Minimum ammo requirements?

[Patriotic Sheepdog]

There are many places online that give numbers of how much ammo to store. I was wondering what everyone here thinks. I know/believe that you cannot have too much as the ammo you buy today will cost less than the ammo 5, 10 or 20 years from now. So when you look at it, if you are a regular shooter you are saving money buying today instead of waiting until you need it.

The minimum numbers I keep on hand is/are:

MBR---1000 rounds per rifle
.22 rifle/pistol---2500 rounds
Shotgun---500 rounds per shotgun (mix of varying loads 00 buck, slugs, dove/quail load, etc)
Pistol---500 rounds per pistol (mix of ball and JHP)

Again, these would be minimum numbers. Just wondering what others are thinking.

[Lowdown3]

Good question. You'll find a plethora of answers to this ;)

Personally I like to mention that you should budget at least 1K per year for training. That alone gets a few folks in an uproar- "you can do ALL your practice with dry fire! RABBLE RABBLE RABBLE RABBLE!!!!"

I don't agree with JUST dry firing for practice. You need to get some quality shooting in with your standard rifle- not just a .22 or a .22 conversion or a airsoft.

[Matt In Oklahoma]

I agree with you base numbers. A lot of it also has to do with your finances and ability to store supplies. I wouldn't want to put definite and turn anyone away from discussion because they lack either of those. I think that if it is going to be your SHTF rifle it should be more than say a 416 Rigby you inherited or will you a few times hunting large game. I wouldn't want to shoot 1K rounds in that. Mine mirrors yours somewhat with more on the pistol. I keep a thousand per handgun stored except for a derringer which I only keep about 50rds on hand. I see a lot of folks overlook bird shot for their tricked up combat zorchiton ray scatterguns. I believe I see that more in folks that are not hunters. It reduces the versatility by only having buck and slugs.
I also agree with Lowdown3 on the training cost. I see folks blow that easily eating out and doing things. It is a matter of priorities and making this a way of life, not just something you did/do.

[eeyore]

The numbers are good, but a little light. I'm heavy on 22 because they are (were) cheap and and planned to use them for barter. I would go a little heavier on the MBR part of mine is hunting rounds, i have a bolt gun in the same caliber. (Got to love Mel Tappan). A little heavier on the shotgun amd pistol, but like i said in another post i have kids also.

I will admit that i practice no where near enough, to be come proficient you need to practice.

[Jerry D Young]

I'm aiming for (so to speak) 2,000 rounds FMJ for the MBR, with another 200 rounds hunting ammunition.

750 rounds 00 buck/250 rounds slug/500 hunting rounds for the shot gun

1,000 rounds FMJ for the handgun, with 100 rounds hunting ammunition

[Rmplstlskn]

I think you do the best you can and build on it when you see a brand you like come up for availability... For example, AIM now has some Hirtenberger .308 available. That is premium, old school ammo and I and my FAL love it. Back several years ago, Black Hills .223 MK262 Mod1 ammo was available. Expensive, but some of the best .223 ammo you can buy, with 77g bullets. That is now my goto ammo for the AR and I only use 5 rounds here and there to verify zeros, the rest is for a rainy day. Now, I have not seen any anywhere, no matter how much money you have. Those are examples of times to buy, if you can. This can then free up the less desirable ammo for training and practice.

Sadly, the good ol' ammo days are long gone I fear...

I would also balance out purchase of premium ammo with cheap ammo... The premium for real needs and the cheap for training and recreation. Wolf, although with its controversies, is still the cheapest ammo out there for training.

And as for training, almost every class I have seen or participated in, required about 850 to 1000 rounds of rifle ammo and 250~500 or so of pistol. So you need to factor this in as well.

YMMV
Rmpl

[Rmplstlskn]

weird forum double-tap

[96thTallarn]

I keep a minimum of 1000 rounds for each MBR (7.62x51), 2000 for each MBC (5.56x45), 1000 for each pistol (9x19), 1000 per shotgun, 500 7 1/2 shot, 300 slugs, and 200 00 buck (12 gauge), and as much 22LR as I can lay hands on for each 22 I own. Ah, for the good old days when I shot 1000 rounds a weekend of 7.62x39 steel case in tuna cans for under $100 ($89 from Paragon as I recall). Those were the days.

[Lowdown3]

I remember Paragon. I was a little disappointed with them at Knob Creek one time. I had ordered bu koo stuff from them and we were planning on hitting them on the last trip out. Because I knew they took CC's I used all my cash at smaller vendors. We got a small pile of stuff stacked up near their checkout, plunked down a Visa and were told no CC's. Between me and my buddy's piles it was easily a $2K sale for them, yet the fellow refused to take anything but cash.

I still say the chinese ammo was about the best surplus ammo for x39. I NEVER remember having a failed round in an AK till the Russian stuff started coming in. Now you can expect 1-2 dud rounds per thousand. One time we were shooting with a friend here on the board and his rifle sounded like a .22- it was some underloaded wolf X39.....

The $90. a case E German X39 from around the turn of the century was good stuff also. Wouldn't mind having a little more of that.

[96thTallarn]

I still have "a few" unopened tuna cans as part of my deep storage. I remember going to Paragon in a Ford Escort and loading it down until the wheels almost rubbed the body with 7.62x54R, 8mm, 30-06, 303, and some 7 or 8mm JAP. We used to shoot a lot of WWII stuff. Then we got into more modern weapons. Sorry for the hijack guys.

[Klayton]

First, as stated by others, whatever you can afford is a huge factor.

Second, how many people will be using your arsenal? That is, wife and kids. You have a household of 5 they will use less ammo (hopefully) for defense than say a family of 10 all with guns.

My household has the following stockpile.

Hunting rifles, large bore ( >7.62 ) 200 rds
Hunting rifles, med bore ( < or = 7.62 ) 1000 rds
Rimfires, 10K per weapon (sounds like alot, but "forever" is a long time to survive **wink**)

Handguns, 1000 rds, exception is my .38 snub, only keep 200rds for that.
The .38 is my bedroom & bunker last stand weapon.

I know some people disagree with this, but I "practice" with the same ammo I hope will save my life.

Two reasons for this.
1) a FMJ .45 round will have a noticeable difference in trajectory at 50 yards in medium wind compared to a hollowpoint.
I yell at one of my shooting buddies everytime we go to the range because he "practices" with cheap wolf ammo and then at the end of the day loads his pistol with hollowpoints.
Another loads "low velocity" rounds when he lets his wife practice. BOTH are huge mistakes in my book.

2) it helps me slowly rotate ammo and build a stockpile.
This payday I buy say 100 rounds or .45. I can either put it in the stockpile and take out 100 rounds of the oldest ammo on hand, OR even building a stockpile, put in the 100 new rounds and take out only 50 rounds for practice.

Well, just the way I do it. Feel free to comment.

[groovy mike]

I wrote this a couple of years ago. But it seems worth sharing again, even if the prices quoted below have already doubled!
How much ammo should I have?

First and foremost I am a firm believer in

[Hawkeye]

Something to keep in mind, is where are you keeping your ammo. If you plan on bugging out, then think about what all your going to have to pack up and take with you, and are you going to have the room/capacity to haul everything you need to including the ammo. It would stink to have a ton of ammo put away, only to have to leave it behind because you dont have room to haul it with you. If you have a dedicated bugout location/retreat to go to, then pre-positioning it makes a lot of sense. Ammo starts getting really heavy, really fast in bulk and takes up a decent amount of physical space.

[Lowdown3]

Very good points. It's also pretty easy to put it in 6" pvc. Just don't get crazy with it. It's easy to put 1,700 rounds in a tube. But if you NEEDED it, how would you carry it? Smaller amounts in numerous caches along with carry bags would be better. Don't forget some spare mags too.

[610Alpha]

good points all around. When I think of how much ammo I liken it to how much RAM I put into a server build (when I used to build servers), fill it up. I have never heard a customer or server admin say "I've got too much RAM". In light of virtualization software I can put a whole bunch a Virtual machines on a box and I'll run out of RAM before I run out of CPU. Same thing for Ammo, I'll run out of Ammo before Gun :)

If you have a group to go in on big buys with that is the best option. Don't know if it is wise or not but maybe someone in the group could get their FFL to make those large purchases with...might save even more $$. But then of course you put yourself on the radar. Not sure about all the requirements of the FFL but ...it could be worth the time to research it. All else fails just buy in bulk whenever you can.