Ammo saving for "rainy day"

[mstirton]

At the risk of starting another "SHTF" discussion, has anyone actually come up with a stored/don't shoot round count as fxn of their income/monetary savings?

Obviously this would also have to take into account what chances one gives there of even being a SHTF and how bad it is expected to be. I read all these threads on every forum about the $400 cases of 5.56, $600 x51, and $300 x39 and can't imagine spending that much to go out shooting. Furthermore, I realize that if I hadn't gotten started shooting and stocked my ammo closet 3-5 years ago, I most likely would never have become as involved in this hobby.

I make enough to buy a few guns and shoot every now and then, but I don't have $1k/month in extra play money. I'm guessing there are a good # of us in the same position (Obama's goal right?). I feel very strongly about our responsibility as citizens to stay armed and fight for the freedom to do so. Therefore, how important is practice/hobby if we can't afford to restock what we shoot?

Anyway, it seems everyone is still buying it like crazy so maybe I need to go back to school and get a higher paying job. In the mean time, basketball and football are free and golf is relatively cheap (who woulda thought golf could be described as cheap?). Are there really so many people out there putting a BMW payment through their AR every month that prices just keep going up?

 

[gazpacho]

Every month I buy 2 Bulk packs if 22lr. I have a crap load of 22lr.

In general, I try to buy more ammo ever month than I will shoot. It's kind of like saving money.

 

[Treo]

I buy a box or two of ammo every paycheck. If that's all I can afford, that's what I buy. The wife budgets money to spend on ammo at the gunshow every three months so we have some laid up for just in case

 

[MGshaggy]

Fortunately, I stocked on ammo before it got so expensive. My base/emergency stock consists of 10cases per major centerfire caliber. I don't buy on a weekly or monthly schedule, but when I do, I'll buy more than I plan to use, and usually just set aside an entire paycheck for at least a few cases at a time.

Just like gazpacho said, when I buy, I'll try to buy more than I can use so it keeps accumulating.

 

[OOOXOOO]

Once or twice a year I will buy bulk ammo (1000 round cases) for guns I shoot all the time. For personal defense ammo and .22's I buy a box or two every week. Thirty dollars a week doesn't break me and I accumulate a good stash of ammo. It is good to buy in bulk for some to offset the high cost of rifle rounds.

 

[The Bushmaster]

When the "SHTF" and you "bug out". Let me know how much ammunition you can carry besides everything else you'll need. Then tell me how much ammunition you NEED to keep around the house. I have over a thousand rounds of various calibres (.22, 9mm X 19, .38 Spec, .357 magnum, .45 ACP, .30-30, .30-06 and 12 gauge) on the loading bench and have nothing against stock piling ammunition, but you can only carry soo much when you have to leave. Who gets the remaining ammunition?

 

[MIL-DOT]

(quote) "When the "SHTF" and you "bug out". Let me know how much ammunition you can carry...."

According to this, and nearly every other forum/thread I've read on the subject, very few people are willing to "bug out", regardless of the incentive. Our home is our castle, right? We can't take our refrigerator with us either, yet we all have one of those, too.

 

[Tommygunn]

I have accumulated several thousand rounds of .30 Carbine and am now accumulating 5.56mm. I also have about a thousand rounds of .22LR.
I have a fair supply of .45ACP and a more modest supply of a few other calibers I use.
I don't by regularly, just when ever I have extra $$ but I have been doing it for a long time now.

 

[MGshaggy]

When the "SHTF" and you "bug out". Let me know how much ammunition you can carry besides everything else you'll need. Then tell me how much ammunition you NEED to keep around the house.

Oh please - can we get over the silly SHTF/Rambo/Red Dawn/zombie invasion fantasies. Who said anything about bugging out with ALL your ammo (why - because you can't bug out with anything less than ALL of your ammo?) Some of us have large amounts of ammo because we shoot a lot and wanted to hedge against inflation or possible supply problems, especially with imported surplus ammo. Hows Lithuanian 308 at $500-600/case sitting with you? I've still got cases upon cases of South African I bought at $175. Buy it cheap and stack it deep.

And at the risk of pointing out the obvious, it has absolutely nothing to do with NEED. I don't NEED nearly as many guns as I have, but I do because I WANT to and I can afford to.

 

[Claude Clay]

SD ammo i got from a ffl in distress [divorce] 10+ years ago enough to last out my lifetime with plenty leftover for my daughter [case each for 6 calibers: silver-tips,GD's and Fed HS's]. 22LR 5K of assorted and pick up 5+K on sale every few months. what i load for i order ahead a years worth of components. 7.5 Swiss may be 500 per year, 45acp 6K.
this really has nothing to do with SHTF--its just whats on hand for regular use.

+1 MG --want vrs need

 

[Just One Shot]

I've been going to the gun show and picking up Wolf brand 9mm for $9.00 box (50 rds.). That and the local Walmart has 100 rd. boxes of S&W 9mm for $19.XX.

So far I have 450 rds. for the 9mm and I plan to purchase more each month as long as the prices stay reasonable.

I've only been able to get to the range once a month and I usually burn up 100 rds. of 9mm along with an untold number of 22's.

I should be able to accumulate enough in the next few months of the gun show season to last me until it starts up again next year.

If I total up what I have for my 9mm, my 22, and my shotgun I have just about 950 rds. of ammo at home not including what my son has for his 40 cal. Unless we go to war that should be plenty to get by on.

 

[thunder173]

Buy two,...shoot one. Let the accumulation begin.........

 

[ilbob]

I do not have a fixed amount per gun or per caliber. In fact, I have several guns I have no ammo at all for. I do think it prudent to have some stocks, but I am not sure there is a good formula.

Just about everyone should have a good 22 pistol and a 22 rifle. A case of 22 ammo that will work in both can be had for around $200. That is a fair amount of fun and practice for not a whole lot of money.

 

[The Bushmaster]

Not a problem MGshaggy...I reload...Instead of large amounts of ammunition. I have stockpiles of brass, primers, powder and bullets...The only factory ammunition I have in the house is .22 and 12 gauge.

And I mirror your view. I just said it in a different manor. Guess I should have put a sarcastic smiley in there some where. I'll do that right now...O K?

There...That help...

Besides...mstirton started it...

 

[CoRoMo]

I can always bug out, and then in, and then out again and carry a new load of rounds with each trip out.

 

[texaspunk]

hey mstirton, i go through a couple bricks of 22 and a couple hundred 9mm and 7.62x39 target rounds per month. Other calibers I keep no more than a couple of boxes for “just in case”. Not too concerned with fighting off zombies past day 2 or 3. LOL. Just enough practice with those rounds to feel proficient costs my wife and i around 3% of our combined income. Not too bad, as it is also a fun hobby. In the end, those few firearms cost less than my dogs and horse to feed...so i guess it's not too crazy.

 

[lions]

A little while ago I decided to slow way down how much I was shooting. I took the savings and slowly accumulated enough ammo in storage to make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Then I went back to shooting how much I used to. Now I have my "rainy day" ammo and I didn't have to break the bank. You don't have to spend $1K/month to stock up and shoot, just find your limit and stick to it.

 

[ByAnyMeans]

I figure I have guns and one of their most important uses for them is self defense. If a shtf situation arises on whatever scale it takes I would hate to have an empty gun so I stack ammo that will never be shot.

I personally keep upto a thousand rounds for a specific purpose. An example being more 9mm and 7.62x39 than .308 for the bolt action. I figure it's more likely a Katrina / LA riots than teotwawki so I don't feel I need a few thousand per gun and if It is that way then I'm set with common calibers (12 ga /.308 / 7.62 / 9mm / 22lr) and ammo should be able to be acquired or if it's really necessary their will be "battlefield pick-ups" around.


Given the chance that a shtf situation is lower than me winning the Lottery and marrying a supermodel while being a national hero I stack a lot of 22lr. It's able to handle many tasks and one of them is the reason I don't think You need a million rounds in a shtf like Katrina. Readying many peoples blogs and stories who stayed they reported a lot of their ammunition went to warning shots to make people scatter or at night when they heard things on their property. This is a perfect role for 22lr rounds. Another is if you have peole who can't handle anything harsher (my grandmother) then they can use those weapons.

I got my ammo before these crazy prices and stacked 4,000 rounds of 22lr and another 2,000 rounds of "real ammo". It's all contained in 2 50cal tins and cost about 250 bucks. The situation will predict if I stay in my house {most likely} bug out with automobile and it is easy to take with you {2nd most likely} or I load up all the mags I can carry and take off in camo screaming Wolverines.

 

[loneviking]

A BMW payment? Not hardly! I'm a reloader, and I have thousands of cases to load which equals thousands of rounds to stockpile. How much are the cases? Well, I'm a brass rat so I trade stuff I pick up for the stuff I need, so whatever the postage is. Bullets? I often trade for those as well. That just leaves primers/powder and NatchezSS has powder on sale---Bullseye and Unique for around $13 for a pound. That's not too expensive, is it?

But yes, I do watch in amazement as folks spend huge amounts of money buying crates of ammo.....

 

[yeti]

I have a few thousand rounds purchased when ammunition was cheaper, so now I buy a case, replace the oldest case with it, shoot until there is an ammo delivery time amount left, then order another. When that new case arrives it replaces the oldest, and how ever many rounds are left from the open, nearly depleted case are put away in the hidden cache. I guess my stockpile grows by around 1000 rounds a year that way.

 

[mstirton]

Alright so it seems most of us are in agreement. I was hesitant to use the term "SHTF" and I agree with MGshaggy and Bushmaster - I'm not sitting around thinking I'll be in the middle of a mob firefight. I have plenty of ammo stocked from when it was $100-$200 per case depending on caliber. My point is that with current high prices, I'm not going to buy more and I don't want to shoot too much of what I've got.

Stocks are on sale, ammo is higher than it's ever been, and I'd rather spend my free cash on a good deal. We all love to shoot, but at $.50/round they have priced me out of shooting a lot or often. I just seem to be reading plenty of threads with people describing shooting >1000 rounds (centerfire) every range trip. I take 50-100 rounds of Blazer 9mm, 50 .45ACP, 50 .40S&W, and maybe 100 mixed rifle. I'll probably slow down more as I approach 1 case of each caliber left.

 

[WardenWolf]

I got one of the last good deals on election night. $355 for a 1000 round case of PMC .223 FMJ boattail. That's about as cheap as you're going to get for good rifle ammo. That's cheaper than I've been finding it in stores. Obama is talking about requiring new ammo be made with primers that expire after one year or so, which could be the end of stockpiling. Because of this, I'm going to sit on it until I find out what's happening with that, and I'll just buy what I need separately until then.

 

[mstirton]

Figured I'd take a pic since it will only be getting smaller for the forseeable future.

 

[goon]

IMO, a lot of us are in this situation.
I can't afford cases upon cases of ammo either but I have found in the past that I can afford a few extra boxes or so every once in awhile.
Doesn't take long to fill and ammo can that way.
An ammo can isn't "enough" but it is quite a bit. It's way more than enough to get you through two back-to-back short term disasters. It also has the advantage of being pretty portable. If you have to grab stuff and run it's way easier to grab an ammo can or a battle pack than it is to try to move 10K rounds. (No point in leaving extra for the looters or for the flood or forest fire, is there?)
And if every Jew had owned a rifle and 500 rounds of ammo for it I bet our history books would tell a different story.

 

[Maximum1]

I always kept a good supply of ammo on hand but I SIGNFICANTLY increased my inventory since the election. I'm fortunate to know an FFL/ammo dealer who sold it to me at last year's prices....