I get all sorts of emails across my monitor from various dealers and distributors having sales of this and that. Right now, it appears $0.235 is the new floor for major manufactured 9mm ammo. More than a few vendors are selling Rem or CCI 115 ball at this price. Some are including shipping. I pointed this out to a buddy of mine who then ordered up 30 cases (30,000 rounds) for his shop.
Now, ‘for his shop’ is misleading because when his friends and other hangers-on found out about it, it became “hey can I get a case or two at that price?”. As a result, out of that 30 cases, 22 of them are going to friends and associates…only eight will actually go on the shelves.
I, being nobody’s fool, took three.
The preponomicon has a couple of line items for 9mm ammo…regular and subsonic. My goal was pretty simple…keep five thousand rounds of each on hand. Keeping true to my nature, I’ve gone a little past that. But…extremism in the form of ammo storage is no vice, and moderation in the accumulation of ammo is no virtue.
You may notice this is the first time I’ve thrown a quantifiable number out there in regard to how much ammo I think I need to keep on hand. Your mileage may vary, of course. But I don’t think the end of the world, as I anticipate it, will be one long running gun battle. I’ve got more years behind me than ahead of me at this point, and the number of rounds I’ve needed to expend, rifle and pistol, to keep myself safe can be counted on one hand. Of course, I just got through posting about we have those unforeseen disasters that come out of left field that no one ever considers but even then, it’s hard for me to find one that requires me to expend that much ammo.
Practice? Thats a different story. I reload, and I have ammo set aside for practice. But for ‘in case of emergency break glass’ ammo, I’m fine figuring 5,000 rounds, not all in one basket, should get me and the people I care about through most situations.
While I’m on the subject, when it comes time to lay back ammo for Der Tag, I always go with big-name-brand manufacturers and, if possible, keep it in the original packaging. Why? Two reasons – first, I trust Remington, Winchester, Federal, and the other big guys more than I trust Steve’s Discount Reloading or Glorious Turkmenistan Factory No. 8 when it comes to quality control. Second, on the off chance I need to resell or otherwise market that ammo, the original packaging throws more confidence into the deal for the buyer that he’s getting good ammo and not something from..well….Steve’s Discount Reloading or Glorious Turkmenistan Factory No. 8. (And, please, let’s not start that whole ‘ammo you sell/trade can come back and be used against you’ discussion. Every single thing you trade or sell can come back to be used against you…trading food feeds people who might harm you, trading medical supplies heals people who might harm you, trading fuel helps people who might harm you, etc, etc, etc.)
To the best of my knowledge, the most ammo used by one citizen in armed self-defense in a single encounter was 105 rounds by legend Harry Beckwith…a statistical outlier so far on the edge of the bell curve that you need a map and compass to find him. Even in Katrinaville (or is it Heleneville now?) I am highly doubtful anyone has had to dump more than a magazines worth of freedom seeds at anyone.
But…you do you. For me, five thousand is the ‘magic number’ for my 9mm needs, but thats a minimum…there is no maximum.
I agree with the ‘keeping it real’ with ammo supplied. If I’m shooting, someone is shooting back and the odds of surviving 20 gun fight odds probably is not that great. If I can fire 200 aimed shots, I’d consider myself lucky.
The higher number does help your fellow survivors though – I hope they appreciate the hard work and effort it took to collect it for their defense.
I’m still shooting 9mm from when Walmart clearanced all ammo in my old area. I think I paid $96 per 1k for Winchester NATO 124 grain FMJ. Clerk gave me a weird look when I said I’ll take all they had.
“But…extremism in the form of ammo storage is no vice, and moderation in the accumulation of ammo is no virtue.”
Love the paraphrase of Goldwater’s quote! 🙂
Big Al in AZ
Goldwater was an interesting man.
“Unless you’re drowning or on fire…“, etc. etc.
“You sure the floor can handle that large a forklift?”
Probably useless information for most to share on storing up bulk factory ammo. An ammo can is an ideal storage module, however keeping that new factory ammo in it’s original boxes limits how much can be jigsaw puzzled to fit in that can size or type. Handling the factory boxes and fitting them into cans or other storage containers ends up dog earing the factory boxes and wearing them excessively. If your case of ammo is in it’s mothership cardboard box and it is in clean and good shape leave it in that state. Open, inspect, fondle them bullets, etc then re close it all up. Use that factory case cardboard box, only wrap that up tight like a gift wrap using heavy sheet plastic / visqueen type in 4 or 6 mil grade. Tape and seal the seams up with that 100 mph g.i. duct tape you store in depth as well. This way that 500 or 1k cube of ammo is re wrapped up in it’s o.g. case and retail boxes, kept clean and tidy, ready for later sales or distribution. Just an alternative to finding the hundreds of ammo cans usually needed, and going a budgetary route to long term storage methods. This will assist in staying frosty while storing ammunition in those paltry and mere thousands amounts.
Mine store just fine in ammo cans while still in factory boxes. The problem with dumping loose ammo in a can are both weight and maintaining an accurate inventory. A full ammo (800rds) can of 5.56 in factory boxes of mine for example weighs in at 28.5 pounds. I have also pulled out boxes of ammo that are 20 plus years old and the packaging looks brand new. Just store and do not keep finger Fu&@ing it every few months and the boxes will be fine! Could I squeeze an extra 400 rounds in if all were loose, sure but I would also increase the can weigh by 40 to 50 percent. So, now you are looking at cans that are on average 42 pounds each. While that may be manageable for me, it would not be for my wife when you have 30 plus cans that might have to be moved in hurry!!
My brother liked to leave ammo in factory packaging.
Until he had the fire in his attic and the fire department pumped a few tens of thousands of gallons of water onto the fire.
Took out the ceiling, the sheetrocks, the flooring… And the cheap particle-board shelf decks that all of his ammo stash was sitting on.
Most of the ammo was salvageable at least, but we did end up breaking down quite a bit of stuff, including most of his expensive (and unsealed) hunting ammo.
Soaked his stash of magazines as well. Spent a lot of time disassembling, drying, scrubbing rust, etc to save those.
Now everything sits in US GI ammo cans, and a lot of that is further packed inside home-made wooden ammo crates to make it faster and easier to move multiple cans at once.
This is precisely why I buy so many of those ammo cans – because of what MIGHT happen.
The only time someone has too much ammo is when they are swimming. My great Uncle was on the beach on D-day and said they had 80 rounds on them. “We didn’t worry about ammo, it was laying everywhere” and a lot of soldiers drowned trying to get off the boats.
The trainers in our defensive rifle class both did two tours in the sand box and said they never changed magazines once, in a combat zone! If you have to change magazines you are in deep shit.
I’m sure there are all kinds of examples, but modern war seems to be drones, artillery and bombs, not sending in foot soldiers with small arms. Not sure how effective my 9mm pop gun is going to be, unless the attackers are poodles. Viva 45 AARP!
Never changed a magazine, either they were hiding behind the guys actually fighting or were always inside of the wire. To many self-proclaimed “combat vets” out there that served in the sand box or the rock pile that never actually saw combat or fired a weapon during their deployment. Only about 10% to 20% are actually deployed in a combat role, the rest are support personnel. That is one thing the US military truly does understand is without good logistics you will surly loss.
For pistol caliber choice, it’s all about shot placement and little else. A 9mm between the eyes will kill you just as dead as a .45acp between the eyes, the 9mm will just do it quicker because it will get there faster than a .45. lol
9mm ammo story –
Just found out today that some scum-bag broke into one of my off-site storage units and ran off with about 12K of my 9mm-marked ammo cans. Like to be around when he tries to sell it to some of his hommies for their Gocks.
It ain’t 9mm Luger, it’s 9mm LARGO..(and the cans were just marked 9mm, heh, heh, heh. . .)
That’s a lot of Largo! Curious, is there must demand for that ammunition even by collectors?
Its a market thing. The manufacturers run off a batch every so often. Once its gone, its gone….and prices go up. Until a few years go by and they run off another batch. Weird caliber cartridge brass is actually something I speculate in.
Ah! Cool and interesting.
A lot of the early Spanish military guns use the Largo – Star and Astra both,. I have a pretty little Spanish Destroyer carbine(by Star) that the Gendarmerie used that is the cutest miniature Mauser you ever did see.
What does 5,000 work out for each 9mm you own?
Mister Harry Beckwith was a very good friend of mine, he was a good but grumpy man. He carried a Smith & Wesson model 60 with silver and turquoise grips on his belt every day, and smoked a lot of cigars. Had a sign that hung in the front door that said ” If smoking bothers you don’t come in”.Sold me my first pistol about 53 years ago. He was a pretty good hand with his S&W model 76 sub machine gun that stayed in his sock drawer, about 100 feet from his gun shop.