Your ammunition to firearms ratio?

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philoe

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Well, I finally put off the inevitable and took an inventory of my personal collection. I wrote down every make, model and serial number along with every cartridge to my name. (Keep having this dream that someone takes all of my firearms and I have no serial numbers)

I will not bore you with my meager collection, but I will ask you fellow High Roaders this:


What do you think the ideal ratio of ammunition value to firearms value should be? (i.e. $10k worth of guns and $5k worth of ammo is .5 ammo to firearms) The reason I ask is that I was very surprised at what I had and if I had an extra grand laying around I know what I would be buying right now. Should you have a higher ratio? Lower? All opinions welcome.
 
That's hard to answer.

I have 25 rounds on hand for one rifle and several hundred for others. Anywhere from fifty to a thousand for the handguns. Maybe a couple hundred for each of the shotguns, except the .410 where I only have part of a box left.

I have one rifle that I don't think I have anything loaded up for now and I have some ammunition that doesn't fit anything I own...
 
I look at it this way: you can never have too much ammunition for anything.

On the other hand, I have some guns that I only have a handful of rounds for. I have a Mosin with maybe...5 or 6 rounds in a baggie out in my shop somewhere. I'm OK with this as there is no scenario in which I'll need that gun.
 
Just the other day I was doing a similar inventory of what I had on hand, and set some baselines for how much ammo I wanted to have on hand at any given time. More or less setting stock watch numbers where if my supplies dip below a certain amount its time to hit the store. These numbers were of course different for different guns based on my needs.
 
I had a longer reply, but it was too long due to so many variables.

Short version: I would say that the more firearms a person has, especially when they start to overlap in use and in caliber, the less $$$/quantity there will be in ammunition on a per gun basis. And the use of the gun/caliber play s a huge role.

Whether or not you reload is also a factor. If you can re-use brass and you have the consumables (powder, primers, bullets...) you do NOT have ammunition (well, you know what I mean), but you have the ingredients, and that is certainly worth counting in some way.
 
My Amounts Are..

I have over a thousand rounds in .40 S&W, over a thousand rounds in .22's, over 200 rounds in 12 gauge and over a hundred rounds in .380.

I also have about 25 one pound cans of Goex FFFG black powder and a couple thousand #10 caps.

As it looks (now that I've inventoried it), I'm getting low on everything. Looks like I'm going to have to replenish my stock and bring it up to my usual 5,000 plus rounds along with a additional 25 pound case/box of black powder and another couple thousand .44 cal lead balls.

Well, that will do me for the next week or two maybe.

Single Action Six
 
As a reloaded I don't see the immediate need for more than I could carry on me if I had to bug out. Other than leaving in a hurry and leaving behind my reloading gear I feel comfortable with a several hundred rounds ready to go for my primary bug out guns

Other than that I try to keep the components to load 1500 or so or my major calibers. This is
primaly for if there is and ammo shortage
 
A few years ago after a raise I started randomly buying ammo for my guns. I was collecting it faster than I shot it and it started to haphazardly pile up.

I havent bought ammo in a year and my stockpile is mostly gone. Time to start buying again. Or maybe get a reloader?!

"<=" means "Less than or equal to"

<=50
.45lc (Judge)
.410g (Judge)
.38spl (637)

<=200
7.62x54r (Mosins)

<=500
12g (870)
9mm (XD9)

<=1000
.22lr (10/22 & Cobray)
 
I have stocked up on ammunition over the years, buying quite a bit at a time whenever I found a good deal on something. That combined with the fact that I rarely have a chance to get to the range these days, means that I have a fairly decent stockpile of ammo for some time to come. I would estimate that I have an hand at least a thousand rounds per pistol caliber (mainly 9mm. and .45ACP), twice that in rifle calibers (mainly .223 and 7.62X39), and well over 10K in .22LR.
 
While some men collect safe queens, I do not. Every weapon in my arsenal is a tool, and there is enough ammo to keep every tool well supplied. Every handgun or rifle gets fired at least monthly, except for the Kimber Dessert Warrior that is for special occasions.

I have enough 9mm, .40 cal and 5.56 mm to grab a few boxes and go shooting and not make a worrisome dent in the supply. As good deals come along on armslist, the stock goes up. Some guys have a beer box, some guys have a bullet box.
 
I think that a much more meaningful ratio involves Quantities, not "Value" (which constantly fluctuates).

FWIW, I currently maintain an average of 500-1000 rounds for each of my firearms. Rough estimate.

Most of my stock was purchased back when milsurp was cheap and I also, at that time, shopped & stocked up on good deals ... still do, although good deals are now tougher to find. :)
 
A guy I train in upstate NY buys ammo for ~$65,000 at a time. So, there's lots of variance. I buy 1k rounds at a time for 9mm, 38Spl, and .45ACP.
I buy 250 at a time of 12 gauge.
If I am ever down to 200 rounds for something, I get all panicky and short of breath.
 
With out specifics I am well into the tens of thousands per firearm. The .22lr ratio is ridiculous.


Brought to you by TapaTalk.
 
I'm heading out to buy ammo this morning. In my case I have a bunch of guns but only a few calibers 12-20-410 ga, .270, 7.62x39, 22lr, 17HMR, 9mm, 45acp, 38spl, and the 2 oddballs a 32cal BP, and 8x61. With my all my stuff being in the most common calibers I don't keep a whole lot of ammo on hand (a couple of boxes each) because everywhere around me that sells ammo always have these in stock so if I run out i just run to wally world, the local hardware store (he actually still sells guns too), or the local gun store and buy a couple more. Even during the so called shortages I could still find all my common calibers at their normal prices. I guess this is from living in a small farming town with an abundent supply of ammo and the fact no one around here gets caught up in the lack of supply hype and really only buy what they need. So that leaves plenty for everyone else. Even when wally world and the LGS runs out the hardware store always has stock.

BTW if anyone knows where I can get the 8x61 ammo please let me know because I can't find it anywhere and I'd really like to shoot that dang gun one day.
 
Not close to enough compared to most of these other posts.

200 for various handguns
300 for various rifles.


I have never felt a need for much more since I make it to the range less often than a lunar eclipse.
 
I try to keep 2k rounds of ammo for my AK and 1k for my AR.
2k of 9mm for pistols and the carbine.
200 for 12 g. This is bad because I have 00buck that is 25 years old and might not be safe.
10k of .22 bulk. I now have 24 guns in .22.
These do not include what I shoot every day/week but are just in reserve in case I can't get to the store or we need to kill every hay bale on the place this weekend. On the guns we shoot all the time(.38, 9mm ccw,etc) I just wind up buyin a box or two when I am in town. And i wonder why my credit card balance never stays at $0.
 
It depends on the gun or caliber.

I have 200 rds of .25 acp, which is plenty. I'd never let it get below 50, tho

The .35 Remington only has 60, which I'd like to increase to 100+, but it's hard to find. Then again, I don't shoot that one often.

Now for my primary guns/calibers, I have a bit more.
 
I have sure whittled the number of firearms I own down a lot. Right now, for each firearm I own I have an average of 5120 rounds for each.
 
Except for .500 S&W, .250 Savage, and .32 ACP, I keep a minimum of 1000 factory rounds for each caliber/guage I own.
 
I like to keep at least 500 rounds on hand for every caliber I own, not so much for any specific gun (although I own only one .22 and have 1500+ rounds for it riight now). Enough so that, like another poster said, I can grab a few boxes for the range and not feel like I'm cutting into my supply too badly. Once I get all my reloading gear together in the next couple of months I'll probably up my minimum inventory number a bit.

Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using Tapatalk 2
 
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