How much ammo to put away?

[JohnyMac]

I am trying to figure out how much ammo to put away for my primary weapon for TEOTWAWKI. I thought it would be interesting to poll this group.

"Realistically, how much ammo do you think you should put away for your primary weapon?"

[Ghost]

How ever much you can, really, which is why I said more than 4K. If it is indeed TEOTWAWKI, unless you have a hell of a lot of reloading stuff put away, you're gonna want a lot of ammo.


Better to have and not need, than need and not have.

[special-k]

As for a reasonable minimum...I say 3 - 4k.

[Reaver]

As much as you can counts as infinite for me. If it never happens. You should have a uhaul truck full of ammo to give your son/daughter

[Skippy00004]

If you're bugging in: As much as you can afford

If you're bugging out: 5 ammo cans filled to the brim.  You don't want to have to lug around 20,000 rounds of ammo if you're trying to get the hell out of dodge.  Stay light, stay effective, scrounge what you can in your travels.

[Reaver]

? Scrounge ?

Elaborate further on the definition of scrounge please.

[v0dka]

I say 5k for your primary assault rifle.
1k for everything else.

of course that's alot of money. so 1k for primary and 0.2k for everything else to start.

[backwoodsboy]

realistically 2000-2500 would be great.

[rah45]

? Scrounge ?

Elaborate further on the definition of scrounge please.

I feel a split topic incoming....

[Skippy00004]

? Scrounge ?

Elaborate further on the definition of scrounge please.

If you come across abandon ammo in your travels, pick it up.  Idk where the confusion was?

No Reaver, I am not advocating the stealing/looting of ammo.

[Kentactic]

1000 rounds is a shitload of shooting... if your blowing through ammo like that then either your doin some jihad shit or your in a horrible location. then again what was the average round count per kill in vietnam? like 50,000 rounds to get one bad guy killed? ... but you shouldnt be looking for bad guys like them you should be trying avoid them. i guess it also depends on your primary... an AR or AK is easy to waste ammo just spraying in the direction of the threat. i remember when i played paintball when i was younger for the first time... i was out of ammo in no time flat but then again those damn balls arent very accurate. if your screwed like me and your primarys are a bolt action and a shotgun you dont really need that much ammo for them. if i end up with 1000 rounds of 00B and 500 rounds of match grade .308 im fine with that. but i also will be stocking up on .223 for the primary AR i will almost certainly end up with in no time come SHTF.

[backwoodsboy]

i agree 1000 rounds is a shitload of shooting but not enough for several years worth. i certainly hope it doesnt take us 50000 rounds to stop 1 threat, dont lend anyone, even a family member who is hyper and bouncing off the walls active person, most likely those kind of people will just blast of rounds like crazy. im not trying to offend anyone btw.

[tominphx]

If you shoot a caliber that is relatively cheap now, I would stock up in large quantities now.

For example, if you like 5.45 AKs, buy at least 10-20k rounds, since it is so cheap right now, and will likely only go up in price, you can have either a lifetime of ammo, or several years worth, depending on how much you shoot. (Or a few months worth, if you are like some people lol) My way of looking at cheap surplus is, remember how cheap surplus 7.62x51 was years ago? Now it's around 50 cents a round, even if you don't shoot it, you can always sell it at a big profit.

5.56 ball is pretty cheap right now too,(at least compared  to 08/09, not like back in the day when I was a kid  ) once I move into a bigger place in the next few months, I'll be buying cans of that federal M855 on strippers fairly regularly. This is in addition to regular purchases of bulk food, medical supplies, and some precious metals.   I'll stop buying ammo, and other stuff when I run out of room, or if the price goes up to a point where I feel it's not worth it.


I will say this, you are far better off with good instruction in how to use your guns, and a few hundred rounds of ammo, than having a safe full of them and a pallet of ammo.

[themighty9mm]

Realistically? I marked 1-2k. Unless you handload  (saw in another post you do) realistically its going to be difficult to put away much more IMO. That is to say, put away much more and leave it untouched. While its a great idea certainly to put away 10,000+ rounds, IMO for the common man its not a realistic goal. While still getting, ideally weekly training/practice in. If not weekly at the minimum monthly or at the very least bimonthly. The exceptions to this again IMO would be if you have a unusually fat wallet, rarely shoot/mostly collect guns. Again IMO if you rarely shoot but have plenty of ammo I'm not sure how good that ammo will do you. As shooting is a perishable skill. I'd much rather be next to the guy that has 500 rounds but is very proficient with his weapon, than next to the guy that has 10,000 rounds but only shot his weapon once in the last 2 years. Again the exception being if his ammo happens to match with my gun well. The thought of having a shit ton of ammo is great, and if you can, by all means do. On the same note the thought of realistically living through that many gun battles without a well qualified crew behind you, and maybe a APC IMO seems like a far stretch aswell. And what if you had to leave your base camp or home or whatever you plan on doing? Good luck packing 10K anything centerfire with you. Or even 1K along with other gear. Large numbers such as 4K+ IMO should be saved either for 22lr or after you are well estabilished with other preps.

P.S. I realize 10K was not marked as a option, it is an exzageration but I hope most are bright enough to roughly get what I mean.

[mountainredneck2051]

you can never have enough ammo