Right amount of ammo

Can you guess what caliber these are?  Scroll to the bottom of the article to see the answer?

The right amount of ammo depends on what you want to be prepared for. For example:

1. Target Practice - 100 - 300 rounds per shooter.
2. Home Security - 100 hollow points per shooter
3. Serious Event lasting a week or two - have at least 4-500 rounds per shooter.
4. Major Event lasting months - 1000+ rounds per shooter
5. Event lasting years - 10,000+ rounds per shooter

Its hard to have too much ammo. The way prices are increasing, Ammo gives a better return than gold does and is valuable for barter. So lets discuss ammo consumption for a moment. First, it is heavy to pack and carry so you don't want to waste it, especially when out on patrol where resupply is far away.  Having ammo caches stashed in strategic locations is a good idea especially when traveling light and fast.

Ammo consumption based on actual experience can run higher than expected, with cover fire using the most for a short period.  In this case, the number of full magazines becomes important.  With a standard two taps (shots) per target, you would be firing once every 60 seconds (tap tap) to use 120 rounds per hour which is light gunfire exchange.  Imagine this occurring as attackers are moving in to position getting ready to attack, possibly near the limits of your guns range, and you are firing to prevent this from happening. Note that two taps increases the chance of hitting the target and makes it harder to detect the shooters location by sound due to the echo effect.

Heavy battle with two taps every 18 seconds would use 400/hour.  Imagine this occurring when there is a tactical assault on your retreat in progress. The average would be about 200 rounds per hour.  So 1,000 rounds of ammo is about 5 hours worth in a battle for 1 person.   

A minimum starting goal of 400 rifle rounds would permit us to hold out for at least 1 hour of heavy battle, 2 hours of average combat and about 4 hours of light gunfire exchange.  Rapid fire for cover or as an aggressive defense will consume ammo at a higher rate, with the limit being your reloading speed. This is where 10,000 rounds of low cost .22 caliber ammo with several high capacity magazines would come in handy.

So the question to ask, is how many hours do you want to be able to defend yourself?  Multiply that times 200 and that is how much ammo you need for each person, plus about 10,000 rounds of 22 Long Rifle hollow points.

Realize that in the multi-year catastrophic event scenario, causalities of 75% (or more) are possible.  This will leave ample firearms available, but the limited ammo for them will be exhausted trying to defend against gangs and looters. For this reason, it is better to buy more ammo for the guns you have rather than buy more guns, especially after you have a battle rifle and a side arm for each person and preferably two 12 gauge shotguns and 22 rifles for each group.

Ammo needed per person = hours of battle expected X 200

Now that this question has been answered, do you know the answer to what caliber the bullets are in the above picture?  Scroll down to the bottom for the answer. 

For additional information see the following links:

Blog Table of Contents

NRA Gun Safety Rules

Beginner Prepper List

The Best Gun

Advanced Prepper Resource

OK, here is the key to the picture above:

1. 12 ga
2. AA Battery
3. 454 Casul
4. 45 Winchester Magnum
5. 44 Remington Magnum
6. .357 Magnum
7. .38 Special
8. .45 ACP
9. 38 Super
10. 9mm
11. 32 ACP
12. 22 Long Rifle

This picture is mainly pistol rounds, but battle rifle rounds like the common AR .223/5.56, .308/7.62 x 51 and the AK-47 - 7.62 x 39 are what you need to have most of, plus a thousand pistol rounds in 45 ACP, 40 cal, 9mm or even .357 Magnum if you are someone who prefers the exceptional reliability of a revolver.

For additional information see the following links:

Blog Table of Contents