How many rounds of ammunition should i have

After practice, you should be able to perform your skills intuitively and fluidly even while focused on other things. If you have utilized different techniques in the past, it is especially important to get a high- number of repetitions to re-write your muscle memory. Under the conditions of a defensive gun use, you want your skills to be performed in an automated way. You should expect to expend more ammunition in ingraining your skills than you did learning them.

Optimally, you will get frequent practice sessions over the first couple or few months following a class, shooting at least rounds in disciplined practice each time. Once you have established and ingrained defensive shooting and gun handling techniques, your ammunition expenditure should be reduced dramatically. After the first few months of practice to reach what you consider to be an acceptable level of skill and ability to apply your skills, you can cut back your practice sessions so that you are just maintaining your skills.

This may be as simple as a box of ammunition a month dedicated to specific defensive shooting drills and simulations. How Much Ammo is Enough? There is a lot of fear mongering, panic and an influx of people who have either never owned a firearm before or have a few old guns that have not been shot in a while and they need ammunition.

The problem is that all of these people decided to go out shopping at once along with existing shooters. Most shops still open as we publish this have little ammunition in stock and some are completely out.

Of the few that have stock you can compare it to the meat counter at most supermarkets this time last week. There are no chicken breasts, thighs, legs or wings to be had but plenty of chicken feet and some gizzards. Now look at an ammunition aisle in a gun shop or sporting goods store. This is not a put-down on the ammunition that's left, just that it's not popular a crisis where people are looking for self defense loads.

On the rifle side you will see higher-end hunting ammo in Winchester, 6. They are modular and lightweight for the most part and are capable and effective for the average shooter with the right sights or optics out to ranges of yards.

The calibers we are talking about here are primarily 5. This is the NATO standard for the military. The two most common bullet weights for 5. These are the bread and butter rounds for rifles in this caliber with a inch twist rate. If your rifle has a 1 in inch twist rate, stick to 55 grain bullets, if you can find them.

As the twist rate becomes tighter you can use heavier bullets in 5. If you are unfamiliar with twist rate, it refers to the rifling in your barrel and how many times it can make the bullet completely spin. So a inch twist rate completely spins the bullet once every 12 inches. Therefore if you were shooting a inch barrel with that twist rate, the bullet would completely spin twice by the time it leaves the barrel. Faster twist rates stabilize heavier bullets.

This is essential in long range shooting, but also in shooting a shorter barreled rifle or a braced pistol. That You are getting at least one complete revolution.

There are a few other storage tips to keep in mind. For example, you should label and rotate your ammo, and you should regularly check it for signs of corrosion. If you want to learn more, check out this list of ammo storage tips that every gun owner should know. If you apply all of these techniques, your ammo will be safe to shoot for fifteen to twenty years, no problem. Hopefully, the information in this article cleared some things up for you and now you know exactly what to do.

All I ask is that, while you are serving as a temporary custodian of my future ammunition, you store it properly. A thousand rounds per gun is a good start. Per caliber, it could be way low. I would do the requirement calculation based on each rifle, not each caliber. Defensive carbines. Main battle rifles. Sniper rifles.

In lieu of the. Used in a. Why are the numbers so high? All great tips. I would add that to me, the 1, rounds per gun is the bare minimum goal.

Especially if the gun is a semi-auto, like an AR. Learning to reload is a valuable skill for preppers. If the collapse we experience goes on for a while, Ammo will be as valuable as gold.

So an extra box of any of the more popular calibers is a worthwhile investment. I check my local gunstores for end of season sales and clearences. All are kept just for barter trade. Something not mentioned on these sites, but bears keeping in mind is technology loss. What will we do when components are no longer there? I keep a flintlock and supplies in my long term cache. Another, more accurate way to calculate your training needs is to take the amount of ammo you shoot per month and multiply it by 12 to give you your yearly training ammo requirement.

The figure that follows is, perhaps, optimistic regarding commitment, especially with expense factored in. And, of course, training ammo of the same caliber could cover more than one gun. In a pinch, you could even press it into service for defense! Note that recycled defensive rounds more on those in a moment can become part of this inventory. The idea is maintain an ample supply consisting of well-proven and uniform types.

Buying in bulk not only saves money. It also prevents a mish-mash of unproven brands and bullet-weights which shoot to different points of aim POA.

The reason? Most LEOs only shoot when paid to do so, which boils down to qualifications. Believe it or not, plenty of departments only shoot annually, expending, maybe, — rounds. In his experience, area semiannual qualifications are fairly common max.

Some law enforcement departments with larger budgets in more temperate regions shoot quarterly or more often. However, one thing they all have in common is in-depth initial training, typically at an academy level, involving hundreds of rounds.

The same approach is strongly advised for civilians. Meanwhile, the above levels can help frame private citizen activity. As we discussed, definitions matter. Is it the jacketed hollow points you carry in your defensive handgun, or is it larger quantities of ammunition for a prolonged crisis without the rule of law? Basic Home Supply. We figured a standard rounds each of handgun and rifle ammunition. This is ver conservative. Some people feel the minimum is rounds per firearm.

Extended Collapse. This number, as you can imagine, is guesswork. Zombie Apocalypse. We then added the 52 rounds described above for handgun, which should be standard for all. For the rifle we topped it off with another rounds for good measure, because — zombies!

Again — guesswork. Can a zombie apocalypse really happen? Steve noted that one of his instructors was a highly-ranked skeet shooter. He shot through 30, shells each year cases , which were stacked throughout his house. By the end of it there could be 30K horizontal zombies strewn around his property. Bugging Out Note: If your plan is to bug out, you will be on the move with the goal of getting to safety.

You could figure the standard 52 defensive rounds. SUVs and pickups can carry a decent-sized load of ammo, so if bugging out to you means a cross-country road trip, up your count. You may need to account for additional rounds to have at your BOL. Whatever you leave at home could wind up being an expensive gift for a very undeserving recipient raiding your vacant home. We can begin by looking at the ammunition expended in different situations.

He notes that even a squad of soldiers can burn through some serious ammo. Because his old military team operated in the boonies, their loads often exceeded the norm. Still, he have run out of rifle ammo — not a good situation! He also burned through multiple Hit probability has decreased as pistols have replaced revolvers, but total rounds expended remain low — typically just a few rounds. A military squad equipped to travel light could have relevancy for civilians in serious bug out mode.

For many of us though, the law enforcement examples may be more pertinent. Steve notes that in his days, everyone in his small recon-squad lugged rounds plus a spare round belt of M rounds.

The extra firepower was a lifesaver deep in the bush but its weight, combined with other essentials, made for tough going. Many basic loads probably mirror law enforcement; one full magazine in the pistol, plus two spares in a double-pouch. The basic load for a trusty. Some troops lug more but, again, weight matters. Steve seldom carried a pistol by itself, but when he did, thirteen spare magazines usually came along in a Claymore Mine pouch, slung over his shoulder. They added up to 99 rounds.

Although doable, this heavy and floppy payload was not well-suited for an energetic retreat. At that time revolvers still ruled and the nearly-universal basic handgun load was 18 rounds of. Six were in the revolver and 12 spare rounds were carried in two speed-loaders. Ammunition varies, depending on the situation.

This formidable close-range firearm still has a legitimate place. Tactical LE Notes Many operators carry more magazines via special vests, in part thanks to tougher fitness standards. They fall more in line with military leg-unit examples. Use the above as a guide.

If we look beyond simple ammo count for prolonged collapse situations, we can narrow in on higher-end defensive rounds that — for most people — are going to be too expensive to stock in large quantities.

Practice requires more shooting but equivalent training loads cost much less.