From Peter, China and Russia produce most of the world’s nitrocellulose, which is used to make gunpowder. Since the remaining countries are using it all to supply Ukraine and Israel, there won’t be much left for US civilian use.
As I have been telling you for a few years:
- Get out of the cities
- Make sure that you have a large stock of “war shots.” I’m not talking about range ammo and being able to spend recreation time at the range. I am talking about having ammo for self and home defense when the SHTF. Your guess is as good as mine, but I would suggest 1,000 rounds in each caliber for handguns, 250 for each shotgun caliber, and 5,000 for battle rifles.
- When the supply dries up, range time will have to be cut back.
- Don’t think that reloading will get you out of this. A gunpowder shortage will be felt everywhere.
9 Comments
dave in pa. · January 29, 2024 at 3:53 pm
yeah, I started planning on this back in the 1990’s after the AWB was passed.
my neighbor did me a big favor and I gave him a 200 round battle pack of 7.62.
he liked to shit himself. but it was part of the stock I bought back in the late 90’s at 22 cents a round. not reloadable, but still good ammo. NATO stock ammo, 147 grain. bought 3 cases of it back then. if I had any idea ammo was going to go up like it has, I would have bought it by the skid load ! hollow points and soft points are nice to have, but a whole lot of people have died by plain old ball ammo. last couple of years, I have stocked up on whatever is on sale at a good price. sealed in heated plastic, it keeps a long time. and another thing, it holds it’s value a lot better than paper money does.
Shooter Calhoun · January 29, 2024 at 5:27 pm
Have a good mix of FMJ/JHP for purpose.
Penetration for FMJ with less stopping power and JHP for one shot and done.
A good supply locally with a HQ gun shop within walking distance.
Will pick up a some more if anything is left after gas and groceries.
Dirty Dingus McGee · January 29, 2024 at 6:48 pm
“Get out of the cities”
It’s no longer just the cities, suburbs are getting to be just as bad. Anything within 40-50 miles is getting pretty suspect these days.
My ammo stock is in the range you mentioned, some more some less. I also keep other ammo that I don’t use, bought cheap, for .trade goods if needed. Never pass up any deal on ammo, someone is going to want it. Or you might run across a deal on a weapon that uses that caliber.
it's just Boris · January 29, 2024 at 7:10 pm
Any thoughts on magazines per firearm? Granted those are little good without ammo…
Divemedic · January 29, 2024 at 10:13 pm
IMO:
You should have at a minimum of 6 magazines for each handgun, more if it is a handgun you use often.
You should also have ten magazines for each rifle at a minimum.
Think of magazines as being an expendable item.
I don’t stock a lot of spare parts. Rather than stock parts, I just buy more guns. The entire gun is thus my spare part.
Jonesy · January 29, 2024 at 11:06 pm
DM’s suggestion is a pretty good average. That will get you through most scenarios, but of course more is better. For handguns, I like to have at least double my carry loadout. If I carry 3, I want 3 out of rotation with a couple of range mags. For AR type mags, buy mags on the sales, or when they do packs of 5 or 10. Grab one when you hit the range. Soon you’ll have a box of them.
As for ammo, I try buy with buddies to share shipping cost and get cheaper pricing in bulk. It’s not much, but it adds up over time.
Sgt 73rd Regt · January 29, 2024 at 11:02 pm
Down here in Australia rifle & pistol primers and percussion caps have been hard to come by as well. I use Large pistol primers to load black powder 44/40 and 45/70 so when by good luck I found a shop stocking these and percussion caps I purchased his entire stock. I now have a very good buffer, just need some more brass (which funnily enough is still fairly available).
Bear Claw · January 30, 2024 at 5:41 pm
And rare earth metals which are in most military items
TRX · January 31, 2024 at 8:40 pm
> When the supply dries up, range time will have to be cut back.
—
Most of the ranges in my area have shut down in the last ten years. In my opinion, that’s because ammunition became so expensive their customers decided to sit on it instead of getting range time. At least, that’s one of the reasons my range time got cut back sharply.
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