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Ammo check, what's the minimum

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gym

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Just did an inventory of my ammo drawer. Wal-Mart had white box 40 cal 165 grain fmj's for 29 dollars for the double box "100" round. So as I stacked everything away, I looked over what was in the pistol ammo drawer strictly range ammo. The HD stuff is either loaded or a few 20 round boxes for each caliber. I had 300 rounds of 9,100 -150 rounds of 45, 200- 40, 150- 380, 100- 38, 100-32, some oddball baggies with various self-defense loads for 40 and 45, that may be 15 years old. And a carload of 22's. maybe 1000 rounds. I can't buy cases anymore being retired, but still like to stock enough that my pistols are of use should we go into a problematic time, I would like to have at least 500 rounds per gun, as the civil unrest seems to be spreading across the world, and I believe it will at some point affect us also. Maybe not like it is there, but maybe a Gov. shutdown or something along those lines. People aren't taking this global meltdown seriouslly. I also realize that a few hundred rounds won't be enough should something bad really happen, but it's better than a sharp stick, and 1000 rounds of assorted ammo is a start, your thoughts?
 
The minimum amount of ammo I'll ever have on hand is zero. It is impossible for me to have less than zero ammo.
 
I keep a few boxes of .22LR set aside "just in case". I also keep enough bullets to keep my carry guns loaded. Other than that - meh, I'm not too concerned about my stock. Worse comes to worse I've got a lot of handloading stuff I could use to load up some rounds, but in reality you can only have Red Dawn fantasies but so much ;).
 
Shortly after I got rid of my MK III last year, I got rid of the surplus ammo for it as well. It ended up about 9k rounds, most of it being 550 round value packs, with probably 200 rounds worth of Remington Thunderbolts rattling around as well.

Currently we've got about 200 rounds of leftover Georgia Arms lead SWC, some super-light wadcutter loads, and half a box of Gold Dots for my wife's .38 kicking around in ammo cans upstairs. I also have a handfull of assorted 12 Gauge shells (2-1/2 & 3") that a buddy gave me last year before he move out of state. I don't have a shotgun and don't intend on getting one any time soon so I dunno what to do with 'em, but they're part of the stash for now. Oh well.
 
I have five rounds for my 9mm revolver and 7+1 rounds for my E9. that's my minimum. Should this ... *chucklesnort* civil unrest scenario really happen here I'd be issued an M9 or M4 anyways.
 
I don't think in terms of civil unrest or anything like that. I see it as a way to hedge against scarcity of resources no matter what. During the shortage of 2008/2009, I did not once find myself unable to hit the range or getting gouged because I didn't have the 'need' to purchase ammo for such a use. Ask the .380 shooters about this. I always could just get some from the stash and head out with no second thoughts of this being one of the times I would go to the range and not find ammo.

So for me, personally, I keep the following in inventory just to hedge against any kind of scarcity in the market in the order of what I shoot the most to least:

.45ACP - 7k
9mm - 5k
.223/5.56 - 5k
.38 Special - 2k

I reload, so keeping those kinds of quantities is not that expensive or difficult for my particular budget. And those are just minimums, if I end up scheduling training classes or shooting weekends with friends then those number go higher.

This is because I am really into shooting, its my main hobby, and does not have to do with the roving hoards or anything like that. Just like someone who is into any kind of motorsport (as I used to be) has spare parts, gas, oil, tires, etc., is how I look at ammo. I don't want some kind of market or transportation incident to cause me to not be able to enjoy my hobby.

Damian
 
My minimum amount of ammo is what I have now!

40 S&W: ~150 rounds of range worthy fmj's (Federal white box 135 gr, and Atlanta Arms 180 gr)
~90 rounds of self defense stuff, (Speer Gold Dots, and Winchesters)

.22lr ~50 rounds of Remington thunderbolts

Yeah I need more, but what I have is what I have :(.
 
I think for me, a minimum of 1,000 rounds for each centerfire caliber would be sufficient. For rimfire ammo, I would go with a minimum of 5,000 rounds.
 
Sounds like you need to start reloading. If you go the reloading forum you will find some truly amazing stashes. A few could load out a semi.
 
your thoughts?
Click to expand...
I start cranking up the reloading press when I get anywhere near 2,000 rounds a caliber.

My comfort level is at least 4-5 thousand rounds a centifire caliber and close to enough reloading components to load over another 5-6 thousand rounds.
22LR? A whole lot.

That may sound like a lot but it goes quick if you shoot a few days in a row.
For instance, Friday I bought a Ruger LC9. I shot it seven days in a row to check it out (and because it's fun to shoot). In those seven days I shot over 600 rounds. Chances are I'll finish off a thousand rounds pretty quick and that's shooting just a single gun.


I buy in bulk when I find it cheap. Then I shoot it when the price is high, like last year. While everyone was crying about the shortages and outrageous prices I was blasting bunches of, .380. 45, .223, 9mm, etc, that cost me between $2.50 and $4.00 a box.
IMO the price is going up again, so don't cry if you haven't got some stocked away.




.
 
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Without intending to I have ended up with 1,200 rounds of assorted 38 special and .357 Magnum ammo. So I should be good for 3 - 4 month of shooting W/O having to reorder.
Now that ammo is back on the shelf's again I believe that 250 rounds per caliber, you shoot, is a decent stash.
 
I have no idea how much ammo I have. I do know I am low on 303 British. I have been shooting my P14 a little too aggressively......chris3
 
There is a new gun shop in town and I was introducing myself to the owner who is a smart young man in his 30's. Just to show the difference in perception, he told me last weekend he went through $1,600 dollars in ammo, at some event here in FL. He also claimed to have over 400 personell guns. Not "for sale" guns. He was packing a 45 from the S&W custom shop and had a wilson and a Baer in the back, that he brought out for me to see.He claimed the S&W, was the most accurate out of all of them the most accurate he ever had shot. And he seemed to be more than knowledgeable. I asked him what the heck he was shooting to go through that much ammo, and sure enough part or the 3 gun deal was full auto. So I guess it's relative, 400 guns may sound like an awfull lot to some, but I know another fella who has well over a thousand. . He is close to 70 and has been a gunsmith most of his life. Like one gent mentioned if this is your passion, it's hard to limit what you want as long as you can pay for it. And as we know, they all must be fed. I feel that ideally , as some of you said, a case per weapon should be on hand just because. I hope to get there this year, as long as things don't go through the roof again. They are already predicting a 25% increase next month on some sites. And that's all it takes these days for it to become a reality. Just like gasoline. They said it would break 100 a barrell and so it did this week.
 
I used to only keep a couple hundred rounds for each gun until our current president got elected. It really freaked me out when I could not find ammo in the stores. Lesson learned. It is not for an end of the world scenario. These political hacks could make ammo nearly impossible to find when you least expect it. Ammo has such a long shelf life. Why not seriously stock up on it? It will never be cheaper than it is today.
 
There are two motivations to stock up quite a heap.

My only motive in spring/summer '08 was to avoid commodities' price increases etc.
It is happening again.

This single motivation will leave you relaxed, as you watch the gigantic herd of sheep run around with no shephard after a presidential election.

Vast numbers of people can make an assumption about the winner, then believe scare stories from retail $eller$. Sound familiar?
 
I can have anywhere from 500-20,000 or so on hand, depending on budget and how long it was since my quarterly reload session. I'm not into the whole stockpiling thing, though. I load my ammo to shoot.
 
I like to have enough so that when I come back from the range I still have enough for another range trip or match before I need to reload again. I enjoy reloading so I crank out a hundred or two of any given caliber in a week. I see no need to stock pile. I prefer to have powder and primers on hand and reload as time/need allows.
 
I try to keep about 1000 rounds of most centerfire ammo I shoot cached. I have much less 480 Ruger and a bit more than that of 223. I keep between 100 and 150 rounds on hand for my "deer rifle" which doesn't get shot much.

I keep a lot of rimfire cached. I don't inventory often but the last time I took a look I had between ( edit >20K) rounds and I suspect there is more now as I keep buying when I see it on the shelf. I buy more than I shoot and the pile keeps growing.

Hard for me not to buy at least a brick of CCI Mini Mags and Federal Lightning if they have it in stock at Walmart when I drop by. I figure the price will be going up this year another 20%. Very little is in bulk packs-maybe 5K rounds for family plinking which I don't do often. I seldom buy the bulk pack stuff.

This ammo is not kept around for some world changing event. I just like to keep a supply on hand if I want to shoot a fair amount. For such an event, I suspect a few hundred rounds ammo is sufficient until things calm down.
 
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My father always told me he only needed a few hundred... if he needed more and could not get that with what he had on hand then he really did not deserve or would not have a need for more.....
 
in most cases, I have a box. I've got about 50 9mm, same for .38sp, same for .30-06. About 40 .308, and in the vicinity of 10 slugs for the 20ga. My .22 has about 3 boxes of thunderbolts and a couple of boxes of aguila sub sonics. It's enough to defend me fom a small group of idiots, and enough to ensure I can get more. Unless you're going to be bunkered down in the house, having more than you can carry is pointless. All of my calibers are common enough that shortages don't really effect me. I reload for my rifles amd have enough components for about 300 rounds of -06.... More of .30-30.
 
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