I tend to keep more handgun ammo around than rifle. I noted this last week that I had more .45 set back than I realized, and hardly shoot .45 much these days, as I have mostly switched to 9mm. After some contemplation, I figured I would take a couple of .45 pistols, along with a few thousand rounds of hardball, and a thousand rounds of JHP, and store them at a piece of recreational property I own. This way, worst case scenario, I would have some “fallback” guns and ammo.
Of course I may just do the same thing with an extra AR, and maybe an extra bolt action rifle.
What I personally need to do is to reload. I have set back some decent quantities of components, for the times that people are panic buying everything/and/or the democrats are making it tough for gun owners. I could probably spend a couple of 40 hour weeks getting stuff loaded. There just never seems to be enough free time.
I keep a couple of cases of rifle ammo stashed away. The only reason to me to have more is to beat the pri e of inflation, especially next year with an election cycle. I go to a couple of carbine classes a year, but nothing to crazy. Usually local, 2 day around 500 through the rifle and few hundred through the HG.
I know a lot here on M4C do muuuuuch more than I do when it comes to training, but when it comes to my stash, it really is for a SHTF type of scenario and I can only transport so much ammo. 2k of 556…300/9mm 200/45 and a couple bricks of .22lr is probably what Im looking at.
Stockpile enough defensive ammo to last, 1-2k should be realistically fine per person for a long long time when bugging in - you’re not going to carry that much ammo when bugging out.
Stockpile training ammo only when you can afford more ammo than you can use with regular training.
My plan is to have 2.5k 5.56, 500 .45ACP and 500 6.5 stashed for a SHTF scenario. I figure that’s enough to fight my way to my bugout spot in the forest and sustain operational ability for a good while. As of now I’m about halfway there, but I just got a reloading setup so that should change within a few weeks. Any ammo I load beyond that will be used for training.
If you have a million rounds of 5.56 but you never train, you’re going to be useless and likely die.
If you have 200 rounds of 5.56 but the training of Larry Vickers… you’re probably going to have a better chance of survival than the dude with a million rounds.
Why?
Because you have more skill, know how to shoot and move, and know what to do and what not to do. Likely also knowing how to conserve ammo and shoot precise shots.
Ideally you want a middle ground of a balance of training and ammunition. But if i were forced to choose from having 1 million rounds and no training, or 0 rounds and a lot of training, i would choose the training.