Survival and Emergency Preparedness

Those recent books I read, Patriots and Expatriots got me thinking about what guns, ammo and equipment I had and what I needed. That led to me inventorying my ammo stash.

While going through my ammo cans I ran across an interesting invoice from 2004 for a case of Russian 7.62x39 ammo for $78 shipped. I bought a lot of 7.62x39 ammo back in the day to feed my AKs and SKSs. Most of that ammo is steel cased. Much of it stored in metal 50 cal ammo cans. Some of it is still in wood crates or boxes.

I think the most interesting is a 1072 case of steel cased, steel core Chinese ammo still in a big sealed metal case. I don't know if there is spam cans inside it or not. Never been opened however I do have a couple Chinese spam cans which may have come from one of those metal cases. I can't remember if I bought two or not. I will probably never open that metal case unless the apocalypse happens.

Needless to say I have enough 7.62x39 ammo stashed away to feed my AKs, SKSs and Mini 30. I may have case or two up at the woods house. I'll have to check the next time I go up there.

As for other stuff. I was surprised at the amount of 9mm ammo I have though much of it is Russian steel cased stuff. It too was pretty cheap back in the day and the steel stuff works well in my UZI. Most of it is 115 & 124 gr stuff. I do have a couple hundred rounds of duty/service HPs. I also have a couple cases of Winchester 115 gr white box brass stuff I bought when the Sports Authority chain went out of business. It too was pretty cheap back in the day.

I plan to burn up the steel cased 9mm stuff from now on. It's pretty much disposable where as the brass cased can be reloaded.

As for 223/556. I have a lot of Wolf steel cased 62 gr stuff. Most of my 55 gr stuff is Wolf Gold (brass case). Though I have a couple cases of Winchester white box 55gr stuff which again I bought from Sports Authority going out of business. I could use another case or two but I balk at the price they charge these days. If I run out of 223/556 I'll fall back on the AKs/SKSs.

In regards to 308/7.62 nato ammo. I have an unopened wood 1K case of Portuguese surplus stuff, plus another 500 rounds of various other surplus stuff plus maybe 300 rounds of various hunting/soft point ammo. I bought the surplus stuff for my M1a when I got into service rifle shooting but that fell apart after one season at the shooting club I joined. I can use it in my M1a, Ruger 762 and Saiga 308 if need be. Another case would make me feel better but it's like a $1/ round now, ouch!

Note to self...Don't get in a prolonged gun battle with your 308s. Use the ARs first then the AKs.

I could use another case or two of 45 acp and 40 cal ammo. I only have a little over a case, maybe 1500 rounds of each plus some duty ammo. I would probably use my 45 first, then the 40 then the 9mm.

I have about 750 rounds of 30 carbine ammo. 500 rounds of it is Israeli surplus Federal 110 gr power point soft point ammo. It was sold to the Israeli national police and then brought back as surplus. It's really good SD ammo and I got it at a good price a few years ago. The other 250 rounds is ball. I really can't think that I would use my 30 carbine over an AR or Mini 30, AK or SKS. Although Audi Murphy did killed a boat load of Germans with ball ammo in WWII with his M1 carbine so there's that. Having said that, I pretty good with the amount of ammo I have for that.

I had forgotten that I had bought 4 250 cases of S&B 12 ga. buck shot. I also reloaded about 600 rounds of bird shot and another 100 or so of waxed slugs which is bird shot with wax poured into it. When fired it comes out as a slug and will go through 1" plywood and then break up. Kind of a poor man's slug. I do have about 200 real slugs and various other buck shot, bird shot and other loads both factory and hand loaded. 12ga are easy to reload and I have maybe a thousand empty once fired hulls and at least 100lbs of shot and lots of powder left over. The only thing I'm short of it primers.

As for 22lrs I have plenty of that. I found four unopened 1600 round boxes of Federal Black Pack 37 gr HPs I didn't remember buying. I don't even know what Black Pack is. When I was in Appleseed instructors could buy 22 ammo from Federal and CCI at cost once a year to resell at cost to students. I always bought more than I resold so I'm very well stocked with various kinds of 22s. That's good news because I was worried I was running low after shooting mostly 22s up at the woods house the last couple of year.

All in all I'm pretty well set, i.e, I could get by with what I have in stock should a zombie apocalypse or commie cannibal looters show up.

I always look at it this way; How many 1000 round gunfights do you think you will survive.

That said, shooting is a hobby, so have anywhere from hundreds to thousands of rounds on hand - depending on the caliber. AK & 9mm being the most, with .22...not sure how much. Probably more than I think.

But I went through 100 .38 and 400 9mm this weekend...

I believe a 50 rd box of pistol ammo and a box of shotgun shells will get you thorough any SHTF the US has ever experienced...

Patriots eh? Going to the Prepper porn - LOL. Fun stuff.

It's always good to find ammo you forgot you had.
I never liked milsurp stuff so no spam cans laying around. All the old $79 cases of 9mm are long gone too. I go through way too much ammo to have vintage stuff still.
I only stockpile 9mm and 22lr these days and have plenty, but I was just looking for more 147gr earlier today.

thanks for reminding me.... tho no AR's here in commie NY, have plenty of M1 carbine and 9mm.
Have to check the rest

Your not a true prepper unless you have at least 10,000 rounds of every caliber stashed away in an underground bunker.

I pretty much shoot only 22lr these days and was worried I was running out. Then I found all the 22s I bought when I was an Appleseed instructor. Let's just say I have enough 22s to last me the rest of my life. I also have enough 7.62x39 as well.

The rest of the ammo I'm probably going to horde. My sons will get it when I die. So instead of money they'll inherit my ammo. By then ammo will cost as much as gold and no one will be able to afford it and thus gun violence will end according to the socialist gov't plan. Adjusted for inflation that $65 case of ammo should cost $106 today instead of $400 it's going for now. So the plan is working.

On the other hand, now that the woods house is finished and I got my food plots set up (just waiting to plow and plant this year) I can start work on improving my range so maybe I'll dig out some ammo from time to time and do more shooting.

As for Prepper porn...yeah...Patriots is a survivalist's wet dream. I read it back in the day, didn't remember much of it then it popped up on my library online feed so I thought "why not?" Kind of an eye rolling, forehead slapping adventure that's pretty dated in terms of guns and equipment.

Of course now I want to re-read the William Forstchen One Second After novels. One Second After, One Year After, 5 Years After & The Final Day. I haven't read the last two.

10k? What ammo will you use year two of the collapse? LOL....

Bob wrote: ↑Fri Apr 05, 2024 12:55 pm 10k? What ammo will you use year two of the collapse? LOL....

Your enemies ammo, duh

BTW I found the two unopened wood cases of 7.62x39 ammo at the old cabin up at my property today. One is 1100 rnds of Chinese steel core, which I assume is in steel spam cans cuz thats how they packed their ammo.

The other is Croatian 1260 rnds. Not sure how its packed inside the wood case.

I also took a 500 rnd ammo can of loose x39 ammo, 6 mags and an AK to stash at the woods house.

I think I also have another 300 rds or so of soft point x39 ammo at the woods house. Just have to remember what I did with it....Yup found it in a closet, 360 rnds.

It's kind of interesting to see all the different kinds of 7.62x39 ammo that was available. Of course I bought whatever was available at the time.

That included the chinese steel core which was steel cased with a steel jacket with a steel penetrator surrounded by lead. This is essentially a armor piercing round.

Then there was steel cased, steel FMJ, Steel cased copper FMJ, steel cased copper jacket hollowpoints, steel cased copper soft points, I even have some steel cased, copper jacket with plastic core. Theses are training rounds for short range that are designed to break up on hard surfaces. They are very light and very fast. I also have a few boxes of tracers.

And a few boxes of traditional soft point hunting ammo made by Winchester and Remington. I used my Mini 30 to hunt deer. While I did kill 3 or 4 I wasn't impressed with the performance of the x39. All of them ran along way and 3 out of 4 took additional shots to put them down. That was 20+ years ago so maybe the hunting ammo is better today.

I have a bunch of different ones, including steel core and incendiary.
- Standard, boat tails (my favorite), soft points, hollow points...American made, Commie made, Chinese, etc...