Storing up ammo for ??????????

[Shadow]

I did not want to hijack the threads on storing ammo and guns so chose not to add to it.
Except for goverment work I have only used five rounds in bad circumstance. So in 52 years of concealed carry never needed thousands of rounds of ammo. My 45 carries 8 in the mag and one in the pipe the shoulder rig carries two spare combat master 8 round mags under the right arm, should be plenty, probably more than I could ever use in a fire fight.
If you are under attack and in a real fire fight sure trained military might use thousands of rounds. Normal people will not last long enough. Just how would you hold out against a few bad guys who know how to take turns advancing and giving cover fire. Give them a few granades swiped from a national guard armory or army post and you are dead meat for sure
Just how prepared are you for a loved one to catch a round. Its not near as neat as the movies and tv makes it out.
As for having thousands of rounds of ammo and stacks of weapons, forget it you will just be singled out as a nut job and the local law will be on your case in a heart beat.
The local fire dept will not fight a fire with ammo stored in any amount more than a box or so.
Your insurance will not cover fire or libilaty in the case of stored ammo.
Just keep your head down and low profile and you might not be noticed.
If the starving hoards show up at your door, go out the back
Have several different stores of food and other medicine
Most of all do not spend all your life preparing for stuff that may never happen and most of all know what you can prepare for and what you can't.
This from an ex survivalist, ex military, ex y2k er spent way too much time worrying about things that never happened.
Now I have about 45 days of medicine that I need really bad just to keep breathing, If every thing decends in to chaos lots of people will not live 30 days, with out their meds.
Best if we spend our energy trying to make things work, that is our only chance for us and our children.
Plant your gardens learn self suffecnetcy take care of your self and yours
learn every thing you possibly can about all types of homesteading, simple living with your neighbors and forget digging a bunker or building a fort or castle, none that I ever saw was still a good fortification. David

[arabian knight]

Boy do I agree with that 110% Some just focus so much on stuff that will never happen that they don't enjoy life, and what life can be for a person. Life is way more then spending all of a persons time spending it in hopes that something happens when indeed that happening may never ever take place and a person has wasted a lot of his or her time for nothing growing paranoid and old on top of it, for nothing.

[CocalicoSprings]

David,
Your thread is an important message. You need to get this out to the American people. You ought to be on TV.

[n2gardening]

Originally Posted by arabian knight

Boy do I agree with that 110% Some just focus so much on stuff that will never happen that they don't enjoy life, and what life can be for a person. Life is way more then spending all of a persons time spending it in hopes that something happens when indeed that happening may never ever take place and a person has wasted a lot of his or her time for nothing growing paranoid and old on top of it, for nothing.

It has nothing to do with paranoia. It is simply a matter of being prepared.

1. Unfortunately, there is a small part of society that wants to alter the rights and priveleges associated with our country's 2nd amendment....because of THEIR paranoia. So there are some who would like to continue to maintain their right to keep and bear arms...and ammo is a necessity.

2. There is a large group of our society who believe that our administration is in fact NOT helping the economic situation...and will likely in fact cause problems near or at "great depression" levels. These are the folks whom want to have ammunition stores to:

a. Protect and defend family and property
b. Be able to provide food for their family as the need arises.



I am neither wasting my life or wishing something terrible would happen. And you have made a terrible assumption thinking that the people whom fall in either category 1 or 2 are unhappy people. Moreover...I am certain you will find it to be the complete opposite.

[Old Vet]

I used mine to hunt with and target shooting. I also have a concealed carry permit and shoot year around to get good at it. 1000 rounds will last me about 2 years. I know several people that have a lot of guns and have more than 1000 rounds for each one of them. They are not worried about fire or anything else since they don't have insurance. To each his own.

[Chuck R.]

It really depends on what you're doing.

I finally managed to buy enough primers & powder to read about 14K in .45ACP and 2.5K in .223. The stockpiling craze is making it a real PITA to find primers and I finally found 10K large pistol primers on Friday. Last week I scored 5K in small rifle primers.

In my case it isn't stockpiling, just loading enough for this years matches and practice. I usually have 3-4K in .45ACP loaded at any given time because I reload in batches to save time switching the tooling around.

Chuck

[Anderson farms]

that's fine for you to feel that way. My dh and I like to hunt and we also do target shoots where you can go through 100 rounds pretty easily. We also have children that we hope will want to hunt and want to be sure we have the ammunition that they will be able to. Ammunition has more than tripled in the past few years and is not going to get any cheaper, especially with the legislation they want to and more than likely will pass, that will raise the price of ammo once again. I'm not hoarding for the depression that will probably happen, I just have the money now and want to stock up before I have to pay even more, or possibly not be able to get it anymore. Say what you will, but I am not a NUTJOB, as my family and I are also raising our own food and trying to be as self sufficient as possible. If you were a movie fan and they were going to ban movies, would you not go out and try to get a few of your favorite movies while you could? I will say and will keep saying, it is your choice if you don't want to own firearms and have ammunition, but don't criticize me for wanting to keep my firearms and be able to have ammunition to enjoy one of my hobbies as well as my 2nd amendment right.

[Sawmill Jim]

There are only two times you can have to much amo. If you are on fire or drowning

[Cabin Fever]

Originally Posted by Shadow

....So in 52 years of concealed carry never needed thousands of rounds of ammo. My 45 carries 8 in the mag and one in the pipe the shoulder rig carries two spare combat master 8 round mags under the right arm, should be plenty, probably more than I could ever use in a fire fight....

Many individuals I know, including myself, take the responsibility of concealed carry so seriously that we do a lot of practice. It is very common to use..on average...of a box of .45acp or more per month. That's 600 rounds per year. Many use a 1000 rds per year, just in practice.

[Rita]

Shadow, you say "take care of yourself and yours" well that's what most of us are trying to do in the way we think best and that includes being well armed.

[Razorback21]

Spending more time on firepower and ammo, and not enough on what I call "life skills" is not going to help you in any SHTF situation. There will always be someone with more guns and ammo than you. What firearms provide is a deterrence. A bear can probably kill a badger, but why should the bear risk potential injury fighting a beast that can defend itself for a period of time when you can just go to the stream and catch a salmon that won't put up a fight? That is what firearms provides.

Some survival sites seem to be all about firearms, ammo and hunting. That would be but a small part of survivial. Around here, our wild game would be gone within a year, if not sooner. What about gardening and livestock? Wouldn't that sustain you a lot longer?

[WindowOrMirror]

Depends on your "style", doesn't it?

If you intend to 'make a stand' at a retreat that is within driving distance of a major metro area, first rethink your strategy, but second, you'll need overlapping fields of fire, several people (read: 12-15), remote LP/OP (and more people), some longer range stuff, some semi-auto's for closer fire, and some trench guns/pistols... and lots of ammo. If, on the other hand, you have a fairly remote retreat without marked entrances and such, a good accurate rifle might be enough.. for the duration.

It amuses me when people take that last option though, bank on it, and don't train. That is, they have a tack-driver and 100 rounds, and they have that same 100 rounds in ten years. A tack-driver without a trained human is a club. A trained human is the result of human + competent and regular training. Training uses ammo, and regular training uses ammo at a fair pace. I might only 'need' 20 rounds for the duration of the 'outage' or emergency, but I will likely fire 35-100 rounds through that same rifle every year in training and hunting to stay sharp and to keep the sights aligned.

Someone who stays competent with a pistol might fire 100-500 rounds a year to stay sharp. In fact, someone who moves and shoots or qualifies each year could fire 500-1000 rounds a year in training.

You will do - in an emergency - what is natural to you. You have to train pretty regularly to make accurate shooting what you 'naturally' do.

R

P.S. Yes, firearms should come well after other retreat considerations. I chuckle when I hear people that have 25,000 rounds, five trained shooters, 25 rifles and no potable water stored.

[salmonslayer]

I enjoy hunting and shooting and keep a stock of ammo for those purposes and as stated by someone earlier; if I see something on sale I may stock up a thousand rounds or so. I am not too worried about the hoards coming over the wire but after 32 years in the military I like to be prepared for anything.

One thing though, you wont find any grenades or other explosives in National Guard armories other than CS. Explosives are tightly controled through ASPs and are used at ranges on major bases. Guard units also dont have a secret stash of ammo or explosives "in case of civil unrest" as is commonly believed.

[KimTN]

"If the starving hoards show up at your front door, go out the back." I don't think so. What will you do then? The truth is that no one is going to really risk a fire fight. It would be smarter for them to move on to easier targets. Large groups of people are not going to rush your house. One gets shot and they will all run. It's human nature to want to preserve your own life. No one is going to sacrifice themselves for the rest to eat. Also, you have to get close to toss a grenade, If you plan right, no one gets that close. Storing tons of ammo may be a little over board, but you do need to practice and have enough for a fight. My dad always taught me not to spray bullets. One good shot per person is all you need.

[PhilJohnson]

I have a stock pile myself, mostly because I like to shoot at the range. By buying it before it goes up to the point where I can't afford to shoot any more I can ensure that I can keep enjoying my hobby. Some people think nothing of blowing 300 bucks on a new game system and 50 bucks on a video game, or spending 50-100 bucks on Friday night down at the bar. I figure if I am going to blow my dough on something fun it might as well be useful too (I plan on hunting). The ammo I bought last year has doubled in price. If anything it is a good investment. I don't have any illusions of fighting off a hoard of rampaging hungry mobs. Like KimTN said, one shot is probably all you'll need. Best strategy is be some where that is either remote or know ones neighbors real well.

Another thing is I figure stock up now while I can, because later the option of even buying ammo may not exist. Also it never hurts to be in practice whether it is for self defense or hunting.

[Shadow]

1999 we dug in, organized trained stored up everything we could think we would need for Y2K. Food, canning supplies, seed, weapons, ammo fuel, spare parts, tools, generators, every thing a group of 15 could think of. We got out of the rental buisness and had the money. Total spent for buildings ect was well over 275,000. On January 1,2000 we felt kinda dumb. But we just this past winter had to buy toliet paper. We used the fuel, we are still using the buildings, ate the food, sold the weapons made a good profit, sold the 44 thousand rounds of ammo, sold the reloading equipment, still use the tools, sold all but one of the generators. Kept personal weapons and for the 45's we use a box of ammo each (me and the wife) for practice at least 5 or 6 times a year. Purchase these from a friend that loads commercial stuff for police depts. Two 12 guage Rem 1100 made for police by Remington with 8 shot tubes. a hunting shotgun and that is about it.
We probably recovered almost 200,000 dollars so it was not too bad. Plus we learned lots, One you can not depend on hunting for nothing. You never saw a fat indian before the white man came. We bought all the spare parts for the tractors that you could possibly need. While bushhogging two months lost a 7 dollar part that even the tractor dealer did not stock, in a true poo poo hits the fan situation we would have lost the tractor as even with the complete shop there was no substitute.
Main thing learned is the knowlege you have in your head would possibly get you through, in a true collapse of civilization if you survive the colloapse, things would go back as far as the 1830's, Forget the computers, electricity, vehicles, medicine. All the modern things most think they could not live with out. Information stored on hard drives would be unaccessable, Generators will only run at most 2,000 hours, before being completely worn out. and the gasoline will be bad in less time than you think. A good library is good but knowledge you have from doing is the only real way to go. You will not have time to learn because the first crop failure will probably kill you and yours.
And of the survivers one of four will die the first year because of lack of medicine they are now taking, Small children, birth to 10 will have less than a 50 percent chance to reach teenage, Get a cold, turns into pneumonia, and if you have any buisness with a persona who gets pneumonia you better see them with in 48 to 72 hours. Old age will be fifty, very few will make it even that far.
As one person said some time back he did not know what weapons world war three would be fought with but world war four would be fought with rocks and clubs.
The skills would fast disappear, no time to teach reading and writing will soon mean most will be unable to do either. Sorry but I really do not want to survive in that world. Just my opinion after being self sufficent for most of my life. Still am to a certain extent but know my limitations and as you get older you will see your limitations.
Have watched things go from bad to bad to bad every time wondering how long things could go on and its lasted longer than I ever thought it would. You younger people would have a better chance if it all went with a bang, but it won't The United States of America will go down hill for several years and finally end not with a bang but a long drawn out whimper. How depressing. David

[texican]

Shadow, you've been exceedingly lucky. Let's say, after a national emergency hits the country, and you find there are 26 bad people... and you only have 25 bullets... what do you do?

Or, tptb decide only officials certified by them should have access to ammunition, and you're not one of them. The box of shells you have must last you forever. What do you do?

I'd much rather have a couple cases of ammunition and not need it, than to need it, and not have it.

Get a fun loving smooth talking party in charge, with a history of loving slaves and hating free men, who champion common sense laws (which convert freemen into slaves), that want to ban firearms, and tax ammunition into oblivion.... and what do I do? You tell me I can't have something tomorrow, that's legal today, and I'll go out and get some more.

When I practice, it's usually several boxes at least... or a brick of .22's. I'd be plained scared of having the same bullets in my magazine for years at a time... I might go through a box, just sighting in a new round... and then another getting a 3, 4, or 500 yard zero marked in on a scope.

I store ammo for varmints, two legged and four legged, for game animals, for domestic animals, and zombies. Laugh if you will, but remember, when the zombies are munching on your brains,because of a politically correct stance on self defense and ammo storage, I'll still be shooting...and shooting...and shooting...

Oh, and I also keep some around for barter goods... folks that store gold for hard times might find life difficult if they don't keep some bullets around... let's see, that'll be a one ounce gold coin for this box of 30-30 shells. Until, I have exhausted my barter good bullets, and then no amount of gold will get the rest...

And, I buy as an investment. How are ya'll's 401K's a doing lately??? My ammo purchases last December have appreciated 40% in just three months. Let the socialists get all safetyized and tax or ban the goodies, and my investments should triple or more... Every single firearm and now ammo purchase I've ever made, has appreciated in value... some up to 300%, better than gold or silver... for they have real value in the real world...

[Anderson farms]

Shadow, take the tin foil hat off and step away from the computer!

This thread has me thinking that I need to go out tomorrow and buy some more ammo, since there seems to be more nutjobs out there than i thought that don't want me to stock up on it.

[Cascade Failure]

Same reason I have fire extinguishers, 1st aid kits and insurance...I might actually need them and if I do there probably isn't time to go purchase them.

Oh, and I like to shoot, a lot. Several co-workers are coming over to my range Friday. We'll probably go through 3-5K rounds.

[Woodroe]

I just hate it when I run out of ammunition.