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I know the answer, "As much as possible!"

But seriously, for a guy who's stocking up as he goes, how much should he get of one caliber before he considers it enough and starts stocking up on another caliber?

For instance, lets say that I'm trying to stock up on .22LR, .223, .308, 9mm, .45 ACP and 12 Gauge. How much 12 Gauge before moving on to 9mm? How much .22LR would be enough before I start focusing on .223? How much .223 before I focus on .308? A thousand rounds of each?

Starting to plan for SHTF stuff, just looking for guidance!

Greg
 
Nice place Turner. Opinions vary and some will never be comfortable with how much they have. I suggest you make a plan. If you know what you will do then you will know what you need. After your needs are filled then buy and rotate with a training schedual. Buy what you need and train to keep sharp.

jj
 
Why not start with 1K of .22. Then 100 of each caliber. then another 1k of .22. Then another 100 of each caliber. Repeat as often as you can. Once you get to a point that you feel good about, say 1000 for each rifle,and 500 per each pistol, get more of what you shoot the most, or can get a deal on. Buy it cheap and stack it deep.

This will let you cover all your bases, and build up a supply in small steps. Buy some evey payday.

Do you have replacement parts as well? Doesn't matter how stocked up on ammo you are if there is no bang when you pull the trigger.
 
also, more to think about is the selection of ammo. How many soft points/hunting rounds? How many JHP's for the pistols? How many slugs vs. buckshot vs. various bird/hunting rounds for the shotty? All stuff to think about. Think about what you are comfortable with having on hand, and also think of how much ammo you go through in a year? Just like food storage you should probably have 1year's supply of ammo on hand or more. From recent memory, when the whole tard fest that hit after the previous election, it took nearly a year and a half before 22lr was available again. And even longer before it was plentiful. So it may not be SHTF that you need to think about prepping for, its smaller events like this that you should gain perspective from. Figure out how much of each cal you go through in a month, then multiply by 12 and there is your base line. Bulk up from there. But like was said before buy it cheap and stack it deep.
 
I say 2k rounds for pistols, 5k round for rifles.


I'm still trying to get my ammo stocks built up and it's slow going but are you stocking bulk FMJ or self defense or ???

And I guess that's a general question to others with more knowledge about life and firearms then I have, not just BigCat.

-d
 
I'm still trying to get my ammo stocks built up and it's slow going but are you stocking bulk FMJ or self defense or ???

And I guess that's a general question to others with more knowledge about life and firearms then I have, not just BigCat.

-d

I am betting most are just stocking up on FMJ's and not so much on JHP's or hunting rounds in the rifles. Its a cost thing. Protection and hunting ammo aint cheap. If you reload it can get a bit cheaper than factory, but often times not by much. But if you take care and do it right you can get better consistency than with some factory loadings (*cough* American Eagle *cough*). Frankly I think I want to move away from FMJ and ball ammo for uses other than practice as I would rather have stuff I could hunt with any way. I think a good mix of both would be where it is at. Probably 50/50 or 60/40 in favor of protection ammo would be Ideal, but cost is the main killer here. Perhaps shoot for at least 1k of these types of rounds per cal.
 
also, more to think about is the selection of ammo. How many soft points/hunting rounds? How many JHP's for the pistols? How many slugs vs. buckshot vs. various bird/hunting rounds for the shotty? All stuff to think about. Think about what you are comfortable with having on hand, and also think of how much ammo you go through in a year? Just like food storage you should probably have 1year's supply of ammo on hand or more.... But like was said before buy it cheap and stack it deep.

That's another thing... It's obviously easiest and cheapest to stock up on FMJ ammo from Cheaperthandirt or Bulkammo.com or some other such vendor. 1,000 rounds of .223 FMJ for $300 or so, 250 rounds of 9mm FMJ for $60, etc. Obviously if I were using it for defense in a lawless society then I wouldn't really care about overpenetration and liability, right? But then again, for close-in self defense, say surrounded by folks you'd rather not hit, JHP would make more sense, but is obviously more expensive and therefore can be less "stocked up" than the FMJ.

The same goes for 12 gauge shells. What do I plan on doing with them? Self-defense of course, but also likely hunting.

As for my 12 month usage, I'd be curious to see if my standard monthly target practicing would be reduced to save/spare ammo.

Interesting considerations...

Greg
 
I'm still trying to get my ammo stocks built up and it's slow going but are you stocking bulk FMJ or self defense or ???

And I guess that's a general question to others with more knowledge about life and firearms then I have, not just BigCat.

-d

Mainly FMJ. Two holes bleed more than one. I'd think 500 rounds of HP for your carry pistol should be plenty.
 
well i guess it depends on how good of a shot you are ! lol kidding.. personally i would get the ammo i use the most. WSHTF, .22lr will likely be the most practical.you can carry 1k rds easy,and if your any shot at all you can start stacking bodies like cord wood. just keep buying it till your wife says "hey the babys room needs its closet back"
 
I don't really ascribe to the whole "entire world will collapse forever" SHTF planning, (if I did I would probably just get a million .22lr or something) but temporary SHTF like katrina, la riots, or something like that happening is a pretty reasonable thing to be prepared for imo. I keep a 550rd box of .22lr that I don't shoot (never know when you might need to eat squirrels), 3 mags of defensive 9mm (I prefer 147gr Winchester Ranger SXT) which will be 52rds as soon as I get more of those 17rd p229 SCT mags, and 5 30rd mags (150rds) of 75gr Hornandy TAP 5.56x45 (actually most of that is the .223 FPD stuff right now... lookin' for another source for the LE ammo).

That is enough to fill up a reasonably low-profile chest rig.

Oh... and I guess there's the 13 rounds of .380ACP I carry around when I'm not carrying the p229.
 
I don't know about other calibers, but I see rimfire as a possible future currency simply because it can't be reloaded. There's no downside to lots of .22LR; it's not like it'll go down in value in the foreseeable future.

I have almost the opposite view as some others here, since I think that most ammo is for practice, like maybe 90%, so I keep at least 1k of each pistol caliber of cheap FMJ. (BTW, I like your selection of calibers, modeler.)

IMO rifles need less frequent practice to maintain proficiency, and shotguns least of all - unless you're into sporting clays, I guess. Besides, the sheer bulk of 12ga. ammo is too much to cope with.

So I have hundreds of rounds of SD ammo for each caliber except .22LR, which I have way too much of. And at least a thousand FMJ of each pistol type, which could certainly be used for SD in a pinch. (Realistically, the only way I'm going to use that many rounds in anger is defending against an all-out assault, in which case most of the rounds are expended to keep the enemy's head down, and FMJ would do just fine.)

I have less than a thousand rounds of all 12ga. ammo combined, ranging from #8 bird to 3" magnum slugs. And I'm not buying any more, except maybe when Bi-Mart has a really good sale.;)

"There's no such thing as too much ammo - until you have a house fire."
 
Buy a safe for it as well it is the currency of the new milenium.:s0155:

I know lots of people keep their ammo in the safe, but to me that's the perfect construction for a BOMB. Some safe manufacturers say the same: keep the ammo outside the safe in a flimsy cabinet that can't build up internal pressure.
 
I have 7.62/.45/.40/.22 plan for a .223


Currently:
1000 FMJ/JHP for the AK (Sold some (3k or so) off while it still held value to help fund rebuilding the motor in my racecar)
500 Steel core for the AK (Save this for the "bad times" should the come)

750 FMJ .40
250JHP .40
100 PD

500 FMJ.45
100 JHP .45
50 PD

3K .22

Goal is 3k each for the rifles (AR will be all FMJ)
1500 each for the pistols
5k for the 22.

Need to buy a shotgun to I guess. bubblegum.
 
I don't know about other calibers, but I see rimfire as a possible future currency simply because it can't be reloaded. There's no downside to lots of .22LR; it's not like it'll go down in value in the foreseeable future.

I have almost the opposite view as some others here, since I think that most ammo is for practice, like maybe 90%, so I keep at least 1k of each pistol caliber of cheap FMJ. (BTW, I like your selection of calibers, modeler.)

IMO rifles need less frequent practice to maintain proficiency, and shotguns least of all - unless you're into sporting clays, I guess. Besides, the sheer bulk of 12ga. ammo is too much to cope with.

So I have hundreds of rounds of SD ammo for each caliber except .22LR, which I have way too much of. And at least a thousand FMJ of each pistol type, which could certainly be used for SD in a pinch. (Realistically, the only way I'm going to use that many rounds in anger is defending against an all-out assault, in which case most of the rounds are expended to keep the enemy's head down, and FMJ would do just fine.)

I have less than a thousand rounds of all 12ga. ammo combined, ranging from #8 bird to 3" magnum slugs. And I'm not buying any more, except maybe when Bi-Mart has a really good sale.;)

"There's no such thing as too much ammo - until you have a house fire."

I like your point on the rimfire cartridges. It wouldn't be hard to pick up 1k every payday (and 2k when they're on sale) until I have 10k or so. That'd only take 4 or 5 months!

Greg
 
I know lots of people keep their ammo in the safe, but to me that's the perfect construction for a BOMB. Some safe manufacturers say the same: keep the ammo outside the safe in a flimsy cabinet that can't build up internal pressure.

If it isnt a fire rated safe problem solved. Wonder why they store military ammo in sealed cans for years Hmmmmmm.
 

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