How much Ammo is “Enough”?

[Fatback]

I have between 500-600 rounds for my daughter’s 243 and my 25-06, 270, 30-06 and 300 Win.

For my bigger stuff, 9.3x62, 35 Whelen, 375 H&H, 404 Jeffery and 416 Rem, I have between 200-300 rounds for each. Maybe closer to 400 rounds for my 375 H&H.

The only rifle I am not stocked up on is my 7PRC and I have 200 rounds ordered that are back ordered. So I am looking for suitable substitutes.

I have over 10k for my 22s.

I don’t hand load, so I make it a point to be on the lookout for “deals” on ammo. I also look for components for my bigger stuff and will have it professionally reloaded by Safari Arms.

It is a good feeling knowing I have ammo, that shoots well, in my respective rifles and that I should be able to practice and hunt as much as I’d like going forward, with calibers/rifles I have confidence in. All the while adding more ammo as I am able.

 

[deewayne2003]

I remember through the different ammo scares of Obama, Sandy Hook, ect, ect; it never ceased to amaze me how people who hunt wouldn't have even enough ammo on hand to come on the hunts I was guiding.

One time I had a guy say he was going to be late getting into camp because he was driving from Plano to Waco for ONE box of .308 Corelokts for $100, I told him to save the drive as I have Hornady 165gr at my house and he was welcome to use what he needed to sight in and hunt.......

"I want some ammo on hand, I'll give you $150 a box for all you want to sell!" I made him a deal.....

4 boxes for $500 and he was so happy you would have thought I sold him a kidney.

Point being that I never understood how people can have guns with no ammo and never think about it while ammo & components are on the shelf, but the instant there is no ammo on the shelf they will hunt it down at all cost and pay scalper prices to buy ammo that if stored properly will never go bad.

I load my own ammo so I just watch for the projectiles I want to come on sale at Midwayusa and buy them 300+ at a time and for my main hunting calibers .270win, .300win, 30-30 I load a minimum 300rnds at a time and keep at least 100rnds each on hand.

 

[Ontario Hunter]

I have between 500-600 rounds for my daughter’s 243 and my 25-06, 270, 30-06 and 300 Win.

For my bigger stuff, 9.3x62, 35 Whelen, 375 H&H, 404 Jeffery and 416 Rem, I have between 200-300 rounds for each. Maybe closer to 400 rounds for my 375 H&H.

The only rifle I am not stocked up on is my 7PRC and I have 200 rounds ordered that are back ordered. So I am looking for suitable substitutes.

I have over 10k for my 22s.

I don’t hand load, so I make it a point to be on the lookout for “deals” on ammo. I also look for components for my bigger stuff and will have it professionally reloaded by Safari Arms.

It is a good feeling knowing I have ammo, that shoots well, in my respective rifles and that I should be able to practice and hunt as much as I’d like going forward, with calibers/rifles I have confidence in. All the while adding more ammo as I am able.

Going forward ... to where? The next millennium? That's a lot of ammo.

 

[thriller]

I like to keep around 5 boxes on the shelf but I do a lot of hog culling so running through a box in a day can be standard for some rifles so I keep more of those calibers.

 

[steve white]

One of my cousins asked his brother, "have you stacked up 8,000 rounds yet?" To which he replied, "man that's been in the rearview mirror a WHILE." They were talking about ONE pistol caliber. I didn't ask about their other rifles, pistols or rimfire....

 

[MontanaGrant]

I buy at any time there is a deal. Sometimes it is a store closeout, a guy dispersing his stuff and wanting a quick sale. Sometimes it is a really good load that isn’t cheap but……it works so well you keep buying it.

I never have a cap of “enough”. I try to have a minimum of 200 rounds of anything and that number just goes limitless depending on cost and availability.

Honestly right now we’re in the salad days again of ammunition pricing vs what may happen in the next couple years I’m considering selling a few rifles and completely devoting that money to ammunition. Especially since component prices have gotten so expensive, loaded ammunition in many instances is not badly priced.

 

[Flbt]

Buying ammo “as needed” presupposes availability. That’s how most of us got to where we are today.

It’s a crappy feeling realizing that what you need isn’t available, or even it is available but cost 2 or 3X what it was last time.

Some Powder and Primers are often scarce as well. For a long while 20Ga Remington AcccuTip slugs were almost impossible to find, the prices they were going for was nuts.

Back during the Obama years, I was in a small LGS and while chatting with the owner he told me he couldn’t get ANY 22lr at all. I happened to mention I was pretty well supplied and told h8m I had seem 500 round boxes going for $80-100 on Gunbroker. I had paid about $24.99 for what I had. He did a pretty good business teaching Pistol Permit classes and was out of business without ammo. He had a S&W 22A (semiauto pistol) in the case marked $199, I asked “why so cheap?” He told me it was only used a couple of times to teach classes and had a broken firing pin. He hadn’t sent it back to S&W yet for repairs. I pointed out that 2 boxes of ammo at Gunbroker prices would be a fair trade, he laughed at me, then we settled on 3. That was $75 out of my pocket, he was back in the teaching game, he mailed it back to S&W for me, they did the warenty work for free and mailed it. Back to me a week later. Everyone was happy!!

Back in the early 80s I learnd that lesson
Being on a farm there was all ways a supply of shotgun shells and 22
But dad keep a box of 30-30 for hunting
I can’t remember if he lost them of had not bough the box yet. Bear season started he was going to wait until we got down to the woods and buy at a little country store.
I guess others thought the same. No 30-30
So we had a 9 day hunt with 2 rounds.
It was not long when I bought my marlin 357 I bought 4 boxes off ammo with the rifle

 

[Flbt]

I buy at any time there is a deal. Sometimes it is a store closeout, a guy dispersing his stuff and wanting a quick sale. Sometimes it is a really good load that isn’t cheap but……it works so well you keep buying it.

I never have a cap of “enough”. I try to have a minimum of 200 rounds of anything and that number just goes limitless depending on cost and availability.

Honestly right now we’re in the salad days again of ammunition pricing vs what may happen in the next couple years I’m considering selling a few rifles and completely devoting that money to ammunition. Especially since component prices have gotten so expensive, loaded ammunition in many instances is not badly priced.

I have seen this with weatherbey cartridge
Some time you can catch factory ammo cheaper than the cases

 

[Mtn_Infantry]

I have a very simple rule that dates back to my machine gunner days:

If you know how much ammo you have, you don't have enough ammo.

One must have enough 5.56 on hand to provide a full combat load out to an entire infantry line company or they don’t have enough

 

[HankBuck]

Going forward ... to where? The next millennium? That's a lot of ammo.

@Ontario Hunter — it’s only considered “a Lot” in Canada…here it’s just-getting-started.

 

[Fatback]

Going forward ... to where? The next millennium? That's a lot of ammo.

Well, I’d rather have it and not need it than need it and not have it. I enjoy shooting my rifles as well, usually go to the range a couple of times a week to shoot a couple of them. I hopefully I’ll be set going forward.

 

[JimP]

My ammo supply for most of my firearms will decrease through the summer and into hunting seasons this fall when my loading process will begin all over again

 

[Safari Dave]

"Defensive arms" aside...


I like to have at least 200 rounds of proper factory loads that shoot well in the rifle.

(Because, inevitability, the manufacturer will quit making it)

 

[Flbt]

Have been seeing a lot of rabbits. And there is no set squirrel season anymore.
I picked the boys up 250 rd of 50gr hp cci 22 mags today and 100 cci 40 gr fmj

 

[Safari Dave]

My question is, how much do you shoot?

Just off hand I have 5000 22Lr, 10,000 40S&W, 500 44 mag, 500 45 Lc, 1,000 357 mag, 500 41 mag, and at least 200 rifle rounds for each of my long guns. That along with around 500 rounds for each of my 6 shotguns ranging from a 410 up to a 10 ga.

Then all the components for 3 or 4 years worth of muzzle loaders from a 36 caliber up to a 54 caliber.

I am fortunate enough to live in a rural area that affords the opportunity to shoot quite a bit on my own property.....

(A far cry from Hickok 45, however!)

I probably fire at least 2,500 rounds of something every year.

 

[Mtn_Infantry]

"Defensive arms" aside...


I like to have at least 200 rounds of proper factory loads that shoot well in the rifle.

(Because, inevitability, the manufacturer will quit making it)

This is what I do. Once i find a load that works I buy an entire case or two (10 boxes per) from the same lot number.

I keep the partially shot boxes for when i need to test shoot a different rifle and see what groups the best. I bet I’ve got 20+ partially shot boxes of .308 win missing 3, 6, 9, 12, or 15 rounds from testing accuracy and group size

 

[SaintPanzer]

One must have enough 5.56 on hand to provide a full combat load out to an entire infantry line company or they don’t have enough

Never shoot a large caliber man with a small caliber bullet.

 

[Mtn_Infantry]

Never shoot a large caliber man with a small caliber bullet.

I don’t disagree, you shoot them with many small caliber bullets if you’re not lucky enough to be on the gun team

 

[krish]

I like to havw 2k rounds for each rifle i own.
I THINK THAT IS RESONABLE FOR ME.
KRISH

 

[mark-hunter]

I like to havw 2k rounds for each rifle i own.

That is reasonable minimum at first glance but the problem is for storage space and for some calibers the price.
If you have 10, 20, 30 rifles or more, then it becomes the issue of storage capacity.
I have seen some collections of people on the forum, and it would be impossible to have that amount of ammo with all those guns at home!

Then the price:
Imagine 700 NE? impossible to have 2k quantity of ammo. (for 100 USD per round, 200.000 USD worth of ammo for one caliber only)

Lets put it this way:
I have ammo that all my safes are 100% full.