How many rounds should you have stored away for a caliber?

Status
Not open for further replies.
a million or so each caliber you own should just about do it. I am still amassing the arsenal. I do have 3 9mms and a used 45 on the shelf but the rest are soon to come.....
 
A man has to have goals. Lofty ones are the best. :)


ALWAYS LOOK UP.
NEVER LOOK DOWN;
ALL YOU EVER SEE
ARE THE PENNIES
PEOPLE DROP.

- inscription over the lintel at Harlan Ellison's Wonderland
 
I shoot all my guns alot, ammo is expensive, and there's better things I need to spend my money on than having 5-10 thousand rounds of ammunition on hand for each caliber gun I own. With that said I usually have a box around for each caliber I own. Sometimes I only have a couple mags full or enough for 2 cylinders full for each caliber if I dont make it to the gun shop for a few days. Unless you just buy bulk and shoot alot I cant see the reason to keep 5-10 thousand rounds of ammunition around for defense. What the heck is your instructor planning on encountering?
 
A few years back whes shooting IHMSA SILHOUETTE. I had thousands of loaded ammo in different calibers .221 fireball .7 br ,7/30 waters .44 mag'357 max.to name a few.Now it just 40 SW .357&38 ,22LR. 32 acp.To make life simpler a few boxes of each. BIG BOXES ;)
 
Last edited:
I got into reloadig awhile back thout I'd save my factory rnds, Well seems I shoot alot more :rolleyes: So I keep 2000 bullets on hand 4Lb of Unique & more bullets coming & got PLENTY of BRASS & Primers :D
Y/D
 
darkgael,

I was just using what I had first hand knowledge of, not history books.. But since history is written by the winners, what would England have written about our little uprising? And that whole Civil War thing was that a civil uprising? Lets see sign a document, get a war with your own country, good plan... I don't think that 6 years prior to either of those events anyone was thinking civil unrest. It also seems that you might be able to classify Afghanistan as a civil unrest. I think its been going on for a while now. I can remember first hand the Russians and now the US trying to stop this conflict. Oh yea lets add the Jews in Israel to the list as well. On and on, will we never learn?
 
The world has changed a lot since then. Back in the civil war days, Johnny Reb was actually on a somewhat equal footing with the Union army armed with just a kentucky rifle. Nowadays, the governments have guns a bazillion times bigger than anything we could ever afford even if it were legal to own such things. The government fights wars. Anything that is going to cause the level of civil unrest that the Civil War did is going to involve those really big guns, meaning we'll be lucky to survive at all. I'm not arguing against stockpiling, I'm just putting everything into perspective. Look what happened to those who waged guerilla wars against the Germans back in WWII. They were rounded up and shot, then their entire villages burned down along with everyone in them.
 
Just a little math. A quick guess, and I already can think of a couple I missed, I have guns chambered in over 20 calibers and gauges. At an estimated average of 30 cents per round you would be looking at $30,000 to $60,000 in ammo! Maybe your instructor thinks people only have one or two guns.
Many of my firearms are Milsurp, and I buy surplus ammo by the cases when I find a good deal. I also buy a lot of commercial ammo when I see a good price. Especially rimfire in bulk packs. In doing so I probably have 15 to 20 thousand rounds on hand, but not for social collapse, more for collapse of bowling pins and other assorted targets!
 
It's a stupid recommendation because there's no rationale behind it.

Are we preparing for the next ammo shortage or the end of civilization? It matters a great deal, you know.
 
As with most everything else, I stock ammo when I can find it for relatively cheap. Right now I probably have only about 1000 rounds in the only caliber that I currently use (sad, I know, but the latter will change in due time), and I figure that should be enough for any crisis that I can imagine actually taking place.

As long as I don't have to take what little comfort I can from a single round in the chamber (a staple of post-apocalyptic movies :rolleyes: ) for a good long while, that's good enough for me. ;)
 
This may be a little OT, but I can't help but wonder what other "aluminum foil helmet" ideas this instructor had?
Keeping ammo on hand for a possible shortage isn't a bad idea, but the amounts he claims necessary are a little extreme!
 
Then you'll probably think I'm crazy for keeping as much cash handy as I do. It's not all at home, but it's not all in one bank or credit union either. If a little is good, a lot is better, and I don't mean the three or six months' worth the financial advisors typically recommend.

This is probably the result of my parents and grandparents surviving the Depression.

Be prepared.
 
What good is a gun without ammo?
That is like asking a Reloader about (How Much ?)Powder , Primers and Bullets do they have ?
My answer to both , is the amount your pocketbook will stand ,and you can store safely .
 
The world has changed a lot since then. Back in the civil war days, Johnny Reb was actually on a somewhat equal footing with the Union army armed with just a kentucky rifle. Nowadays, the governments have guns a bazillion times bigger than anything we could ever afford even if it were legal to own such things. The government fights wars. Anything that is going to cause the level of civil unrest that the Civil War did is going to involve those really big guns, meaning we'll be lucky to survive at all. I'm not arguing against stockpiling, I'm just putting everything into perspective. Look what happened to those who waged guerilla wars against the Germans back in WWII. They were rounded up and shot, then their entire villages burned down along with everyone in them.
Click to expand...
Two words: Iraq, Afghanistan.

Those two countries have a combined population of about 59 million. They are able to cause that much trouble with weapons inferior to the average American and with training inferior, at least in terms of marksmanship, to the average American. They are able to do that despite our domestic infrastructure being completely unhampered. Now imagine that in a country of 300 million AND where ones domestic infrastructure would be greatly hampered by sabotage.

They are also going primarily going for a body count over there. They could be attacking infrastructure, which is what the French Resistance did very successfully. No way you can guard all the power poles and miles of railway.

Just thought I would point that out.
 
I have to agree with the tin-foil hat comment. If something is looming on the horizon which is serious enough to require 10,000 rounds of handgun ammo I would probably suggest you should have a semi-auto hi-cap rifle instead of a handgun in preparation for said event. Just my $0.02.
 
5-10k is quite prudent. In one caliber, that's very sensible.

I wish I met the goal.

As I sit now, with 9mm as my carry caliber, I have a mere 1000 rounds. I have components to reload another 1k or so. And I shoot about 300-500 rounds a month, going to weekly steel matches.

2-3 months would wipe out my entire ammo stash, as I maintained my proficiency. Of course I have components for another 1k as long as I can find the time to load them.

Although if I used up all my 9mm, I can just change to one of my .45's or my .44's, each of which I have another 1k or more rounds per caliber.

Anyone that berates a shooter for having "too much" ammo needs to get out and practice with their guns and maybe get some holster wear, dirt and sweat on it, rather than posing and posting pretty polished pictures of it on TFL.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top