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I might actually have enough ammo...


Kingcreek

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How to know when you've got "enough"

When you find some great sale prices on ammo and reloading components but there really isn't any caliber (7 pistol and 5 rifle calibers) that aren't already sagging the shelves.

When the 2'x4' designated "powder shelf" doesn't have room for another bottle of powder.

When you can't find the ammo can full of #8 skeet reloads (later located) but in the process of looking discover 1 full of 7-1/2 shot and 3 cases of factory shells you forgot you had.

When you try to organize and store and move everything currently in ziplock bags to ammo cans but all of the ammo cans are already full (3 different sizes stacked 2 rows high and 10 feet long).

When the space under the reloading bench is full of 5 gal buckets of brass.

When the teenage granddaughters go through a brick of 500 .22 rimfire and you're kinda glad they used it up because you probably bought it 25 years ago. (PMC marked $14.50 per brick)

 

Maybe I should just buy some more ammo cans?

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I unfortunately don't have that problem any longer. I shoot it almost as fast as I can reload it.

 

I think I went through 12K rounds last year, and slightly more each year the previous two, mostly in 223, 9mm, and 12 gauge, with various other calibers mixed in through the year.

 

Prior to 3 years ago, I'd shoot maybe 6K per year spread across the various calibers I own. 3 gun and USPSA changed that.

 

Hopefully one day when I move, I'll have the room to just spend the entire winter reloading to have at least 2K rounds of each of the calibers that I don't shoot a lot of, ready to go.

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If I had to move it all it would at least fill my 8' truck bed and would certainly put my f250 super duty suspension onto the overloads. That's just ammo and components, no guns.

I have a room in the basement 11x13' for reloading, gun racks and cabinets, and ammo and gear storage. Heavy duty steel shelves, cabinets, and an L shaped bench for reloading (3 presses) on one side and cleaning and assembly on the other. My wife calls it "the bullet hole". I have more stuff than I can fit in the room and I'm trying to get it all in there. I can't always find what I want, when I want it. Like last night, first time shooting skeet this season and I'm running late and scrambling around trying to find my skeet loads. By the time I found them, I had found a bunch of other stuff I forgot I had. The barrel of AA hulls is pretty hard to misplace or overlook.

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What do you guys do that you can go through 12k rounds of ammo a year? Seriously.

Belong to a club, shoot 400 rounds in an outing, attend several classes and bring gun curious people shooting every chance you get. 12k is easy.

 

 

Sure, but how do you have the time? I struggled to find the hour I spent yesterday and I don't think I shot 200 rounds.

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I guess it all depends on "what is enough"? I need a little more, but not much. Between all my guns, 1,000 rounds of the "right" ammo (non-fmj) would be more than enough.

 

For instance....my 9mm. I have about 120 rounds of FMJ left that is strictly for range time. But I also have a 50 round full box of IMI HP (plus a mag full of that as well) in the safe I want one more box of IMI so that I have 100 rounds of "real" pistol ammo stored up. I don't shoot much, but I can get through 100 rounds of pistol ammo in 30 minutes (the lunch time special at Point Blank).

 

For my AR's....same situation. I'm probably at roughly 300 rounds of 55gr FMJ (one box of .223, the rest is 5.56, all brass) to go practice with. But I'm going to slowly stock up "real" ammo. I think I have 120 rounds of IMI 77gr and maybe 40 rounds of Frontier 75gr rounds. I have 60 rounds of 64gr tracers, and maybe 200 rounds of 62gr green tips. I need a couple hundred more rounds of 75/77 gr HP rounds as that is probably the best all around bullet available for AR's across all barrel lengths. I also need just a couple of boxes of Frontier 55gr HP go in a dedicated AR pistol I'm building for HD.

 

In a SHTF situation, I can't imagine getting into any prolonged shoot-outs. And in a bug-out situation, you can only carry so much ammo anyway.

 

So I'm thinking something like 100 rounds of pistol ammo and 600 or 700 rounds of various 5.56 will do. Just enough to fit into two metal ammo cans.

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I guess it all depends on "what is enough"? I need a little more, but not much. Between all my guns, 1,000 rounds of the "right" ammo (non-fmj) would be more than enough.

 

For instance....my 9mm. I have about 120 rounds of FMJ left that is strictly for range time. But I also have a 50 round full box of IMI HP (plus a mag full of that as well) in the safe I want one more box of IMI so that I have 100 rounds of "real" pistol ammo stored up. I don't shoot much, but I can get through 100 rounds of pistol ammo in 30 minutes (the lunch time special at Point Blank).

 

For my AR's....same situation. I'm probably at roughly 300 rounds of 55gr FMJ (one box of .223, the rest is 5.56, all brass) to go practice with. But I'm going to slowly stock up "real" ammo. I think I have 120 rounds of IMI 77gr and maybe 40 rounds of Frontier 75gr rounds. I have 60 rounds of 64gr tracers, and maybe 200 rounds of 62gr green tips. I need a couple hundred more rounds of 75/77 gr HP rounds as that is probably the best all around bullet available for AR's across all barrel lengths. I also need just a couple of boxes of Frontier 55gr HP go in a dedicated AR pistol I'm building for HD.

 

In a SHTF situation, I can't imagine getting into any prolonged shoot-outs. And in a bug-out situation, you can only carry so much ammo anyway.

 

So I'm thinking something like 100 rounds of pistol ammo and 600 or 700 rounds of various 5.56 will do. Just enough to fit into two metal ammo cans.

 

In a SHTF situation consider that while you may not get in a prolonged shootout, the world may not return to normal in short order. That means your supply on hand is all you'll ever have for sure.

 

The other thing to plan for is supply shortages. We saw all major calibers disappear from stores for over a year, and then pricing was crazy as it came back. It doesn't take much to get the run on ammo going. JB getting elected might cause one in the fall. Buy cheap, stack deep.

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The other thing to plan for is supply shortages. We saw all major calibers disappear from stores for over a year, and then pricing was crazy as it came back. It doesn't take much to get the run on ammo going. JB getting elected might cause one in the fall. Buy cheap, stack deep.

I think this is what I think happened.

Back in the 1980s I was shooting 8-10k per year. Competing in Highpower rifle, then ipsc and ppc in the winter. I stockpiled when I came across a bargain. Went thru some shortages and price spikes and continued to buy at the right prices. Started shooting shotgun more and stopped shooting rifle competition, still went prairie dog shooting (2000 rounds in 3-4 days with a long range AR15), etc.

My shooting volume tapered down but I still found room for ammo or components, picked up stuff on a couple state sales until now I realized that I'm going to have to put some effort into shooting this stuff up or it will all be on my estate sale!

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I guess it all depends on "what is enough"? I need a little more, but not much. Between all my guns, 1,000 rounds of the "right" ammo (non-fmj) would be more than enough.

 

For instance....my 9mm. I have about 120 rounds of FMJ left that is strictly for range time. But I also have a 50 round full box of IMI HP (plus a mag full of that as well) in the safe I want one more box of IMI so that I have 100 rounds of "real" pistol ammo stored up. I don't shoot much, but I can get through 100 rounds of pistol ammo in 30 minutes (the lunch time special at Point Blank).

 

For my AR's....same situation. I'm probably at roughly 300 rounds of 55gr FMJ (one box of .223, the rest is 5.56, all brass) to go practice with. But I'm going to slowly stock up "real" ammo. I think I have 120 rounds of IMI 77gr and maybe 40 rounds of Frontier 75gr rounds. I have 60 rounds of 64gr tracers, and maybe 200 rounds of 62gr green tips. I need a couple hundred more rounds of 75/77 gr HP rounds as that is probably the best all around bullet available for AR's across all barrel lengths. I also need just a couple of boxes of Frontier 55gr HP go in a dedicated AR pistol I'm building for HD.

 

In a SHTF situation, I can't imagine getting into any prolonged shoot-outs. And in a bug-out situation, you can only carry so much ammo anyway.

 

So I'm thinking something like 100 rounds of pistol ammo and 600 or 700 rounds of various 5.56 will do. Just enough to fit into two metal ammo cans.

In a SHTF situation consider that while you may not get in a prolonged shootout, the world may not return to normal in short order. That means your supply on hand is all you'll ever have for sure.

 

The other thing to plan for is supply shortages. We saw all major calibers disappear from stores for over a year, and then pricing was crazy as it came back. It doesn't take much to get the run on ammo going. JB getting elected might cause one in the fall. Buy cheap, stack deep.

 

Luckily, I don't shoot at a high enough volume to be impacted by ammo shortages. But for those that shoot a lot, I could see stocking up when prices are low.

 

As for SHTF, I try to be realistic. I have a wife, a dog, and two young kids. Food, water, shelter, clothing, medicine.....their safety...those come first.

 

If we are in a situation where we are staying in one spot, a lot of extra ammo is fine....however, if you find that you actually need to use a lot of ammo to defend that spot...you probably need to leave that spot unless you are sitting on the only clean water source (or something like that) in the area. If you find that you need to move, a lot of extra ammo will be at the bottom of the list (pack lightly). Gasoline for a vehicle (assuming there is no EMP) will be more important. 15,000 rounds of ammo is a bit useless if you only have 3 days worth of water and a weeks worth of food stored as well.

 

Also, unless your house is a fortress (or at least ALL brick), you don't want to get into a shootout from inside your home (or whatever you are defending) anyway. Vinyl siding, insulation, glass and sheet-rock really isn't all that effective at stopping bullets....and that is assuming whomever you are in a shoot-out with does not decide to simply burn you out while you are asleep (no fire department).

 

When you get down to brass tacks, in a total breakdown of society, one of the most important goals will be to NOT get injured (no hospitals...limited medicine). That means avoiding any type of shootout because that puts you AND your family in danger. What could normally be a survivable gunshot would will probably end in a painful death, so outside of some idiots...most people will go easy on the trigger since both ammo AND medicine would be scarce.

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Not really worried about SHTF scenarios or bunker defense. I live in a semi secluded rural area. We have our own well, food enough for many weeks, fuel for the gen, etc.

my shooting is recreational. My pistol range is behind the barn, my rifle range is in the front yard and I've got up to 250 yards, more if I want to spend 3 minutes with a chain saw. Shotgun clays is up on the hill behind the house. I live on 40 acres, nearest neighbor is 1/4 mile away and we can't see each other.

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Not really worried about SHTF scenarios or bunker defense. I live in a semi secluded rural area. We have our own well, food enough for many weeks, fuel for the gen, etc.

my shooting is recreational. My pistol range is behind the barn, my rifle range is in the front yard and I've got up to 250 yards, more if I want to spend 3 minutes with a chain saw. Shotgun clays is up on the hill behind the house. I live on 40 acres, nearest neighbor is 1/4 mile away and we can't see each other.

You want to adopt my family? Sounds just like a place I’d like to frequent.
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Not really worried about SHTF scenarios or bunker defense. I live in a semi secluded rural area. We have our own well, food enough for many weeks, fuel for the gen, etc.

my shooting is recreational. My pistol range is behind the barn, my rifle range is in the front yard and I've got up to 250 yards, more if I want to spend 3 minutes with a chain saw. Shotgun clays is up on the hill behind the house. I live on 40 acres, nearest neighbor is 1/4 mile away and we can't see each other.

That sounds nice!

I used to moderate a Jeep forum and I would always say...'it depends on where you live and how you plan to use it" when people asked about getting a Wrangler.

 

I should have added a similar disclaimer.

 

For some, a shelf full of ammo makes perfect sense. For others, anything more than shoe box full is too much.

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What do you guys do that you can go through 12k rounds of ammo a year? Seriously.

Shoot 3 gun, USPSA, and practice for both.

 

Add in shooting safe queens every so often, and you quickly get to 12K or more per year.

 

Some of the GM's in USPSA shoot 30-40K per year. Pro 3 gunners shoot even more than that.

 

ETA: for practice, I can easily go through 500 rounds. Each drill can take about 6-12 rounds per run, and I do as many runs as necessary to hit the par times I've established. Within 10 minutes, you can easily dump 150 rounds into the targets.

 

My volume has gone down since I started, because I can now focus my practice on just the skills that I need to improve, rather than practicing every skill. But we're talking maybe 15% less, because I shoot more matches.

 

Now if you're shooting indoors, slow fire, then it'll take forever to go through 100 rounds.

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What do you guys do that you can go through 12k rounds of ammo a year? Seriously.

 

Shoot 3 gun, USPSA, and practice for both.

 

Add in shooting safe queens every so often, and you quickly get to 12K or more per year.

 

Some of the GM's in USPSA shoot 30-40K per year. Pro 3 gunners shoot even more than that.

 

ETA: for practice, I can easily go through 500 rounds. Each drill can take about 6-12 rounds per run, and I do as many runs as necessary to hit the par times I've established. Within 10 minutes, you can easily dump 150 rounds into the targets.

 

My volume has gone down since I started, because I can now focus my practice on just the skills that I need to improve, rather than practicing every skill. But we're talking maybe 15% less, because I shoot more matches.

 

Now if you're shooting indoors, slow fire, then it'll take forever to go through 100 rounds.

You just demonstrated to me that I can’t afford to do 3 gun.
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What do you guys do that you can go through 12k rounds of ammo a year? Seriously.

Shoot 3 gun, USPSA, and practice for both.

 

Add in shooting safe queens every so often, and you quickly get to 12K or more per year.

 

Some of the GM's in USPSA shoot 30-40K per year. Pro 3 gunners shoot even more than that.

 

ETA: for practice, I can easily go through 500 rounds. Each drill can take about 6-12 rounds per run, and I do as many runs as necessary to hit the par times I've established. Within 10 minutes, you can easily dump 150 rounds into the targets.

 

My volume has gone down since I started, because I can now focus my practice on just the skills that I need to improve, rather than practicing every skill. But we're talking maybe 15% less, because I shoot more matches.

 

Now if you're shooting indoors, slow fire, then it'll take forever to go through 100 rounds.

You just demonstrated to me that I can’t afford to do 3 gun.

 

The costs tend to get crazy when you practice a lot.

 

But if you only shoot matches, you're talking anywhere from 100-150 rounds per gun.

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