How Much is Enough? - Realistic Preparation

[Suvorov]

7 30 round magazines will leave you with 210 rounds. Load the mags with 28 and you have 196 rounds - one battle pack.

You know, after 3 semesters of calculus and 2 of Diff Equations, you would think I wouldn't have screwed up simple math

[Lee F. Smith]

I was thinking at least 4 digits of every cal. I own, but for buggn' out... I guess I would check with the neighbors and see how long they wanted to live..divide by the number of miles per meal as ratio of back strengh ...

[lehn20]

If SHTF, you better have on you what you need then and there. You cant depend on getting to your car for your BOK or get to your house for your loadout.
Murphy's law..............
Off course everyone should be prepared but the best weapon is your mind.
Always have plans for disasters etc. Practice scenarios etc. Make sure your family is on the same page.

[elSquid]

I read an account of a soldier that was part of the landing at Omaha Beach. For that, plus three days of fighting afterwards he had about 100 rounds, and he felt that it was enough.



-- Michael

[dustoff31]

200 rounds for my main rifle should take care of everything I will face in the CONUS... if I need more, I am sure I will be able to pick up extra ammo "off the ground" at that point.

Yep. Either that or you've got problems that more ammo isn't going to solve.

[!@#$]

you live in the bay area and think you will bug out.

if you need your guns others will be using theirs you will not get far.

[Matt C]

You don't even need ammo, just a S&W M29... Do ya feel lucky?!?!?

[randy]

I always get sucked into reading these bug out SHTF threads. I've got a 1k per gun, I'd take my rifle, shotgun and pistol, I'd take my 300 WSSM for hunting and my ar for cqb plus my shotgun for birds and my pistol because I don't already have enough crap to carry.

If your bug out bag isn't in your car you don't have anything.

If you are 50 miles from home and your bug out kit isn't going to do you any good.

You can stuff your house full of guns, ammo, food, water whatever. It's not going to do you any good if you can't get to it.

How about what you are going to do if you are 50 miles away from home?

What would you do? You have to travel through indian country no cars because of grid lock/ downed bridges/ overpasses.
No power so no more gas just what's in your tank. You work in corp america so you come to work in a suit and tie, not your bdu's. It's a hot spell tripple didgets or its a serious cold spell snow on the Newhall pass.

You didn't make it to the bank so you don't have any cash, no phones. Your wife / kids are at work/school you are 50 miles away.

Now what are you going to have in your bug out bag? What guns are you going to have in the trunk of your car all the time? Remember where you park at work has a no firearms sign at the entrance to the parking lot.

[Suvorov]

Thanks for the replies guys - as I stated in the first thread - I'm not asking about full blown SHTF. I'm just asking how much ammo would be wise to set aside in the event of a LA Riot/NOL Katrina scenario, not a full blown SHTF UN troops and black helicopters assisting the undead zombie hoards. As for bugging out, I was thinking along the lines of forced evacuation. It was not intended to be a SHTF thread, my apologies if it seemed that way.

Realistically, it seems that about 500 rounds of primary rifle ammo, 100-200 rounds of shotgun ammo, and 100-200 rounds of pistol ammo would be more than enough?

[vandal]

Keep a ton at home. Have an ammo can and a bugout bag with a few loaded mags that you can grab if you decide to drive out - ~600 rounds or so. If you have to abandon the car and continue on foot, take just the bugout bag... 100 rounds or so. If you have to drop the bugout bag (too heavy?) then keep one mag in a mag pouch on the belt (30 rounds). If you have to drop the long gun, then you have your handgun, 30 rds total. If you have to drop the handgun, you have your knife clipped to your pants. If you have to drop your pants... well... you didn't make it out of San Francisco!

FWIW I don't have much use for the shotgun once you step out your front door.

[Rob454]

You can only carry so much stuff. I would worry about ammo aid kit and water/small mess kit. Food you can get from anywhere. Yeah it may be disgusting but you can get it. Rats birds snakes etc.Only thing is ammo starts to get heavy. I carry the ammo in empty mayonaise jars. If they get wet it wont matter the jars seal really nicely and they are tough plastic. I cant imagine the mess with all the ammo in a cardboard box. i can stack jars in the middle of the pack and balance out my load . I filled up a jar with 45 ammo and it took about 300 rounds to fill it up. the 9mm 300 rounds will fill it a little over 1/2 full and 44 mag ammo took abotu 250 rounds to fill it. I guess if you were to hand stack them you can probably get more in there. rifle ammo I would keep in boxes and wrap them in Ziploc bags. I woudl carry more ammo for my primary weapon than any other weapon. Thats what youre gonna do most of your fighting with. the pistol is a secondary ( pull it out if I cant reload my primary to keep your noggin down) or simply a last ditch effort IMO. If youre buggin out in a car take as much as you can carry but if youre on foot youre limited. besides most people THINK chey can hike with 50 pound packs but most people are simply NOT physically ready or trained to do that. 50 pounds doesnt sound like much but after its all said and done be ready for abotu 80-100 pound packs. and besides you can really only carry so much so i would look strictly into a what is needed.youll get tired of carrying all that stuff and youre either gonna take a lot of breaks ( until you get used to the weight) or youll start dumping crap. I woudl also try to carry mainstream ammo and guns. 7.62, 9mm 45 357 30-06 30 30 etc. No point in carrying some exotic rifle that can shoot a gnats *** off at 1200 meters if you cant find ammo for it.

[rem7600]

I allways look for sales big5 wal-mart and even turners , but no matter what i allways buy atleast 2 boxes of ammo a week ,for one or two of my guns,and i wont stop till i have a grip of ammo for every gun i own!

[savs2k]

200 rounds for a pistol is a good start, 100 shotgun, and how ever much else you can hold for a rifle. At the moment i only have 300 rounds of 9mm, one box of .45 for my new 1911 and 1 box of shells for my mossy that i pick up soon. I should start stocking up. I had 250+ rounds for my ar that i sold and that was the min that i would carry for it

[CAL.BAR]

How Much ammo

Well as a history major back in college, I always look to the last big historical event - so.... ask the folks in Louisianna who had their guns taken from them by the police before they could fire a shot. Just how long do you think you will be left to blaze away before the cops come by?

[RANDO]

1 round for every 5th person in the city you live in