Ammo how much to carry and how!

So Ammo!
What guns do you have/carry and how much ammo do you pack/store for each!

My primary option 2 is a .22LR bolt action with scope and 10rd mag plus a spare, the rifle has a threaded barrel but as suppressors are illegal here so no suppressor! and I pack a full 500rds as normal!
I have a bulk satchel with 2,000rds and a main supply in the strongroom!

is this enough?

 

I would keep extra ammo stored in different places for fallback purposes or emergency purposes. In other words, I would keep some ammo at my home, maybe some in a storage bin that I rent somewhere away from my house and possibly more ammo with a friend or relative. Special Forces teaches its troops to break down their supplies into groups of 3 and spread the supplies around so that if you lose one stash the other two will probably remain intact. If you have 2K (2,000) rounds at home, I would plan to stash another 1K in another location and then another 1K in a third location.

 

9mm and 22 LR the most common ammo that might be found.
Maybe 223/556 ???

 

As to common rounds, i would add .38 and .357 to that. But it also depends on the part of the country you are in. There are some areas where .44 and .44mag are king. For long guns, .223/5.56, .308/7.62x51, 7.62x39, 30.06, 30-30 etc. may be the way to go. Go to your local gun shop and shoot the shit with the guys/gals there and see what they say.

 

My goal is to have each family member equipped with 9mm, 5.56mm, 22LR & 12ga. Stock as much as I can buy in bulk.
I've got my eye on 7.62x51 rifle but not sure if I will equip everyone with that. I'd like to have common calibers for all so I don't stock too many different sized rounds.

 

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What do you mean -- "primary option 2"? A .22LR bolt rifle isn't all you have, haven't you written before that you have several weapons?! Am I thinking of someone else?

You don't gotta answer. It's your business. Don't mean to pry.

Asking about a person's weaponry is like asking about their sex life / bowel habits, way too personal.

Any prepper needs more than .22LR firearms. If that's all you have, think about adding a pump shotgun to your gun cabinet -- a pump shotgun with multiple barrels to prepare you for multiple situations.

 

If I am on the move I will be carrying a 357 mag revolver and a 357mag lever action rifle. My Wife will have a 22lr revolver and a ruger 10-22 with 25 rnd magazines. I will carry 300 rounds and a reloading kit and she will carry a couple of bricks and 6 loaded magazines.

If I bug in I have several Mossberg 500 12 gauge shotguns and then several more 12 , 20 and 410 gauge hunting shotguns. A couple of 9mm pistols, several more 22lr handguns and several deer rifles. I sold all my ARs and AKs a few years ago. I am older, smarter and of a more defensive mind set now than when I was younger. I have no desire to assault anyone and if they try to assault me I want them DEAD as fast as possible. A 12 ga or 30 caliber deer rifle will do that more effective than any assault weapon.

I have a pretty good start on a 5 gallon bucket of 22lr and several thousand 357 mags. A couple thousand 9mm and several hundred 12 gauge buck shot and slugs. I have nearly a thousand 7.62X54r for a Mosin Nagant bolt action I even have 500 rounds for a French WW2 Mass bolt action with a cool bayonet that came to me guaranteed to have never been shot and only dropped once.

The rest of my guns have more normal quantities of ammo BUT I have reloading equipment for all of my guns and huge stocks of reloading supplies. The thing about reloading, along with it making shooting cheaper, is that I can make ammo that is not available for civilian sale. I can also take ANY ammo, strip it down and use the powder and bullet lead in weapons that I have.

Truthfully I'm not sure that you need the volumes of ammo that I have but years ago I decided that ammo would always have value as trading material. Also there are going to be several people that are going to be coming to me and I want enough to supply anyone that I take in that came with less than enough. 22 lr are like money in the bank. During this recent ammo shortage I have actually sold some 22lr to a shooting group connected to the Boy Scouts for the kids.

I am currently gathering 20 gauge ammo. It is lighter, easier on my old bones and costs less to reload while being excelent as both a game gathering weapon and a defense weapon.

 

The Nagant carbines make a dynamite truck rifle. Polish the chambers to get rid of the sticky bolt problem endemic to these puppies. Get rid of the military stock metal up front and float the barrel to improve accuracy.

I love my Winchester Trapper in .357.

Have a 20ga Rem 870 w/ rifled slug barrel. W/ Hornady sabot 250 grain slugs, this past weekend shot 2-3" groups at 100yrd open sights. Shoots like a rifle.

 

I have several barrels for the Mossberg 500s. I even have on with an old school polychoke on it. I have 2 regular 500s and 1 defender. I have 5 barrels for the 2 standard 500s I'm thinking about swaping one out for a 20ga. My problem is that I just hate vent rib shotgun barrels and bolt action rifles with no sights on them and it is getting so that is all you can find.

20 gauge ammo is a lot lighter than 12 ga and for most things just as effective. About the only place it lags a lot is with pass shooting for ducks and geese but I don't hunt those anyway.

 

Common civilian calibers in the UK tend to be .177hmr, .22lr and then we step up to .223 and .243 centerfire rounds. 410 and 12g shotguns are by far the most common.
While there are no limits on the number of shotgun shells we can hold in the UK our licensing laws mean there is a maximum amount of ammunition that we can hold for rifled firearms. My limit is 1000 of .22lr and 250 of .223. There is however no limit on component parts for self loading center fire rounds.
My favourite is the .22lr. American walnut stock, Deben 3-9x50 scope with a reticle set up for subsonic rounds and screw cut with a sound moderator. It goes pretty much everywhere I have an excuse to carry it legally.

 

We have 6 in our family. So uniformity in ammo is going to be important. Each member can easily handle 3 to 4 mags of 5.56 carried around. In our dense woodland area you'd rarely ever need to send rounds past 300 yds.. with that 5.56 is pretty well rounded. We would normally assume a defensive posture moving quickly into strategic retreat at the first sign of being over run. Directly into the woods.
Hi-cap 9mm side arms for all again for group uniformity. We have various 22LR & 12ga for other utility needs.
I've been looking at a few .308 options just to have if any heavy hitting at distance is required.

 

I have a couple of 30 caliber deer rifles and then a 7.62 X54R Nagant with a couple of sardine cans of ammo and a bunch or loose reloadable brass boxer primed winchester rounds for it. IF I was going to buy new now I would go with any of the top line bolt action rifle makers in 308 winchester OR If you really want to reach out and get them a 300 Winchester mag. Top it with the best 3X9 or 4X12 scope that youcan afford and use match grade ammo for sniping and reloaded for hunting.

 

Every environment is different. Ours being so heavily forested negates most long range work. Although I feel pretty proud if my marksmanship skill, I have no illusions that I'll end up being portrayed in any films or books. Lol.
Using our woods as an asset I feel learning how to use its cover to blend & evade whenever possible. If we were in more open areas where 300 yd+ shots are possible, we would adapt accordingly. The biggest game here is venison taken usually at 100 yds or less.

 

In East Texas about the only places where you might take a deer at 300 yards is on the various pipeline and utility right of ways that cut through our forests. Pipeline right of ways are straight as an arrow and about 50 yards wide. They keep them mowed and this makes a perfect environment for deer and browsing type animals. Post apocalypse the grass would grow and the forest would reclaim the right of ways. Even the roads and highways would be retaken faster than we can imagine.

The thing is that I won't be "hunting" in the sport sort of way after things go down so for sure long shots won't be an issue. Some time you need to sit down with a professional poacher and get a quick education on how to kill game and gather fish for sale. For them it isn't a game and they almost always can get as many as they want of whatever they are after that day or night.

 

With my AR, & Nikon optics @ 100yds I can bullseye entire mags with just an occasional flyer @300 I'm consistently on the pie plate. This will improve with practice. I've also been resisting going to eye doctor cause I know I'm in early stages of needing glasses. Once I step up to 308 i feel I could make respectable 4 to 500 yrd shots.

 

I still have a couple of 22lr rifles. Grandpa's and a little pump 22 I got when I was 19. I have a 22 semi auto pistol. I have a 22mag bolt action. I have about 1000 rds of lr and 250 of 22 mag. I do have a compound bow as well. How much to carry. I hope I never have to carry anything at all.

 

The amount of ammo you have to stock depends on your current and future needs. A person living in a rural area near hundreds of thousands of acres of wilderness is in a different universe than a suburban or urban area.

Actually I'm leading up to the topic of preparing for looters / people gone nuts during a SHTF event. Rural folk are less likely to lose their sanity due to loss of external resources; rural folk intrinsically possess a far higher degree of self-sufficiency relative to urban areas -- they work gardens and use firearms as a matter of routine. Should thieves descend on rural folk, the rural folk will dispatch them in short order. Too, rural folk will form militarized crews/patrols and establish perimeters -- this, while sharing food and resources, witness their enormous church picnics, witness them coming together when there is a death or other tragedy in a church family. They come together.

People in urban areas often do not even know their neighbors' names. Most city folk do not can or even think to put back spare food. When the electricity goes off for only a day or two, they empty the grocery stores' shelves. All the bottled water is gone within six hours, if that. Those who are predisposed to looting behavior are utterly unafraid of suburban households -- thus the reason home invasions are not rare peripheral to urban areas.

So if you are living in a urban or suburban setting, it is incumbent on you to have stored food and water -- to include water purification devices. It is also incumbent on you to have fire extinguishers and several of them. When it hits the fan, going to the grocery will likely NOT be safe.

Looting: You must have anti-looting weaponry if you are living in urban or suburban areas. Think filling the air with lead. Your friends will be semi-automatic rifles and repeating shotguns. The ammo will be buckshot for the shotguns and .22LR or .22 magnum for the rifles (some folk shot with the .22LR do not know that they have been shot, keep this in mind). Semi-auto center-fire ammo / military ammo will be the "next-up" need. What do I mean by that? I mean that looters can often be chased away with wounding ammo, however if things go really sideways, one needs big game ammo. Lever action deer rifles can be as effective as battle rifles. I'm not kidding; deer rifles, say a lever 30-30, .44 mag, .357 hits a person amidships, that person is going to suffer horrible injury or death, then and there. Looters seeing people dying, losing body parts, getting splattered, tend to take notice. Get your mind around these ugly realities. Don't want to think about such? Tough sh##!

People, big cities are NOT the place to be when it hits the fan. If you are going to bug out, count on having to shoot your way out. All roads will be jammed, maybe permanently so. You may have to abandon your vehicle; therefore prepare for such.

This preparing business, it isn't pleasant. Sorry. Me, I don't want to see decent folk die by the hands of "people" who are predators or freeloaders. This is against Justice which is an attribute of Divinity. It is not the Will of God that you should perish at the hands of the unclean. If you lose your life, you will be unable to help the children survive -- this is wrong. Learn to fight evil.

 

In rural Australia it's rural criminals that steal rural stock. They have the equipment, skills and contacts to round up, load up, and dispose of hundreds of head of cattle. Very hard to fight against that sort of theft unless you have hundreds of armed people watching stock 24hrs a day.

 

When people get really hungry. They will be difficult to deal with. As long as they have fresh water. If they can't figure out how to get fresh water. Nature will change things quickly.

 

Agreed, cholera will deal with a large percentage of the city looters but Lilsoldiergirl is also right about rustlers, they have the skills to become a real pain in the arse to rural communities. Once law and Oder breaks down people are going to have to move over to a more defensive way of rearing stock, perhaps more like sub Saharan Africa, stockading animals over night.

 

I was thinking of drinking untreated water.

http://www.outdoorlife.com/4-reasons-you-should-never-drink-untreated-water-in-survival-situation

So many people today don't know what to do without an internet search. If water in the modern world stops flowing out of a pipe. Will they have any idea what to do? Most likely, within a week they will run out of water. If people get the squirts. Sanitation will go down hill quickly. If its summertime with temperatures over 85 degrees F. People will begin to die within 3 weeks. I suspect that some people will die before a food shortage hits hard. If people are sick others will get sick.

With respects to water. I need short term ability and long term ability to get fresh drinkable water.

 

Dear Lord! Didn't know about such. "... hundreds of head of cattle." Hard to imagine. That sort of major offense in Heartland America would start a war. Slaughter houses know all of the cattlemen and hog farmers. Hinky unknown folk coming in with livestock with familiar traits or with ear-tags removed would be like sending up military flares -- people gonna notice. Rural folk can go ballistic (and I do mean ammo ballistic) over a whole lot less. Out in the sticks, ain't nobody ever going to find the bodies of trouble-makers. Hog food. Bone meal fertilizer. Possum food. When they lower TVA lakes for cleaning the intake grates of dams, interesting "things" are found. Giant carp down there, too.

And the sheriff don't care.

 

Reported stock theft in NSW
January-May 2016

• 1,104 cattle reported stolen - $1,060,944 based on average market price
• 10,443 sheep reported stolen - $762,339 based on average market price

January–May 2017

• 1,717 cattle reported stolen - $1,866,379 based on average market price
• 8,095 sheep stolen - $825,690 based on average market price
  
  (Source: NSW Police)

Incidents of stock theft

• In the year to March 2016 there were 518 incidents of stock theft
• 
  In the year to March 2017 there were 479 incidents of stock theft
  
  (Source: Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research)

"We have suspects in every area, and we can actively target them if we know that stock has gone missing or break and enters are occurring in that area.

"But if it's not being reported we simply don't know about it so we can't look into it."

The problem is so serious Police Minister Troy Grant commissioned a review into rural crime in February 2016.

That review was handed to the State Government a year ago and is expected to recommend tougher penalties for thefts, trespassing and illegal hunting.

In a statement, Mr Grant acknowledged farmers want action on rural crime.

"People in regional NSW want a more responsive police force when it comes to stock theft," he said.

"They also want the courts to better acknowledge the impact stock theft has on farmers."

• 
  

 

No way I'm going to open all those files Lilsoldiergirl but I for one accept your statistics on rustling and its costs, I live in a sheep farming district, it happens here on a regular basis.
There are plenty of illegal slaughter houses and it's even easier to move stock around the UK then it would be in Australia. The meat that is processed from stolen stock is disguised as a tiny percentage of the legal production. Unfortunately other meats can also creep in to the food chain in this way. There was a burger factory in Wales substituting horse meat into budget burgers, the problem is that some of them were treated with Bute shortly before slaughtering and should not have made it into the human food chain.

 

It depends at what stage of development the animals are stolen because legislation offers a window of time when some stock can remain untagged unless it's actually being transported for slaughter.

 

I've got a huge amount of ammo and I sure as hell am not going to carry it.

When I have to go out to forage or hunt or get water I'll carry a Ruger Ranch Rifle and five 20-round magazines and my .45 with two spare mags and I'll hopefully have a partner with a scoped bolt-action .243. ,

That's the most ammo I'll ever carry. Bugging out would put me in an almost certain death situation.......I'm too old to go on an extended adventure roaming the unknown countryside.

 

Holy crap!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Kill all of these thieves!!!!!

 

All of this information is totally new to me! Hard to believe, gonna have to look at the statistics of my own country & region. I'm utterly dumbfounded. In my youth, thieves got shot or lynched. My papaw taught me how to tie a hangman's noose when I was five years old. Outlaws were just killed. Public hangings were very popular in my Pap's day. You could buy food and whatever; not unlike the county fairs. Lot's of folk gathered to see the court-ordered, legal hangings behind the county courthouse (Klan hangings happened at night).

 

I carry my 12 gauge shells in 50 round bandoleers. The rifle ammo I keep in boxes unless it is magazine or clip fed then I store it in that. Back in my AR days I had all my loose 5.56 in stripper clips in bandoleers and usually had 8 loaded magazines. 2 on the rifle and the rest in pouches. My revolver ammo is also in speed loaders. I may sew a bandoleer for my 357 mags. Since I'm bugging in carry isn't a big issue. Ammo boxes rule.