I saw a story about recent violence in Sinaloa, Mexico, and it mentioned that +/- 5,000 rounds were confiscated. That doesn’t sound like much for an armed group (actually several cartels seem to have been involved), but what does the average shooter keep on hand?
[ul]
[li]how many rounds do you keep on hand?[/li][li]are they all the same type/caliber?[/li][li] how often do you shoot?[/li][/ul]
NM
I typically have a box or two of each caliber I shoot, which amounts to no less than 400 rounds, along with various shotgun rounds. In practice I typically have a total of about a thousand rounds in the house, with that number dropping by about a quarter when I go to the range and increasing gradually over time as I rebuild my stock.
If I had the coin I’d easily have a few thousand rounds. While things like 9mm, .22 LR, .40 S&W and .45 ACP aren’t terribly hard to come by, 10mm and 357SIG is a cast iron bitch to find at times and it’s good to be able to grab and go without worrying about trying to find some on range day. I’d be content with five hundred rounds of each, say around 5,000 total. That’s around two bulk packs per caliber, so the total cost would be somewhere around $1600-2000. I’d shoot it all eventually. If I had that kind of money I’d be doing a lot more shooting than I am now, which is very little.
My old department chair and I used to note whenever there was a large bust, the cops would say “10,000 rounds of ammo” like it was something special. To us it just meant there was a sale at Turner’s.
I try to keep at least 200 rounds on hand for each of the rifles, and 500 rounds for each of the pistols. This is excluding the .22s, of course. That gets bought in 5000 round increments. Popular calibers get purchased in bulk, so that skews their numbers. I can buy 500 rounds of .30-06 at the gun show cheap, for example.
Last time I checked, there were 10 different rifle calibers in the collection and 11 different pistol calibers. Plus shotguns.
Sadly, the whole magilla was stolen by gypsys, who escaped by boat, which sank.
You have too much if your floor collapses from the weight.
They always report an “arsenal” with “thousands of rounds” when someone goes on a rampage or is arrested. They never say what caliber. 1000+ rounds is two boxes of bulk .22 or less than $40, and about the size of a loaf of bread.
- Thousands. It’s easy when you buy .22, or when you shoot semi-obscure Eastern Bloc rounds that only come in sealed tins of 900+.
- No.
- Not often anymore. 12 gauge is what gets used the most lately.
A lot less than I used to when I had money, but still at least 100 rounds of each caliber, and currently around 1300 rounds of .22.
Back in the day I felt like my inventory was slipping when I had less than 250 rounds of each caliber I owned. After all, I tend to shoot about 200 rounds each of at least 2 calibers when I go to the range.
5,000 rounds is maybe a year’s worth of steady target practice, give or take. For each caliber you practice with.
I have about 26,000 rounds of 7.62X51 (.308) in the basement, and 10,000 rounds of .223. And about 600 rounds of .50 BMG.
Is that a lot? I dunno. Some people have more. Some people have less. Never gave it much thought, really.
I usually don’t have much on hand. I buy it right before I go shoot. I may have a couple hundred rounds.
I just got a new GPS for geocaching and I need to test it out. Would you mind giving me your home coordinates so that I may determine its accuracy? 
I’m down to a few hundred in most calibers. Probably no more than 2,000 rounds from .32 up to .50 BMG. A case each of .410, 20g and 12g. Maybe 1,500 .22, mostly subsonics. I have a case of 50 BMG API if anyone needs something lit from a distance!
It’s way past time to go shopping, especially for .308, .223, and 300 Blackout.
I’d like to have more like 10k on hand.
I don’t really keep any guns anymore…what few I had I either sold or are in my dads safe. However, when I was shooting a lot I generally kept 3-4 boxes on hand for each caliber I owned and maybe half a dozen loaded clips if the gun was a semi-auto. Maybe 500 rounds max then. I believe my dad keeps about that amount in his safe, but he has a lot of reloading materials, which would up the amount, assuming you sat down and reloaded all the brass he’s got.
-XT
I will amend my statement. Having thousands of rounds still does not mean you’re up to no good. But if you have a bunch of .50 BMG lying around you must be in a cartel, because the rest of us couldn’t afford that! :dubious:
I think the largest quantity of centerfire rounds I have is 7.62x25mm Tokarev (IIRC originally 1224 rounds in the dwindling case). Least amount is either 7.5mm Swiss or .308, of which I probably have 40-60 rounds each. And five firearms with no ammo whatsoever right now.
It depends.
If you are an avid shooter and go the range frequently or have your own land where you can practice then several thousand rounds isn’t much. It’s just sensible to buy in bulk because you go through it. If you don’t go the range and are like me and simply keep a single firearm for home protection and a hunting rifle, then anything more then a few boxes would be a bit weird really. However, there certainly are exceptions to this general rule: People who own odd or obscure calibers or other difficult to find ammo might well stock up when they can; and there are always people who just simply collect and hoard things and never use them.
I don’t have much because I don’t really have a place I can shoot my rifles and I have a lot of expensive calibers like 7,55 Swiss, maybe a box or two of the expensive ones and a couple of boxes of the cheapies like 7,64X39, so a couple of hundred total.
1200 rounds of .40 reloads
500 rounds of .40 factory loads
1300 rounds of 9mm reloads
200 rounds of 9mm factory loads
800 12ga reloads
900 12ga factory loads
5000 .22 LR
500 rounds of .45ACP factory loads
500 rounds of .223 factory loads
Plus fixins for lots more 9mm, .40, and 12ga
More or less
I keep a couple hundred rounds of 9x19 but am looking to purchase a case of 1000 in the next two months. When I get a target .22 I’ll start with a few boxes (25-50 rounds) of various types to see what it likes to eat and then pick up a couple of bricks (500 rounds each) of whatever works the best.
A box of ammo through a hand gun is a warm-up at the range.
I used to work at a (small) indoor range so I’m used to thinking about case quantities. Our stock levels were 1 case (5000 rounds) of basic .22lr, 2-4 bricks (1-2000 rounds) “Good” .22lr, 2 bricks (1000 rounds) “Match Grade” .22lr., a case (1000 rounds) of 9x19 reloads, 1/2 case each (500 rounds) of .45ACP and .38spl. Total of ~10,000 shots and that would last between 3-6 months at 6-9 hours of operation/week.
My IPSC Black Badge course ate more than 1/2 case of 9mm ammo through one gun in a day and a half.
-DF
(I’m firmly of the opinion that if you have so much ammo that you collapse the floor, then you probably have enough. You also should have had it in the basement in the first place.)
Thanks, everyone.
I didn’t even know that bullets could be bought in bulk, or how many were in a standard package. It sounds like perhaps there isn’t really a standard package. And TheLurkingHorror, a batch of 22s the size of a loaf of bread sounds like a lot of bullets to me. But I don’t shoot.
I have a few hundred of two calibers for my handgun (probably 400 rounds total), plus a case of shotgun shells in my car that I just keep forgetting to take out of there. What’s in a case, 300 shells? So, that many.
Anything more than twice the amount you would need to deal with potential Zombies is a lot.
Packaged ammo generally comes in:
Shotgun: 25 rounds
Pistols and small rifle (.30 Carbine): 50 rounds
Medium to largish rifle: 20 rounds
I feel like I’ve seen .223 in 20 or 50
Cases consist of several boxes of these so the number varies.