How Much Is Enough?

In the comments of my "Wish List" thread last week, commenter Wally asked

Can you expand on how you came up with your target mag quantities? Just curious about your thinkin'.

Well, any time I try to explain my thought process, my brain starts hurting, but I'll give it a whirl... ;)

Basically, I think one should have enough magazines on hand to load up 100 - 200 rounds (depending, of course, on the magazine - 40 round M1 carbine magazines are a different case than 6 round Defender magazines). Double that number (in an ideal world) for the Assault Weapon Ban scenario for redundancy's sake - the "two is one, one is none" principle. Now, granted, this is for guns that get shot regularly, of course - the WWII Luger that gets shot once every 5 years obviously doesn't need 8 magazines; the AR-15 that gets shot in competition might be best served with 15 - 20 magazines from 5- to 90 rounds.

For a semi-automatic pistol that's going to serve as a carry piece, the minimum I'd recommend is 3 magazines - one in the gun, one to carry for back-up, and a third to rotate. In this case, more is always better, especially if you're planning on a high capacity magazine that might not be legal in six months' time. Six to eight would be a good number of magazines for such a scenario, although upwards of a dozen couldn't hurt either... It depends on the gun and the magazine, IMHO - a 1911 where you can find a decent Chip McCormack magazine for $10 - $12 or a Makarov where you can find 8-round magazines for $5 each is a lot different than an HK with $40 magazines. Or I could just be cheap...

As far as ammo goes, I subscribe to the theory that says:

"The only way time you have too much ammo is if you have to carry it all".

Unless you're planning on moving it all at one time, there is no such thing as too much ammo. As we've seen in the past couple of years, ammo prices have been rising almost as much as gas prices. The more you buy NOW, the less you have to buy in a year's time when the price has gone up 2-3 more times. The absolute minimum for a safe queen, IMHO, is 100 rounds; for any firearm that you shoot regularly, 500 rounds would be a baseline level. 1,000 rounds plus all available magazines filled to capacity is better. 5,000 rounds of "common" ammo (9mm, .45 ACP, .223, .308, 7.62X39mm, etc.) is ambitious but cushions against sharp spikes in prices or temporary shortages. And .22LR? 10 - 20K rounds at a minimum of bulk ammo; 1-2K of mid-range target ammo.

The harder part, I've found, is deciding how much premium ammo to have on hand at any given time. Carry ammo for pistols or hunting ammo for rifles is significantly more expensive than FMJ target or mil-surp ammo, generally 2-4X the cost as a rule of thumb. For a box of 20 rounds of jacketed hollowpoint 9mm+P+, for example, you can expect to pay ~ $20. A box of 100 rounds of FMJ Winchester White Box (WWB) is also $20. Hunting ammo runs about the same, a 20 round box of .308 Winchester JSP might fetch $22, whereas mil-surp 7.62X51mm in bulk battle packs might only be $8/20 rounds. The upside, of course, is that you generally need a lot less of premium ammo - generally 100 rounds will be fine, provide it is rotated regularly (buy a new box and shoot the box it replaces every 3-6 months). Better if you can afford to stockpile 200 - 250 rounds, of course; ideally you'd want enough to fill every magazine you have and an additional 250 rounds. When you hit the lottery, that is...

I am well aware that handloading overcomes a lot of the expense above; however it is not for everyone (such as your humble host at present time). Revolvers, naturally, have a significant advantage over the semi-autos, as holding onto the brass is much easier and there's no extractors to gouge or otherwise mar the brass upon ejection. For the reloaders, having 1-2K bullets on hand plus enough powder and brass to assemble all into functioning ammunition would probably be a good start. I have no idea what the cost range would be in this case...

So anyways, there are my thoughts on the number of magazines and ammunition the well-stocked gunnie should possess. This is based on what I feel are good numbers, with an eye towards having more than one needs - remember, if you have too many magazines you can sell some; if you have too much ammo you can shoot it.

That is all.