(The Perennial) How much ammo is enough? question

PaulR

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Based on the latest scares in MA and how the Presidential election is looking, have you upped your stocks?

Is anyone stockpiling for a 4 year bad ride?

Personally, without being overly specific, I always thought that keeping a base/floor inventory of each caliber I shoot of 1,000 rounds, and replace as necessary.
(22 and 556 being the exception, 1000 rounds of 22 seems to be danger-low....keeping inventory over 1000 rounds of 556 can get expensive?)

I'm sort of re-thinking, is 1,000 rounds of each caliber way too low if the SHTF?

What does everyone HONESTLY think a good number of base rounds is based on cost/benefit/current events?
 
Based on the latest scares in MA and how the Presidential election is looking, have you upped your stocks?

Is anyone stockpiling for a 4 year bad ride?

Personally, without being overly specific, I always thought that keeping a base/floor inventory of each caliber I shoot of 1,000 rounds, and replace as necessary.
(22 and 556 being the exception, 1000 rounds of 22 seems to be danger-low....keeping inventory over 1000 rounds of 556 can get expensive?)

I'm sort of re-thinking, is 1,000 rounds of each caliber way too low if the SHTF?

What does everyone HONESTLY think a good number of base rounds is based on cost/benefit/current events?
unfortunately if you shoot IDPA/USPSA/other(?) 1000 rounds is very low. I keep 100 rounds as an "emergency" reserve and I try and reload everything I plan on shooting and restock the reserve when I dip into it.
 
Count how much you've got and double it. Except for .22LR. That you triple...
 
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Get as much as your family budget allows without affecting other things such as your wife's shoe budget, occasional dinners out, clothes and sneakers for the kids, etc.

Prices will NOT be going down in the future. If nothing else, stocking up is a hedge against inflation regardless of its cause (Clinton being elected chief among them). If the S really does HTF, ammo can be used as currency when bartering for other goods or services.
 
Since we're being HONEST, I would recommend a minimum of 5,000 rounds of each caliber you expect to use regularly. Like spt says, you can go through 500-1000 rounds in a day or weekend at the range, or more at a two day Sig class. If you are thinking 'OMG Stockpile!' and ever plan to actually shoot for training or fun again, 1,000 rounds doesn't go very far.

Given that you never know when 'something' is going to happen, you should pretty much have what you think you need now.

ETA: Keep in mind, food and shelter is more important than ammo.
 
I tell everyone I meet (especially newbs) That it won't be as cheap or available as it is now come the fall. If you're not buying now you have nobody to blame but yourself
 
I should clarify, I'm an "internet shooter". I really only go to the range every few months and go through 30 rounds of 9 and 300 rounds of 22. I don't do any matches or anything.

I basically like to stack my ammo in the safe and look at it every day. [laugh] [rolleyes] [banghead]
 
It's interesting how many gun people don't carry, hardly ever go to the range etc.

Anyways, OP, figure out what you're prepping for first and go from there.
 
to me the reason to have ammo available is so that range trips can continue without freaking out over ammo. i worry less about SHTF stuff and more about just being able to go to the range on the weekend with the wife and not be stingy with the ammo. in 2013 it was awful. ammo was pricy and difficult to find.

this election year is unique in that more people are actually anticipating ammo shortages. consequently more people are out acquiring ammo as early as 3 months pre election. overall i believe this will help although there will still likely be a huge shortage come late october and early november. right now is the best time to start acquring some extra ammo. to me the wisest thing to do is pick one pistol and one rifle cartridge to stock and go from there. to stock up on various calibers it just becomes financially crushing and not really worth it. i'm sure others would disagree.

come november i will be watching .40S&W availability. while i'm no .40 lover, the cartridge seems to be less affected by external factors than the usual 9, 45, 223/5.56, etc. for this reason it's probably wise to own at least one .40S&W handgun, as they can be had for relatively cheap and the ammo is plentiful. i'm willing to bet that by november 2016, .40S&W will be cheaper than 9mm.
 
I got enough powder to reload for a couple years (probably more) with most calibers. I can only store so many primers and bullets before I run out of room and $ [laugh]. I'll most likely buy more primers and bullets before November comes but doubt I'll buy anymore powder. It's hard when you shoot 10 calibers and reload 7 of them.

I got a good stash of 22 ammo (all of which is CCI SV or minimags) that should last a while.
 
I reload, and after the sandy hook panic, not being able to find anything... I try to keep 5k of components for each caliber I shoot.

Honestly, I gave up on 22lr. It was easier to find primers and 38 wad cutters so that's what I plink with.

I'll have 2k of wadcutters on hand, 2k of semi wadcutters, and 1k of 357 Magnum.

2k of 40s&w

2k of 10mm

2k of 45acp

5k of 5.56 and 7.62x39

2-3k of 308. I usually don't have the 308 loaded. I load as I go as I try to keep it accurate.
 
It's interesting how many gun people don't carry, hardly ever go to the range etc.

Anyways, OP, figure out what you're prepping for first and go from there.

A very tiny percentage of LTC holders in MA CCW. My first club of 300, only 1 member CCW'd all the time (cop). Another member and myself CCW'd but only some of the time.

Even our PD there was only that one officer who regularly CCW'd. Even today, many years later, I'll bet there aren't more than 2-3 at most that do.


to me the reason to have ammo available is so that range trips can continue without freaking out over ammo. i worry less about SHTF stuff and more about just being able to go to the range on the weekend with the wife and not be stingy with the ammo. in 2013 it was awful. ammo was pricy and difficult to find.

this election year is unique in that more people are actually anticipating ammo shortages. consequently more people are out acquiring ammo as early as 3 months pre election. overall i believe this will help although there will still likely be a huge shortage come late october and early november. right now is the best time to start acquring some extra ammo. to me the wisest thing to do is pick one pistol and one rifle cartridge to stock and go from there. to stock up on various calibers it just becomes financially crushing and not really worth it. i'm sure others would disagree.

come november i will be watching .40S&W availability. while i'm no .40 lover, the cartridge seems to be less affected by external factors than the usual 9, 45, 223/5.56, etc. for this reason it's probably wise to own at least one .40S&W handgun, as they can be had for relatively cheap and the ammo is plentiful. i'm willing to bet that by november 2016, .40S&W will be cheaper than 9mm.

Agreed. My Wife and I can easily go thru 700+ rds/outing.

I hope .40S&W doesn't go cheap as I found a lot of it here and want to sell most of it off as I don't shoot .40 anymore. Also have 3 guns in .40 that when I get off my butt, I want to sell (Glock, H&K and Walther).
 
Based on the latest scares in MA and how the Presidential election is looking, have you upped your stocks?

Is anyone stockpiling for a 4 year bad ride?

Personally, without being overly specific, I always thought that keeping a base/floor inventory of each caliber I shoot of 1,000 rounds, and replace as necessary.
(22 and 556 being the exception, 1000 rounds of 22 seems to be danger-low....keeping inventory over 1000 rounds of 556 can get expensive?)

I'm sort of re-thinking, is 1,000 rounds of each caliber way too low if the SHTF?

What does everyone HONESTLY think a good number of base rounds is based on cost/benefit/current events?

It's always how much you can afford vs storage space etc. (of course some jerk (or well intentioned person depending on your POV, lol) will bring up the MA fire/permit reg, which nobody actually cares about in the real world, although if this really bothers you in most towns for a single family a permit can be easily obtained for much more ammo than the CMR allows by default)

As a general rule I try to plan for a year or two of normal shooting/competition. If I could afford it I would do 3-4 years. If finances were not a huge
obstacle as far as I'm concerned if you're not using a forklift to manage it you don't have enough ammo. Nobody has EVER bitched to me about
having too much ammo. Even if you want to sell it off you'll usually, at WORST case, get all your money back unless you buy at peak.... and we're nowhere near peak values right now.

From previous Obamascares / sandy hook BS, it takes about a year for the market to -sorta- get back to any kind of resemblance of normalcy after a crash.

Case in point not all that long ago I bought some ammo from a guy who was moving out of the northeast. His "Reserve" stock that he was selling off was well over 10,000 rounds of 9mm, .45, and 5.56. Most of you would cry if you saw what his normal "working" stock was. He said he more or less just floated through SH and Obamascare 2 like nothing happened.

-Mike
 
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Get as much as your family budget allows without affecting other things such as your wife's shoe budget, occasional dinners out, clothes and sneakers for the kids, etc.

Prices will NOT be going down in the future. If nothing else, stocking up is a hedge against inflation regardless of its cause (Clinton being elected chief among them). If the S really does HTF, ammo can be used as currency when bartering for other goods or services.

Your kids don't need sneakers.

As much as I can afford. It doesn't go bad, it doesn't get cheaper.
 
Take how much you shoot normally and store at least 18 months of that just for training to tough out shortages, then add whatever you'd like to have in a collapse on top of that number.

On 22lr I'd argue you can never have enough. It's the ideal training and small game hunting round if you can shoot well. Plus it's hard to think of another caliber that would be more desirable for barter on a wide scale. Hell, even during the last crunch people were begging for 22lr.
 
This is literally why I get annoyed when the news always announces they busted someone with 500 or 1000 rounds of ammo like it's a big deal.
 
Just got my LTC two years ago and I'm working towards accumulating rifles and ammo in .22, 5.56 and .308. For now, I want a semi-auto and back-up bolt gun in each of the three calibers. Limiting it to the three calibers so I can stock up on ammo more easily. I currently have a source for case quantities at fair prices and I don't have a car payment right now so I'm buying it while I can. I view it as sort of an investment because it doesn't really expire, the price keeps increasing and it can be sold, traded, used as currency, etc down the road. I think the answer to "how much should I stock" comes down to how concerned you are about wanting/needing it and not being able to get it. I have pretty neutral political views and I'm kinda freaked out about the direction that things are going. I don't trust the govt's ability to manage a major natural disaster/financial collapse/infrastructure collapse/food shortage/fuel shortage/civil uprising/etc so I want to feel like I can handle it when everything goes all Road Warrior.
 
As much as I can afford. It doesn't go bad, it doesn't get cheaper.

Gee, I don't know. When the N. Attleboro WM got their license back (they lost it for 3 years for an alleged illegal sale), they red-tagged and blew out a lot of ammo. When I went to buy a bunch of their "old stock", the kid working in the department said "I don't know if it is still good, it's been here for quite a while!" I told him that I'd take my chances. [rofl]

I've shot mucho ammo that was older than that kid was!


Hell, even during the last crunch people were begging for 22lr.

They still are! BR&P was begging for donations for their Juniors program at this month's meeting. I just donated ~1100 rds to MF&G last week for their Juniors program. It's out there if you can get it online, but the prices aren't cheap.
 
This is literally why I get annoyed when the news always announces they busted someone with 500 or 1000 rounds of ammo like it's a big deal.

I was on the elevator with a couple of guys shortly after Aurora happened. One of the guys says, 'He had 7,000 bullets! That's 7,000 people.' I was thinking, 'That's a few busy days at the range with friends.'
 
in my more than 25 years of shooting and talking with shooters, i have NEVER heard someone say i have to much ammo!!! the real questing is how much room and money do you have?
 
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