Free Republic
Browse · Search
Bloggers & Personal
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

How Much Ammo, and Why?
Vanity | 3/8/10 | dagogo redux

Posted on 03/08/2010 7:58:06 AM PST by dagogo redux

With all the talk about the Second Amendment, the ammo shortage, and about what might lie ahead after November (or before), I thought it might be a reasonable vanity post to ask what sorts of quantities of ammo are practical for a person or household to stock for an “emergency”.

A few months ago, for instance, someone here said 6000 rounds for each firearm. More recently, someone said (I think) 3000 rounds for one’s primary battle rifle, and 500 rounds for each handgun and shot gun.

Answers may depend on many factors: for instance, the scenario you think most likely, or most worthwhile to prepare for, as well as the role you might see yourself playing in such a scenario (home defense, active maneuvers, underground resistance, etc), so posting these thoughts may help explain your reasoning.

"The more the merrier,” will occur to many, but practical answers would be more helpful. And HOW did you arrived at your answer - is it calculated in some way, something you were taught, a hunch, collected wisdom, etc? If you say 5000 rounds, why not 2500 or 10,000, etc. and what do you base that on?

Thanks for tolerating another vanity, and thanks for educating us with your answers.


TOPICS: Miscellaneous; Politics; Society
KEYWORDS: banglist; shtf; vanity
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 41-6061-8081-100 ... 121 next last
To: Pessimist

lol You will be one of the neighbors coming to me for ammo!

Approach the sandbags slowly with your hands in plain sight and clearly say “Eagles Up!”

There is no clear best, or even likely, scenario.


61 posted on 03/08/2010 10:09:00 AM PST by DBrow
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 55 | View Replies]

To: BerserkPatriot

“Boston’s Gun Bible” answers a lot of these questions. It has a priority list of what you may need.


62 posted on 03/08/2010 10:09:55 AM PST by Cheeks (http://www.appleseedinfo.org/)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 53 | View Replies]

To: Cheeks

Outstanding! That’s what it’s all about.


63 posted on 03/08/2010 10:13:25 AM PST by Noumenon ("Upon what meat doth this our Caesar feed, that he has grown so great?" - Julius Caesar)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 60 | View Replies]

To: BerserkPatriot

As kind of a preparatory guide to making it through a country’s collapse, you can’t beat FerFal’s compiled writings. Fascinating and informative, if you haven’t read it. If you have, maybe someone else will get some benefit.

http://www.powerswitch.org.uk/portal/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2079&Itemid=2

I’ve read it four or five times, and I follow his blog here:

http://ferfal.blogspot.com/


64 posted on 03/08/2010 10:17:23 AM PST by FLAMING DEATH (Are you better off than you were $4 trillion ago?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 53 | View Replies]

To: dagogo redux

Minimum: 1000 rounds per piece.
That’s a good convenient number, ensuring you’ll have enough for whatever earnest application you run into. Any time you go under that amount, it’s easy to just buy another case.

Reasonable: enough to burn out every barrel.
Each barrel has a finite lifespan. Considering prices will only go up, buy enough consumables now to satisfy that lifespan.


65 posted on 03/08/2010 10:19:54 AM PST by ctdonath2
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Pessimist
You are correct in that it will NOT be like on TV, where the good guy always wins. But you're going to need more confidence and determination in order to get through what's coming down the pike. Men who know how to think and do will be the ones with the best odds of pulling through. Men with the determination to live and to win will have the best odds of pulling through.

Don't give up. That's for liberal collectivist monkeys whose tiny and inconsequential skillsets wouldn't keep them warm or feed them if their lives depended upon them. So they'll die and die badly. That's not you. It doesn't have to be you. Follow the link and read the book.

66 posted on 03/08/2010 10:37:01 AM PST by Noumenon ("Upon what meat doth this our Caesar feed, that he has grown so great?" - Julius Caesar)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 55 | View Replies]

To: OKSooner

“Honestly, it’s a load off of my mind to not have to worry about someone coming in and stealing all those guns and all that ammunition I used to have here.”

The preacher who married us lived right outside OKC, and was executed by an escaped con who also murdered his wife, shot his young son and raped his daughter.

No, I think I sleep better at night knowing I have at least the opportunity to do something about it if someone tries to hurt me and family.


67 posted on 03/08/2010 10:43:02 AM PST by bestintxas
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: thackney

I wouldn’t say it’s my ~plan~. Nor would I say “after firing several hundred rounds” is early.

I think it’s a realistic view.

Hey, you can buy all you want. It’s none of my business.

Somebody just asked for opinions, and I gave mine.


68 posted on 03/08/2010 10:47:22 AM PST by Pessimist (u)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 57 | View Replies]

To: Noumenon

I have no intention of “giving up”.

My sincere hope would be to ice as many zombies as possible.

Bu my realistic analysis is that I won’t survive forever in such circumstances.

So when people talk about 10k rounds of every caliber, etc, I think all theyre doing is providing a stockpile for the guy who kills them.


69 posted on 03/08/2010 10:50:52 AM PST by Pessimist (u)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 66 | View Replies]

To: Pessimist

From my point of view, I don’t expect to be firing alone.

Nor do I intend to buy more than I can use and share anyways.

Cheers and Go Bucks!


70 posted on 03/08/2010 10:53:16 AM PST by thackney (life is fragile, handle with prayer)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 68 | View Replies]

To: dagogo redux

Don't forget a buttload of these to go with all that ammo.

71 posted on 03/08/2010 11:03:53 AM PST by Doomonyou (Let them eat Lead.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Waverunner

Just for info’s sake - what’s your time running the 100?
just askin

With a zombie behind me its propably pretty fast. Good news is zombies seem a little slow both mentally and physically. The bad news is when they come, they come in large numbers. One advantage I think we may have is our sense of smell, methinks the living dead would smell something awful.


72 posted on 03/08/2010 11:14:56 AM PST by equalitybeforethelaw
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 54 | View Replies]

To: atomic_dog
True that, but anything can be a “battle rifle” if you know what you are doing. Even a Bushmaster .223.
73 posted on 03/08/2010 11:20:01 AM PST by wbarmy (Hard core, extremist, and right-wing is a little too mild for my tastes.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 48 | View Replies]

To: BerserkPatriot
Here's another: Now that a lot of us (me excluded) have stocked up, what should be the next items one should consider buying?

"Go Fast" bag. Everyone should have one. A backpack with a few changes of socks and underpants, a pair of jeans, a jacket and either hiking boots or at least good gym shoes. A proper canteen is also a good thing to have clipped onto the "Go Fast" bag. Remember you may be at work when the SHTF and surviving in the wilderness in a suit, tie and dress shoes is no fun at all. So tell the wife/husband/eldest kid to grab the "Go Fast" bag and meat you at Aunt Mary's. You may also want to pack a "Go Bang" box. You know the tool box where you keep the pistol, cleaning kits, gun oil, spare mags and a few hundred rounds of ammo. Remember to throw in a couple of silica gel packets, cool dry ammo is happy ammo.

Camping equipment. Even if you plan is to run to Aunt Mary's house in the country, there will probably be a bunch of other people running to Aunt Mary's so be prepared to sleep on the floor, or in your truck. Having a fishing pole and tackle box will at least put meat on the table occasionally. Sure a bluegill may not look like much, but McDonald's may not be serving billions any more. Keep it in one or two of those big Rubbermaid bins so that when the time comes you don't have to sort through it, just grab and throw into the back of the truck.

And on that topic take your kids camping. Be used to living without all the comforts of modern life for a week at a time. That way when those things are no longer available everyone in the family will know that they can do it. It also ensures that as you run out the door with your Go Fast bag you can tell the little kids it will be "just like camping". They can panic later once you are someplace safe.

One of those portable batteries that can be charged either off 110 or a car's cigarette lighter. Make sure it has a 110 outlet and jumper cables. Even if it provides only a few hours of power that may make the difference in getting a car started, recharging a phone or walkie talkie, or just being able to see while you stitch up a wound. Keep it fully charged and near whatever car you intend to use in the bailout.

A wind up flashlight and radio. Batteries are heavy and in a SHTF situation will be worth their weight in gold. Having communication and a flashlight that doesn't need them can be a big bonus. Even if you intend to ride out the storm from where you are, don't assume you will always have electricity. Even if you have a generator gas is going to get rare and expensive.

Food that you don't mind eating. Don't stock three years of MREs if you don't like MREs. Even the legendary MRE has a use by date. And if not rotated they will just go bad and you are out the money, or worse yet you need them and they went bad sitting on the shelf. Simple things like granola bars, canned veggies, canned chili are all good. Keep a couple of weeks worth on hand and rotate the stock. Also have something to drink. A couple gallons of water on hand is good, or even just means stock up on Gatorade when it is on sale.
74 posted on 03/08/2010 11:26:07 AM PST by GonzoGOP (There are millions of paranoid people in the world and they are all out to get me.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 53 | View Replies]

To: FLAMING DEATH

“They” would be anyone he’d be talking to who wants to cause trouble for him.

Stockpiling is what you do as a good boy scout to be prepared for something that COULD happen. It is taking personal responsibility to not be a burden on your neighbors or community. It is self-sufficiency. Not greed.

Hoarding is what people do AFTER something happens where possible limits on how much you can buy are in place so that the unprepared people can have some time to buy items. Hoarding cuts into the greed some people might have to clean out a store AFTER the SHTF and not care about anyone else when they had plenty of time beforehand to prepare.

That’s why if there ever IS a SHTF moment, your prior preparations aren’t ‘hoarding’ and should not be explained as such, otherwise word will get around and authorities will be notified you are ‘hoarding’ when you weren’t and guess how fast that stuff will be taken from you unless you have your receipts.


75 posted on 03/08/2010 11:29:08 AM PST by Secret Agent Man (I'd like to tell you, but then I'd have to kill you.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 59 | View Replies]

To: Eagle Eye

“If one is not prepared to use 6 then 6000 is pointless.”

Of all of the considered advise and/or opinions provided within this thread... those words ring the truest. ;>)


76 posted on 03/08/2010 11:43:52 AM PST by Gator113 (I do not want Obama IMPEACHED... I want him IMPRISONED.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 40 | View Replies]

To: bestintxas

So, you’re saying that I really DID need to use a sarcasm tag? :)


77 posted on 03/08/2010 11:56:52 AM PST by OKSooner
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 67 | View Replies]

To: dagogo redux

Great replies, y’all. Thanks!


78 posted on 03/08/2010 12:42:06 PM PST by dagogo redux (A whiff of primitive spirits in the air, harbingers of an impending descent into the feral.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: GonzoGOP

Excellent points -one basic consideration to think about would be to plan for a couple different scenarios – Staying in place, bugging out in a vehicle or bugging out on foot – depending on what’s happening.

Having plan for each one of those scenarios would probably be one of the best ways to get ready.

The point about the food is also very important – no one knows When something might happen, or What might happen.

Buying non-perishables that would normally eat and rotating them through you supplies is a good way of making sure you are ready at all times and that they have the longest shelf life.


79 posted on 03/08/2010 12:50:59 PM PST by BerserkPatriot (There are no 1st Amendment rights without 2nd Amendment Rights)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 74 | View Replies]

To: OKSooner

Yep, if you’re from Oklahoma


80 posted on 03/08/2010 1:32:16 PM PST by bestintxas
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 77 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 41-6061-8081-100 ... 121 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
Bloggers & Personal
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson