We are about to step into some deep water here, folks! When it comes to asking someone how many guns they own or how much ammo they have it is kind of personal. People get this visceral reaction like they are being attacked or their privacy is being invaded like a bank robber cracking into a safe. It is almost the same reaction if you ask a woman what she weighs or if you ask a guy how long he has been dying his hair (we all know every guy over 30 is hiding gray hair). So, we are proposing the question… How much ammo is TOO much? Some better follow-up questions are: what kind of ammo do you have in your personal inventory and how much?
With this recent coronavirus-19 (COVID-19) pandemic that we as a nation are all combating, I have taken a long and thoughtful look at my ammunition inventory. To be incredibly simple, there are two basic types: range ammo (Full-Metal Jacket and similar cheap bullet profiles) and defense ammo (Hollow-Points and related style tips). In regards to range ammo, I will let the air out of the room and tell you that you cannot - it is impossible - to have too much ammunition. To the contrary though, you absolutely can have not enough. For myself, I love to shoot and practice just like everyone else, but unfortunately with the busy-ness of life I do not shoot as frequently as I would hope to. For that reason, a good squirreled away supply for me is about 500 rounds of range ammo for all of my common, practice cartridges. I know some of you might be thinking, “Those are rookie numbers!” In honesty, you are right, but that is a good bare minimum for me to have on reserve. The sky is the limit and I will never, nor will any other gun lover, tell you that you could have too much range ammunition in back stock.
While I was pretty well prepared for self-quarantine during COVID-19 in regards to my range ammo, I found out pretty quickly that I was very poor when it came to defense ammo. I have 3 guns I like to keep loaded and at my disposal for defense: a home defense carbine (AR-15 in 5.56mm NATO), a full-size carry gun (for walks and at home), and a smaller carry gun (for errands out in public). If you were similar to me in your defense preparations with 3 firearms and had 3 magazines for each, that is a considerable amount of hollow-points. I actually did not have that many hollow-points on hand and needed to go out and buy some; I was unprepared! So, while you can never have too much of a good thing, or too many hollow-points, that might be a good basis for some people to start from with 3 fully loaded magazines for your 3 essential defense firearms. A surplus beyond that would be even better, but that is a great starting point.
For everyone in the reading audience, if you are not bashful sharing, how much range ammo and defense ammo do you keep on standby? As always, let us know all of your thoughts in the Comments below. We love it when you participate in our articles and keep the conversation going!
