How Much Rifle Ammo Do You Keep On Hand?

[Hocka Louis]

People have ammo and/or components on hand for shooting assorted rifles (often of different calibers), savings and investment, preparedness, collecting... What quantity of rifle ammo do you have on hand?

 

[conhntr]

I doubt prices are going down. So when i find a good price i buy "alot"

I.e for the m1 garand which is a fun/range gun for me i bought 2000 rounds from cmp for it. I figured it would feed it for a while

 

[The Sarge]

Well seeing I have just about every caliber of rifle platform.
Average is probably 2K per caliber.
I mean in 8X56R I have 200-300 rounds. In 7.62X39 I have 10K or more.

 

[Quick Shot xMLx]

I've got 1k of 7.62x39 right now and I'll probably order another 1k in the next few months for a "rainy day."

 

[helotaxi]

More than most, less than some. Not enough either way. I think I'm under 100rds loaded for the .308 right now.

 

[RetroMan]

Let's just say I use a hand truck to rotate my ammo around.

 

[DCoke]

I competition shoot and reload....lots of practice on certain calibers....and plenty of plinking .22 for myself and my boys....

 

[wally]

I'm nearing retirement. Stocking as deep as I can while I still can.

 

[Geno]

I think that the number of rounds on-hand is profusely misleading, unless one also accounts for how frequently one shoots. I would hate to see the day in the USA when life becomes as when I lived in Chile, (South America). Non-military personnel were allowed to maintain 1 box (25 rounds) of shotgun shells. Competitive shooters had to register their ammo, and account for each round fired.

That stated, about 2 years back, it was common for me to fire the least 200 rounds of either 9mm or .45 ACP each day. Some days I fired much more. As such, to have 5,000 rounds of 9mm and 5,000 rounds of .45 ACP on-hand...well, it doesn't last long. Add to that, when I would take two Advanced Tactical Shooting classes, each one requiring 700 to 800 rounds in a single night, it really cuts into the stock. Add to that, completing a 3,000 round torture test on two pistols, well, there's 6,000 rounds. See what I mean?

For my part, I have what I need, and then some. Numerically, most of my ammo is .22LR. That makes the number of rounds misleading too. It isn't defensive ammo in a traditional sense, then again, most bad-guys would not want to be caused to develop .22 cal leaks. In terms of centerfire ammo, I try to keep loaded ammo, and handloading materials on hand. Sorry I couldn't give a more straight forward and simple answer.

Edit to clarify, I have carbines chambered in 9mm and .45 ACP. That makes it "rifle/carbine" ammo, but not rifle ammo as in .30-06 Sprg., etc.

Geno

 

[Double Vision]

Let's just say I use a hand truck to rotate my ammo around.

I like this!

It's nice to have a bunch of each caliber on hand.

 

[472x1A/B]

+ one to RetroMan. In the same situation.

 

[jmorris]

I have at least 15k of one brand of 22 lr ammunition.

 

[MCgunner]

Couple of boxes, usually. I like to have 100 rounds on an out of state hunting trip in case I need to sight in and to check sight in when I get there if I can. I'm not much of an ammo horder, but I get carried away sometimes with pistol ammo and my progressive reloaders. I shoot handguns a lot more at the range, CCW ya know, and I used to shoot IDPA and IHMSA for a while.

I buy .22LR by the 550 bulk pack. I shoot most of it in handguns, though.

I've still got about 1200 rounds of 7.62x39 I bought 20 years ago, old Norinco stuff. I got carried away with the SKSs and 100 dollar cases of ammo.

 

[T Bran]

It's a bit tricky to answer honestly since it depends on how many rifles you own. I try to keep a hundred or so loaded for my most used rifles. Less for guns that I keep as loaners or for sentimental reasons. I pretty much load for what I'm going to do as it comes up since it only takes an evening to make whatever I am likely to need. I do however keep a sizable inventory of components.
As for .22 rimfire I keep an assortment in plastic dryboxes at the present time there are two and a half dry boxes on the shelf. Something on the order of 12000 rounds. It sounds like a lot but the kids and their brethren will burn it up pretty quickly.

 

[wnycollector]

I shoot lots of military calibers so I learned long ago to stockpile surplus ammo when it's available because one day it's not going to be there. I recently learned that Widners just sold out of the 1200 round cases of IMI M193...luckily I had purchased several cases over the past year.

 

[bluetopper]

I keep about 300 loaded up but I have components to assemble a few thousand 223 cartridges.

 

[Ramone]

about 2000 5.56 rounds on hand, more in 'deep storage', plus components for about 500

 

[courtgreene]

I like to reload, so I pretty much always have at least 100 rounds of the chamberings I reload around unless I just shot. Then it takes me a few days to build back up (lunch break and when I can't sleep, which is often). The stuff I don't reload (7.62x54r, .22lr, and anything shot from a pistol) usually I only have whatever comes in a box. so 20 for the Russian and 50 for the pistols. I'm not really into stock piling (while I certainly understand those who do, and can't blame them) so i pretty much let my hobbies determine my inventory. That reminds me, it's time to go grab some more varget and game kings.

 

[irondavy]

I try to keep about 1k of all my regular hunting stuff around. (30-30 and 30-06 for now) and my pistol stuff I just keep as many cases loaded as possible. (.45 acp .45 Colt) That amounts to about 1500 or so .45acp and 2-300 .45 colt.
I also keep about 1/4 of my total capacity for a cal worth of components in stock as well.

ID

 

[Mike1234567]

I had to guess when I voted because I'm too lazy to count it. I'm not buying due to any political mess I'm buying due to our economic mess.

 

[Ky Larry]

I've been off work for 3 months due to foot surgery so my income has been pretty limited. I usually try to buy ammo and components every payday when I'm working. I have about 15,000 .22lr's, 4 big coffee cans full of .45 ACPs, 6 cans of various .38 spls, a can of .44 mag LSWC, a hundred or so of .44 mag 240gr JHPs, several cases of 7.62 Commie, and various amounts of various other stuff. I need to stock up on.223, .22-250, .243, .308, and .30-06. I don't plan to get Obamanated again.

 

[BemidjiDweller]

I just went and shot almost all of my ammo this past week. So I only have 6 rounds left for one of my CCWs, and 5 rounds left for my rifle.

 

[browningguy]

In my long term storage I try to keep 2000 rounds of .223, 1000 rounds of 7.62x39, 2000 rounds of .22 LR, and I always have extra for everyday shooting. I also usually have 100-200 rounds for each of my primary hunting cartridges 30-06, .308, 7x57, .243. And lord only knows how much I have for reloading, at least 2-3000 primers for large rifle and probably half that amount for small rifle.

 

[MTD]

Between 1000 and 1400; but never less than 1000 rounds!

 

[Ignition Override]

There are just six rifle calibers. My 7.62x39 went from 5,000 to about 3,000. With the new Tech Sight on the SKS, this ammo will become an endangered species. This aperture sight makes it much easier to hit a small bottle at 30(+) yards, sitting on a river bank.
This improvement will cost you lots of ammo-don't buy a Tech Sight!

The only reason I'm selling about 500 rds. of Czech or Yugo 8mm Mauser (FTF only) is because I don't like the Yugo Mauser's iron sights at all.