I’m often asked “How much ammo is enough?”

Do you simply need to hunt to put some extra food on the table, or are you defending your home in a riot zone? Either scenario would give you a drastically different answer.

I know more than a few people who live by the motto “Buy it cheap and stack it deep.” Some of my friends like to buy a few boxes with every paycheck. Depending on the cartridge you shoot, you’re looking at roughly $10-$20 per box of 20 rounds for rifle or handgun ammo. This lets you build up a reasonable stockpile relatively quickly as long as you shoot less than you store.

A few of my less-optimistic friends buy it by the case (or in one instance, by the pallet). Obviously, this lets you build up a far larger stockpile much more quickly, but it has a larger impact on your budget. You can also run into logistical issues; do you have space for cases or pallets of ammo?

I personally fall somewhere in the middle. In my opinion, unless we have a major disaster of some sort that drags out for months on end, a few thousand rounds is more than enough for your own stockpile. On the other hand, if you can afford it, and your other supplies (food, water, hygiene products, medicine, etc.) are stocked up, there’s no such thing as too much ammo.

For the sake of argument, let’s assume that everything did go south. You’ll probably want a chest-style rig with enough pouches to hold six magazines, plus one more in your rifle. AR-15 owners, that means you’re walking around with 28 pounds of mags and ammo. AK fans, your steel magazines and ammo weigh in even heavier. In either case, that puts you at 210 rounds.

You may be thinking “I could carry more than that.” and you’re probably right, but what do you have to leave behind to do so? Water? First aid?

In reality, 210 rounds is actually quite a lot. In fact, our troops in harms way often carry slightly less. Short of a “break contact” drill, or defense against “human wave” style assaults, you’d be pretty unlikely to burn through that. And unless Chinese paratroopers were assaulting your apartment building, you’re unlikely to face either event.

If I had to put a hard number on it, a few cases of ammo for a total of 2-3 thousand rounds per weapon is plenty for any realistically foreseeable circumstance.