How many rounds

All depends on your budget, caliber and general ammo considerations. Wolf is a fine rd. for my AK. At under $100/1k, its a perfect round.

Personally, I wont buy anything less than 1K rounds at a time. Just seems like a waste of money to buy boxes of 20 rds at a time. Even my 9mm premimum SD ammo I bought in bulk. I cant remember buying anything but 12G and .22 for the past 5+ years, but prices are coming down.

Of course, YMMV.

I try to keep about 250 rounds of "home defense" rounds on hand, but have a many many more FMJ rounds to back that up if worse comes to worse. The FMJ supply fluctuates with my target shooting and my restock purchases. One caliber will cover virtually all of my pistols since I purchased them to share a common round.

For my revolvers, I store a lot less ammunition. Maybe 100 defense rounds and a couple hundred FMJ rounds. I figure to be using the pistols mostly anyway.

1500 rounds for my rifle and a box of 00 buckshot for the shotgun.

I have no real idea how much home defense ammo one SHOULD have ... that depends on your opinion of how bad it could get, how long it will last and how long you think you can last, if it comes down to that. I just figure that by the time I shoot through my ammo supply (if I should live that long) I'll be tired of the killing anyway. Kinda sad to think about it.

kda said:

... that depends on your opinion of how bad it could get, how long it will last and how long you think you can last, if it comes down to that...

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Good point.

Different people have different ideas on the World. Some people buy into the EOTWAWKI/Doomsday/Zombie (still dont get that one) side of the coin, in which case 10's of K's of rounds might be in order for them. Other people are happy w/ a few hundred rounds for often shot calibers, and maybe 50 or less for the less common ones.

It really depends on how much you shoot and how often you want to buy. Some like to pick up a few boxes every month, some people (like me) "buy cheap and stack deep". Nothing wrong with either - it all comes down to personal economics and choice.

I just try and keep my mags full and thats my biggest concern,but i do like having enough on hand for 1 good range outing.
100-150 rounds center-fire per caliber and 500 in .22lr

The thing I have learned, is that when it comes to ammo. You cannot have too much of it.
Try to get about 10,000 Rifle Rounds, and then 5,000 Pistol rounds should be good. Shotgun, 1000 should be a good stock, with 500 slug and 500 buckshot. It all depends what you think you will be using the most.

Once you got that much, you'll be sitting on a decent sized stockpile for home-defense and emergency situations. I know, that may look like a lot... and it is. But, if it really comes down to it, you can always hide what you can't carry so you can always come back to it if you need more. Or, when times like now happen and the price of ammo is VERY high due to the wars, you can sell a couple hundred rounds for some very nice profit.
It's better to have too much ammo when you don't need it, than to have too little ammo when you do.

I keep about 100 rounds of mixed 1oz slugs, 00, and no.4 buck for the 2 shotguns I have. I have about 200 rounds of .38+p. That is the only ammo I keep locked up for the specific purpose of 'stockpiling'.

It really depends, since HD and local emergencies are an apples and oranges comparison.

For HD all I'm worried about is the threat that might have entered the house. Depending on which weapon I grab (obviously the one easiest to reach first) there could be 15 rounds for my M1C, 19 rounds in my XDm 9mm, or 13 rounds in my XD 45. All of these have a spare mag as well so I would have immediate access to somewhere between 26 and 38 rounds. If it's bad enough that I need to fight my way to a long arm then I have access to over 12 loaded P-MAG's for my AR-15 and about 10 loaded surplus German mags for my SKS-D.

Now emergencies (natural disasters like flooding, earthquakes, hurricanes, etc.) are a different ball of wax. You will possibly need to evacuate/relocate, which for me means I'm taking all my weapons and ammo. This gives me bartering power if I need it (ammo), allows me to take small game (22LR), and allows me to provide protection for my loved ones and those I personally know (and a weapon for them if they need it).



Kris

for my AK. At under $100/1k, its a perfect round.

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Where you shopping at, buddy?

Last time I bought a case of 7.62X39 it cost $140 for 760, and that was in 06

I try very hard not to drop below 500 rounds for my primary handgun and the same for my EBR. I don't shoot my shotgun much anymore so I've had the same few hundred rounds for years. I keep a couple thousand rounds of .22LR on hand no matter what. At my house in the boonies my scoped 10/22 could keep my wife and I discreetly fed for a very long time. Don't forget to stock up on plastic pop bottles and electrical tape for your .22....

for my AK. At under $100/1k, its a perfect round.

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Where you shopping at, buddy?

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I think that is a LOT of us would like to know.

I keep at least 300 rounds, probably more than I'll ever need but with that much extra I always have some practice ammo.

My rule of thumb is at least 500 rds per rifle and pistol. Have 3 AR15's so that 1500 rounds of backup. I have other guns that I also keep the same amount for. Then it's my shooting/plinking ammo beyond that. As time goes on I will "rotate" stock & replenish the reserve to keep it fresh unless I get the "can ammo". I don't see having too many guns but I have enough to hand each of my (6) kids, wife & me a pistol & rifle plus ammo if we have to get out of a bad situation. It's sad to live that way but it's a jungle out there & between the "zombies" & the evil individuals you must be prepared.

I would say for a primary rifle(s) no less than 1k. For pistols at least 500 rounds per gun. More is always better but that would be the minimum. Remember, in an emergency you may have to grab what you can and the rest my just have to stay put. And its not doing you any good if its not with you!

As for shotguns at least one case (250 rounds). I would also suggest FMJ for the rifles and pistols. FMJ functions in all weapons for the most part. For shotguns if you can get 00 buck or #4 buck that is best. If bird shot is the only thing available I would go for #4 bird shot. At ranges out to 15-20 yards it will suffice. As for .22 long rifle, just get as much as you can. You can never have enough of that stuff!

I would also suggest getting military ammo cans to store it in. I say military ammo cans because they are water proof, don't cost much (free for me) and are handy for just about any storage.

The amount of ammunition to hold is a fine balance between budget, risk perception and load capacity of your floor.

How many rounds of ammunition (target rounds and home defense rounds) should I have in case of local emergencies or home defense? How many rounds for each rifle, handgun, and shotgun?

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Local emergencies/HD don't call for much ammo (if any at all). It's not like you're gonna be reenacting Firebase Gloria. In reality, the larger reason to keep anything more than a few mags full is not because of an imminent need, but as a hedge against longer-term disruptions in supply.

To address that question, I usually recommend keeping at least a year's supply of all consumables on hand, at your present rate of consumption. If you shoot 400 rounds a month of range-quality handgun ammo and 100 rounds a month of range-quality rifle ammo, you should probably plan on stocking 5K rounds of pistol range ammo and 1K or better of range rifle ammo. Once that's done, you can stock just enough SD ammo to keep the mags loaded and ready-to-go. I normally keep 500-1000 rounds of SD ammo for each platform that I might use for SD, in addition to the range ammo supplies.

Enuff to fill my mags 3Xs and at least a good range days worth.

I guess it all depends on what your worst case scenario is. I'm not too worried about hordes of mutant zombies or gangs of government JBT's . What truly frightens me is that the American people will do something truly stupid such as reelecting Obama. As a lame duck, he will have nothing to lose so look out. I'm afaid he will push for all kinds of restrictions and tax hikes on guns and ammo. If reelected, we'll see more of the same panic buying and shortages.Personally, I keep several thousand rounds on hand for everything I shoot. YMMV.

The amount of ammunition to hold is a fine balance between budget, risk perception and load capacity of your floor.

+1 to what this guy said.

If everyone had infinite resources I'm sure you would have a room full of ammo and firearms. However, with the economy the way it is, wives the way they are and responsibility for house and home, buy what you can afford.

Besides, if **** does hit the fan, can't you and your buddies just storm the house of the guy with all the ammo?

I'll be storming the guy's house that has the food.

Remember, in case of a "local emergency" (is that the High Road way of saying SHTF?) make sure you have at least 17 guns and 35,000 rounds of ammunition including FMJ, steel core, tracer, HP, etc.

If you're really concerned with emergencies and not Mad Max fantasies, look into stocking canned food, batteries, non perishable goods, blankets, flashlights, radio, cooking utilities, outdoor tools. Real life is never as fun as the movies unfortunately.

I can think of just about every single home defense story i've read in the last 2 years and every one I can recall was 0,1, 2, 3, 4, maybe 5-6 rounds fired. If you got a handful of bullets you're good for HD. No one gets attacked by a gang of 250lb. zombie meth head pirate crackhead ninjas like they like to discuss on the internet 24/7.

"local emergency" (is that the High Road way of saying SHTF?)

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It's just more specific. Local emergency conjures Katrina-type catastrophes, whereas SHTF means a variety of things to various different people.

500 rounds of 45 ACP (self defense)
500 rounds of 44 Mag (hunting & self defense)
500 rounds of 22 LR (hunting small gane)

For me, it's at least one box of JHP for each of my defense handguns (it's usually more)
If I need to shoot more than a box then I'm in some serious trouble and don't care if I send FMJ (of which I have a couple thousand rounds) or JHP flying.

For my shotguns, a few boxes of buckshot and slugs. Maybe 50-100 rounds total. If I need to shoot more rounds than that then I'll break out the AR.

For my AR-15, I'm not sure how much I have, but I will keep at least 200 rounds (it's usually quite a bit more). All FMJ. Again, if it's that bad then I don't care if it's FMJ or HP.

I don't fault anyone for stockpiling ammo. You should do it if you want to and can afford it.
However, if the SHTF then I don't foresee needing a stockpile. If the SHTF then I'm running, not getting in a firefight.

For "local emergencies" you shouldn't need more than a few rounds. It's good to have, but let's face it. If you get hit by a big hurricane and some thugs want your food then they'll probably leave after you kill a couple of them.

Past a couple thousand rounds you're better off spending the money on MREs, water filtering systems, and other preparedness items.

A fair enough counter-question might be; how good are you? How long to you think you will survive in a sustained firefight? How many rounds do you think you can fire without getting yourself killed?

I would be thinking, as many as I can carry as I sneak out and RETREAT.

merk said:

Where you shopping at, buddy?

Last time I bought a case of 7.62X39 it cost $140 for 760, and that was in 06

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One of the benefits of buying in bulk is not having to buy often.

I was at a local gunshow back in the late 90s. The main ammo dealer had pallets and pallets of all kinds of ammo. They were asking $99/1K for 762x39. After some negotiation (I told them how expensive it was ) we came to an agreement - if I bought 10 cases (10K total) I could have em for $790, out the door.

A deal was struck and I have yet had to by ammo for that rifle.

Now my only regret is not buying more. But hindsight is 20/20