Ammunition – how much is too much?

So, I’ve got a buddy who has several thousand rounds of many different calibers. I think this is a lot. Then I find out another buddy has over 20k of rounds. Again, many calibers.

So my question. I just ordered 250 rounds of 9mm last night. Figure I’ll probably buy another 500 in the next week. I can’t find much for .380 out there right now that isn’t over priced. But I’d like to get another 250 of that.

To me, that seems like A LOT of rounds. However, like anything, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Not that I expect anyone to share publicly their counts, but what do you consider “A LOT” of ammo?

I know of a guy on AR15 .com that does full auto shoots and has a pallet of ammo at his place. But he also has you buy ammo from him when you rent he weapons at a shoot.

That being said I know with My Dillon 650 I could easily put out 1000 rounds in a couple hours if I wanted. But I don’t need that many.

I think that number will depend on how soon you think this country is going in the toilet, or the anti-gun people get their way.

Nut

When there’s talk of bans, ammo taxes and high prices I cant seem to get enough ammo while its cheap. When I feel everything is normal and I can get what I want from the store I dont feel like hoarding. Right now I have about 900 rounds of 5.56 with an additional 300 on the way. Maybe 600 in 9mm and only a few boxes of .40 This doesnt count .22, shot or buck.

More than I have ever considered having before. I only have it so I an enjoy shooting as long into the future as possible.

I’ve asked this question, and been asked the same..a lot, and more so recently. I also have friends with caches in the thousands. A close friend of mine shoots for Glock, and he told me once he stopped counting at 100,000 for 9mm !!
It really depends on use/purpose. I personally have (and I just counted) 450 rounds of 10mm, and in the neighborhood of 1500 for .40 cal. I only have one 10mm currently, so I can live with that especially with the price of that stuff. For the .40, I feel like I am about where I would like to be, considering I have 3 Glock.40s and a KelTec sub2000 which takes .40, and glock mags. For better or for worse, I’ve sold a lot of handguns off, or traded them in, to try to maintain just a couple of calibers rather than worry about having “plenty” of each in the ammo department.

I’ve decided to hang my hat on the 9MM caliber for now. I may get into the 40’s down the road. That gun will be a non-CC. Right now, I’m just starting to build my arsenal I guess. I sure appreciate your perspective and opinions!

Just bought 500 9mm. Have 1000 40s plus all my trap loads and waterfowl loads and my loads for pheasant hunting.I plan on buying more every week until my annual allowance is used up.

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So, I’ve got a buddy who has several thousand rounds of many different calibers. I think this is a lot. Then I find out another buddy has over 20k of rounds. Again, many calibers.

So my question. I just ordered 250 rounds of 9mm last night. Figure I’ll probably buy another 500 in the next week. I can’t find much for .380 out there right now that isn’t over priced. But I’d like to get another 250 of that.

To me, that seems like A LOT of rounds. However, like anything, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Not that I expect anyone to share publicly their counts, but what do you consider “A LOT” of ammo?

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For me the answer is whatever quantity gives me peace of mind and I have not attained that yet!

Wow, there are people out there with an addiction like mine. Glad to know I’m not alone

Randy you can never have too much ammo when your pushing 50 and have aquired guns your whole life,belong to a gun club,shoot every other week and work for an ammo manufacturer you may have a little ammo for your hobbys.

Hey guys ammo manufacturing is running flat out 100% staffed balls to the walls, most american ammo manufacturers are backordered 300-500 million dollars and this went up since Sandyhook. We live in a very volatile market again there is going to be shortages of things near major metro areas.From what I have heard it is easier to find guns etc the further you get away from the twin cities.

I have about 100 for my one and only 9mm, and now I am nervous about it !

As long as it is stored properly I don’t beleive I can ever have too much ammo. Its like every thing else the more you have the more you want!

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Randy you can never have too much ammo when your pushing 50 and have aquired guns your whole life,belong to a gun club,shoot every other week and work for an ammo manufacturer you may have a little ammo for your hobbys.

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Gotta love the employee discount at the Fed plant. Couple of friends work there.

My dad taught me when I was young, to buy ammo whenever it was on sale because it never gets cheaper. Ammo always goes up and so I stock piled a little bit as a youngster but most of that is gone. I started stocking up again about 10 years ago and with all calibers combined, I’m nearing 10,000 rounds. My initial thought was to have ammo for hunting until I’m dead. Just stop buying one day because I have enough. I’ve been calculating the possibilities and I need a lot more if I do ANY recreational shooting but not much more for just hunting. Of all the hunting, I need more for prairie dogs and coyotes. More 9mm too. I’m afraid to do any plinking because I’m under 1000 rounds. Ammo disappears quickly when you just start pulling the trigger on targets!

Well, after range shooting, and shooting a couple deer I have 12 300 win mag rounds left out of a box of 20. I have 3 boxes left out of a case of duck loads from this past season. I do have about 1000 rounds for my Ruger 10/22 though. haha

Shopping for ammo right now is very frustrating. Can’t find much of anything on the shelves and online prices are outrageous.

Adding to the frustration is that everything is so hit/miss as far as supply. Granted, it’s far more “miss” than “hit” these days, but here’s an example.

– I was in Gander in Woodbury 2 weeks ago and they had a pallet load of bulk .223 ammo. Now this is cheap bulk pack promo stuff, but still it was there. I think it was 500 or 750 round boxes.

They also had a good selection of bulk packs of .22 rimfire. Both a 1200 round bucket and like 400 round Federal packs.

But I was looking for heavy coyote shotgun loads. And they had not much if anything.

– Fast forward to yesterday and there I am again. This time there wasn’t a round of .223 ammo anywhere except for the super-primo $$$ a box stuff. No bulk packs that I could see, nothing.

And almost nothing for .22 except again the primo stuff. But they had a great selection of heavy shot for coyotes.

Basically, you can’t count on anything, but it’s not that there’s NO supply out there. Some shelves are full, but it’s the “full of what” that’s the issue.

Now reloading components are simple. Simple as in there is NOTHING available anywhere. And you can’t really get lucky and stumble upon a supply of something because finding powder doesn’t help if you need primers, etc.

The bitter irony is that all this panic buying of ammo is completely unnecessary. No proposals either on the Federal or State level have suggested full-on bans on ammo or components.

Grouse

I picked up 700 rounds of .22 lr today at Gander in Eden Prairie. I emptied the shelf of the last “cheap” Remmington stuff they had. This should last me long enough to get through this craze.

I also picked up a 100 rounds of Winchester .40. It was $4.00 more than I saw it at Cabelas recently, but it would cost me more than that to drive there and back home. It’s enough to start to break in the new XD.

Overall, Gander had more ammo than I anticipated, but it was definitely picked over. A new cart of ammo was being pushed out to stock the shelves. I and a few others acted like feeding wolves and snarled at each other as we made sure there was nothing on the cart we wanted. Normally when I visit this store over the lunch hour there are less than 10 cars in the parking lot. Not today. Lots of guys in the ammo area.