A million rounds of ammo. No – a billion rounds of ammo, including cartridges you don’t own firearms for. Stick cases of .30 Thompson Center in your car’s trunk for added traction in snow. Feed .357 SIG to your cat. Inform your wife that you can never retire, because you just rolled over your 401(k) into WWI surplus .303 British. If you can still enter your home, then you don’t have enough AMMO!
That’s the kind of advice you might expect to get from a guy who schills ammo for a living. That said, I’m still a real guy and we all only have so cash to spend on ammo, and no warehouse to store it in.
But we also don’t like the thought of being caught with your pants around your ankles during a real emergency, e.g. complete societal collapse, a foreign invasion, or the installation of a political regime which encourages violence against you. That’s why you find yourself asking one of life’s greatest questions:
How Much Ammo Should You Stockpile?
As much as you believe to be reasonable, and as much as you can comfortably afford and safely store in your home.
That’s the vague answer to the great question. Keep it in mind as you continue on to more specific figures, because everyone’s budget and capacity for ammunition is unique. If you live in a double-wide, then you’d probably do well to stack up slightly less 5.56 NATO than, say, a resident of the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh.
How Much Ammo Do Experts Say You Should Stockpile?
How many rounds do you need? While answering this question for yourself, famed firearm instructor Massad Ayoob advises you to recall recent events that made ammo nearly impossible to purchase: Y2K, the election of Barack Obama, the anti-gun media frenzy that followed Sandy Hook, and the pandemic. He also implores you to buy enough ammo now so you can continue plinking, training, and hunting just as you’re accustomed to during a prolonged shortage.
“Buy it cheap, and stack it deep,” says Ayoob. “Determine what your particular needs are. Plan ahead. Be aware of what we call the ‘ammo droughts’, which have happened so many times in the last 25 years. You want to be prepared for it. Don’t wait until the day comes when toilet paper disappears from the shopping center and ammunition disappears from the gun shop. Have enough. The ammunition is like the gun itself. It’s better to have and not need than to need and not have.
“I know that was a vague and ambiguous answer. But the fact is, I was dealing with a vague and ambiguous question.”
Ayoob’s advice is characteristically solid: buy enough ammo so you can continue living as you normally would if ammo were freely (so to speak) available. It’s especially sound advice in light of the fact that your ammo will easily outlast your expected lifespan so long as you store it correctly (i.e., safe from sunlight, temperature fluctuations, and moisture).
How Much Ammo Should You Really Stockpile, Exactly?
You probably haven’t chosen to stockpile ammo just so you can weather a temporary shortage. You want to ensure that you’ll stay able to defend yourself and your own after S has truly HTF. You also want to feed yourself and your own once McDonald’s is no longer serving McNuggets.
Such concerns call for concrete numbers – actual quantities that assure you would have enough firepower to withstand a zombie apocalypse.
Bearing in mind that there is no ideal, one-size-fits-all set amount, a realistic goal to shoot for is 10,000 rounds for each type of firearm you own. That means 10,000 rounds of 9mm Luger for the Glock 19, SIG P365 and CZ Scorpion; 10,000 rounds of 5.56 NATO for the Ruger Mini-14 and AR-15; and 10,000 rounds of 12 Gauge for the Remington 870 (assuming it’s not a 20 Gauge 870).
There’s no real science behind the 10,000 rounds per chamber type. It’s just a satisfactorily large, round and even quantity, and one you’re unlikely to ever need. Do not exceed this quantity unless you are already very confident in your other survival requisites. One million rounds of .40 S&W will be of little consolation if you haven’t also got water.
How Much Ammo Should You Carry on Your Person During an Emergency?
What if a crisis forces you to abandon your homestead in favor of a location that is less imminently lethal? How much ammo should you carry on foot? Not tens of thousands of rounds, obviously. There’d be no room left in your pockets for snacks.
We defer to the authorities on this matter, the chief one being the U.S. Marines. If you were a Marine – and you were armed with an M27 Infantry Automatic Rifle – then you would carry at least seven magazines loaded with 30 rounds 5.56 NATO apiece. That’s around 7.4 pounds, which may not sound like much, but which feels like plenty to a Marine who must carry at least 45 pounds of other gear during a mission. You’ll feel similarly burdened if you must ever flee your home on foot whilst carrying essentials in addition to your AR-15.
What about backup pistol magazines? Police are typically limited to three magazines: one in the pistol, two on the belt. Naturally, this limitation is partly due to optics. Citizens generally don’t enjoy seeing cops who are covered head to toe in materiel. But U.S. soldiers also (usually) carry three pistol magazines total, too, which leads us to conclude that it’s a good benchmark for SHTF everyday carry as well.
Again, consider the amount of ammo you’ll want to carry in light of the fact that you’ll also have to lug around food, water filtration, blankets, and other emergency preparedness paraphernalia. The goal is to survive – not give yourself a hernia.
The Takeaway
Stockpile enough ammo so you could carry on as usual throughout the course of a long ammo drought. If you want a more specific benchmark, aim for 10,000 rounds of each ammo type your arsenal allows you to fire. If you’re setting out on foot during a crisis, then you may wish to carry a Marine’s loadout of 210 rounds of rifle ammo and three magazines worth of pistol ammo.
Jack Neal - CheapAmmo.com
