How Much Ammo Do You Need for the Zombie Apocalypse?

I'm always worried about having enough ammunition. WTSHTF, you won't be able to buy them or the components to reload. Ammunition will be a scarce but essential thing that will be crutial to survival.

Ammo is useful! You can defend yourself, you can hunt for food, you can use them for barter in a post-collapse society. Even brass would be worth trading things for, so pick them up when you can.

Keep in mind that the crisis that we are preparing for may take years to overcome.

On the flip side however, I'm not trying to scare you into hoarding tons of bullets, you need to balance this against your family's other needs. Butter or bullets? Choose wisely!

Here are some of my firearms and what goes through my head when I think about how much ammo I need for each of them:

I. .40 S&W

I go through about 1600 rounds per month for IPSC practice and competitions. That's training every Thursday and then weekend matches. My pistol eats a lot of ammo just so I could stay "hot". I also have two extra guns for my sport.

To put things into perspective, I shot 10,000 rounds in the past 6 months for competitive practice alone.

I only have 2000 left. Since I have multiple pistols, having 5,000-10,000 should be a minimum. 


II. .177

I have a break-barrel air rifle, the Gamo Whisper IGT in .177, and I want to have as much ammo for this as I could because its an ideal training rifle and great for small game hunting. This airgun can also punch through a zombie skull below 30 meters.

I have a total of 1200 rounds. I think I should have at least 5,000 so we can shoot this gun whenever we like.

III. .38 spl

My Armscor M206 holds a special place in my collection. My wife keeps this handy as her home carry. Its not her favorite, but she can fight with it. Its a tricky gun to shoot accurately using double-action, but the single action mode is ideal. Its short sight radius is tough to use so this gun needs decent range time to become proficient with.

I've got about 300 rounds of this and perhaps it would be nice to have 1000 for storage. 

IV. .380 auto

I have two pistols in this caliber. The Kel-Tec P3AT and my new SIG P238. These are two of the most popular pocket carry guns. They also serve as backup to my primary .40 high-cap. The Kel-Tec is hard to aim, the SIG however is a dream to shoot.

I got about 500 rounds of these and having 500 more would make me feel better.



V. 12 Gauge

The  Benelli M3T is my ultimate CQB weapon. If I have to protect the house or clear a building, this would be my tool. This is a bit tricky because of the wide assortment of loads. I have 00 Buck, slugs, birdshot, #4 Buck, and "bantam" loads that are small and let me load an additional round to make a 7+1 into an 8+1 capacity.

This is also the bulkiest. heaviest, and most expensive of all my ammo. Perhaps this is why I got .22lr in the first place.

I have a total of 550 rounds. Most of these comprising the full-power "combat" loads. I should aim for 2000 rounds. 

VI. 5.56 and .223

I don't have a centerfire rifle yet. However I made my commitment to get one by purchasing close to 3000 rounds. 

I will store these and attempt to build a minimum of 6000 for storage and then the rest would be used for practice and matches. When I get a second AR-15, I will then bump the reserves to 10,000 rounds.  

VII. .22LR

                                               Marlin XT-22YR & Kel-Tec SU-22, awesome zombie slaying weapons!

Say hello to my favorite caliber. Its so much fun to shoot a semi-auto suppressed rifle. Its tremendously satisfying to practice with a quiet bolt-action rifle. The whole thing about these guns is pure enjoyment. They're also the means by which I will thin the hordes of undead with. Nothing will destroy more zombies than the mighty .22lr. 

That being said, I don't think I could ever say that I would have enough of this caliber. I now have 7,000 rounds of assorted .22lr. They are primarily subsonic and "super-quiet" Armscor rounds. 

Super-quiet ammo averages 860fps, and the 40 grain head easily blasts through two coconut shells at 35 meters. 

This is the bullet for the apocalypse, home defense, hunting and good old plinking!  

I want to hit 10k rounds for this soon and hoard even more. Its also a bummer that there is no way to reload this in any practical manner. Thank goodness the factory over here churns them out with regularity and at a decent price. 

This reminds me to get me a suppressed .22lr pistol and another semi-auto rifle that would have mags compatible with my SU22.

VIII. Deficiencies?

Funny, I don't even have 9mm or .45ACP. Those two are the most commonplace ammo in the whole world aside from .22lr. Is this going to be a problem for me? Yes! It forced me to increase my reserves because I am expecting to have a hard time keeping my .380 and .40s properly fed.

IX. Conclusion

So there you have it. This is how I answer "how much ammo do I need for SHTF". All I did was ask myself what I intend to do with these firearms. 

I admit that I have too many different kinds of ammo. In a perfect world I would have just 2-3 kinds of ammo so my logistics won't be such a headache, but all of the firearms have a very good purpose.

Perhaps I need to consider reloading. As it stands my prepping budget does not yet have this in my short-range plans. Having the ability to reload would help me a whole lot. I'll give it some serious thought.

This is going to be expenseive...


Stay vigilant!

UPDATE:

As of October 2019 we got our selves two 9mm handguns! I can reload this caliber too so I'm off to a great start. Yahoooo! (January 24, 2020)