Never enough. I've consolidated many calibers.
I have enough 12ga, 22lr, 9mm, 45 and 5.56. Low on .300blk and 357sig. I do have some 350 Legend and .458 Socom, but those are hunting/play so I don't really stock too much of that.

quote:

Originally posted by slosig:

If it’s a limitation or ban on the ability to purchase ammo or components starting tomorrow and the need to keep shooting at whatever level you like for the next ten years, the answer may be different. Only you know how much you want to shoot and how long a time horizon you’re trying to prepare for.

I am starting to be a lot more optimistic about the 2A these days. Heller and Bruen are being used in newer court cases to affirm the concept of "original intent" when evaluating new restrictions or bans.

Which includes the extension to protect ancillary rights, which are rights not specifically named in the Constitution but which must exist in order for the written words to be logical. e.g. there must be a right to own paper and a pen in order for the 1st Amendment to make sense.

So I think any attempt to enact onerous taxation or restrictions on ammo, or bans on parts, or confiscation of weapons will be struck down by SCOTUS.

The exception to my optimism is the government use of their self-proclaimed emergency powers to enact blatantly unConstitutional restrictions. They were pretty successful during Covid, with a lot of citizen support, too. But I think ultimately any emergency restrictions would be overthrown one way or another.

Unavailability due to the zombie apocalypse or economic apocalypse would be a longer term issue to prepare for.

good advice and reminder to gather up while the gathering is good. roughly 2k rounds 5.56 and a dozen Pmags. trip to Sportsmen's Warehouse tomorrow planned, will throw some of each in my cart.

quote:

Originally posted by parabellum:
How are you fixed for ammunition?

Thanks for bringing this up again … we’re constantly getting an influx of new shooters that aren’t aware, but some of us old dogs need to be reminded once in a while too.

I think it was the early 90’s after Clinton got elected when I got my first taste of a shortage, and this is when we were still importing surplus ammo from lots of other countries, and even if there wasn’t a shortage, prices still went up. I started putting a little ammo back but I think it was when Obama got elected that I really took it to heart. Then after Sandy Hook when everything disappeared from the shelves that had never been a problem before like 22LR, 380 and let’s not forget how the shelves emptied out nation wide due to the race riots a few years ago when Black Lives Matter organized, then before we recovered from that COVID hit and the uncommon and hunting firearms and rounds, as well as reloading component's all disappeared … I was already well stocked but it really hit home as to how easily the government can infringe on our sport.

I just wanted to point out that it’s not always a political action that causes our “dry spells” sometimes it’s public fear as has been well outlined in the thread Panic at the Gunstore

If society did collapse for a few years, I think most persons should have 20k of .223, 2,000 .308 or similar bolt gun caliber, plus 1,500 pistol rounds.

I am no where near that, mostly due to the California laws and the inability to directly receive ammo from suppliers. This results in very high prices.

I'm good for most any occasion.

Haven't done much to consolidate calibers. On the contrary, I've been diversifying in the last few years.

If the only thing I can put together is .41 Magnum, 45-70, 50AE, 7.65mm, 17mach2, 50 BMG, etc... I'm good to go.

I think it was over a hundred years ago that anyone had much activity in 9mm Steyr, but brass is easy to come by.

I'm not as prepared as I'd like to be, but I'm in a lot better shape than I was a couple years ago.

quote:

Originally posted by .38supersig:
I think it was over a hundred years ago that anyone had much activity in 9mm Steyr, but brass is easy to come by.

Not quite 100+ years... closer to 80ish.

While it originated as an Austro-Hungarian imperial military pistol cartridge in the 1910s, 9mm Steyr remained in police and military use after WW1 and through the end of WW2 with the Steyr-Hahn M1912 pistols and Steyr-Solothurn MP34 SMGs in service with Romania, Bulgaria, and Austria (as well as second-line use by Germany after their annexation of Austria in 1938 and absorption of the Austrian military's small arms).

quote:

Originally posted by c1steve:
If society did collapse for a few years, I think most persons should have
20k of .223,
2,000 .308 or similar bolt gun caliber, plus
1,500 pistol rounds.

I'm going to start out here by apologizing to steve here for picking his post to pick on. I've selected his because its simple.

Lets say you agree with him. 20k is 1k of factory ammo at, say $20 a box, or just maybe $20,000. Then 100 20 round boxes at maybe $35 a box or $3500. And then the pistol ammo at $50 a box or maybe $1500. Then lets add it all together for a total of maybe $25000 bucks...

Checking my billfold I don't find that much extra. And my wife wants a new dishwasher. Check out your disposable cash and see if you come out that far ahead. And I didn't even include any shotgun ammo. I know this is a thread about dreaming. But we're not being very practical in our numbers. This total is what I get from uncle sugar each year in SS.

I have plenty of ammo for all most all of my guns. I learned from Para's advice back in the day to buy a box or two with every paycheck. I have also stocked up on powders, and primers as well.

quote:

I'm going to start out here by apologizing to steve here for picking his post to pick on. I've selected his because its simple.

Respectfully, I think your costs are a tad inflated at this given point in time, particularly if one uses the internet as his ammo supermarket. But I do get your point. Whatever the amount will be, if someone is starting from scratch (or nearly so), that's going to be a lot of monetary drain in order to build up those munitions, particularly if attempting to do it all in one chunk.

Right now, factory fresh 55gr 5.56 is going for about half of the number that you were using, around 50¢ a round before taxes and shipping. I will say that 5.56 is again moving up in price, likely due to Lake City's cancellation of civilian ammo sales. Factory made 7.62x51 online averages around 75¢ per round right now at the bottom end, so that works out to about $1500 before s/h and taxes. If we stick with NATO standards on calibers, then we'd of course choose 9x19 as the handgun caliber of choice. At this moment around the web, if you're paying over 20¢ a round for factory 9mm then unfortunately you're paying too much. Hell even our shop is selling Magtech 115gr 9mm for 60¢ a round, and that's with retail overhead costs to consider.

At the internet's average cost, the bill for the 1500 rounds of 9mm ammo is now about $300. Personally I think this quantity amount is way too light, but for the sake of consistency...

A subtotal of just under $12k is still huge for most folks. But it's certainly a more doable and budget-friendly sum, if one starts off small and gradually builds up their munitions NOW rather than when it's beyond 'too late'.

Fortunate that when I was stocking up .223 was around 20 cents a round and 9mm was 9 cents. During the pandemic, the local gun store wanted to buy my ammo trying to sell me on the profit I would turn. Nope. That is not why I bought it. In NY it is not only the cost that is prohibitive but we can't order ammo online and now all ammo purchases are treated the same as firearm purchases. Have to have a background check with the State Police.

Back when it was politically quiet I bought nine 8lb kegs of military draw down powder for the M855 cartridge. At 15.00/lb it was a good deal then. I bought 10,000 SS109 projectiles and 2,000 of the air pulled M856 projectiles. I collected an equal amount of brass. What I didn’t get to were primers. I only had 5,000 small rifle primers. I didn’t think things would go where they did politically and should have been more diligent. I’ve since stocked up but at outrageous cost. These are my ammo preparations in addition to assembled cartridges already mentioned.

I was in pretty good shape already, but I just experienced an unexpected windfall. My parents friend will likely need to be put in senior care and had accumulated about 10k of 9 and .223. My parents have been helping his wife clean out all the other stuff he had hoarded for months now. I’m the only shooter his wife knows, so to me it went. I gave her some money, but she wouldn’t take what I wanted to give her. Unfortunate he’s not able to enjoy it, but I do feel better about my own situation now.

I need to gather some .380!
The Lovely Girlfriend has decided on that for her carry. I'm not going to give her a second of negativity for not choosing something larger/heavier... not a bit.

Instead, it's "get her out there and shoot the crap out of it," to get her proficient with it.

I have a fair bit in ‘component’ form, I just have to load it.

The other thing, ‘the gray man’ can apply here also. To further one’s longevity, I think it’s best to keep a low profile. I’m not saying to be a coward, just thought to what’s worth getting involved with.

quote:

Originally posted by WaterburyBob:
I'm in pretty good shape after heeding the advice given here in the last few years.

Same. I've learned a lot here and I appreciate Sigforum.

More than Barney Fife and less than the Marine Corp.

.22 LR 45,000+

5.56 30,000+ in different flavors

.308 10,000+

12 gauge 5,000+

9mm 20,000+

.357 SIG/.40 S&W 5,000+

Guys and Gals - If you need more 9mm ammo and you have an Academy Outdoors near by, you might want to consider dropping by. They just put their CCI Blazer 115gr 9mm brass case 50 round boxes on sale for $11.99 a box - comes out to be just under $240.00 for a case of 1000 rounds. I bought 20 boxes yesterday and there was no limit at the Tupelo, MS store I visited. I see they will also ship this ammo.

https://www.academy.com/p/blaz...re-pistol-ammunition

Only minimal ammo lately (300rds) but a good start of reloading supplies with 1K bullets, 1K new brass and 16 lbs powder, good on primers.
All for ramping up on the 6.5cm.