How Much Ammo Is Enough?

[nelson96]

I would agree with gundog as well BUT, if cheap is what you must buy in order to get enough to support rounds downrange in a SHTF scenario, a target pattern of 12 inches focused on center mass is going to serve you almost as well as ammo that can obtain SUB MOA. . . . .  I would rather have a butt wadd of ammo at my ready than thinking "crap, I don't have much so I better make it count". . . .  Of course you want to make sure it won't cause malfs in a poop storm, but there is a lot of good quality ammo (in variable bullet configs) that can be found on sale that will shoot well in most firearms. . . . .  my .02

[reefmarker]

My $0.02:  I set a goal to buy as much ammo as each gun cost.  This is a starting point.  From there I just buy some every month.  Cost is usually the only reason I buy one round vs. another.  This month .40 is cheap, next month I find cheap .223, etc.  When I set goals of X thousand rounds I just found myself worrying that I never had enough.   

[rustyknife]

My $0.02:  I set a goal to buy as much ammo as each gun cost.  This is a starting point.  From there I just buy some every month.  Cost is usually the only reason I buy one round vs. another.  This month .40 is cheap, next month I find cheap .223, etc.  When I set goals of X thousand rounds I just found myself worrying that I never had enough.   

That's pretty much the way I do it. As of now it's more like I'm buying ammo for trading stock than anything else.

[Heavy G]

My $0.02:  I set a goal to buy as much ammo as each gun cost.  This is a starting point.  From there I just buy some every month.  Cost is usually the only reason I buy one round vs. another.  This month .40 is cheap, next month I find cheap .223, etc.  When I set goals of X thousand rounds I just found myself worrying that I never had enough.   

+1.  A great idea.

[soupbone]

Now as to how much, take this as food for thought; my son can burn through 1000 rnds of .22 through his 10/22 with 25 rnd mags at the range in less than an hour if I let him. 

With all due respect, seems like someone needs a good talking to - or some additional training. Try this, before spray and pray becomes too ingrained: 1) Put up the 25 rnd mags and give him one (1) 10 rnd factory mag. 2) Give him 10 rnds. 3) mount a standard bull target at 25 yards. 4) Give him ten more rounds for every "X" shot, one more round for every hit in the black, and take away five or ten rounds for any shots in the white.

If he wants to shoot, he will learn to slow down and make every shot count. That is the best and in some cases, the only way to employ the .22 in any kind of serious situation. He should start training now for a time when, for whatever reason, ammo availability becomes an issue.

soupbone

[endurance]

With all due respect, seems like someone needs a good talking to - or some additional training. Try this, before spray and pray becomes too ingrained: 1) Put up the 25 rnd mags and give him one (1) 10 rnd factory mag. 2) Give him 10 rnds. 3) mount a standard bull target at 25 yards. 4) Give him ten more rounds for every "X" shot, one more round for every hit in the black, and take away five or ten rounds for any shots in the white.

If he wants to shoot, he will learn to slow down and make every shot count. That is the best and in some cases, the only way to employ the .22 in any kind of serious situation. He should start training now for a time when, for whatever reason, ammo availability becomes an issue.

soupbone

+1  A lot of wisdom in that post. 

This thread in general keeps veering wildly from guns over butter to the realities of priorities, but it's little injections of wisdom like this that keep it worth while to check in on once in a while.

I find my own shooting transition from fast and furious in the summer, when I'm outdoors and shooting steels, to slow and tight during the winters when I'm trapped at the indoor range for months at a time with quickdraws prohibited.  If I'm going to be involved in a shooting in my lifetime I really hope it's many years from now, but in June!

[DrJohn]

No problem with the advice, but this is not a spray and pray kid.  He is a super marksman, and fast.  I only wish I could line up and shoot with the speed and accuracy he has!

[reefmarker]

No problem with the advice, but this is not a spray and pray kid.  He is a super marksman, and fast.  I only wish I could line up and shoot with the speed and accuracy he has!

I have one boy that is like that.  He can empty the magazine in short order and do a great job with a very tight group.  My oldest is the opposite, he sprays and prays and misses man size targets even up close sometimes.  Until he started hunting squirrels with a 10-22.  He now is slow and methodical because he sees a reason not to miss.

[Duc1]

Marksmanship is important, but it's fun sometimes to "spray and pray" so to speak, especially with a .22.  If one practices like a self imposed ammo scarcity situation they would fire one, maybe two rounds and go home.  Some of my fondest memories are of my childhood buddies and I blasting away, first with pellet guns and then with .22's.   

How much ammo to have is pretty subjective, but I have about 7k .223 and the same for .22.  Hunting calibers (200 for each), Handguns (500 to 1000) and also plenty of reloading stuff.

[Lostjagged]

While I personally try for $1,000-5,000 of ammo per cal. in storage I still think it's a bit excessive. I'll give an example.

For hunting we will figure high of three rounds a deer. One to Two deer will feed an individual for a year so six rounds a year.

For "other" uses of ammo I like to hold to a quote from the Sergeant Major in We were soldiers "There will be plenty lying on the ground"

[Lostjagged]

Sorry meant 1000-5000 rounds. Not quite sure how dollars got involved

[christphrmurray]

Just like fire wood when you first think you got enough you need about five times as much.

[NWPilgrim]

Just like fire wood when you first think you got enough you need about five times as much.

That's exactly what our USAF survival instructor told our SAR team regarding firewood for an unexpected night in the woods. Very true.  We always underestimate what it will take unless we have performed that activity many times.  Same principle applies to estimating software development time: whatever the developer tells the project manager, multiply by at least four times.


It is impossible to predict the future, how it will unfold, how long it will last.  The one thing almost guaranteed in a disaster: whatever you need, so does a horde of other people; so there won't be any available outside of what you already have stored up. As long as you are balancing your expenditures with other necessities, family responsibilities, and your budget then can you ever have too much ammo?  Mr. Murphy says, "Try me!"

[Lostjagged]

It is impossible to predict the future, how it will unfold, how long it will last.  The one thing almost guaranteed in a disaster: whatever you need, so does a horde of other people; so there won't be any available outside of what you already have stored up. As long as you are balancing your expenditures with other necessities, family responsibilities, and your budget then can you ever have too much ammo?  Mr. Murphy says, "Try me!"

Too true, my point is more along the lines of "recommended prepper allowance" where more is always better.

[witch]

Always one more

[Semorjh]

I like to keep 5 years worth of range time on hand. So buying components to replace what I shoot. Reload so always changing things up a little, interest change reloading makes it all more flexable.

[frankd4]

You can never have enough ammo I reload and have way more ammo than I will ever shoot in my life time and I just keep reloading, thinking that something might happen that would keep you from getting any more ever so I keep reloading 223, .308, 45  and 9 mm and I buy all the 12 ga that I can afford every month, once again no you can never have enough ammo or spare parts to rebuild your fire arms.

[endurance]

You can never have enough ammo I reload and have way more ammo than I will ever shoot in my life time and I just keep reloading, thinking that something might happen that would keep you from getting any more ever so I keep reloading 223, .308, 45  and 9 mm and I buy all the 12 ga that I can afford every month, once again no you can never have enough ammo or spare parts to rebuild your fire arms.

And so the question has to follow:  How are you set on your other preps?  Are you spending money on ammo that might be better spent on food, water, generators, getting out of debt, putting money into savings, a better piece of land, trees, training, education, precious metals, etc.?

[soupbone]

Well said, endurance. It is too easy to become fixated on one aspect of prepping to the detriment of others. We, Homo sapiens, survived because are generalists - we do enough things well enough to make it, while those species who couldn't change with the times died out. Au. robustus died out with the ready supplies of soft fruits died out; the Neanderthals couldn't adapt to more open spaces and the need for missile weapons as opposed to the thrusting spears so successful in the past.

Today's prepper who concentrates on any one aspect of prepping to the detriment of others is doomed to fail in the long run. You need to eat until the garden comes in, you need to protect your resources, and you need resources to protect.

How much ammo is enough? If you need to ask, you probably have too much already.

soup

[frankd4]

We have enough food for eight people for two years, five acres of land and we generate about 3.5 KW a day solar and wind we have been prepping since Hurricane Andrew in 1992 each member of the family has his or her own area of responsibility we meet at the BOL once a month to do inventory and train this month topic will be HF antennas two members of the family are Doctors so the meds are always up to date yes I think we can improve on some things, but my part is guns and ammo and Ham radio so that's what I fixate on.
Hurricane Andrew was awful we lost the house and had to fall back to  the farm, we learned a harsh lesson that we will never forget, prepping is a big part of our lives one we take very seriously you might say we were all scared by this event, we know that yes it can happen to us and it did. 

[TexDaddy]

+1 frankd4.

We also have well rounded preps, firearms and ammo only being a part of the equation, but it is a part.

And I say, it is impossible to have too much ammo! That would be like saying, "I have too much money." 

[nelson96]

it is impossible to have too much ammo! That would be like saying, "I have too much money." 

Yup

[d3nni5]

I recently bought some AR lowers.   I have yet to complete one and already I am shopping around for .223 and 5.56.   I'll probably have 1000+ rounds of ammo before I finish my first rifle.

Common calibers are never a bad thing to have too much of.   So long as it is balanced with all the other items.   In fact, I think of it like money in some respects.   You know folks (like every one of my neighbors) are going to be looking for ammo if SHTF and willing to barter.