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Ammo storage is just as important as food and water storage. If you don’t stockpile ammunition, your firearms will be completely useless.
This is why an ammo stockpile is a vital and critical component of any SHTF plan. Having no ammo, or at least having very limited ammo, would mean that your ability to defend yourself, your home, and your family against the inevitable raiders and mobs is incredibly limited.
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In this article, we’ll cover everything you need to know about ammo storage and accumulation for SHTF purposes.
How Much Ammo Do You Truly Need?
“How much ammo do I need?” is a question that many preppers have.
The answer to this question is there is no maximum amount you can have. In other words, you can never truly have enough ammo just as you can never truly have enough food, water, or medicine.
Still, there is a minimum that you should shoot for, and that is to have at least one thousand rounds per caliber, or better yet, per weapon.
If this is too expensive for you, the next best alternative is to go with a five hundred round baseline instead, if you can.
Now one thousand or even five hundred rounds may seem like a lot. It may even seem unreasonable. After all, how are you possibly going to use one thousand rounds?
Well, the answer to this question is simple: if things get bad for an extended period of time, such as an EMP attack that could last for several years, that ammo is going to have to last you all that time for everything from target practice to defense to hunting.
Say a disaster were to last for ten years, which is certainly possible from an EMP attack. Suddenly, one thousand rounds per caliber or even per weapon doesn’t sound like a terribly large amount, does it?
And even in less drastic circumstances, it’s still a good idea to have a lot of ammo. After the threats of gun control in early 2013, for example, the price of ammunition skyrocketed and the shelves were often empty. It’s taken years for the .22 LR ammo shortage to recover, for instance.
Again, one thousand rounds of ammunition per caliber or per weapon is not at all unreasonable. If anything, it’s simply responsible.
How To Accumulate Ammunition If You Can’t Afford It
Ammo is expensive, and if money is tight, it’s perfectly understandable if it doesn’t seem realistic to accumulate 1000 rounds per caliber.
But there is a way to get around this dilemma, so long as you’re patient, and that is to make it a habit to buy just one or two boxes of ammo a week.
For reference, a box of rifle ammo typically holds 20 rounds, while a box of handgun ammo typically holds fifty rounds. This means that you could accumulate eighty rounds of rifle ammo in a month or two hundred rounds of handgun ammo. Not bad, since in just a few months you’ll be well on your way to your goal of having at least 1000 rounds stored away.
Basically, tell yourself that once a week, you’ll walk into a sporting goods store and buy a box of ammo. Alternatively, you can tell yourself that whenever you walk into a place that sells ammo, you won’t leave until you’ve bought at least one box.
With this method, your stockpile will grow slowly, but it will grow steadily and consistently, and that’s really what matters.
Another option if you’re really impatient would be to simply buy all of your ammo you need at once in bulk. Yes, you’ll pay MUCH more up front, but on the other hand, you’ll also be paying less per round, so you’ll definitely be saving money in that regard.
Should You Store Ammo You Don’t Own Guns For?
You should only store ammo for guns that you actually have or at least plan to have, right?
Actually, no. It may be wise to buy ammo, at least 1-2 boxes, for calibers that you don’t personally own or have a need for.
But why?
Well, there are a few reasons why. The first reason why is because, in an SHTF scenario, you may come across guns lying around or on the ground during a scavenging mission that you don’t have ammo for. It would probably be nice to be able to use those guns, right?
But another reason why is because you may need to barter. In an SHTF world where the economy completely collapses, money will no longer be of any real value. After all, it’s just paper.
Instead, people will be wanting things of real value, or things that they can use in their everyday life. Soap, food, water, seeds, coffee, toilet paper, and so on are examples of things that will be bartered heavily following a collapse.
And of course, ammo is going to be bartered heavily as well. It’s something that everybody understands the value of, because just a single rifle or pistol round represents the ability to defend yourself and potentially save your life, or to put food on the table.
Yes, a single round, such as a single .308 or 9mm round, can be bartered in an SHTF situation.
This is exactly why, if you can afford it, it would be smart to have at least one or two boxes of the most popular rounds of ammunition.
For reference, here’s a list of the most popular rounds that you would be wise to include in your arsenal:
- .410 Bore
- 20 Gauge
- 12 Gauge
- .22 LR
- .380 ACP
- 9mm Luger
- .40 S&W
- .45 ACP
- .38 Special
- .357 Magnum
- 56x45mm NATO
- 62x39mm
- 62x54R
- .30-30 Winchester
- .308 Winchester
- .270 Winchester
- .30-06 Springfield
- .300 Win Mag
3 Ammo Storage Tips
Here’s a fact that many people don’t know about ammunition: it has a finite shelf life. Nothing lasts forever, and that certainly applies to ammo.
That being said, when stored under proper conditions, ammo can still last a very long time and still be safe to shoot. In fact, properly stored ammo should last fifteen to twenty years, or ten years at the very least.
You want to make sure your ammo lasts you that long if you want to protect your investment. Remember, ammo is expensive, and it’s possible you’ll be spending hundreds if not thousands of dollars on your stockpile. Do you really want to allow all of that to go to waste? If the answer is no, then you should pay close attention to what you’re about to read.
So what are some tips that you can use to ensure your ammo is stored properly?
1. Never Store Your Ammo Boxes Out In The Open
Instead, you need to buy an ammo container of some kind that is designed specifically for the purpose of ammo storage, and one of the best choices is the .50 caliber ammo can.
These cans are great because they are waterproof, fully sealed, and will do an excellent job of protecting your ammunition from the outside elements. For instance, a properly closed ammo can in good condition could be totally submerged for an extended period of time and it would still keep all of the contents fully dry.
A high quality .50 caliber ammo can is by far your best bet for an ammo storage container. The .50 caliber size is great because it’s large enough to keep your ammo stored while also being small enough to be carried around if necessary, which is another huge plus.
And as an added bonus, ammo cans are cheap! If you check Craigslist, yard sales, and flea markets, finding ones in good condition for ten dollars or less should be very easy.
It’s also a wise idea to only store one caliber of ammunition in each ammo can and to label it for the sake of organization.
Alright, so you need ammo cans for proper storage. But what’s the next tip?
2. Store Your Ammo Indoors
Specifically, in a room that is free of excessive heat and moisture. In other words, a dry room at normal room temperature would be excellent.
There is no greater enemy of ammo storage than moisture. It will cause your ammo to corrode and eventually just be unsuitable to shoot to the point that it’s unsafe and could literally cause your gun to blow up in your hands.
This is why having your ammo stored in a sealed can and in a dry room at normal room temperature is so important. To be on the extra safe side, you can also put a dehumidifier in your ammo storage room.
Another option is to purchase some clay desiccants or silica gel packets. These absorb humidity, so all you have to do is put a packet in with each box of ammo and it will keep your ammunition nice and dry.
3. Keep Your Ammo Secure From Intruders
You don’t want anyone with unauthorized access to get a hand on your guns or ammunition. If that happened, it could have very negative and perhaps even tragic consequences.
To prevent unauthorized access to your ammo, you need to have proper security measures in place. Keeping your ammo stored in a vault or a safe or at least an ammo cabinet is a good way to do it, otherwise you could keep them stored in a locked and secure room.
If none of those options are viable, your next best bet would be to secure locks to the outside of your cans to prevent anybody from getting in.
And even if that method doesn’t work for you, your next bet keep your ammo hidden (and preferably up high). You should be able to get pretty creative with no storing your ammunition in obvious places. A while back, I wrote an article on places to hide your guns where nobody will see them. Several of those suggestions apply to ammo as well.
Ideally, would-be intruders won’t make it into your home in the first place. To make sure they don’t, follow these home security tips for life after SHTF.
More Storage Tips
There are a few other storage tips to keep in mind. For example, you should label and rotate your ammo, and you should regularly check it for signs of corrosion. If you want to learn more, check out this list of ammo storage tips that every gun owner should know.
If you apply all of these techniques, your ammo will be safe to shoot for fifteen to twenty years, no problem.
Conclusion
Well, there you have it!
Hopefully, the information in this article cleared some things up for you and now you know exactly what to do. You want to store as many of the best ammo calibers as possible, and you’ll want to take very good care of them so they’ll last a long time. Apply what you’ve just learned, and you’ll be an ammo storage expert.
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I find it amusing at the hysterical numbers posted here. Training— seriously, how much training do you need. My favorite rifle is sighted in at x yards, use dope card. My favorite pistol shoots LAL. Shotgun, 10″ of good luck at x yards.
Do you all really believe that with all the primers you are popping off, that it will not draw attention to someone willing to take your life for what you have worked so hard for. One on one maybe, but have probably never experienced the nervous adrenaline rush of a combat situation. Can you keep your head in the game. How about shooting in one direction while being shot at from another. And how many guns can you shoot at once while hunting/practice/defense.
Learn to trap, snare, and fish. Use only top quality hunting rounds, save that primer pop to take a deer or two per year. There is two shots, zero rifle is three. That’s 5, per deer, three per year is 15. 200 rounds will last almost 13 years. Still think you need thousands of rounds.
All that ammo stockpiling is a paranoid delusion of a militant wanna be, who don’t know the first thing about survival. A group of 10 come to take your stuff, you grab what you can and scram. Leaving behind your 975# of stockpiled ammo, and your 20 battle rifles. And unless you are just a bubble off the level, don’t give me no sniper BS either. To have a human being in your sights, and to pull the trigger, and end his life takes a mind set that most cannot ever muster. And maybe 1% of readers could actually achieve a kill shot on a human size target at 700yds or more.
Buy the ammo you need, actually do math for round count. Save the rest and get a good Bug Out Vehicle and trailer or some land on which to start over
What about 22 mag an 17 wmr? You all missed two key calibers… way better than 22LR! Way more power than 22LR?
John, those calibers can be handy but there just aren’t a lot of 17 wmr guns out there, so the trade value may be affected. 22 LR is by far more prolific and can do almost as much. For comparison there is not a plethora of 6.5 Swede, and though I have one, I would not suggest others stockpile that (unless they do too).
I would buy .223 instead of 5.56. One can fire .223 in a 5.56 chamber, but one should not fire 5.56 in a .223 chamber. Thus .223 is more versatile than a 5.56. You may have a 5.56 right now and 5.56 is fine and dandy, but something may happen to that 5.56 and you can only find a .223 rifle. Now what?
A stockpile of ammo is fine and dandy but what if you have to bug out?
Some weights to consider:
9 mm = 26.6# per 1,000 rounds
22LR = 7.5# per 1.000 rounds
12 ga 00 buck = -102.5# per 1,000 rounds
5.56, 63 gr. .5.56 = 26.7# per 1,000 rounds
According to my old math that equals 163.3 pounds of ammo and that is for what I consider a low end load out. Jump the .22LR to 5,000 rounds and drop the 12 ga buck to 500 rounds and the weight is close but not equal. Jump the 5.56 to 5,000 rounds and drop the 12 ga. all together and the weight is close to the same. However, that means you are going to have to shoot doves with the .22. Not impossible but a lot harder than with a 12 ga. loaded with #6 shot.
In any event, whatever your load out is, you need to consider some other means of bugging out than shank’s mare and backpack. You might be able to carry that load on a dolly but if you throw your backpack on your dolly you are going to be hauling close to 200 pounds, plus the weight of all those firearms. What will you do? What will you do?
If your plan includes bugging out, you need to do some serious thinking about how much you are going to drag along with you as you bug out to your uncle’s farm, 175 miles away,.
Maybe just a 12 ga. and a mix of birdshot, buckshot and slugs?
If an EMP attack is so effective; WHY HASN’T ANYONE DONE IT YET?
For training and small game, do not over look the pellet guns in .177 and .22 cal.
I love watching all the Gravy Seal mouth-breathers in a frenzy to stockpile ammo.
All I ask is that, while you are serving as a temporary custodian of my future ammunition, you store it properly.
Carry on.
My thoughts on ammunition reserves:
A thousand rounds per gun is a good start. Per caliber, it could be way low. I would do the requirement calculation based on each rifle, not each caliber.
Hideout/pocket pistols (under 9mm) – 500 ready round each w/1,000 in reserve for each, 25 rounds per month for training
Defensive handguns (9mmP and above) – 1,000 ready rounds each w/2,500 in reserve for each, 50 rounds per month for training
Defensive shotguns (12-gauge or 20-gauge) – 1,000 ready rounds each w/2,500 in reserve for each, 100 rounds per month for training (25% slugs, 75% 00 buck)
Defensive carbines (.223/6.5/6.8/.30 Carbine/x39 class) – 2,000 ready rounds each w/5,000 in reserve for each, 200 rounds per month for training
Main battle rifles (.308/.30-’06 class) – 2,500 ready rounds each w/10,000 in reserve for each, 250 rounds per month for training
Sniper rifles (.338 Lapua and below) – 1,000 ready rounds each w/3,000 in reserve for each, 100 rounds per month for training
Sniper/Anti-material rifles (above .338 Lapua) – 1,500 ready rounds each w/5,000 in reserve for each, 100 rounds per month for training
Hunting rifles (medium to large calibers) – 500 ready rounds each w/1,000 in reserve for each, 10 rounds per month for training (example in .30-’06: 10% 55gr Accelerator PSP, 10% 125gr PSP, 25% 150gr PSP, 25% 165gr PSP, 15% 180gr PSP, 15% 220gr SP)
Hunting rifles (small calibers) – 1,000 ready rounds each w/2,500 in reserve for each, 15 rounds per month for training
Hunting shotguns (all types) 1,000 ready rounds each w/2,500 in reserve for each, 25 rounds per month for training (5% slugs, 5% 00 buck, 10% #4 buck, 10% BB shot, 20% #4 shot, 30% #6 shot, 20% #7½ shot)
Enough powder, primers, bullets, and wads & shot to reload each case approximately 8 times
.22 Rim fire – 10,000 ready rounds each w/25,000 in reserve for each, 500 rounds per month for training, 100,000 for barter & trade
(In lieu of the .22 Rim fire, or in addition, to have a reloadable round equivalent to the .22 Rim fire rounds, I use .32 ACP. Used in a .30-caliber rifle with a chamber adapter, the round is fast and very quiet. So: 5,000 ready rounds each (for rifles that will use the adapters), 10,000 in reserve for each, 50-rounds per month for training, perhaps 10,000 for barter & trade)
Why are the numbers so high? Because they might have to last my family’s descendants three hundred years or more.
Just my opinion.
Assuming one firearm in each caliber this requires 1325 rounds for training each month, or 15,900 rounds per year. Is that for one person using all these firearms or one gun per person distributed in a group?
The ready ammo and reserve + barter ammo is 175,500 rounds.
So first year stockage is 191,400 rounds. Just the 22lr ammo at 6 cents per round is $8,100. The remaining center fire ammo at a very conservative 30 cents per round amounts to $16,920. (If you can assemble it that cheaply, I would like your advice.) This amounts to a total of $25,020.
The only gun caliber mentioned that I do not possess at least one of is the 338 Lapua. Before the tragic boating accident where I lost all my guns, I had 5 in 30-06, multiples of others, and some not mentioned. Would I have been advised to increase my inventory based on this?
This can be an interesting discussion.
All great tips. I would add that to me, the 1,000 rounds per gun is the bare minimum goal. Especially if the gun is a semi-auto, like an AR. Learning to reload is a valuable skill for preppers. Although for prepping, I’m old school and believe that a single stage or portable press is the only way to go. Avoid the Lee Loaders if you’re reloading because they only resize the case mouth, not the whole case, and that works best for revolvers and bolt actions.
I’ve a box or two of several popular calibers, even though I don’t own a gun in that caliber, for the exact reason the author stated, BARTER/TRADE! If the collapse we experience goes on for a while, Ammo will be as valuable as gold. So an extra box of any of the more popular calibers is a worthwhile investment. .303 Brit.308, 30-06, .223,.243, .270, 7mm, 7.62×39 .300 Win Mag and WSM are examples of common calibers worth keeping a small stockpile. I check my local gunstores for end of season sales and clearences. Shotshell’s from .410 Bore up to 12 Gauge. Pistol ammo, I’ve boxes of .25 and .32ACP, 9 x 18, .41 Magnum and .44Special/Magnum. All are kept just for barter trade.
Something not mentioned on these sites, but bears keeping in mind is technology loss. What will we do when components are no longer there? I keep a flintlock and supplies in my long term cache. Whya flintlock? It doesn’t require a percussion cap. You can make BlackPowder, you can knap your own flint, and you can cast your own ammo.
What we’ll face in the event of collapse is an unknown. Too many variables are in play to accurately predict the situations we’ll be faced with. The best you can do, is prepare for as many eventualities as possible. In my case, certain medications keep me alive, and there will come a time, that those will be gone, so my best option is to set up and teach my children and grandchildren, not just what they need to survive, but too thrive. That’s the most feasible plan in my case.
I know I can never have to much ammo,l’m disabled from a back injury.But I can still get into my gun safe,and i’m a crack shot.I’ll try to buy more ammo depending on money avaliable,I am a veteran of the U.S.Army and had some great training. I will survive.
The main problems for long term storage of ammo are heat and moisture. Storing your ammo in a dry basement or underground building is best where the temp is very constant. And use ammo chests (incorrectly know as ammo cans) with very good seal rings and descant packs that DO NOT touch the ammo is the best way. Keep all penetrating oils away form your ammo sullies too. Use ammo chests for the primers and powder storage too. Label all the ammo chests so you do not have to open them any more that needed. 50 cal and 30 cal work well but it is some times nice to have 20mm chests too. I also use clean white cotton gloves when filling the chests so that there is less chance of corrosion on the ammo.
also pick up all fired brass at the range even if you do not have that caliber. and getting the reloading equipment and supplies for all the calibers and gages you have.
.223 is popular and cheaper
Actually there are probably MORE .223/5.56 chambered rifles in this country than any other caliber except perhaps .22. A .22 for small game hunting of which there are far more small edible creatures than large and 5.56 for defense is almost all you need. Of course, if you want waterfowl or upland game birds, a .22 can still be useful but a good .12 gauge will certainly be more effective.
good catch – didn’t even see .223 wasn’t there >>>> .243 isn’t there also – popular across the country but since the 1960s inception – HUGE in the Midwest ….
Nice article and reminder, you can never have enough.