How much is enough - Ammo
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jacrivello
Member
- Apr 2, 2015
- 1
Too Much Ammo
My dad, a Korean War Vet stated: "It is physically impossible to carry too much ammunition"
My dad, a Korean War Vet stated: "It is physically impossible to carry too much ammunition"
wb3jma
Active Member
Really?! I've got 500 per caliber which is adequate. I don't think 1000 rnds/caliber is excessive. Have no use though for I got mine now you get yours kind of attitude.
OK... here is an ethical conundrum. At what point do you cross the line into "hoarder". Folks have tossed around that pejorative rather frequently in light of the current situation. Where is the line between being prepared to take care of your own needs and the dreaded H word?
Am I a hoarder? I don't know... probably. I have years worth of ammo stored in a variety of different calibers. If the zombies came over the hill tomorrow, my ammo stash would probably outlast me.
Do I "need" any more? Probably not for the short to mid-term.
But in a situation where the ammo tap has effectively been turned off, do I feel like I have enough? No, I do not.
I'm not socking it away to re-sell at a profit (although I have given some away to friends and family who didn't have foresight).
I'm not planning on arming a battalion of rebel freedom fighters.
I just want to make sure that I have what I want on hand and can shoot when I want.
I'm selective about my purchases now... not eager to spend a buck or two a round, but if it is a caliber I'm low on, I will probably jump on it since I don't know when I'll see it again.
Hoarder or rational? You decide.
Am I a hoarder? I don't know... probably. I have years worth of ammo stored in a variety of different calibers. If the zombies came over the hill tomorrow, my ammo stash would probably outlast me.
Do I "need" any more? Probably not for the short to mid-term.
But in a situation where the ammo tap has effectively been turned off, do I feel like I have enough? No, I do not.
I'm not socking it away to re-sell at a profit (although I have given some away to friends and family who didn't have foresight).
I'm not planning on arming a battalion of rebel freedom fighters.
I just want to make sure that I have what I want on hand and can shoot when I want.
I'm selective about my purchases now... not eager to spend a buck or two a round, but if it is a caliber I'm low on, I will probably jump on it since I don't know when I'll see it again.
Hoarder or rational? You decide.
Minor
Member
Guessing it will normal again
Without the government doing something stupid (sic). Probably be back to normal inventory by April/May like 2013.
Biggest shock to the ammo economy was Walmart pulling the common calibers. The “I’ll just run down to Walmart on the way to the range” option is not available anymore. Hence IMHO a bit of hoarding is going on. Longer times to get stock -
Without the government doing something stupid (sic). Probably be back to normal inventory by April/May like 2013.
Biggest shock to the ammo economy was Walmart pulling the common calibers. The “I’ll just run down to Walmart on the way to the range” option is not available anymore. Hence IMHO a bit of hoarding is going on. Longer times to get stock -
Ammo Jon
Ultimate Member
- Mar 3, 2008
- 21,036
At going prices these days, paying $200 for that 9mm, Tok and .223 actually does represent a 20-25% discount, as sad as that is. Typical prices I've seen lately for 9mm FMJ is about 70cpr, brass FMJ .223 about 85cpr (give or take 5 cents) and I haven't seen 7.62 Tokarev less than $1.40 a round since last summer. I last bought some last April or May at 40 cents, and am kicking myself that I didn't buy more.
But at those rates, buying the quantities you did would cost about $260. If you paid $200, that's about a 23% discount off going rates. Of course that doesn't factor in what they actually paid for it, only what the going retail rates are today.
I agree it was completely BS the way they treated you when your mom was there though.
Yep, very true. Just like the smallest issue in the Middle East will send gas prices surging at the pump instantly, but when the cost of a barrel of oil goes down it takes months for the price we pay to trickle down, if ever.
The dilemma with the ammo is: do you refuse to pay the sky-high asking prices, hoping costs will go down before you run out, or do you pay now to hedge against the risk that it'll go up even further (or worse, that MD or the feds will change the laws so we can't buy ammo like we do today)? I try to take a middle tack at the moment: keep an eye on prices, and when I see a "deal" on a caliber I shoot, relative to trending prices, I buy a couple of boxes. Just enough to maintain my supply, so I can still shoot without running out.
I could not imagine having that many calibers to feed. I have a limited amount of calibers from a practical and financial sense. Mostly the common types. People I know adhere to the rule of 10k rounds per firearm (long gun) not caliber. And 5K per handgun. That's the stash, training ammo is on top of that.
With the domestic ammo shortage that we've faced for nearly the last year. I'm wondering why we haven't seen a surge in imported ammo. It seems to me that that the rest of the world isn't facing a shortage and that those manufacturers would be eager to keep our shelves stocked. I read that during the 2012 shortage imports surged. I'd love to hear your thoughts.
SUMB44
Member
1k per caliber
I'd say 1k per caliber or at least 500 per... I'm pretty well stocked and I have few thousand rounds of 22lr so I use that for training and just regular range therapy sessions.. I could use a little more 12guage 00 buck an slugs but in all i think I'm good enough holding off until prices come back to normal hopefully..
I'd say 1k per caliber or at least 500 per... I'm pretty well stocked and I have few thousand rounds of 22lr so I use that for training and just regular range therapy sessions.. I could use a little more 12guage 00 buck an slugs but in all i think I'm good enough holding off until prices come back to normal hopefully..
"Hoarding" is definitely a pejorative term in this context, since it implies some sort of irrational motivation. I hope I live another few decades, and try to imagine ammo being very scarce, or highly regulated, or extremely expensive/taxed or all of the above ... and still wanting to shoot off and on, or be able to provide for those around me as they do.
That makes having tens of thousands of rounds (which I may or may not have, no comment) in multiple flavors not so much hoarding as investing. Not so much in the "sell it later for profit or liquid cash" sense (though I wouldn't rule that out, if things got grim for me personally, or for society more generally), but in the sense that if something is or will be finite - like real estate - and you have a chance to own some of it, do it.
In practical terms, none of my stash is going to go bad, though I could do better in diversifying its physical location(s) and perhaps do more to make sure it can tolerate a prolonged loss of climate control in some places. It'll be viable for as long as I'm likely to want or need to use it or sell it. So even a very big pile of it isn't hoarding, not in the sense that people usually use that word. Hoarding implies some psychological motivation for having it, divorced from any plausible real need or utility. I can think of many plausible uses for a giant pile of ammo stretching out over the remaining years of my life.
And now that I've been seduced by the siren song of the steel matches, I need to get even more serious about this!
Last time we had a shortage of this sort I'd say it took about 2 years before things got somewhat back to normal, so plan and buy accordingly for how much you shoot + your SHTF stockpile. You can use the Wayback Machine on some websites if you want some historic information on prices: when the rose, when they fell, etc. Plus, it seems some things are starting to be available again thanks to the Russian companies. Apparently Russians like producing 7.62, 5.56 and 9mm, not so much 6.5 Creedmoor. However, online may not be the best indicator for availability, since some shops hold supplies back because they like humans visiting their retail locations.
TheOriginalMexicanBob
Ultimate Member
There could also be delays in import permitting which may well be restricted even more under the new Administration or even eliminated. Shipping alone takes time plus distribution once it gets here.
It wouldn't be surprising at all if people from Biden's administration are already trying to convince foreign ammunition suppliers (and gunmakers) to curtail or eliminate shipments to the US under threat of other punitive trade actions should actual governmental trade regs not get changed quickly enough. All of this would be unofficial and under the radar.
I don't want to sound like a conspiracy theorist but many years of watching what Leftists do and have done to make me believe that's in the works as we discuss it.
shootin the breeze
Missed it by that much
What's adequate to you is not adequate to anyone else. You have no business saying I'm of the "I've got mine" attitude. You don't know me at all.
I'm not shooting as much as I'd like to lowering my stocks significantly now but it's very easy to shoot 100-200 per session and if I bring my kids or a new shooter, blowing that 500 you have in a caliber is easy. Now you have to pay 70-100cpr or more depending on the caliber.
At the prices I'm willing to pay for pallet size ammo (what we currently consider normal pricing), you need to use the way back machine to look back to plentiful times when 9mm could be had for 18cpr. There were plenty of pallets to buy at that time so you could've had yours too if you were willing to spend 40-100k per pallet for various calibers. I will be when I move and prices/stock return to those levels or close to those levels. So don't lecture me.
SUMB44
Member
Range Ammo
How much ammo do you all consume in a "typical" range visit? Surely this would be a significant factor in determining a minimum level of ammo to maintain at least for training and plinking. I'm not terribly proficient yet on my Sig P320 but I get through about 120 rounds in an hour including reloading mags... and have been going once a week since getting my gun, so that's nearly 500 rounds a month ($$!)... But I'm spooling up skills so consumption may be more intense than what experienced shooters consume. That's getting pretty pricey these days and would indicate I need at least 500 rounds of 9mm training ammo every month, plus defensive rounds. I'm trying to shift to 22lr to work on shooting skills as the ammo is more cost effective and it's easier to maintain large stockpiles of 22lr.
How much ammo do you all consume in a "typical" range visit? Surely this would be a significant factor in determining a minimum level of ammo to maintain at least for training and plinking. I'm not terribly proficient yet on my Sig P320 but I get through about 120 rounds in an hour including reloading mags... and have been going once a week since getting my gun, so that's nearly 500 rounds a month ($$!)... But I'm spooling up skills so consumption may be more intense than what experienced shooters consume. That's getting pretty pricey these days and would indicate I need at least 500 rounds of 9mm training ammo every month, plus defensive rounds. I'm trying to shift to 22lr to work on shooting skills as the ammo is more cost effective and it's easier to maintain large stockpiles of 22lr.
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