another thread, and stated that I believe that many of us are more prepared than we'll ever need to be. In all honesty, I belive that you'll probably never need more than 100 rounds of defensive ammo (and more likely, never more than one magazine load).

But, if you are asking about how you can prepare for an "end of the world" situation where you intend to homestead with your family and hold off hoards of zombies for the rest of your natural lives, then I suppose the sky is the limit.

My point here is only to say that there is no hard and fast rule on these things. Keep enough ammo on hand to make you feel secure. I shoot a lot, and have a decent collection of guns. My ammo collection has varied significantly over the years, mostly due to budget constraints. These days I probably have 3,000-5,000 rounds of ammo on hand. I don't have this because I need it, but rather because I want to.

At the end of the day paying bills and putting food on the table will always take a precedence over storing more ammo, at least for me. So, once you go beyond a brick of .22LR and enough ammo to run my other guns for a little while (couple hundred each), ammo is mostly a luxury!

But, in speaking of that luxury, I'd like to be able to keep about 5,000 rounds on hand for each caliber I shoot, just to hedge against price increases, and to feel secure in my ability to keep feeding my guns if ammunition is ever heavily taxed, etc. Still, as I said, I think that sort of talk is largely of luxuries, and my yearly budget doesn't currently have room for an extra 35-40 cases of ammo!

By the way, I've never heard of ammo being a hazard when stored in a home; maybe if you are storing some insane amount of ammo, but not under ANY normal circumstances. Your normal household chemicals are far more dangerous to store, at least in my opinion.

[Kind of Blued]

If you're worried about apocalyptic scenarios, here's an idea:

Buy as much ammo as you think you'll shoot, for recreational purposes, for the rest of your life. Every once in a while, toss in a box of 00 Buck or JHPs.

Worst case scenario #1: The world ends and you get through a couple boxes of the defensive stuff before you and your gun melt.

Worst case scenario #2: You get hit by a car, fall off a ladder, etc. next week, and leave behind a whole bunch of .22LR, birdshot, etc., for your heirs to squabble over.

[turkeythigh]

i don't keep a lot in my house for undisclosed reasons. but i do have immediate access to well over 10,000 .22, a couple thousand 12 ga, about 1000 or so .44 mag and .17 HMR, and i don't even know how much .223. among various others.

[RyanM]

I like to have at least 800 of every caliber I shoot, just as a random "magic" number. As it stands right now, my ammo inventory is:

.40 S&W, 553 rounds loaded, of which 212 are JHPs and 341 are FMJs, with enough components for 300 more FMJs.

7.62x39mm, 845 rounds of JHPs.

.223, 1020 rounds of JHPs

12 ga., 480 rounds, of which 250 are 2-3/4" 00 buck, 14 are 3" magnum 000 buck, 48 are slugs, 167 are target loads, and 1 is a "less lethal" round I made for fun (loaded with 47 airsoft BBs and grex), after pulling apart a 000 buck shell to see what was inside.

I'm thinking of getting a case of 250 slugs to get closer to my personal "magic" number.