Posted on 03/07/2009 1:12:42 AM PST by marktwain
This is my ammo stock. Most of it was acquired 8-10 years ago when ammo compared to today’s prices was very cheap. I have stocked here; .177 pellets and BB’s, 22 rimfire, 38 special, 9mm, .223, .308 and 12 gauge.
A common question is; how much ammo should I store for SHTF?
First, several questions need to be asked.
1. Exactly what are you storing it for? For the Survivalist, it is food gathering (hunting) and home or self-defense.
2. How long will the situation causing the need last? Let’s assume TSHTF and commonsense says it will be 5 years. So for a baseline let’s use a five (5) year SHTF time frame.
3. Could buying and storing ammo be a legitimate investment like gold? Yes and very likely as a barter item for stuff you may need and can’t buy. In my case yes, it has because most was bought 8-10 years ago when .223’s were $125/1,000.
Let’s look at the food gathering ammo needed for five (5) years.
Hunting Large Game; Using a centerfire rifle or a shotgun using slugs: (stock 180 rounds)
Your centerfire hunting rifle or the very capable shotgun really doesn’t need a large amount of cartridges if used for larger animal food gathering. If you live in a game rich area and depending on the size of your family or group, you may take 2-6 deer or similar sized game per year. Another point about large game harvesting. To make it last you must have refrigeration or be skilled at preserving it with other means like salting or canning.
Let’s assume you know how to hunt game and the worst case is 3 shots for the kill or three rounds per animal. At the kill/ammo rate mentioned that’s 18 cartridges a year for six animals. For five years of hunting that’s only 90 rounds!
Now let’s say Murphy’s Law is around so things aren’t going to be perfect and the kill shot attempts are many due to long distances and misses are likely. Or something you really didn’t plan on, relatives who didn’t prep move in and now you have to feed them also. So for a backup amount my preference would be to store 2x the perfect amount (90) or 180 rounds for the five years.
Hunting Small Game; Using a shotgun with #6 shot: (stock 3,000 rounds of #6 shot)
Shotguns are the ultimate and most productive food gathering tool. From rabbits and squirrels to birds and deer you just can’t beat this gun. With a shotgun you may have to hunt 2-3 times per week or about 150 hunts per year. If you use 2 rounds per hunting day, that’s 300 rounds per year or for five years 1,500 rounds!
My preferred shot size is #6 for small game and birds because the bb’s are large enough to kill quickly and there are fewer of them so you tend not to destroy the meat with many smaller hits. I don’t try and stock specific shot sizes for specific game, it will add considerably to the cost of your stock and is basically a waste of your money.
Using my 2x rule that comes to 600 shot shells per year or for 5 years is 3,000 rounds to store. Kind of a surprising amount isn’t it!
Hunting Small Game; Using a 22 rimfire: (stock 3,000 rounds)
The 22 is a great small game rifle. Accurate out to 75 yards they are the most inexpensive food gathering tools you can own and use. Using the same hunting scenario as the shot gun, 150 hunts per year, you need to store 3,000 rounds for a five year period.
Personal Defense, Concealed Carry Hand Guns; For your primary pistol caliber: (stock 1,000 rounds)
Hand guns are necessary during SHTF. They are for concealed carry for immediate protection or to get you safely back to your home or to suitable defense weapons. Calibers can be any of the most common like the 38 special, 9mm, 40 cal and 45 cal. Because these are so common they have good prices on this ammo so it’s easy and cheap to stock up on enough to meet your needs.
It is difficult to come up with an amount to stock because the hand gun is mainly for defense so it shouldn’t be used much if at all. So for some target practice I would think 200 rounds per year would be good or 1,000 rounds for five years.
Home Defense; Centerfire Rifles, Carbines or Shotguns: (stock the amount that gives you comfort)
Let’s hope this need never materializes, but it can. Remember Watts, New Orleans after Katrina and other cities that the so called underprivileged or unprepared go nuts! If you are counting on the overpaid and incompetent police force to help you during this time forget it, they will be nowhere to be found and you’re on your own!
This is a situation that you must thoughtfully review multiple scenarios of attacks against your home and how you would counter them.
Here where I live, we average a murder every two days, some are drive-bys firing through the walls of a house and killing kids in their beds. My point here is the walls of your home don’t stop bullets so what would you do for cover? Think about it!
So how much ammo should you stock form home defense? Hard to say but the amount chosen for each weapon you have should give you comfort.
If you have been to the range lately, you probably have noticed that we are no longer a nation of marksmen! Most of the ammo that is used in the course of a hunting season ends up in trees or in the dirt so the game may last a little longer than projected.
You said — “Answer: It depends if you can hit the target on the first try or the 100th try.”
Well, if it’s the Chinese or the Muslims who are the targets, who are “coming to get you” — then you’re gonna need a lot of ammo, even if you hit them on the first shot... LOL...
It has been shown that damn near every famine in the 20th century was man made. Two examples; Ukraine in the 1930s and Bangladesh in the 70s.
Ahhh..., the good ole Heartland...
The amount of ammo a person needs is the amount they don’t blab about on the internet for all the intelligence agencies and gun grabbers to see.
South central Iowa/North Central Missouri is a great area. Low, stable rural based population, two hours away from any city of size, rolling hills for terrain, lots of wooded areas to hide, good soil for growing, game aplenty. Unionville/Centerville region is a phenomenal place if you had to survive.
Another thing that is vitally important is consolidation of physical assets (i.e., find some people with whom you share a deep trust and prepare TOGETHER for the SHTF eventuality: Not only is there safety in numbers, but no one person has all the skills necessary for prolonged survival; thus it is essential that one forge a core group of talented [i.e., useful] people and work together. The number need not exceed 10 - 12 people).
Look at northern Arizona where you have four dark-red counties (Mohave, Coconino, Yavapai, and Navajo.) If our counties were the size of those in the East, you'd have five tiny red spots encompassing the cities of Kingman, Prescott, Flagstaff, Holbrook, and Show Low-Pinetop-Lakeside. Most of the rest would be white empty space like you see in the Great Plains, spread over an area almost as large as New England.
The same is true of the southern counties in Arizona, and many of the large counties of New Mexico, Nevada, and even California.
-ccm
I just noticed this. A better description would be "percussion muzzle-loading shotguns".
Over 80% of the people in this country live in cities. They (mostly) have no guns or the ability to use them. If the SHTF they will sit in their dwellings and wait for the government (0bama) to rescue them. Most of them will be dead withen 7 days. The survivors, ie: those who DO have guns, will then go out into the country to try to survive by stealing from those that live in the country. They will be in for a rude awakening when they discover that their intended victims, unlike their urban counterparts, actually have firearms and know how to use them.
After the remaining city dwellers are dispatched there will be plenty of game for the country folk. Those that live in the suburbs and have a place to go need to get out as soon as the SHTF. The hard part will be knowing when that is.
My family lived in Phoenix before the days of air conditioning. People who had to stay there for the summer slept on their porches, surrounded by wet bedsheets. Even a 100+ degree temperature can be remarkably comfortable after dark in the bone-dry desert, if you have evaporative cooling and a pool.
Often, the wife and kids were sent to San Diego or to a cabin in the high northern part of the state for the summer, while the men remained in town to tend to business and joined their families on weekends. A few hardy prostitutes did a roaring business during the week.
-ccm
Well said. As a matter of fact, I'm off to the range to shoot my last box of .45 ACP this very day.
-ccm
Good analysis, Ccmay.
Examples:
Eddy County New Mexico - population about 45,000, area about 4000 square miles.
Anderson County Tennessee - population about 45,000, area about 450 square miles.
I don’t have any.
And the knowledge of the terrain. It is sad that I have considered such things as choke points, where crossfires from above will be horrific, but then again, I'm not a person who wanted to see society in pieces; I didn't want "change"...
I think I have found a use for empty three liter soda bottles - water storage. I now have quite a collection.
Good idea?
How much? As much as you can buy and store.
I hope everyone knows that US military (steel) ammo boxes have rubber gaskets in the lids. I took mine (empty) and did a backyard garden hose test - no leaks.
If the gasket is missing don’t buy it,
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