Plinking vs. Hunting/Self Defense Ammo

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  • mpollan1

    Foxtrot Juliet Bravo
    MDS Supporter
    Sep 26, 2012
    6,515
    Мэриленд
    So, I have some ammo in the house. How many rounds does not really matter especially when discussed on a public forum. Let's say I have 100 rounds total. My weighting is likely ~ 95 rounds plinking (FMJ) and ~ 5 rounds Hunting/Self Defense (HP/SP). This "poll" excludes 22LR.

    I feel the 5 is light and some degree of reallocation should be done. Care to share your inventory level without any absolute numbers? And yeah, I do understand that absolute numbers are a big factor in this but...

    Cheers,

    Mark
     

    Blaster229

    God loves you, I don't.
    MDS Supporter
    Sep 14, 2010
    46,407
    Glen Burnie
    I'm not going to tell you how many plinking rounds I have.
    Self defense rounds depend on how many pistols you have loaded for self defense. I have about 2 full mags per pistol. Twice a year or so I shoot my self defense ammo to rotate the stock. I doubt I have on hand 25 extra self defense rounds. I don't feel like I need to "stock up" on those. I'd rather have that money go to plinking ammo cache.
     

    DutchV

    Ultimate Member
    Jul 8, 2012
    4,702
    The answer is "it depends". I might decide to hunt with a .35 Whelen, or a .30-30 Win, so I'd only need maybe one or two hundred rounds to get them sighted in and have plenty of ammo left with the same zero. And if you reload, you might not bother making up more than a box or two at a time.

    An AR or an AK are not my choice for hunting. They're used for marksmanship practice and potential defense. Those are stocked a good bit deeper than two hundred rounds.

    Pistols you want a bunch of cheap stuff for practice, and a few boxes of hollowpoints for defense. Practice once in awhile with the good stuff so you know it runs okay in your pistol.
     

    Antarctica

    YEEEEEHAWWW!!!!
    MDS Supporter
    Sep 29, 2012
    1,728
    Southern Anne Arundel
    With the exception of smaller caliber handguns (i.e., 9mm) my plinking and self defense ammo are one in the same.. On the 9mm the self defense is buffalo bore hardcast but that really only for self defense when hunting in bear country. I do hold some rifle ammo specifically for hunting, but I wouldn't waste it on self defense.
     

    onedash

    Ultimate Member
    Feb 24, 2016
    1,026
    Calvert County
    Well most cases are 1K rounds so you should have at least 1K rounds. For weapons that would not be used for self defense I do not have close to 1K rounds, like 460XVR and 300RUM.
     

    SkiPatrolDude

    Ultimate Member
    MDS Supporter
    Oct 24, 2017
    3,331
    Timonium-Lutherville
    In the thousands, not hundreds. Also, in a time of dire straights, ammo is valuable currency.

    Reason I am so fond of the AR platform is that regular old 55gr xm193 is cheap and is a reasonable option for home defense. Can buy a few thousand rounds of the stuff for less than decent HP 9mm ammo.
     

    Doctor_M

    Certified Mad Scientist
    MDS Supporter
    Agree... it depends is the answer.

    If you have a huge collection guns in a wide variety of calibers, the 1-3K round per gun rule may not apply. If I have 25 guns in 9mm... I'm probably not going to need 75,000 rounds of 9mm (unless I'm Ammo John). It also depends on the intended use of the guns... I'm also not stocking my .41 RF short and my 5.56 at the same levels. I would think more in terms of rounds per PERSON in your family, vs rounds on hand per GUN. Think of pulling together a kit of a defensive long gun/battle rifle, a side arm, and a hunting gun (shotgun or rifle) for each member of the family. Most of my collection, are just that, collectable... not something I'd want to use in self defense if I had an option. My family is going to use the modern, robust, well maintained, and highly versatile ones... the rest will be bartered or hidden away. I'm not facing the world with a brace of .25 ACP pocket pistols across my shoulder, when I have better options.

    A reasonable metric (your mileage may vary) for a "rainy day" stockpile might be something like:

    Combat effective side arm (9mm, 10mm, .45, etc.) - 1000+ rounds FMJ 300-500 JHP or similar per person
    Combat effective long gun (5.56, 7.62, .308, etc.) - 3000+ rounds FMJ 300-500 soft point or hollow point per person
    High caliber hunting/scoped gun (.30-06, 300 Wing Mag, .308, .270, etc.) - 1000+ rounds soft point or hollow point per family
    Defensive shotgun rounds (12 ga) - 250 Slug, 250 Buckshot, 300-500 hunting shot (4, 6, 7.5, etc.) per family
    and I know that you didn't call out rimfire, but for me, I would include at least 3,000 rounds per family of good quality ammo... it is very versatile for training, hunting, & pest control, and we have seen how easily it can dry up

    And then you need to figure in specialty ammo (i.e., sub-sonic rounds for suppressors). If you have a FA... in any caliber, you will need to triple the ammo supply.

    You need to figure out what you need and for what purpose. Just a rainy day supply? Preparing for SHTF? Probably nobody can give you a suitable answer for your needs other than you.
     

    RuralRifleGuy

    Active Member
    Aug 16, 2018
    918
    Queenstown
    34% of my ammo is self defense ammo currently (excluding .22 and 9mm because I don't know what I have for those off the top of my head). I'm low on range ammo at the moment though because everything is sold out and I like specific weights and brands for my .357 Sig and .40S&W range ammo.

    Edit: I like to have at least 100 rounds of defensive ammo per 1000 rounds of range ammo. That’s probably excessive when I actually have a lot of range ammo on hand, but I put at least a mag or two of defensive through each new gun to make sure it doesn’t have any issues.

    Just found my .22 numbers. I have about a 60/40 split with the 60% being hollow points because there was a really good sale when I bought it about two years ago making it cheaper than lead round nose at the time.
     

    Melnic

    Ultimate Member
    MDS Supporter
    Dec 27, 2012
    15,278
    HoCo
    hmm, with an AR, I'm wondering what the difference between "plinking" and Self defense is?
    I mean, my plinking reloads are as or more accurate than most commercial 223/556 and are FMJ

    SO, I guess, I'm saying Plinking ammo in SHTF situation IS self defense. (for AR).
     

    IX-3

    Active Member
    Aug 21, 2018
    424
    Eastern Shore, MD
    hmm, with an AR, I'm wondering what the difference between "plinking" and Self defense is?
    I mean, my plinking reloads are as or more accurate than most commercial 223/556 and are FMJ

    SO, I guess, I'm saying Plinking ammo in SHTF situation IS self defense. (for AR).

    I've been going through my ammo lately to see where I need to improve, which is basically impossible at the moment with almost everything being out of stock, and my 5.56 ammo is the biggest problem. I have no "self-defense" rounds only FMJ on hand. If it gets to the point my handguns with HST's are not enough FMJ's from the AR will have to do. Once things settle down again ammo wise I am going to start buying a few boxes of defensive 5.56 and 7.62x39 any time I purchase ammo.

    I ordered a new gun Sunday and was surprised when I went looking for .40S&W ammo that had been plentiful a week ago. It's starting to be out of stock everywhere now too.
     

    shadow116

    2nd Class Citizen
    Feb 28, 2008
    1,542
    Emmitsburg
    IMO, I don't see the benefit of "self defense" 5.56 over the plentiful XM/M193 FMJ. Maybe you give up some barrier penetration (being barrier blind), but for terminal ballistics ball ammo works.
     

    Blaster229

    God loves you, I don't.
    MDS Supporter
    Sep 14, 2010
    46,407
    Glen Burnie
    hmm, with an AR, I'm wondering what the difference between "plinking" and Self defense is?

    I mean, my plinking reloads are as or more accurate than most commercial 223/556 and are FMJ



    SO, I guess, I'm saying Plinking ammo in SHTF situation IS self defense. (for AR).
    My ARs in the house are my "fck. I'm shooting everything and need to go through walls" guns. 193 or green tips. Whatever I have loaded. I don't have 5.56 hollow point sd rounds because of cost. That and my ARs aren't my go to. So my AR plinking ammo pulls double duty. I'm sure someone people use nice HP . 223 deer ammo for sd. That would probably be my go to.
     

    lazarus

    Ultimate Member
    Jun 23, 2015
    13,678
    What the mix is doesn’t matter. It’s the absolute numbers that matter.

    Hunting you need a minimum of one box to zero your rifle and ensure it’s consistent and then one more box. That is enough for at least 2-3 seasons of hunting and checking zero at the start of every season (unless you shoot at a lot of animals). That isn’t enough for me, but that is at least what I would call a minimum.

    SD is at least a magazine. Ideally you’d probably want around 150-300 rounds unless you want to buy extra in the long run.

    Really you want to run at least a couple magazines through it every year. That’s on top of a minimum of 50 rounds and ideally more like 100 when you first buy to it ensure proper function. Plus you want some reloads. So if it’s a Glock 17 (what I have) that’s fall it a bare minimum of 118 rounds initially. That would be sufficient for one year. 50 rounds to check initial function. Two loaded magazines and then over the course of that year run a mag around 6 months out. Then another at a year. Then you would need to buy more.

    But if you want to be paranoid, you should buy that much again at one time and same testing to ensure that batch is fine (or at least run one full magazine of the new batch through your gun).

    Me personally I didn’t have much HD ammo for my Glock. Enough to test, but then all I had was one extra box. So I had my two loaded mags, but only enough to run one mag through the gun later. Right before all this crap with COVID went down I bought 300 rounds of Winchester Ranger T +p 147gr. That’s enough that I can properly function check, have 3 loaded mags (because why not) and still have enough to run 2-3 mags through my gun per year and not need to buy a bunch more HD ammo for 3-5 years.

    I don’t particularly care about a lifetime’s supply on hand. Or that I’ll be tending off hordes of zombies or something. If crap gets that bad, I’ve got tons of plinking ammo and getting hit with a 9mm ball is still pretty likely to be the textbook definition of “a very bad day”. Besides my rifle would be what I’d mostly be keeping handy and I’ve got gobs of M193.

    Also other guns.

    My mix for those varies. I’ve got maybe 5% hunting ammo for my M-1 carbine. No SD ammo for my Tokarev (well, one box of hollow points, but I wouldn’t count on them expanding). I think I’ve got like two 20 round boxes of hydrashok 38spc +p for my revolver, but SCADS of ball, flat point and SWC. But for example my .308 bolt gun I’ve probably actually got almost half soft point hunting ammo out of the few hundred rounds I have.

    On the other end, I have zero hunting ammo for my Garand (though I recently got dies and components so I can roll some of my own reloads for Garand safe hunting food).
     

    lazarus

    Ultimate Member
    Jun 23, 2015
    13,678
    My ARs in the house are my "fck. I'm shooting everything and need to go through walls" guns. 193 or green tips. Whatever I have loaded. I don't have 5.56 hollow point sd rounds because of cost. That and my ARs aren't my go to. So my AR plinking ammo pulls double duty. I'm sure someone people use nice HP . 223 deer ammo for sd. That would probably be my go to.

    It’s really damn hard to get better than a 75gr gold dot out of any AR platform. Tests I’ve seen is it is truly barrier blind. Better penetration than M193 as it doesn’t break apart as easily and reliable expansion out to very low velocities (that would correspond to like 500 or 600yd shots or even a bit further). But it isn’t cheap any more. I picked up about 200 rounds when PSA had it for $9 a box. Also the most accurate ammo out of my 20” and pretty good out of my 16”

    But I’ve got M193 loaded up for my 16” AR if I made it to my safe. In my house I don’t want barrier blind. I want a better chance that it’s way less harmful if it’s gone through two walls and one of my family members happens to be on the other side. Or less chance of exiting the house and going far.

    My “stockpile” (I can’t call it that with a straight face. Sure I’ve got a fair amount of ammo, but I have friends and know some guys who EASILY have “supply an infantry company for some hit work” levels of ammo hoarding) is sufficient for my regular range use with the mix of guns I own for probably 5-10 years if I could never buy ammo again. That’s without cutting back at all. A couple calibers like 22lr or 38spc, especially if you add in reloading components, is probably 15 years.

    Now I am hoping I can get to the range more once COVID clears up and as my kids get older. So my needs will expand.

    I mean, if the SHTF I’ve got enough probably whomever eventually rolls over me will get plenty. If by some miracle it isn’t gangs and bandits and what have you, ive got a couple lifetimes supply for my entire family if it’s a wilderness world is empty can of scenario. What, you’d actually be plinking a bunch if law and order broke down?

    I’d rather not attract that kind of intention. I have several lifetimes worth of hunting ammo if I was careful.
     

    lazarus

    Ultimate Member
    Jun 23, 2015
    13,678
    I've been going through my ammo lately to see where I need to improve, which is basically impossible at the moment with almost everything being out of stock, and my 5.56 ammo is the biggest problem. I have no "self-defense" rounds only FMJ on hand. If it gets to the point my handguns with HST's are not enough FMJ's from the AR will have to do. Once things settle down again ammo wise I am going to start buying a few boxes of defensive 5.56 and 7.62x39 any time I purchase ammo.

    I ordered a new gun Sunday and was surprised when I went looking for .40S&W ammo that had been plentiful a week ago. It's starting to be out of stock everywhere now too.

    Doesn’t seem to be the case online unless looking for a very specific ammo type. My usuals like SGAmmo have a reasonably good selection and I’ve actually noticed their prices are starting to soften a bit.

    That said I haven’t looked in the last 2 weeks. So maybe there is yet another huge run on ammo.
     

    motorcoachdoug

    Ultimate Member
    MDS Supporter
    I have 3 mags worth of Defensive ammo for my Glock 27 and SD40VE Spear Gold Dot JHP and 3 mags for my 1911 of Remington JHP and then I have over 500rds of Russian 223, 400 rds of 5.56 for plinking and 600rds of Green Tip for my AR. I need to get one more handgun and been thinking of building my next AR as well. That is all I can afford right now since my food bill has gone up since the wife is home from work..
     

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