Planning your ammunition needs

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DeaconKC

DeaconKC

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Many folks try to make sure they have plenty of ammo on hand, and I hear other people say they will depend on using the common cartridges. If you fall into the latter category, remember the days after the Sandy Hook shooting when .22, 9x19 and .223 were almost nonexistent. Please include this in your calculations and remember those days.
 
Of note: Federal currently has a very large sale on ammo. Up to $500.00 Mail-in REBATE.
 
I currently try to limit the number of calibers I own. And stock as deep as I can. At some point I pick up a new caliber and then focus on it till a decent supply is built up. Caliber stock is dependent on what the expected needs for the given firearm is. For example, Shotgun round are spread among everything from #8 to slugs.
 
Youngest Son has access to unwanted range brass. For each three unprimed pieces he receives from me one reload in the same caliber. Allows him to keep his skills up and have a nice inventory without taking from the family budget.

40 S&W and 5.56 are our primary calibers.
 
Thats a good deal LazyL.

One thing I have done is pick up reloading supplies for everything I own except .22. Also stock up on supplies for my stepdads calibers. Starting to get stuff for calibers I'm looking at for the future. Kinda beat the rush you know.
 
Bacpacker said:
Thats a good deal LazyL.

One thing I have done is pick up reloading supplies for everything I own except .22. Also stock up on supplies for my stepdads calibers. Starting to get stuff for calibers I'm looking at for the future. Kinda beat the rush you know.
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Yep, same here. Buy reloading componts when prices are low and qualities to carry though when prices are high.
 
Keep lots of ammo "Cached" away from the primary residence. You may only escape the residence with a very small amount of ammo. Especially if give 15 minutes to have evacuated the property. Fireproof gun safes melted in last years California wild fires.
 
I don't intentionally try to limit my calibers, but if I have a choice, I will pick the more common, older, more widely available choice.

Example: A few years back I was looking for a long range target rifle. There are plenty of exotic calibers for that, but I narrowed my choices down to .308Win and 6.5Creedmore. I chose .308. Arguably, you can reach out farther with 6.5, and it is more "in" than .308 these days - but .308 is good to a bit over 1000 yards with the 175gr bullets. The longest range I have access to is 1000 yards. Anything above that, where would I shoot it anyway? I reload, but if I had to buy ammo off the shelf, .308 is cheaper than 6.5, and you find a wider variety (although Gold Medal Match is the only thing I purchase for that .308 - no need to venture beyond that for commercial .308 ammo IMHO). At least the cost difference between .308 and 6.5 was true a few years ago when I bought the .308.

As far as long term stockpiles, I buy tons of 9mm and .223. Those are not worth reloading because they are so cheap. .22LR I have two types - high quality target ammo (most of what I shoot), plus lots of bulk stuff for SHTF - 10's of thousands of rounds. The bulk stuff is mostly CCI MiniMags, Aguila Super Extra and Blazer - I don't mess with junk like ThunderDuds, BucketOfBullets, etc - it's just not worth it, no matter how cheap it is. Other centerfire calibers, both handgun and rifle, I stockpile components for - brass, primers, bullets, powder. I have dies and equipment to reload just about every caliber I shoot. If I need it, I can make it. I buy powders specifically for the target rounds I reload, but for everything else I choose more generic powders that will work across a wide range of calibers - W231, Bullseye, TiteGroup, Unique, TrailDust, etc. You get more rounds for your money buying components rather than finished ammo. I also buy lots of cans of things like 7.62x39, 7.62x54R and 8mm Mauser because those are sealed and will last dang near indefinitely. Cans of 8mm are getting harder to find these days though. But I like that Mauser the best of my "old military" rifles. Well, actually it's tied with the .30 Carbine, which is a real hoot to shoot.
 
I've got the components for most everything I shoot and enough loaded to keep me making noise for awhile.
 
I like to keep a minimum of 3 years supply of ammo for each gun. Then I have a supply of reloading components to have as much capability to load more for another three years.
I have a fondness for "orphaned" cartridges. You know, the cartridges that are even hard to find online. Some of the ones I have are 7mm TCU, 257 Roberts, 6mm x 52, and 358 Winchester. The hardest to find are the 257 Roberts because even parent cartridges (7 and 8mm Mauser) are hard to come by. The rest can be easily formed from common cartridges.
 
Buy more Ammo!
Its never going to be as cheap as this again!

My prepper group specializes in 5.56mm for Tactical rifle where most of our stashing sits.
Supporting caliber is 9mm since its cheap (for our handguns but this involves much lower volumes than .223/5.56 since rifle >> handgun).

Of lesser importance but still present are also our Revolvers (GP100 in stainless). These are basically forever guns to train up noobs years in the future on this simple firearm .... and since they are tolerant to "off" reloading loads and accept low quality ammo AND can take both 38 SPC and .357 Magnum might be a good firearm to use any found older stashes (these 2 used to be the most popular hand gun calibers in the USA and I strongly suspect there will be huge stashes still to be found of these in post-Apoc).
But we do not stash them deeply since 9mm is so much cheaper.
 
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I seem to collect the .30 cal guns. It wasn't planned but one day I realised what was happening. My first .30 cal is a Model 94 in .30WCF. The nice thing is that with a selection of bullet weights I can roll my own for almost any round of that size.

I like my Security Six in .357 Magnum. It will fire the .38 Special and the oft forgotten .38 S&W. I bought out a couple of estates from reloaders so I have dies and components for guns that I don't own. I could do a fair bit of trading should the need arise.
 
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