The Other Ryan did a post about ammo ammounts at totalsurvivalist.com in which he discussed the ammounts of ammo he thought was sufficient for each gun he had. My thoughts follow for MINIMUM ammo. Of course, more is always better.
Shotguns- 100 hunting rounds and 200 trap rounds for each hunting/ general use shotgun. If it is a dedicated defense shotgun, 150 rounds mixed buck and slugs. 100 rounds always on hand for training, and 50 on hand for fighting purposes. I firmly believe for a defensive shotgun ( for all defensive guns really) you should shoot what you carry to practice with.
Rifle- for defensive rifles, 500 rounds. 250 ball, and 250 defensive ammo. Ball for most training, but 50 rounds of the same type you will fight with, so you understand how it functions in your gun. For a hunting rifle, about 200 rounds. All of the ammo should be what you hunt with.
Pistol- 500 rounds per pistol. If it is defensive, split this like you would for a rifle. If it is for range fun, it can all be ball, except for 100 rounds of defensive ammo, in case it needs to be pressed into service as a defensive gun at some point. While i don't have a strong opinion on fighting rifle magazines, i feel that you need a MINIMUM 3 mags for a fighting pistol, but more is always better.
.22cal- for all your various 22 weapons, i like to keep 500 on hand. Truthfully, 1000 would make me happier, but i have never had more than 700 on hand, and have never noticed a lack.
These numbers are just what I'm comfortable with, and are working numbers from personal use. Right now, i am flush on my rifle ammo stores, general use shotgun stores, and .22 Cal stores. I am short a bit on defensive pistol and shotgun stores. The pistol stores are short because i shoot as much as i reload, and the defensive shotgun stores are short because i have only had defensive shotgun for about 2 months, and am slowly working on building those stores.
Just my 2 cents on the subject.
1 comment:
Slept on this. For the overall concept of use you have I can offer the following thoughts:
1- I would relook the stash of defensive rifle ammo in comparison to pistol ammo. Rifle situations burn up ammo a lot faster and you want to carry more of it.
At least for the Army a typical load out for an AR is 7x30rd mags (210) compared to 3x 15rd mags for an M9 (45rds). So 500 each would give you 2 and change rifle load out's and 13ish pistol ones. I would say a closer to full case of rifle ammo is more proportionate to this situation.
One could argue that a normal guy rarely needs a defensive rifle and when he does it isn't usually for long and I would counter that if he needs to pull it out of the safe things have gone very wrong so it is better to have some extra.
2- As to shotguns of the defensive variety unless a guy has a dedicated hunting shotgun or 3 I'd like to have some small game shot (say 50-100 rounds) set aside.
Anyway take that with the full value of what you paid for it.
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