How Much Ammo Do You Really Need?

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Having seen the panic in late 2008, following Newtown and at least one other, and Knowing that at least one more would happen - possibly also unanticipated- whichever quantity allows us to weather Two panics can be enough.

Compound that with living 12 minutes from the very best private gun club in the area.

I’ll never be a Star Trek Spock, but “it seems logical” that one should have begun storing it years ago....
knowing the unpredictability of the Human Herd.
 
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how much is enough?

The actual answer is, I don't know. I do know that one box of 50 isn't a week's supply, much less a lifetime supply.

Allowing for practice (which I don't do often enough), having a bit on hand for predictable shortages, buying in sufficient quantities to get a basic discount (for me, that's a can of 500, not a pallet) and having a variety of different cartridge types, it adds up pretty quickly.

As a result, I have more than enough to terrify the average reporter, enough to comfortably avoid panic buying during a shortage, but not nearly enough for "TEOTWAWKI".
 
I also learned my lesson circa 2012 when you couldn't get 22lr. Prior to that, I problaby kept a couple boxes of good ammo and a bulk box of plinking rds that would last me maybe a month. Before that it never crossed my mind that stores wouldn't get restocked in a week or so. Since then , I now pick up a box or more any time I'm in a store that has some, same for all my other calibers. Now I look at a four year supply as a bare min, and for me 3000rds of 22lr is a year supply.
 
the thing that strikes me as odd is that so many of the "i can't find ammo" / didn't-stock-up crowd typically own hundreds of guns. there's just some weird mentality that wants to buy guns but no ammo. during normal times, that $500 you spent on a gun could have bought 1500 rounds of ammo.
 
Original post seems to be venting because poster can't pick up a box of what is needed when it is wanted. Frustration is understandable, but more is likely because kinks in the supply line for guns, ammunition, vehicle control chips and many other things are likely due to pandemics, Suez wedgies, shipping container shortages, changing economic landscape and many things beyond our control. Times change, and we can either change with them or not.
 
I expect a lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth come September when the one box every two years hunter crowd finds that we are still in the midst of a panic.

It's already started. I overheard the tail end of such a conversation at Walmart a couple weeks back. A customer was asking where the ammunition was and if they still sold it. While part of me felt a little sorry for him, I mostly wondered where he's been the last couple of years.
 
It's already started. I overheard the tail end of such a conversation at Walmart a couple weeks back. A customer was asking where the ammunition was and if they still sold it. While part of me felt a little sorry for him, I mostly wondered where he's been the last couple of years.
The Walmarts here have decided to stop selling all guns and ammo - that has happened within the last month or so.
 
I remember while the last ammo disruption was at it's peak there was a company that estimated that if every household that had at least 1 .22 firearm wanted two 500 round bricks of ammo that at the ramped up production speed it would take 2.5 YEARS to do that. Then add the other types of ammo and how much was wanted.
I need a certain amount to practice/plink whatever you want to call it in both rimfire and centerfire. I also plan to keep in reserve at least 4 years supplies of rimfire and reloading consumables as a hedge against such a time as this. Hope the OP can learn that just in time stocking is a fragile concept at best.
The land of milk and honey is taking a serious hit at this time, hope we can recover from the graveyard spiral before we crash!
 
I have a teen boy and a tween girl.

It may shock the OP, but I am also developing a cache of fresh manufacture ammo for their future needs. Not ammo for them to blow on a range trip, but for fundamental practice and emergency use in an indeterminate environment.

This is ^ ^ ^ wise
That, and teaching that magazine dumps
don't accomplish anything other than
wasting ammunition
 
All of it.

In fact, imma gonna make some investments when the market recovers so I can guiltlessly take advantage of the next panic to make me some pocket money.

Buckets of .22LR for $250? You bet I'll part with a dozen or more at that price.
 
I have a teen boy and a tween girl.

It may shock the OP, but I am also developing a cache of fresh manufacture ammo for their future needs. Not ammo for them to blow on a range trip, but for fundamental practice and emergency use in an indeterminate environment.
mine will have to learn to reload lol, but they'll have a lifetime supply
 
If you carry a revolver for self defense and only use it in self defense situations, a single 50 round box is a lifetime supply if you reload it every five years. Why would anyone need ten thousand rounds of .38 special??? How many firefights do you expect to survive?


Your thinking about it wrong. let’s say someone really enjoys .38 special, let’s say they shoot 100 rounds a week which is not a stretch. At one time I was shooting 300-500 rounds of 45 a week, depending on how much I had to work.

So 10k rounds will almost last you 2 years. How long of a ammo drought do you expect, I personally would fully understand someone who wanted to prepare for five years.


People just do it wrong. When it’s cheap, stack it deep, as they say. I have multiple thousands of various rounds almost none of which has been bought in the last year,except some 44 mag. I’ve bought a couple hundred of them when I bought my first 44.
When prices go down I’ll put a coma in that number pretty quick, why? Because in the next drought I want to be able to shoot my 44 whenever I want without having to worry (to much) about running out.


Think of it more like saving money for the times you are unemployed.


Now, when you get into competition shooting, those guys can really run up some numbers... thousands and thousands a year.
 
It started with the Obama administration. It continues today. I can't find any .22 or 12 gauge ammo (other than light bird loads) anywhere. I've heard all the explanations as to why there is no ammo to be had, but really? I have several old .22 pistols that I have been plinking with for decades. Now they languish in the safe unused. I don't dare use the ammo I have squirreled away as there are no signs I can replace it anytime soon...if ever.

I can kind of understand the shortage on certain semi-auto ammunition. I share the concerns of many that an ammo ban would be more practical than banning guns already out there in the eyes of government. EVERYONE is hoarding ammunition. But Jesus Tap Dancing Christ, how much is enough? If you carry a revolver for self defense and only use it in self defense situations, a single 50 round box is a lifetime supply if you reload it every five years. Why would anyone need ten thousand rounds of .38 special??? How many firefights do you expect to survive?

But what about the .22s and 12 gauges? THEY are not coming for our squirrel and bird guns. But everyone is buying up all the supply as soon as it hits the shelves. The prices have doubled and doubled again. I had to bum buck shot from a neighbor to hunt with this year as there was none to be had anywhere at any price. This shows no sigh of abating as people continue to pay ridiculous prices. Do people actually believe that .22 ammunition is going to be the new coin of the realm? I just want to shoot empty cans in the back yard. This simple pleasure I have enjoyed my entire life is now gone. When will this madness end?

Perhaps it's due to the fact I live in Arkansas. We do seem to have a surplus of crazy, paranoid, stupid people here. And they're armed...

I don't even know where to begin. smh...

How much is enough? You want the short answer? There is never enough. Never. E. Nough. Ammo. Never.

Box of 50 rds a lifetime supply you say? I carry a revolver and I shoot much more than that. People who load a gun for self defense and then never train (I said train not "practice") are doing themselves and those they pretend to protect a great disservice.

Why would anyone need 10k rounds of ammo?

Why does anyone need any ammo? That's like asking why does anyone need any firearm. Why does anyone need the 2nd amendment?

THEY are not coming for our squirrel and bird guns

...YET. What do you think will happen once they get the AR15s? Why do you think people who don't even own AR15s are (or at least should be) fighting for them? As goes the AR, so goes the hand gun and, eventually, so goes the squirrel gun.

Do people actually believe that .22 ammunition is going to be the new coin of the realm?

Yes, actually, there are people who do believe that. Go read a book titled One Second After.

Perhaps it's due to the fact I live in Arkansas. We do seem to have a surplus of crazy, paranoid, stupid people here. And they're armed...

You should submit that comment to any number of anti-gun media outlets; it would fit better there. But then, I guess I'm just a deplorable desperate clinger because I dare to own a firearm. Shame on me. (There goes my social credit score, I guess.)

The bottom line here is that you, like me, and others, failed to be prepared. I thought I was doing good buying a box or two when it was on sale, when I should have been buying a case or two (or ten for that matter). But I don't blame others who did prepare for my lack of foresight and planning, and neither should you. The only person to blame for my not having enough ammo is me, and it's not my fault you don't have enough ammo.
 
Enough to last to normal prices again, so lets see I'm 50 so enough to last another 40 years. I started buying primers by the case (5000) 22lr by the case (if you have kids you go through a lot of 22) I wish I had more 7.62x39, reports from people that dont know any better than you or me thinking importing ammo will be banned. Things could change and no more internet sales. Its not like it will go bad and the prices will only go up, if when prices go back to normal ranges I told the wife I will get 4000 worth of primers powder and bullets to add to my current ammo fort.
 
A little bit more. Always a little bit more. No matter what the actual question is. To get through the year, to survive a crossways social situation, or just to get near in the freezer. Enough is never enough, even if you don’t end up using it. How much do we need tucked away for the next Harris presidency? A little bit more.
 
something everyone forgets is that lots of casual shooters are coming out to shoot on recently open public land, and gun ranges..... but this happens anytime of any year anyway, just more pronounced now.... And are finding nothing on the shelves.

When they talk about it all they hear is "you should have planned" or "Have you been paying attention to whats going on?". Not rudely or anything like that, but factually.
What are they going to do? They're going to do what everyone here suggests: Plan for it.
That means millions of shooters who buy 4-10 boxes a year are buying 20 boxes THIS YEAR.

So 10,000,000 NEW buyers, plus the above, plus hoarders, plus scalpers, plus the normal buyers that took up more than %100 of capacity for over 10 years now, here we are.

Add on top of that that each time one of these stimulus packages comes through, imported ammo goes up in price around %20 from inflation alone.
Construction material demand is driving copper and lead markets in another direction.

But how much do I need? Most who have been loading form more than a decade plan for 2 years.
 
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