Posted: 1/19/2013 6:55:52 AM EDT
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As all of you know, if it's for an AR15, it's sold out, pretty much no matter what it is.
So yesterday, I get a e-mail (via a notify me when available) that ammo is back in stock at one web site. Went to site and was tempted out of panic to pick up a 1000 rounds... then I thought, you know I should count what I have before making a panic (especially since ammo has gone up in price so much recently). So I counted up my ammo and of course the ammo online had already sold out of their 90 cases. So here's a question you "experts". How much ammo is enough to have? if you have one ar15 how much do you store? If you have more than one rifle that's in 5.56/.223 do you increase the number or is it the same? lastly, how old of ammo are you willing to purchase? 60's, 70's, 80's date of mfg? |
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There is no such thing as enough or too much ammo. This. Ammo is excellent trading material right now. I have 2400 excess rounds and I'm pretty sure that will make it pretty easy for me to trade into an A3 AR15 upper receiver of a reasonable brand, and maybe a bolt carrier group for a 6.8 barrel I just got. Sold 1,000 rounds this morning and I'm meeting another gent in a few minutes to sell another 200. That will leave me with 10,000 rounds of factory ammo for each of my .223 ARs and reloading supplies for at least another 30,000 plus. 500 rounds of .458 Socom plus reloading components for another 3,000 is good, and I'm sitting on 2,000 6.8 rounds and components to load twice that. As long as you buy correctly, just like gold, it is a worthy barter commodity. |
| Typically I do not buy 5.56/.223 in lots smaller than a thousand round case. Same rule applies to 7.62x39mm. And with 308 a battle pack is usually the minimum unless I am buying hunting rounds. If you find yourself with more ammo than you need, put some away. Thay way when you need it it is there. More often than not your stored ammo cost you less than the ammo is going for in a store. |
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The ideal situation is to have enough ammo and mags on hand that if a panic occurs (such as right now) you don't have to either wish you had bought more or go buy it and pay 2-4 times what it's worth.
How much ammo is different for each person, but the situation I described is a good way to test it. Ask yourself "If I could not buy ammo or mags for a very long time, maybe never, how would I feel about how much I currently have?" Obviously, you need more 
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all it takes is one shot and all your ammo belongs to someone else. if you cant carry it, its all a waste Bad advice. Everyone should also buy ammo for non-SHTF scenarios. I buy ammo whenever it's cheap and stockpile it for plinking. This ammo isn't for surviving, and won't need to be carried. It's for plinking and practicing. It's for fun. It's for future politics if they decide that buying more than x many rounds needs to be reported. Like I said, bad advice. Buy as much as you can, when you can afford it, just for life in general. |
I used to live in an upstairs apartment and I had a somewhat interesting conversation with the head maintenance guy (who was from Monroe and was a gun guy himself) regarding how much weight the floor joists would support. I wound up getting a couple of sheets of plywood to distribute the weight better. To answer your question, at that time I had a little over 25,000 rounds of .40 and it was what I considered a good start
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Maybe he only plans on using the one round.
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let me ask another question.
I would say, if you had no ammo  .... and found some today, buy it, pay the high cost.
If you had 25,000 rounds  and found some today, wait until the prices come back down (hopefully)
So what's your magic number that makes you buy at today's prices? down to 500.. buy? down to 20,000... buy? |
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let me ask another question. I would say, if you had no ammo .... and found some today, buy it, pay the high cost.
If you had 25,000 rounds and found some today, wait until the prices come back down (hopefully)
So what's your magic number that makes you buy at today's prices? down to 500.. buy? down to 20,000... buy? 
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let me ask another question. I would say, if you had no ammo .... and found some today, buy it, pay the high cost.
If you had 25,000 rounds and found some today, wait until the prices come back down (hopefully)
So what's your magic number that makes you buy at today's prices? down to 500.. buy? down to 20,000... buy? Buy when the price is right, doesnt matter how much you have on hand if you plan to shoot it eventually. If you have the means and $1/rnd is acceptable to you, then buy some. Everyone has a different price point. Just need to decide what you're willing and able to pay. Currently I'm only buying 5.45 when it's below .20/rnd, even though I already have a lifetime supply. I don't see myself buying any other calibers in quantity for more then .20/round. Recently I sold a case of 5.56 and then turned around and bought 3 cases of 5.45 with the money. If 5.45 floods the market and the price drops back to .11/rnd like it was a few years ago I'll buy a couple pallets. I'd get a connex full but I dont have that kind of cash handy.
10 years ago lots of us "locals" were buying quality 1st world surplus ammo from James/Surplus Ammo when he was a part time 2-man operation for $100-$150/1000 for 5.56 and 7.62x51. These days you'd be hard pressed to find any centerfire caliber for .15/round besides 7.62x54R and I think that went up to .20/rnd I might consider paying $1/rnd if I had NO ammo at all for a weapon, but more likely I'd just sell the weapon and buy a 12ga shotgun or a lever action in .357 or .30-30 since ammo for those is available at pre-stupidity prirces, assuming I had no ammo or other weapons. |
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Quoted:
As all of you know, if it's for an AR15, it's sold out, pretty much no matter what it is. So yesterday, I get a e-mail (via a notify me when available) that ammo is back in stock at one web site. Went to site and was tempted out of panic to pick up a 1000 rounds... then I thought, you know I should count what I have before making a panic (especially since ammo has gone up in price so much recently). So I counted up my ammo and of course the ammo online had already sold out of their 90 cases. So here's a question you "experts". How much ammo is enough to have? if you have one ar15 how much do you store? If you have more than one rifle that's in 5.56/.223 do you increase the number or is it the same? lastly, how old of ammo are you willing to purchase? 60's, 70's, 80's date of mfg? As much as makes you feel comfortable according to your wants/needs If you have 2 vehicles how much gas do you "store"? You can only use one at a time anyway. How often to you shoot, and how much ammo do you go through in a "typical" week/month/year? Age of ammo has virtually nothing to do with how serviceable it is. Concern yourself more with who the manufacture was, and how it's been stored. |
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Think about this...
...if ammo sales dry up like they have right now, do you have enough to do the following things??? - defend your home/family for an extended period of time? - practice regularly? - trade/sell ammo for other items that are needed (think like a Prepper)? - have enough excess to give to family/friends should the SHTF (think natural disaster/martial law like in Katrina etc...)? Then multiply that by the number of weapons you have in that particular caliber! That adds up real quick...so for the typical person...you can never have enough. |
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While I agree that lots of ammo is good, there is another way to look at things. If you are thinking about a TEOTWAWKI, then you might consider just how many gunfights you think you can survive, and how many rounds you think the average gunfight will require.
I'm not putting practice ammo in this figure, because prior to TEOTWAWKI, you should have done your skill building. Doing "unnecessary" shooting after the balloon has gone up will only serve to tell people wanting your gear where you are located. So, I don't think much practice ammo would be needed. If you are thinking about using ammo as currency, or thinking of supplying other people with ammo, then of course, more ammo would be needed. Other than sniping at people, I think I would be doing really well if I survived a dozen all out gunfights without getting hit under those circumstances. If a gunfight takes 50-100 rounds, I would only need about a thousand rounds....But there are lots of other ways of looking at things, and I damned sure have more ammo than that around all ready. I am just suggesting that there are all sorts of ways to look at how you figure out how much ammo you need. A good practice session can easily burn up 200-400 rounds of pistol, and half that many with a rifle. YMMV. |
| If you have to ask if you need more then you need more. Another way of looking at it is I have 5.56 ammo that I bought 10 years ago, some Lake City 855 I paid $170 for 1k, some South African 5.56 battlepacks I paid $32 for 300 rounds (thats $106 per K). Now look at the price you were paying two months ago for 55 grain, what was it $300- $400. I would like to get to a point where I have at least 5k for each main rifle, I either need to buy more ammo or start selling rifles. |
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I agree, I don't have enough... I'm down to about 2,000 rounds.... but I've decided that amount isn't low enough to make me scoop up ammo at today's insane prices.
Before I pay $1 a round, I'll start reloading in my spare time. I hear people talk about spare time... I hope to get some.. one day! but everywhere I go, it seems to be sold out too 
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I've always considered 2,500rds and 12 mags per rig a good number to have on hand. More is always better, but this is the minimum I personally feel comfortable with. Reloading is a great fallback. You can build your stock slowly and piece by piece. Police your brass after range time. It's amazing how lazy some people are. Lazy people = free reloading brass.
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For ammo storage, are you thinking about quality man stopper rounds or just ball ammo for plinking?
I have 2 piles for my stuff. One for training/plinking, and another set for home defense. I have enough where I don't worry about needing to buy any ammo.. and if I did need more, I have my blue kool-aid. I'm just wondering if you guys who are bulking up on ball or something similar to TAP. I assume it's probably the prior just for the fact about cost. |
| I also consider how various types of ammo will perform when choosing what to store. While ball ammo is not as accurate as nice match ammo, it usually does a much better job penetrating barricades, car doors and similar obstacles. 55 grain 5.56x45 ball ammo is actually pretty decent as an anti personnel round for the price, and it is far more likely to defeat barriers. If you can stash something like 7.62x51ball that has some ferrous content in it (check it with a magnet), it will be quite surprising at it's penetration ability without needing to be an armor penetrating projectile (ap). |