When do you have "enough" ammo?

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Definitely enough .45acp and plenty of 12 gauge. My .223/5.56 and .22lr inventories are plenty enough by any reasonable standard but I continue to add to them regularly and see no change from that for the foreseeable future.
 
Enough ammo...what a concept. When it comes to ammo, I'm like that guy we all know who is broke the day after payday; If it's loaded, I'm shooting it. All the tools and gadgets that I've bought to speed up reloading only serve to deplete my components faster. I think that having enough components on hand to wear out each barrel I own would be a good start.
 
GBExpat said:
A standoff?

I have always approached the subject quite differently.

Do I have enough to easily weather a years-long ammunition shortage, price hike or, heaven forbid, some restrictive new legislation?

Awhile back I stocked up (!) on milsurp ammo when it was available and relatively inexpensive. I have also developed a relatively large stockpile of reloading components/supplies.
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Me too.

I have posted here and on other boards, I have more ammo tham I will ever be able to shoot.

And in some cases, I need to get rid of a "few" firearms and can't sell loaded boolits
except FTF and gun stores won't but it. So if the ammo is worth more than the firearm.
You have a different kind of "problem".
 
Robert B Bender said:
I just counted my supply of ammo and the totals seem sufficient to me. 4400 rounds of .223, 1600 rds 9mm.. Mostly plinking ammo, IE, FMJ. I am mostly a rifle shooter, don't care much for pistols (Quigley Down Under?). What does the hive mind consider to be a good supply of HP ammo to have on hand? I'm thinking 200 to 300 rounds of each. Kind of bragging on on my stash of ammo.but, am genuinely concerned as to what is a sufficient supply of each. Not peparing for war nut, would like to have a sufficient supply for a standoff.
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Standoff with who? Who is helping you?

As others said, I doubt if you’re not actively training with others and have some sort of fortified compound that you alone would last long in a “standoff”.

Forest your question implies no training and no regular usage. And there’s no implication of any plan. Survival isn’t just about being holed up with a gun, it’s about surviving and living well through any event. Most likely a natural disaster, or smaller scale rioting.

If I were you, I’d start looking into disaster survival planning. Look into bugging in and bugging out. Learn what you need and what you don’t.

As for how much ammo, the answer is more. Now I’m not a believer in hoarding. But I am a believer in having enough for what you need plus a safety margin.

Think about this. 1000 rounds sounds like a lot. But let’s say you want to try a 3 gun match. Say you use 100rounds of shotgun, 200 pistol and 200 rifle. That’s 500 rounds. That’s half of your 1000 rounds. Add a little practice during the week to get ready and you’ve used up all the ammo.

My approach has been to buy ammo I’m going to use and one to replace what I used. So let’s say I’m going to shoot 100 pistol rounds and 100rifle rounds. I’ll buy 200 for the trip plus 200 for my buffer supply. That’s 400 rounds just for a typical range trip. Or 40% of that 1000 rounds that the media would go insane over.

Now I seldom buy factory ammo, but I do the same with reloading components. In other words I’m building up a supply to get through the next shortage so I can go to the range and shoot when I like.
 
I keep enough on hand for a good weekend of shooting by myself and with friends for each firearm I own.

I have a collection of firearms that could probably make the news as an "arsenal" should my house burn down.

So, naturally the ammo stash is correspondingly large, and my reloading situation could easily replace the loaded ammo 3x over....Rimfires excluded.

Am I a " hoarder"? No. Am I set for the next media driven run on arms and ammo? Yes.
 
Hokie_PhD said:
... That’s 400 rounds just for a typical range trip. Or 40% of that 1000 rounds that the media would go insane over. ...
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I recall back in 1999 when one of the fellows who worked for me overheard me telling someone about how I had recently scored a great price on a 1k case of 5.56 ammunition. The poor kid suffered a conniption. He could not grok why anyone would need that much ammunition (or any, by his reaction) . Must have been treated to a MUCH different upbringing than I.

If he saw my current stockpile he might stroke-out on the spot. :)
 
GBExpat said:
I recall back in 1999 when one of the fellows who worked for me overheard me telling someone about how I had recently scored a great price on a 1k case of 5.56 ammunition. The poor kid suffered a conniption. He could not grok why anyone would need that much ammunition (or any, by his reaction) . Must have been treated to a MUCH different upbringing than I.

If he saw my current stockpile he might stroke-out on the spot. :)
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Lol
Imagine if he saw Gunny’s stockpile of guns and ammo!

Sounds like your friend is of the same mindset as our awful embarrassment, Tim Kaine who thinks anyone with more than two guns is mentally ill.
 
I don't stockpile ammo and don't really know how many rounds of X caliber I have on hand. I know I have a bunch of .223 and .22. That said, I do think I should probably start building a stockpile and be more conscious of inventory.
 
It's hilarious to read about people thinking that they are going to be in some kind of situation that would warrant them to be in a prolonged gunfight requiring massive amount of ammo....all the while thinking that practicing ridiculous drills at the range will somehow give them an advantage over an advancing hoard......(competition shooters and Leo's excluded of course) This is the real world folks and pretending to be some kind of paramilitary operator won't help one bit.

But of course we should keep a certain amount off ammo and components on hand to weather any restrictions that the government might put in place in the future.....but it is all about being able to keep partaking in our beloved hobby.....we all love to shoot but we need to be realistic about why we do it......
 
For self-defense 1,000 rounds per caliber and in some cases 1,000 rounds per gun.

I guess I chose 1,000 rounds is because I buy my primers, brass and bullets at least a 1,000 at a time. 30 and 50 caliber metal military surplus ammo cans make excellent long term storage containers which makes it easy to store 500 or 1,000 rounds in them.

I don't count FMJ Ammo. Plinking ammo comes cheaply and easily as I am a reloader. Now that The Lady has her own 9mm we burn a lot of 9mm during the warm months. I probably have 4,000 rounds of 9mm brass waiting to be reloaded this winter and will try to get more brass and bullets for 2018 shooting season.

Oh for those who are concerned about me having (gasp!) too much ammo for me to shoot before I die my wife and kids stand to inherit a nice assortment of guns and will need ammunition for them to shoot them.
 
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I keep 500-1000 rounds for each gun as a stable element in my supply, more for .22's, 9mm's, and .223. If I shoot some, I buy some. If I see a good sale, I buy more.

I did not sweat the last ammo shortage at all, in fact, I sold some ammo off at a reasonable profit, then replenished when supplies became available again at a reduced price. Anybody who lived through the last shortage and did not learn from it by stocking up, well, no sympathy here when the next one hits.

Here's a tip: AIM Surplus is selling 600 rounds of .223 for $169.50 delivered after the rebate, 28 cents a round. Yes, free shipping and a good price for US reloadable brass ammo. Rebate is for rounds bought by 12/31, I don't know how long the free shipping is for.
https://www.aimsurplus.com/product....+(.223)+XM855+62grn+FMJ+600RD+Case&groupid=21

There's a good chance the executor of my will may be wondering what to do with this small stockpile of ammo, along with my guns, when I'm gone, but I'm not going to worry about that now.
 
I strive to maintain a surplus of 1k in each of the 3 handgun calibers that I use, but ultimately my goal is to shoot when I want and how I want right up until I can’t. No standoff, face off or shoot off factored in .
 
When the weather is bad and I have nothing else to do I start reloading. It's that or watch TV, and I quit doing that in1998. I keep coffee cans of clean, sorted range brass and bulk, poured, or pulled bullets, an array of powders and primers, and a large number of dies in my reloading closet.

Every month or so I have to get a few more ammo cans if I haven't had enough range time to burn up some of the older stuff.
 
Demi-human said:
Or if one is swimming!

Fourty four hundred rounds is not enough for the next fourty two years. I plan on being here till I'm eighty, one never knows though, all my grand parents went to ninety and a great uncle made one hundred one. I do live a bit more dangerously though.:evil:

That is only one hundred and four rounds a year. That would be less than one range trip a year, for me. ( I didn't realize I shot that much, just wait till I start competing!) I won't get into pistols, I shoot those at least three times as much.
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If you reload, keep double what you would shoot on any given day and stockpile primers, powder, and bullets. I don't plan on selling my guns so buying components is an investment for the future. In 20 years bullets have almost doubled in price.
 
I know I have way more ammo than I could ever shoot in my lifetime, but I have a bunch of guns to bequeath to children and grandchildren hate for them to not be able to shoot them.
As for SD ammo I usually buy 500 to 1000 rounds for a caliber so I have enough to verify function and POA=POI with enough left over to have a couple hundred left so I can shoot some from time to time. Living in a rural area the opportunity for improvised hunting does present itself.
 
A Constitutional supply: that means enough ammo to contribute to a potential civil defense after an extended banic.

Several thousand rounds per MSR beyond what I would consume during the intervening years. Several hundred rounds per bolt gun.

Edit: oh yeah, how could I forget: the Garands get a couple hundred a piece too!
 
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Before the ammo shortage I thought I had plenty but quickly learned I was wrong. These days I have enough to keep me shooting at the range for 6 months to 1 year for 9mm, 38/357, and 5.56. I would like to up this amount a little bit still yet so if panic buying ever ensues again I can make regular range trips for over 1 year.

I don't have a very sufficient amount of 380 and 32/327 as they are both new caliber additions to my collection.

I keep enough 22 lr for 2 years of range trips with a little extra buffer in anticipation of my son becoming interested in shooting when he's old enough.

It was a bummer not being able to go shoot during the shortage because I either couldn't find ammo, or wasn't willing to be price gouged for it. I'd like to avoid that situation in the future.
 
But that is just it, we are not hoarding. The clinical definition states "an excessive amount of objects or material, usually with little to no value or items that a vast majority would discard as refuse." Doing away with these things causes the human stress.

When I "do away with" my ammunition it relieves stress! :)

And they (the loaded rounds) have value, a precise value. Usually those who stockpile provisions keep them in a pristine, orderly, labled and dated fashion.

I would if I could keep them that long.;)
I do like that the orginal component packaging is all ready dated, it saves some effort on my end.
 
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