How much ammo is enough?

When your ammo store takes up more room than your wife and daughters' shoe supply.

NO offense on gender issues - this is an empirical statement based on discussions in my house. :D
 
It depends on how much I shoot / and I reload everything I shoot in handguns and shotguns --- so I keep components on hand for 6 months minimum to about a year per caliber.

When I reload a caliber - I reload 50 - 60 boxes of 50 rounds. Then when I get down to 10 boxes or so / I reload that caliber again. Loading 50 - 60 boxes on a good progressive press is only 4 or 5 hours of work / so no big deal.

On average in handguns, I shoot about 300 rounds a week ( 9mm, .40 S&W, .45 acp, . 357 mag or .44 mag ) all of one caliber, some mix of all .....

In shotshells, I shoot 8 - 10 boxes a week normally ( boxes of 25 shells )..... and I usually keep 40 or 50 boxes of shells on hand by gague ( 12, 20, 28ga and .410 ).
 
As much as you can afford.

Someone in my neighborhood was arrested, and on the local news they mentioned that the local sheriff's deputies found over 1 million rounds of ammunition in his house (not what he was arrested for). That was in the late 80's/early 90's. If he wasn't convicted of a felony, think of the headstart that guy now has on you.
 
So what if I said my comfot level is 20,000 rounds of each caliber I shoot, would that make any difference to you? Can you afford to buy that much? Do you have room to store that much? Someone's "comfort level" is very subjective. If you start running low on ammo, just stop shooting until you get more!

There is no way anyone can answer this question, especially with the almost non-existant information you have provided.

Scott
Click to expand...

If 20,000 rounds is your comfort level then say that. You're right that is a very subjective question thats why he asked what your comfort level is. I think your response was very rude. Think before you respond with some snippy, "whitty" remark.

That said my comfort level is 1,000 rounds per caliber/per gun, so if I have (2) 9mm then at least 2,000 rounds of 9mm. Unfortunetly with these shortages and nuts pricing, my reserves have dwindled to next to nothing, and unfortunetly I haven't been shooting in a while.
 
I dont think you can have too much. I wish I had more. Have about 200 rounds of 38spl, 150 9mm.

For 22lr, I grab some whenever I am out. Have a few bricks plus various boxes of 50 and 100 rounds. Probably 3000 rounds in all. Have plans for this evening so of course we will stop at Wal-Mart and see what they have in stock and get more.

22lr is a good and inexpensive round to stock up on. I always figure that if any of my 22 pistols were to fail, we always have our pair of Ruger Single-Six's which can probably handle a near infinite amount of shooting.
 
I guess I'll be the low man....

I've got about 500 rounds of 357sig, only because I haven't been out to shoot as much as I'd like, about 400 rounds of 22, only because I bought a bulk pack, usually I may have 50 or less, and about 4 boxes (20 rounds) of 12ga slugs and about 30 rounds of 204.


As low as that sounds, it's probably triple the total count I would normally have on hand.
 
The best suggestion I ever heard as to how much ammo to have on hand was to calculate (the number of cemetaries within a five mile radius of your home X the average number of people buried in each cemetary) and add one extra. So you're covered for zombie uprisings!
 
When your ammo store takes up more room than your wife and daughters' shoe supply.

NO offense on gender issues - this is an empirical statement based on discussions in my house.
Click to expand...

Does that discussion include the old "I bought five pairs because they were on sale?" comment? For some reason, I've tried that with ammo, and have come up with the evil stare from my resident CPA. What's OK for shoes doesn't seem to work in her mind for a sale on ammo, and she shoots too.:confused:
 
i try too keep 5oo rds of 9 and 40.
for the .22 i keep 3k plus.(because its the cheapest)and still deadly with enough rounds in em.
for.30-.06 about 100.their expensive right now so not a good supply.
and for defensive rounds...only what the clips can hold...their expensive too.
 
For me it's based on the round and how much I shoot it. I shoot 45 ACP's the least so I keep only about 500 rounds on hand, for my 9mm which I shoot more because it's cheaper to shoot I keep around 2,000 rounds on hand. Of course .22LR's are so cheap to shoot I keep several thousand on hand. I also keep about 500 rounds of .223 and 7.62 for my AR and AK.
 
The best suggestion I ever heard as to how much ammo to have on hand was to calculate (the number of cemetaries within a five mile radius of your home X the average number of people buried in each cemetary) and add one extra. So you're covered for zombie uprisings!
Click to expand...
you've got to factor in the living people likely to get bitten by the zombies in route to you.better double it:D
 
I started shooting surplus ammo ~20 years ago and learned very quickly that the deals you find today are generally short lived and gone tomorrow. When I find a deal I stock up. For me it boils down to being REALLY cheap...I like each round I put down range to cost as little as possible;) For example I'm still shooting Romanian 8mm that I bought from the sportsmansguide back in 2006 for ~$35/380 rounds (I bought 6 tins!). I buy my handgun range ammo from mastercast in 2000 round lots every few months.

I have ~1000 rounds of range ammo (lead SWC or RN) and 300-500 of JHP per handgun caliber I own. Since most of my rifles are in surplus calibers, I have thousands of rounds for each! I'm sure I have enough to keep a large horde of zombies at bay for a few weeks;)
 
Funny how your idea of what is 'reasonable' or 'appropriate' evolves. Used to shoot and hunt a bit, buy ammo when I was going to shoot it, maybe have a couple partial boxes laying around.

Then I got into shooting a little more pistol. Then IDPA. Then High Power and Service Rifle matches. And my kids started shooting more. Then my wife bought me a reloading kit (How cool is that?)

Now it makes perfect sense to me to only keep maybe 500 rounds of the more obscure cartridges that I rarely shoot. For the stuff I shoot regularly, I get twitchy if there's less than a thousand loaded up.
 
I reload and just bought an additional 1,000 brass each of .38 caliber and 40 s&w. I probably already had 800 to 1,000 of 40 and a much lower number of 38 special. The bigger numbers are in 9mm however. I don't think 2,000 of loaded ammo in each caliber used would be too much, but where to keep it all becomes a problem. I've got a bunch of 45acp brass but no 45 handgun. I'm going to have to do something about that eventually.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top