How much ammo to stock

Tl;dr: For defense ammo, buy what you need to keep your mags filled. For range ammo, buy enough for your training needs, which is usually just the next range trip, and then some.

Ammo is to a gun what food is to a human. Your needs for ammo are determined by how often you shoot your gun. If you’re not sure how often you shoot, I would recommend trying to hit the range at least once a month. If your budget and schedule allows for it, going once a week would be optimal.

Note: any gaps you experience from the optimal training interval can be supplemented with dry fire. I.E., even if you can’t shoot live fire every week, you should make the effort to dry fire at least once a week for around 5-15 minutes.

For the remainder of this article, we’ll assume you shoot at a range at least once a month. Shooters tend to go through between 100-200 rounds per range trip. Given this, you would need at least 1000-2000 rounds, or 1-2 cases of ammo, a year to supply a year of training.

That being said, buying a case(s) of ammo at a time can be a significant financial burden. So even though it might add up to slightly more in a year, buying 50-200 rounds may be easier to budget for.

Additionally, consider splitting a case of ammo with friends you go to shoot with, as buying by the case will yield lower cost per round.

And as far as defense ammo goes, these are typically rounds you will buy and either carry, or carefully store for necessity. I would recommend having at least 2 magazines worth of ammo kept on hand, and ideally, stored in their own magazines.

Note: for the ammo you carry regularly, it’s best practice to cycle it every year. So if you started carrying at the the beginning of the year, be sure to shoot all your carry ammo at the range at the end of the year, and replace it with a new pack of carry ammo. This ensures your carry ammo is fresh.