Yeah, I understand that one. It has become very expensive. I made a personal pact many years ago to budget ammo purchases into every paycheck just as if it's another bill like groceries, diesel, electricity, etc. Even if I can only afford to buy one box of ammo, I try to buy something. A good rule of thumb for minimum ammo inventory is to always have enough ammo to get more ammo if the balloon goes up. For me that's about 6000-8000 rounds, and enough powder, bullets, primers, and brass to make another 6000-8000 rounds. That's just my minimum though; I try to keep more than that on hand.

But I didn't buy it all overnight. I slowly stockpiled little by little, paycheck by paycheck, over several years.

 

That's a good way to do it. Maybe I should just start buying one box of ammo a week. I can probably sneak that in without getting yelled out by my wife and over time that will start adding up. Truthfully, I don't even shoot as much as I'd like to anymore because I don't want to shoot up the ammo that I DO have.

Right now I probably have 300 rounds of 9mm, 300 rounds of .45 ACP, 100 rounds of .380 ACP, 60 rounds of .223, 150 rounds of 12 gauge in various bird shot, 25 rounds of 12 gauge buckshot and 25 rounds of 12 gauge slugs. That's not a bad start, but it wouldn't last long if I ever got into a situation where I had to start using it.

 

i need to get more ammo, more full capacity mags are on my list of things to buy i have to shop around for better deals on the mags. As far as the ar 15s go, ive got a colt in a 7.62 x39, ive got a cmmg lower mounted on a preban colt upper. I need to buy a charging handle an different butstock for it, im peicing it together and ive got a bushmaster stripped lower thats gonna get put together soon. Ive got a mini 30 w/ a side folding stock w/ a couple of 30 round mags for it, its gott a mueler red dot on it, I use it mostly for hog hunting and such. Ive got a mossberg 500 12ga. Im well on my way to starting a small arsenal

 

This is one of the reasons I came to the conclusion a long time ago to stick to a couple calibers and so far I've been pretty good at it.

Right now all I run is .38 special and .45 ACP. I usually punch out about 100 rounds every other week or so. The rest of the time I look for deals on bullets, primers, brass and powder thats efficient and compatible between the two (usually Bullseye).

Just the other day I loaded up on some great Winchester 230g ball for my .45. Its pretty good stuff. I just need to find some powder and primers soon.

The bad thing is I've sorta neglected my rifle and shotgun ammo. If it ever hit the fan I'm going to have to do a lot of handgun hunting!

All this makes me want to go out and buy some ammo now!!

 

That's pretty much my philosophy too except I have chose 9mm and .45 ACP. I have the little .380 just to have as a pocket pistol for deep concealment, but I don't really concern myself too much with keeping lots of ammo on hand for it.

I figure between 9mm, .45 ACP, .223 and 12 gauge I pretty well have my bases covered.