Ammo: You Can't Take ALL of it With You

I see a lot of people buying ammo by the case loads and while this is a very good idea if the SHTF, it's not very practical if you need to get up and leave your place of residence. One small box of ammo alone is fairly heavy, especially if you pair it with the other items in your BOB. Now, on the other hand, if you decide your place is safe for the meantime, stock piles of ammo is a very good thing to have, but what if you need to become mobile and quickly? You're not going to take all your stashes of ammo with you, they would be far too heavy to luggage around. So the weapon of choice in a real survival situation when you're not in the confines of home would not be a gun or rifle.

What are your thoughts on this? What other alternatives would be just as good as a gun or rifle when it comes to survival or protection?

Make waypoints in your bug out route and cache supplies there. Make sure you got your treasure map

Originally posted by jeepin4x4girl
I see a lot of people buying ammo by the case loads and while this is a very good idea if the SHTF, it's not very practical if you need to get up and leave your place of residence. One small box of ammo alone is fairly heavy, especially if you pair it with the other items in your BOB. Now, on the other hand, if you decide your place is safe for the meantime, stock piles of ammo is a very good thing to have, but what if you need to become mobile and quickly? You're not going to take all your stashes of ammo with you, they would be far too heavy to luggage around. So the weapon of choice in a real survival situation when you're not in the confines of home would not be a gun or rifle.

What are your thoughts on this? What other alternatives would be just as good as a gun or rifle when it comes to survival or protection?

OK the accepted method of ensuring you have enough ammo is to keep up to six mags with your BOB, your reserve supplies are then normally kep at your home, with more kept at your retreat if you have one. Then along your travel routes from Home/ work to retreat/ place of safety you have a few caches of supplies concealed along the routes. Along with extra ammo you would also cache more food, medical suplies, spare batteries, maps of the next area etc. We dont keep all our eggs in one basket we spread them out between home/ work and retreat.
Love the Avatar BTW

we have this saying in the Marine Corps.
A good hunter can can last a year on only a handful of cartridges.
But one one firefight and even a thousand rounds might not be enough...

this is a case of damned if you do damned if you don't.

reply to post by jeepin4x4girl


Would go with a bow myself. It's light and so are the projectiles.

It's a completely silent weapon, for all your multiple hunting target take-downs.

Most importantly, no bullets required. More arrows can be made up as you go, in a long term survival situation.

Happy shooting!

Tim

Originally posted by Northern Raider
Love the Avatar BTW

Thanks, I love my jeeps, always will.

Back on subject though, I've also thought about making stashes of ammo here and there - away from the house buried in the woods or hidden in strategic places where people would be less likely to come across them.
I'm going to be a PITA here and consider a "what if" situation though. I'm talking about having to track on foot for miles upon miles and completely leaving the area around your house behind...this even means being miles away from where you've hidden your ammunition. If a whole area doesn't become a safe haven anymore, you have to move on and just take what is necessary to survive on your person. That's when the real issue of carrying around ammo happens, you can only take enough ammo that you can afford to carry, along with other life saving essentials. What I'm trying to get at is...any kind of gun or rifle would be useless once you run out of the limited ammo you're able to carry on yourself, so what would you use instead? Knives are definitely essential for many uses - including cleaning and preparing of animals for a meal, but aren't nearly as effective in self defense as a gun or rifle would be (especially for hunting big game). I'm sort of at a loss for what would be a better alternative than a gun or rifle for survival, I guess everything has it's negatives and positives.

The whole point I'm driving at is, a gun/rifle is not a good solution for long term survival because you cannot keep a steady supply of ammo with you throughout your travels, where as in a knife or other tool/weapon, you can use and reuse it many times over.

Originally posted by tim.vic.au
reply to post by jeepin4x4girl

 

Would go with a bow myself. It's light and so are the projectiles.

It's a completely silent weapon, for all your multiple hunting target take-downs.

Most importantly, no bullets required. More arrows can be made up as you go, in a long term survival situation.

Happy shooting!

Tim

Good point! (no pun intended)
I'm totally illiterate when it comes to bow hunting, but can you fashion an effective arrow out of regular forest wood by sharpening the edges? I imagine you can...stupid question!

reply to post by jeepin4x4girl


If you have several caches of ammo, that's a good thing. Yeah sure you can only carry so much, but pre-positioned supplies if you're on the move and know where you're headed to is a good thing.


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[edit on Thu Mar 26 2009 by Jbird]

A great solution to you problem would be to have a few more people to assemble a firing team. More people can carry more things, shoot more targets, see more enemies, etc. Have at least three people that you trust with your life not too far from you, and as paranoid as you, and your survivability just went up a whole lot.

Originally posted by dashen
A great solution to you problem would be to have a few more people to assemble a firing team. More people can carry more things, shoot more targets, see more enemies, etc. Have at least three people that you trust with your life not too far from you, and as paranoid as you, and your survivability just went up a whole lot.

You sound like me

I'm trying to get more survivalist's to move to my location(NR). As of now my "fireteam" consist of almost a dozen friends and family. All armed to the teeth and very willing to kill for the others in the group.

N.R. As far as carrying 6 mags with you, i carry no less than 10 for each weapon. 10 30 rounders for MINI-14, 10 10 rounders for 9mm.

I know a few of you think about caching supplies.

This is a great idea BUT do not use GPS coordinates ALONE as your cache location.

If SHTF the goverment will likely turn the system off or fudge it so a enemy can not use the system.

This may leave you or members of your team/group unable to find your cache unless you have a backup way to locate them.

[edit on 24-3-2009 by ANNED]

Originally posted by ANNED
I know a few of you think about caching supplies.

This is a great idea BUT do not use GPS coordinates ALONE as your cache location.

If SHTF the goverment will likely turn the system off or fudge it so a enemy can not use the system.

This may leave you or members of your team/group unable to find your cache unless you have a backup way to locate them.

[edit on 24-3-2009 by ANNED]

I never use GPS for anything. I know how to read maps, and when i'm out hunting i always pay attention to terrain features. And i've been lost once. But the middle of Denver doesn't count, i won't be bugging out to Denver.

reply to post by jeepin4x4girl


The line, "Better safe than sorry" comes to my mind. If you have to bug out then bury the vast majority and carry what you can. Otherwise, you'll need all you can store for defense and hunting. It's just the responsible thing to do to look after yourself and your family. It could also be a very good thing to barter for other goods if you needed to.

Jeep the best 4 letter word..well almost..lol..I love my Cj's..

but on topic though,before just considering just a blade or bludgen.look into a .22,allot of ammo can be packed small and light..

I personally have 2 weapons selected for if TSHTF,and a ammo can ready with mixed ammo for each..A cache will be buried soon,accesible if having to leave the area and dividable amongst my party..

reply to post by jeepin4x4girl


I think Ammo needs and the strength to carry them and your other gear is relative to your experience. When I got out of the Corps in 01 , my Battalion (2/3) humped 25 miles for a readiness exercise. I did this with 70 Lbs of gear on , I also rotated carrying a M240G MMG (27 Lbs), the Tri-Pod & the T&E (Don't remember how much it weighed but is wasn't light) between Myself and My A Gunner. I weighed 160 Lbs and I'm 5'8". I'm not telling you this to brag, because at that time it seemed normal to me to do that because everyone else was doing it, sure it hurt and we complained but it never occured to me that I COULDN'T do it. I'm telling you this because you won't know what you're capable of until it is time for you to go through it and for the most part , your physical limitations are self imposed. I'm a little older now (28) and a tad wiser so I travel lighter. In the Closet next to our BOB's is my Mossy 500 locked in its case. Next to it is a box with 50 rounds of 00 Buckshot and 50 rounds of Slugs. To me only 100 Rounds of 12 Ga is pretty light packing, but like I said earlier... It's relative... Only YOU know what you'll need should the need arise. Be wary of others (Including myself) telling you what is or is not enough ammo for you.

I try not to post to firearms threads, but this one isnt about the biggest gun, or are guns better than bows and actually makes a good point, so here I am.

No. You cant take every round you have with you, unless you only own two bricks of .22. The idea is to have enough with you whereever you are. As another poster mentioned, have caches in place. For myself. If it a bug in situation, I'm fine. Most of my neighbors arent bad people and we are all well armed and know it. Anyone coming into this area would be in trouble.

If its bug out from home on foot. I have my .40 with 6 clips, my .380 with 4 clips that I always carry, would grab my ak and 10 clips. Also in my BOB is a .22 rifle with 1000 rounds. Not that heavy overall, AK kind of gets in the way at times, but its worth the trouble.

Bug out with a vehicle. Would depend on how much time I had. Would certainly grab at least one shotgun, and a can of 00 and some 8 shot, maybe a can of slugs as well.

At my BOL. Thats scary. Between my group and myself, we are very well armed, guns in the ground, bullets hidden everywhere, that kind of thing.

Now to the other question you asked. Better long term solution. Some people stock up on extra powder, lead, and primers. I know some that just buy the stuff and hide it. If firearms were not an option, certainly a crossbow would be the way to go. Can keep it loaded unlike a bow, as much killing power, anyone can use one, and bolts are easier to fashion than arrows.

Keep that handy for big game and defense, use traps and snares for small game and defense, you should be fine.

Originally posted by EyesWideShut
reply to post by jeepin4x4girl

 

I think Ammo needs and the strength to carry them and your other gear is relative to your experience. When I got out of the Corps in 01 , my Battalion (2/3) humped 25 miles for a readiness exercise. I did this with 70 Lbs of gear on , I also rotated carrying a M240G MMG (27 Lbs), the Tri-Pod & the T&E (Don't remember how much it weighed but is wasn't light) between Myself and My A Gunner. I weighed 160 Lbs and I'm 5'8". I'm not telling you this to brag, because at that time it seemed normal to me to do that because everyone else was doing it, sure it hurt and we complained but it never occured to me that I COULDN'T do it.

Hmmm...you bring up a good point. I'm 5ft 8 and 130 lbs, I highly doubt I could carry 70 lbs worth of BOB on a long treck. I do have experience with backcountry snowboarding, carrying the board/boots/backpack uphill, all together which weigh approx. 30 - 40 lbs. So it's not like I'm totally inexperienced. I suppose I would be ready to haul all that weight if the time came.

Some of you also make a point to have at 3 very close acquaintances to bond with when the time comes for SHTF. I disagree. When the chaos ensues and things get really ugly - people turn primal - even your own family members would turn if times got really desperate. In a really bad situation, you have to be your own best friend. I wouldn't rely on other people knowing where my ammo stash is hidden.

Another point I want to bring to attention is the fact that you would have several places to stash ammo - okay - thats all well and good, but what if that stash happens to be out of reach when all hell breaks loose? You have to totally reroute and you'd be without any ammo. At least with a crossbow, you could grab it easily and reuse the arrows, and have them on your person at all times.

Also, a vehicle to store your cache in and use as a getaway, not a good idea. It would only get you so far (unless you have a jeep of course, that way you could travel uncharted territories and avoid road blocks).
But eventually the gas would run out - and well...getting more gas would be a problem with rioting and all that.
Best plan of action would be to have a cross bow/arrows, your bug out bag, and just go on foot, away from whatever catastrophe happened.
That being said, I really need to brush up on my archery skills.

[edit on 3/24/2009 by jeepin4x4girl]

Some of you also make a point to have at 3 very close acquaintances to bond with when the time comes for SHTF. I disagree. When the chaos ensues and things get really ugly - people turn primal - even your own family members would turn if times got really desperate. In a really bad situation, you have to be your own best friend. I wouldn't rely on other people knowing where my ammo stash is hidden.

Another point I want to bring to attention is the fact that you would have several places to stash ammo - okay - thats all well and good, but what if that stash happens to be out of reach when all hell breaks loose? You have to totally reroute and you'd be without any ammo. At least with a crossbow, you could grab it easily and reuse the arrows, and have them on your person at all times.

[edit on 3/24/2009 by jeepin4x4girl]

It is EXTREMELY HARD to survive in the wild on your own, three of four people, who trust each other with their LIVES have a much higher potential for survival. Three people gathering food and wood works much better than one. Also, my Remington 700 can take down a black bear at a quarter mile, try that with your crossbow. 'Nuff said.

(tags)




[edit on Thu Mar 26 2009 by Jbird]

I do volunteer work at a private shooting range. When our range buggy is busy elsewhere I lug heavier gear with my quarter ton capacity wagon. You can move tons of stuff over some pretty rugged if you can put it on wheels. The secret weapon of the the Viet Cong was the bicycle. I've traveled 30 miles in a day over on some fairly rough trail on a mountain bike with about 50-60 pounds of gear on bike racks without being overly fatigued. A bicyclist with trailer on paved roads could probably travel 40-50 miles per day and carry as much as 100 pounds or more.

reply to post by jeepin4x4girl


If I had to venture out on foot in some type of disaster scenario, my choice would be to take a .22 rifle with me. Ammunition really isn't a problem; I could carry 1,000 rounds easily and significantly more if I deemed it necessary. Plus, its probably the most common round in use in the US and worldwide. If I run out, there's a decent chance I can find more. My plan isn't so much to hunt as it is to fish, so that supply of ammo would probably last quite a while if I needed it to. The only limitation is the round itself, which isn't very powerful, but I wouldn't feel underarmed with it in most scenarios.



[edit on 26-3-2009 by vor78]