From an investment perspective, tread very lightly. There are signs that we've reached peak ammo prices, and if you buy today with the hope of reselling, you may take a huge bath.
As a prepper, there ain't no such thing as 'too much' ammunition. But just like food storage, your budget and your storage space will ultimately decide how much you end up with.
1,000 rounds of 9mm, 2,000 rounds of .22LR, and 1,000 rounds of 5.56 is plenty for me, unless I'm taking a class. Then I have a few hundred of my hunting calibers .30-30, .308, and .30-06, as well as a few hundred rounds of .38 spl and .357 Magnum for my wheel guns. And a few hundred rounds of 12 ga and 20 ga for my shotguns.
Ironically, even though I have this much on hand, I refuse to shoot it if I can't replace it, so I may as well not have any ammo right now.
Some contrary thoughts from the prepper standpoint.
- Any ammo left after you expire is a gift to the people who killed you.
- Conversely, if the adversaries expire, any ammo they haven’t expended is a gift to you.
With that in mind, ‘enough’ varies a lot depending on whether you’re talking street incident, home defense, extended service outage, or other scenario.
E.g. a WW2 liberator pistol holds one round, which is exactly how many you needed to get Jerry’s rifle.