what is considered a lot of ammo?

My brother-in-law drives for UPS. he called me yesterday to boast that he had 10,000 rounds of .223 ammo. After a few minutes of normal conversation, he told me that it was going to a small town police station. I am not sure how many cops there are in the precinct, but even for a large city, wouldn't that be a huge amount? He then told me that he tried to deliver it to the front, and after loading it up and taking it inside, he was told to take it downstairs. 10,000 rounds of anything is heavy, so he was a bit pissed. he laded it back up and drove around to the back of the building. there were two cops there and they had him back up to a black van in the back of the parking lot. They helped him off load the ammo into the van. That part seemed a bit weird as well. But I may just be paranoid. Can anyone tell me if this is normal?

If you consider that a proper load out for combat is about 300 rounds to start with and spare ammo might bring it to 4 or 500 rounds then that's only enough for 20 to 30 m-16 or ar-15 rifles in an emergency situation.

It's probably just supplemental rounds for training. One police department can go through that in a day or two at the range.

Speaking of that, the van he loaded the rounds into was probably the one they use to carry equipment to the range.

10'000 rounds may SEEM like a lot of ammo, but let me asure you, in the course of a normal training day at the range, this "lot" melts like snow in the oven.
I wouldn't be discomforted yet, as I don't consider it a bad thing when the LEOs actually is capable of using their weapons in a proficient manner. Helps avoiding accidents.

thanks for the replys. I didn't start to panic yet, but I thought it seemed like a large amount.

Hey Dude...

10,000 is a lot for a regular person, or a small group of "hunters" or "plinkers". But for a police departmentof even moderate size, not so much.

You figure that each and every officer is required to qualify at least once per year with the weapons that they carry or have available to them. So if you have a 10 person police department, they qualify once each year and each fires, oh, maybe 200 roounds during qualification.

So I would say no, it's not unusual.

Now, the fact that a police department had the forsight to buy in bulk and save a lot of money in doing so, now THAT suprises me,

Originally posted by network dude
thanks for the replys. I didn't start to panic yet, but I thought it seemed like a large amount.

The irony of it, however, is that when those same police bust someone who happens to have a spare box of 50 rounds for their Target Pistol, the police are quoted in their official Press Release as saying they confiscated "an arsenal of weapons and a stockpile of ammunition".

I always get a kick out of these threads. I'm not going to pile on the OP here as he clearly has never taken a firearms training class. As pointed out earlier in this thread, 10k rounds to a law enforcement agency is nothing.

Consider the recommended round counts for a few of these publicly offered training classes:

LMS Defense

Carbine 1
Duration: 2 Days
Equipment Needed:
* Carbine and 4 magazines
* 1000 rounds of rifle ammunition
* Sling
* Handgun and 3 magazines
* 300 rounds of handgun ammunition
* Holster and magazine pouch

Thunder Ranch

Urban Rifle - UR
Created in 1983 this course is still the one most copied but not duplicated by other institutions. Urban rifle is the cornerstone of the personal defensive doctrine of this school and has been since the schools inception. Very simply this is the way to defend yourself… and this course the way to defend your self with a rifle.
Nominal 800 rounds of ammunition. Generally for magazine fed iron sighted rifles but other rifle types accepted. Low powered or dot type optics permitted but it is recommended that backup iron sights be available somewhere on the rifle.

Those are just two quick examples I pulled from. Now imagine a class with 10 people in it - there goes your 10k round pallet. Hopefully this will help people realize that someone having a multiple thousand round count supply is NOT some crazy gun owner hell-bent on starting a firefight.

I suppose at $450 a box of 1000 rds. $4500 isn't a huge amount to spend on ammo. If I had some money instead of a stack of bills, I might invest in that much as well. Until then, I hope that a 22 will suffice. I have plenty of that size, and just a little .223 left. If squirrels attack, I have your back.

reply to post by surfinguru


While I am no weapons expert such as yourself, I was trained with the M16 in the USAF and got to fire my 150 rounds each year. I took my CC class and fired my 40 rounds. I enjoy plinking with my 22 and fire my 200-300 rounds. So I might seem like a complete idiot, but I just play one on TV.

I really didn't know if this was unusual, which is why I asked.

reply to post by network dude


Hey man, you cover my 6, I'll cover yours!


edit to add apology to ND for pigeon holing him as uneducated!



[edit on 8/26/09 by surfinguru]

Just to put in in perspective:
I'm not a huge gun person and I don't own a gun, but I like target practice in gun-friendly states. Once, in one day of leisurely shooting I squeezed out 500 rounds from various types of weapons (not full auto). So 10k of ammo doesn't seem like a lot to me.

Sure it's heavy and b!tch to lug around

It's called "loading up the va with ammo, the boys are going to range for some full auto shooting practice". !0 guys with full autos could shoot that much up in 30 minutes - easily. However, if you or I had that much ammo
they would say we had an"arsenal" and were getting ready to go on a terror spree.

Originally posted by network dude
I have plenty of that size, and just a little .223 left. If squirrels attack, I have your back.

Don't count out a good 22 rifle.

The .22 round has put more food on the table than any other factory round in history. One squirrel, rabbit, possum, coon, snake, armadillo, bird at a time. It is a great survival round.

Just give us a heads up if the squirrels attack. That's kinda creepy.

Originally posted by badgerprints armadillo

Dude you eat armadillos? :[

If you check with any state conservation dept.
It is debated that the .22 has killed more deer than any other round.
10,000 rounds what a waste!
I would like to have the brass they wasted!
I still use the same 100 brass for my .222 that I started with over ten years ago!
And I am sure that I am a long way past 10,000 shots
I am on my 13th pound of powder 1 lb= 7000 grains one .222/.223 round uses 18-22 grains of powder...over 300 rounds per pound @ a cost of $20
After its all said and done my reload costs about .07
armadillo is just an armoured opossoum?

A friend of mine is an Immigration and Customs Enforcement special agent and the field office he is assigned to only has about 20 or so special agents plus civilian support staff and he says that they could easily go through 10,000 rounds in annual qualifications alone ... they actually ran out of ammo recently and had to order more.

how many rounds.... well i have a good assortment of weapons and i reload most of my own.... so lets see ..... available on hand 25 to 30 thousand rounds of assorted calibers for rifles, easily that much for handguns,

and maybe 2000 rounds for shotguns....

lots of powder and related items for reloading.....

one can never have enough.... i go to the range a great deal and i use a lot in one day...

When I served in the 82nd during the "Cold" War, our normal combat load was 16 30 round magazines, or 480 rounds per trooper. 10k rounds would just about fill out the needs for 2 squads.

So, no, it's not really a lot, at least from my perspective.

Now, if it were all delivered to one guy sitting on top of a building...

It depends on the amount of police officers working there, also it depends on the crime rate.

[edit on 19-12-2009 by Rooky]

[edit on 19-12-2009 by Rooky]

reply to post by network dude


"what is considered a lot of ammo?"

A lot of ammo is the right ammount enough to:

1) Kill all politicians in the world
2) Last a Rambo movie
3) Survive a Zombie virus pandemic