How many magazines are enough?

[possum]

for the ar i would get some pmags, and i would be happy with 5 for eah of the mini's.

 

[Interceptor_Knight]

You will likely never wear out your 5 mags. If you can afford to pick up a couple more, do so, but do not loose sleep if you do not.

 

[gotmine]

An empty closet is a good start...When completely filled it should be enough or very close to it. Now comes the question of ammo....How many more guns?....How many different calibers?

 

[Interceptor_Knight]

I hope that that closet is filled with edible magazines because that is the only usefull thing that a closet full would be good for. That and profiteering later..

 

[Lonestar.45]

An arbitrary number for me is 10 per gun. For the AR's I have more, for some pistols I rarely shoot I have less, for the ones I shoot alot I have more. I dont have 100's of mags like some, but I think I have enough.

It's a fine balance of buying guns, mags, and ammo in these political times. Sure I could buy 50 more AR mags but I'd rather have more guns, or ammo, or both, and not get too much of one thing.

 

[gotmine]

Edibles weren't part of the question....I don't believe in profiteering, though I as of late been seeing many that do.

 

[NTSOS]

For SHTF, I would say ten or more would be good, plus 2 or 3 M26's .........just in case.

That's me in the back yard in front of my last resort bunker.....you can just barely see the front sight of my brand new M16A1 in the lower left hand corner.



John

 

[The Deer Hunter]

5 magazines would be enough for me. 10 seems like a good number for what you have.

If you're actually stocking up for some sort of situation of civil unrest, you can't carry around 50 magazines. I beleive that if you are ever in a situation where you would actually need to shoot more than one magazine at anything, you're pretty well screwed anyways.

 

[xd9od]

What is this "enough" of which you speak?

 

[pgeleven]

as many as you can reasonably get ahold of, so when you go to the range you dont spend the majority of your time loading. nothings more splendid than taking that long shot with a stiff thumb cramp

 

[481]

I think that ten mags per pistol/rifle is a "good start".

"Perfect" is when you have so many that you begin to worry about exceeding the load limits of your home's floors.

 

[CoRoMo]

+1 481

Ten-per seems about right.

 

[gga357]

5 for each firearm. More if you can afford it.

 

[Duke of Doubt]

I'm actually annoyed at the guys who seem to think that a hundred magazines means better preparation. I'm annoyed, because I got into the AR thing very late into the hobby, late last year, (long-time AK man) and decent AR magazines are tough to find at any price around here right now.

Magazines are for feeding rounds into the action, not for storing ammunition. I can carry many more rounds on stripper clips than in additional detachable magazines. A few magazines to carry, like four AK magazines, is plenty for me. I keep 20 rounders for concealed carry and thirty rounders for open carry, so yes, that means eight. Plus a five rounder for hunting. That's nine. I have a few more than that only because I found them cheap. I have a TON of stripper clips and tins and tins of ammunition. I have a magazine feeding device for the stripper clips. That's the best way, not storing a hundred magazines full of ammunition in your bunker. It's your right, but it's a waste of money and space and, at the present moment, a little selfish.

 

[Sam Adams]

10 per is probably fine. The only reason for more is if there's a permanent ban on them and you want the mags you have to last essentially forever. Spare springs, followers and bases are usually good for extending life, though if you bend/break the feed lips you have scrap metal/plastic.

I have more than 10 for rifles, less for handguns. I probably should fix that. Definitely need more strippers.

Bennelli Shooter, you might want to get some cheaper off-brand (though still ones with a good rep) mags for practice at the range, and keep the expensive Ruger mags for a more "social" occasion. I have some old plastic see-through mags that fit both the AR and the Ruger (got 'em when I owned the Ruger). I expect that the plastic lips will break someday, but every time I put rounds through one of them is one less time through my all-metal, SHTF stock.

The better place to put one's money, IMHO, is either into more ammo or into a reloading set-up and components.

 

[Art Eatman]

If at any one time you need more than just a few loaded mags, you have far more in the way of problems than one fella can handle. You don't need more mags, you need more people on your side, shooting.

 

[priler]

3 that you might loose,3 that you might damage and the 3 that will more or less wear out at the same rate as the rifle.that makes 9. 9-12 is perfectly good to be on the safe side.honestly, too many people put too much emphasis on the wrong thing.

how many rounds do you think it takes to wear out one rifle?how many cycles do you think it takes to wear out one mag?do you think all the parts in your rifle will wear out evenly?

mag collecting is a different matter. with that,the point is to have a lot of different mags not a whole bunch of the very same mags.hoarding for future profit is speculative.if people can't buy or own rifles in the future,they won't have a need for your mags.if they can,then in all likelihood,mags will be available.really rare mags are just that,rare,and will allways be collectables.

 

[gazpacho]

If you own all of them, everyone else will have single shot rifles.

 

[shuvelrider]

Why even debate such a topic, use your own good judgement and keep as many as you want, quietly prepare in your own way for whatever emergency your waiting for. OR!, you could ask the OBAMAnation what he thinks, pretty sure he,ll tell you "none, just trust me!!"

 

[benEzra]

I have some old plastic see-through mags that fit both the AR and the Ruger (got 'em when I owned the Ruger). I expect that the plastic lips will break someday, but every time I put rounds through one of them is one less time through my all-metal, SHTF stock.

Ah, those would probably be the Ram-Line "Combo Mags". I had a couple that worked great in my mini-14, and I tried one out in a friend's DPMS AR and it also ran fine. One of mine eventually cracked and split (right in the middle of the spine, at the top rear), but it lasted for ~15 years as my primary range magazine before breaking and was kept loaded most of that time (which is hard on polymer, as I understand it), so I guess it held up pretty well for a cheap plastic mag. I kept a steel magazine in the carbine for HD, though.

 

[gvnwst]

For me, it is as many as i can afford. Which is not enough still. Two for my savage boltie, and i am getting another in for my AR soon. But ammo is slightly more important right now...

 

[wcwhitey]

I think Art Eatman said it best, if you need more than a few mags you need more friends. One side note however is that the AR is useless without mags, no way to feed it otherwise. Unlike an SKS or M1A which could use one good mag and stripper clips. Bill

 

[Duke of Doubt]

wcwhitey: "One side note however is that the AR is useless without mags, no way to feed it otherwise. Unlike an SKS or M1A which could use one good mag and stripper clips. Bill"

But you can rapidly reload (in a couple seconds) your empty AR magazines with your rounds on stripper clips. They're a lot less bulky to carry.

 

[mr.trooper]

spend the money you would use for more Ruger factory 20's and buy a MOSIN!

 

[fitz47]

Never enough, Use some for shooting and use the rest just in case