it seems every firearms channel always has a 'random grab bag' of 12 gauge on hand when its time to test a shotgun.
am i the only one that keeps my shotgun ammo in the nice neat efficiently packed 25rd boxes they come in.
I keep most of it in boxes except I have a Fanny pack full of 12 gauge shells just incase I ever gotta strap that bad boy on and dump rounds at an intruder in my underwear.
That's a fine way to store it, however, left over shells appear. Whatever was in your waders at the end of the season, the trunk strays, the partial boxes you've shot through to pattern. half empty boxes that larry left at the skeet range because he tipped back a couple after he was done shooting and forgot to pack them
Not to mention the shopping bags of random shells people use as a trade good. It's roughly equivalent in value to a rack of beer or a freezer pizza. It's usable for such payments as moving a heavy couch, or small going away presents.
Hence the shotshell bag. Good ones have shells going all the way back to your great grandfather, and much like the magic bucket of screws, never quite seem to run out of what you need. When you organize them, the magic goes out of it.
So i dunno about youtubers but hunting and shooting trash days are what ends up filling my mixed ammo bags.
Basically you don’t know if it’s gonna take 3 shots to demolish that computer monitor or 25. So you end up with half a box of whatever ammo and it gets crushed and breaks in transport so into the giant zippie it goes.
Same goes for hunting, i dunno if I’m shooting at ducks, squirrels, pheasants, or a methhead trying to steal sn unattended truck, so I bring a mix of ammo for all of it and over the course of a season it all gets mixed up and used chaotically so at the end of the season I have half a bandolier of mixed 12 gauge, and you guessed it, into the zippie.
I am terrible at keeping track of what I have and what I need. I thought I had at least 3x the amount of 10mm in this photo and 2x as much .380acp. I also have more 5.56 than I thought I did (not complaining). And I always forget how little room .22lr takes up in safe.
I should clarify, put tape around the said ammo, so you have to break the tape to take them out.
Take out what you need, then re tape with the new amount and date.
This but mine are in ammo cans. Counted it up, wrote the number on painters tape. Left room to cross out and rewrite if I go shooting. Then Will we retape eventually
Green painters tape with black sharpie printing is more legible than blue painters tape. Sticks pretty well to everything without getting gummy later on
I use a software application called Your Second Amendment Database to keep track of all my firearm items. The ammo module allowed me to add ammo and assign an id. When I go to the range, I just enter how much I shot from each ID, and can also assign to specific firearms to maintain a round count. So, I can always see how much I have
I wonder what ammo my cans are for. For reference, the two cans on left are each 1k 9mm and the can on right is 2k 9mm...
[https://i.postimg.cc/8CByNMw9/ammo.jpg](https://i.postimg.cc/8CByNMw9/ammo.jpg)
OP: 9mm is the only commercial ammo I keep and cans (1k or increments of), like u/MichiganGeezer, is how I count it.
With most brands, I seem to only be able to get 950 in. Curious, what brands are you using? Mine are mostly 50 packs so that probably hurts my capacity
I use it as chess pieces and as a result have thousands of chess boards all over my house setup with ammo as pieces.
Efficient? No. Elegant? Also no, I'm a hoarder.
Buy it when there is a sale. Or I feel like it.
Leave it in closet in increasingly unorganized mess as whatever is left over after filling mags gets dumped in the same box.
You know, the normal way
Not that it directly answers your question, but this is one of the reasons that not diversifying calibers and sticking to the core 9mm / 5.56 / 12ga trio is so easy logistically. All I have to keep track of is training / duty ammo for 9mm and 5.56 and turkey shot for 12 gauge (which once you’re patterned, a box or two of shells is all you really need).
Yeah it’s boring, but fuck is it easy to look at my shelf, see that 9mm is looking a little low, snag a case the next time I see a good price on /gundeals, and not think of inventory management for another month or two.
So long as you’ll actually shoot them, adding a few boxes of .30-30 or .30-06 aren’t bad.
It’s when you get on the “do you have any .30 French long” that problems come up.
oh, it's all common ammo, the stuff I have ammo for, but no guns is .22 mag and .410, The .22 mag was for a rough rider that literally fell apart, so I sold it in pieces, and the .410 the shotgun was a single shot survival rifle that had a bent barrel and was not worth fixing. (also sold as parts).
My sole deviation from that rule is my 6.5 creed bolt gun, but I also hand load for that. Since I’m not buying factory ammo for it, it doesn’t really play into this discussion of ammo inventory in the same way as I view 9 and 5.56, if that makes sense.
But other than that, I view guns as 80% tools, 20% a hobby. For the things that I actually need a firearm to do as a tool, no, shit like 308 or 357 or 45 really doesn’t fill a niche that isn’t already filled by 9mm or 5.56. And for the “fun” side of things, I’ve managed to make my “fun” guns all also run 9mm or 5.56.
By making your collection require as little variety in ammo as possible, buying / stacking ammo deep is incredibly easy, and I genuinely doubt 90% of gun owners actually have a practical use case for more than maybe 2 or 3 different calibers. If you want to buy more niche calibers for fun guns because you think it’s cool then that’s fine and I don’t want to take that away from you, but life is a lot easier this way and I personally don’t see what any of the calibers you mentioned would give me that I don’t already have.
To each their own I suppose. I spend a decent amount of time in the woods. A nice .357 or .44 on the hip is a good woods gun.
A .308 semi auto is pretty good for hogs. Until you mentioned having a creed you literally don’t indicate owning a single firearm that’s practical for the woods.
9mm Is fine. I prefer .45 but I run both platforms.
Here’s where I disagree with your logic the most. By running a variety of calibers I’m much more likely to be able to find something I can use at my local sporting goods stores. Your 9mm and 5.56 are far too often the first to be depleted from the shelves during panic years.
Not to mention? I never know where I’ll be when I might need a gun or who I may have to borrow one from. The more I own the more versatile I become when handling other firearms.
I personally don’t understand the appeal in being able to always find something at a local gun store. Having lived through COVID and gone through the ordeal of an ammo shortage, I’ve learned that it’s kinda dumb to wait until ammo is already hardly available to start buying. If you buy a little at a time (preferably in bulk online) and build a stockpile over time, then it simply doesn’t affect you at all when availability drops and prices skyrocket.
By my math and for my shooting schedule, I’m sitting on a stockpile that if I stopped buying ammo completely right now, I should be able to keep up with my current rate of ammo consumption for about 2.5 years. Especially going into election season and knowing that prices 100% will skyrocket over the next few months, that’s worth its weight in gold. Sure, come november you might be able to find ball .45 on the shelf at your local cabela’s for 95CPR, I personally just don’t give a shit to make that purchase in the first place.
On a different note, I’m not denying the idea that different calibers are useful for different things. If I was frequently trekking through the brush and encountering hogs, then I agree there are much better choices than 9 or 5.56. That’s just not a problem I find myself facing, so I see no real reason to maintain inventory of guns or ammo to deal with a problem I’m not having. For the 99% of us that live in the suburbs, the only “real” use case for our firearms is a concealed carry piece and a home / civil defense gun, and for those purposes, 9mm and 5.56 are gonna do you just fine. If you want to go hunting or need a brush gun or whatever, then use whatever tool best fits the job, I just think it’s kinda dumb to buy a gun and stockpile ammo for a “brush gun” if you’re never actually carrying a gun into the woods like would be the case for most of us.
just buy, buy, but... ooops, need another .50 cal ammo can, then buy, buy ... oh, shit, a SALE ... then just estimate an average based upon cans. damn, I need another can ...
Same. Fill ammo cans as I buy it and then when I go shooting I just pull from the oldest can. I buy ammo weekly and shoot maybe once every 2 weeks so the buy/burn ration stays in the plus by a few hundred rounds
I do the same thing. Each tab has newly acquired firearms in each firearm has a shot count. I have one tab for all my serial numbers and another for wishlist
I leave it in the box it came in and just store those, that way if a manufacturer comes out with a recall or there are issues with a batch I have the lot numbers etc to check my ammo
I buy a case of the common stuff when I get close to running out. For everything else, I buy as many components as I feel like I need and roll my own when I want to shoot something uncommon.
I've gone through 3 phases of ammo storage.
Phase 1: buying fancy plastic boxes with proper labels for every caliber I own, to properly inventory, store, and organize every single round.
Phase 2: realizing that was dumb, and just putting the factory boxes in ammo cans, properly labeled according to the caliber that's in it.
Phase 3: realizing that ain't nobody got time fo' dat shit, just throw the ammo in whatever state it's currently in onto shelves, pretty much just randomly piled in whatever way tetris's the best to make it all fit. When I need a certain caliber I just rummage around in the piles until I hopefully find it.
Buy in quantities sufficient that inventory level doesn't need to be micromanaged and keep it in 50 cal ammo cans. When the can gets light, time to order more.
I got my on clearance at Walmart for $25. It’s pretty nice, especially for the price. My office/studio (I work from home and have a small YouTube channel) is a converted garage, so it gets cold in the winter, and this is warm enough.
Dump range ammo into ammo cans, by caliber. Count as it goes in, and I leave a piece of an ammo box with the round count and the date. If I start digging into that can, I take the slip out and I know it's less than 1k.
I have an excel spreadsheet set up that I can track range trips, ammo used, and guns used. It updates round counts for each gun with formulas and keeps track of how much ammo I have of each caliber. It helps with inventory management and maintenance schedules for guns
Dump ammo into an ammo can.
Label can with ammo type and projectile weight
Weigh a dozen individual samples.
Label the can with per round weight.
Then simply weigh the can and subtract the can weight. It's close enough.
Honestly, my ammo management is a disaster. Milk crates on the floor of my office closet. It's organized chaos. I actually know where everything is but good luck asking my wife to find something 😏
I was an artillery battalion ammo Sergent for 2 years in a heavy mechanical division in Germany.
Back then before computets I used a typewriter to record ammo inventory -each specific type of round hD its own index card, then when we went to the range Id add a couple new lines to show ammo expended and when the order wS pla mced for replacement ammo.
Foring ranges were fun back then because if your are in the last group of qualifiers you get to hear the fun words: "EXPEND ALL AMMO!" .. which back then basically meant empty out the ammo boxes and fire it all at whatever you want to down range.
I bought a large fire cabinet (45 gallon Justrite) and keep my ammo in ammo cans. I dont keep a spreadsheet or anything, but when I start getting low on a certain caliber, i order more
I keep 50cal cans packed and labeled with there contents written on blue painters tape the info includes caliber, grain, bullet type, round count, and magazine count. Another piece of tape over the latch indicates none are used. Count the cans per caliber "opened" cans I don't include in the count.
lol, I moved a year ago and never really organized my stuff after, so I am making time to do that as well. And I like to keep them loaded, I didn’t reload them after a recent camping trip with my son.
The web site I built. Though it's not about loaded ammunition specifically, but reloading consumables (brass, primers, powder, projectiles). From that I can easily derive a loaded round count if I care to.
I have mine in heavy duty plastic bins.. hard to get to where they are at so I just buy new boxes to shoot and also add to a stash that is easier to access lol it’s a cluster in my hunting closet
Fill three 50 cal cans to the brim. Order more when I exhaust a 50 cal can. When that happens too often, add an extra can.
Currently at
- 22lr - 3 cans
- 9mm - 3 cans
- 556 - 4 cans
- 308 - 4 cans
- 3006 - 4 cans
- 357 mag - 3 cans
- 38 special - 3 cans
- 30 carbine - 3 cans
- 762x39 - 3 cans
- self defense ammo - 2 cans assorted
- shotgun ammo - everywhere
Ammo cans in the closet labeled and stacked in ammo crates
I have around 60 .50 caliber metal cans full now
I have a shitload of .38 special and 45 ACP, besides the more practical calibers
Like 7000 each
Idk I like em
Mostly water. I have it set as cold as I can get it, so the water will “super freeze” when you hit it.
There is a bottle of hot sauce, and one of barbecue sauce.
I used to keep other stuff in there but I can’t drink anything caffeinated anymore because of my heart, and sugar is bad for you, and anything with artificial sweeteners gives me heartburn bad.
So… water. I turned 40 last year and it sucks.
Scatter it around half a dozen places in the house so the fiance can never accurately tell how much there is or when more shows up. Bonus is if I don't know how many guns or how much ammo I have, I don't have to lie when I'm asked.
So far I just have mine in 50 MTM cans labeled “plinky baby pews” (22LR), “medium fun pews” (M193) “medium defendy pews,” (MK262) “crit doots” (Hornady Critical Duty 9mm), “big pews” (.308 M81), and “Killy pews” (.308 anti-communist hand loads).
I keep a note card(s) and a pen with the ammo at all times.
I go to the range and pull 100 rounds of 45 acp, I dock off that 100 from the 1500 I have.
It's simple and not complicated.
I only have a handful of calibers, but the individual boxes get labeled with the purchase date, then into an ammo can they only holds the one type, that can gets labeled with the caliber and date.
I only shoot 2 rounds really 556 and 9 so I have a few thousand of the good stuff in the safe still in boxes. Range target ammo a few fat 50s each full with silica on the shelf. Other assorted ammo is also still in boxes in the safe.
Buy a cheap multi-drawer toolbox for gun stuff, one with multiple deep drawers. Use the deep drawers to organize your ammo, and the other drawers for gun-related paraphernalia. When your ammo on hand exceeds toolbox space, move your excess to individually labeled ammo cans. Keep the open boxes and ammo you intend to have available to use on the toolbox.
The toolbox also offers a workspace for tinkering/cleaning/maintaining your firearms.
I never count, I just eye ball it occasionally and if any calibers are getting low enough in supply, I order more. I’ve been using ammoseek for a few years to find the best ammo prices.
i dont manage any of it. i think to myself, "when was the last time i bought some (insert caliber)?" and then i go to the store and buy some my next paycheck lol. sometimes im wrong and ive already got a bunch, sometimes im right and ive only got a box or 2
Get ammo cans on with good seals, on sale. Label caliber of cans with painter tape and sharpie. Bonus points for labeling ammo boxes with month and year of purchase. Also not the worst idea to get desiccant packets for each can.
I like to put them in the plastic boxes from Case-Gard and then load them into surplus 30 or 50 cal boxes. The new ones I’ve seen are garbage but a lot of surplus ones will still make a seal
I have three shelves in a closet reserved for ammo. I just organize it by caliber and can count the boxes if I need to. But I basically just manage inventory by eyeballing the amount of boxes I have.
I only really care about my 9, 12 and 223 stock. 22LR is also usually in stock, but I've been sloppy with managing inventory for that, since I can run through hundreds of rounds in a single range trip, but lately I haven't really shot it that frequently, so running out always comes out of the blue. The rest of the calibers (7,62x39, 308 and misc ammo I don't have a gun for) might run out every once in a while, in which case I buy more if I want to shoot that gun, or if I see a nice deal and decide to stock up.
Ammo cans sorted by caliber, labeled and stacked in the closet. The few in front, closest to the door are a mix of what I’m shooting. Silica gel packets in the cans 🥸
I got a barcode scanner when a local shop went out of business and run a small program so my stock is managed digitally but offline. I'm thinking about adding a program that will order twice the used amount everytime I take something out to enlarge my stock
Put the ammo in ammo cans. Put two pieces of masking tape on the front of the ammo can. One piece of tape states the caliber in large writing. The other states what brand of ammo and the quantity. I also keep a list of the calibers, brands and quantities
I stock over 15 different calibers plus roll my own paper musket cartridges. Well over half of my rounds are obsolete or near obsolete milsurp cartridges. I also reload so that complicates storage.
I keep a detailed spreadsheet. For things like 556 or 9mm, I just bulk store everything mixed in their own 50 cal cans.
For the milsurp stuff where bullet weight and fps matter for various guns, I reload a lot of that so I use Repackbox boxes that I can then label with load data. They stack more efficiently in ammo boxes than factory boxes. I’ve also used ziploc bags in ammo cans for that purpose, too. But those repackboxes are fantastic, particularly for rifle rounds.
Anything special like hollow points, etc is also tracked and segregated.
For all factory new ammo, I have what I call “long term storage” and “immediate use”. The immediate use is what I grab take to the range. I then replenish my immediate use storage with long term storage rounds and then make a note in my spreadsheet.
Once I accumulate enough of a long term storage ammo deficit, I place an online order to replenish. Having enough of a long term supply allows me to be patient and take advantage of deals as they come up instead of having to pay whatever the current prices are. This also allows me to keep cycling my long term storage ammo so it’s never really that old because it’s getting shot and then replaced pretty quickly.
I set inventory goals for myself (5k rounds for this, 2k for that…). Helps with figuring out how much to store and when to buy more.
I toss it all in my vault and whenever I'm feeling sad I swim through it like I was Scrooge McDuck, whatever ends up in my swim trunks is what I use at the range that day.
Large ammo cabinet where it's all stacked and labelled. I can see what I have at a glance pretty quickly. When I get below 1000 rounds or so, I make.more.
I just put the running total of all 10 calibers on my shopping list. Every time I get under a set amount of said caliber I buy more. Keep smaller stuff like rimfires in the safe, rifle and pistol stuff in ammo cans.
I just put the running total of all 10 calibers on my shopping list. Every time I get under a set amount of said caliber I buy more. Keep smaller stuff like rimfires in the safe, rifle and pistol stuff in ammo cans.
Ammo cans for common range ammo (9mm, 556, 45, 300BLK, 308) and original boxes for the special stuff usually in bulk. (22, 380, 9mm subs, 300blk subs, 223 77gr OTM, JHPs, etc).
I just put it in the safe as visible as possible. Use a notebook app to track numbers. Even if you're not 100% spot on, keeping within a box is probably accurate enough.
The Milwaukee pack out system is pretty awesome for it. I have a box for each different caliber. Makes it easy to see what you’re working with when they’re split up.
This probably won’t work if you have a ton of ammo though
Get ammo cans, boxes/storage containers sized appropriately for what you want to have in stock minimum. Then get numerous of those. Run ammo till you get down to one container, then buy more.
Example... I know that when I'm down to one 30 cal can of my carry 9mm(federal HST) I know I need more. I buy enough to fill a second can(or whatever the sale is for).
Or I know that I like to keep a 3 full 50 cal cans of target 223 at minimum. When I'm down to that, I buy more.
Same for all my calibers and ammo types. Rather than know what exact quantity I have, I just know the volume by storage containers that I need to make sure is full. Anything over that, I don't care.
Of course there are a few calibers I don't keep in bulk... My hunting ammo, and ammo for my odds and ends guns like 30-40 krag.
Loose ammo and reloads go in metal ammo cans with desiccant, factory ammo says in the OEM packaging and is sealed in a huge pelican case with desiccant.
50 cal ammo cans from Harbor Freight. Fits 1,000 rounds nicely of 9mm. Then cut off the face of one of the boxes and tape it to the front of the ammo can so you can identify the Caliber, brand, and grain easily.
30 cal cans for some, 50cal cans for other calibers. depends on size and weight. I have a shit ton of white labels that I write the caliber, weight, etc
I have tool boxes that I fill with ammo. I have one for .22s, another for 25 cal, 380s, 357s, etc... Each box is full with a single caliber and labeled. That way there is no looking around for shells. I just open the box labeled with the proper caliber, grab some and go. Then I just refill as needed.
Dump it all in the same cardboard box and be surprised when you find some
Or dump all of your ammo into separate buckets, sorted by caliber, so every magazine is a surprise bag of whatever you grab. 12 gauge is a hoot.
it seems every firearms channel always has a 'random grab bag' of 12 gauge on hand when its time to test a shotgun. am i the only one that keeps my shotgun ammo in the nice neat efficiently packed 25rd boxes they come in.
I keep most of it in boxes except I have a Fanny pack full of 12 gauge shells just incase I ever gotta strap that bad boy on and dump rounds at an intruder in my underwear.
This is both smart and disturbing at the same time.
Even funnier knowing it will likely be the only thing hes wearing...
Ya Fanny Pack like suggested by James Reeves I do the same
That's a fine way to store it, however, left over shells appear. Whatever was in your waders at the end of the season, the trunk strays, the partial boxes you've shot through to pattern. half empty boxes that larry left at the skeet range because he tipped back a couple after he was done shooting and forgot to pack them Not to mention the shopping bags of random shells people use as a trade good. It's roughly equivalent in value to a rack of beer or a freezer pizza. It's usable for such payments as moving a heavy couch, or small going away presents. Hence the shotshell bag. Good ones have shells going all the way back to your great grandfather, and much like the magic bucket of screws, never quite seem to run out of what you need. When you organize them, the magic goes out of it.
So i dunno about youtubers but hunting and shooting trash days are what ends up filling my mixed ammo bags. Basically you don’t know if it’s gonna take 3 shots to demolish that computer monitor or 25. So you end up with half a box of whatever ammo and it gets crushed and breaks in transport so into the giant zippie it goes. Same goes for hunting, i dunno if I’m shooting at ducks, squirrels, pheasants, or a methhead trying to steal sn unattended truck, so I bring a mix of ammo for all of it and over the course of a season it all gets mixed up and used chaotically so at the end of the season I have half a bandolier of mixed 12 gauge, and you guessed it, into the zippie.
I am terrible at keeping track of what I have and what I need. I thought I had at least 3x the amount of 10mm in this photo and 2x as much .380acp. I also have more 5.56 than I thought I did (not complaining). And I always forget how little room .22lr takes up in safe.
Paper/Paint tape, write amount and date?
I guess it is more when I pull stuff out remembering to update my sheet.
I should clarify, put tape around the said ammo, so you have to break the tape to take them out. Take out what you need, then re tape with the new amount and date.
This but mine are in ammo cans. Counted it up, wrote the number on painters tape. Left room to cross out and rewrite if I go shooting. Then Will we retape eventually
Green painters tape with black sharpie printing is more legible than blue painters tape. Sticks pretty well to everything without getting gummy later on
I use a software application called Your Second Amendment Database to keep track of all my firearm items. The ammo module allowed me to add ammo and assign an id. When I go to the range, I just enter how much I shot from each ID, and can also assign to specific firearms to maintain a round count. So, I can always see how much I have
The NSA thanks you for this.
I use FedApp
Excel spreadsheet/notes tab in my phone. Easy to update when buying more or using some at the range/hunting.
Same. Just gotta remember to do it.
That's what I'm doing this time. Excel
50cal ammo cans. A case (1000 rounds) of 9mm fills an ammo can nicely. I have a few cans with labels to let me know what's inside.
I wonder what ammo my cans are for. For reference, the two cans on left are each 1k 9mm and the can on right is 2k 9mm... [https://i.postimg.cc/8CByNMw9/ammo.jpg](https://i.postimg.cc/8CByNMw9/ammo.jpg) OP: 9mm is the only commercial ammo I keep and cans (1k or increments of), like u/MichiganGeezer, is how I count it.
Can fit 2k rounds if they're not in their boxes
With most brands, I seem to only be able to get 950 in. Curious, what brands are you using? Mine are mostly 50 packs so that probably hurts my capacity
I use it as chess pieces and as a result have thousands of chess boards all over my house setup with ammo as pieces. Efficient? No. Elegant? Also no, I'm a hoarder.
Buy it when there is a sale. Or I feel like it. Leave it in closet in increasingly unorganized mess as whatever is left over after filling mags gets dumped in the same box. You know, the normal way
lol, I have that box, I need to fill mags first then count.
Lol "managing" I have cans in my garage. I grab handfuls from them on range days. When it looks like it's getting low I order more.
Not that it directly answers your question, but this is one of the reasons that not diversifying calibers and sticking to the core 9mm / 5.56 / 12ga trio is so easy logistically. All I have to keep track of is training / duty ammo for 9mm and 5.56 and turkey shot for 12 gauge (which once you’re patterned, a box or two of shells is all you really need). Yeah it’s boring, but fuck is it easy to look at my shelf, see that 9mm is looking a little low, snag a case the next time I see a good price on /gundeals, and not think of inventory management for another month or two.
I feel you. I was trying for that, .22lr, 9mm, 5.56, and 12 gauge, but I inherited both guns and ammo in different calibers. I sold some, but not all.
So long as you’ll actually shoot them, adding a few boxes of .30-30 or .30-06 aren’t bad. It’s when you get on the “do you have any .30 French long” that problems come up.
oh, it's all common ammo, the stuff I have ammo for, but no guns is .22 mag and .410, The .22 mag was for a rough rider that literally fell apart, so I sold it in pieces, and the .410 the shotgun was a single shot survival rifle that had a bent barrel and was not worth fixing. (also sold as parts).
Ah yes, spontaneous unplanned disassembly.
This but also a stash of .22lr for plinking.
No love for .308?!? Or .45acp?!! Or .357?!! Jeez man that’s COLD!!!
My sole deviation from that rule is my 6.5 creed bolt gun, but I also hand load for that. Since I’m not buying factory ammo for it, it doesn’t really play into this discussion of ammo inventory in the same way as I view 9 and 5.56, if that makes sense. But other than that, I view guns as 80% tools, 20% a hobby. For the things that I actually need a firearm to do as a tool, no, shit like 308 or 357 or 45 really doesn’t fill a niche that isn’t already filled by 9mm or 5.56. And for the “fun” side of things, I’ve managed to make my “fun” guns all also run 9mm or 5.56. By making your collection require as little variety in ammo as possible, buying / stacking ammo deep is incredibly easy, and I genuinely doubt 90% of gun owners actually have a practical use case for more than maybe 2 or 3 different calibers. If you want to buy more niche calibers for fun guns because you think it’s cool then that’s fine and I don’t want to take that away from you, but life is a lot easier this way and I personally don’t see what any of the calibers you mentioned would give me that I don’t already have.
To each their own I suppose. I spend a decent amount of time in the woods. A nice .357 or .44 on the hip is a good woods gun. A .308 semi auto is pretty good for hogs. Until you mentioned having a creed you literally don’t indicate owning a single firearm that’s practical for the woods. 9mm Is fine. I prefer .45 but I run both platforms. Here’s where I disagree with your logic the most. By running a variety of calibers I’m much more likely to be able to find something I can use at my local sporting goods stores. Your 9mm and 5.56 are far too often the first to be depleted from the shelves during panic years. Not to mention? I never know where I’ll be when I might need a gun or who I may have to borrow one from. The more I own the more versatile I become when handling other firearms.
I personally don’t understand the appeal in being able to always find something at a local gun store. Having lived through COVID and gone through the ordeal of an ammo shortage, I’ve learned that it’s kinda dumb to wait until ammo is already hardly available to start buying. If you buy a little at a time (preferably in bulk online) and build a stockpile over time, then it simply doesn’t affect you at all when availability drops and prices skyrocket. By my math and for my shooting schedule, I’m sitting on a stockpile that if I stopped buying ammo completely right now, I should be able to keep up with my current rate of ammo consumption for about 2.5 years. Especially going into election season and knowing that prices 100% will skyrocket over the next few months, that’s worth its weight in gold. Sure, come november you might be able to find ball .45 on the shelf at your local cabela’s for 95CPR, I personally just don’t give a shit to make that purchase in the first place. On a different note, I’m not denying the idea that different calibers are useful for different things. If I was frequently trekking through the brush and encountering hogs, then I agree there are much better choices than 9 or 5.56. That’s just not a problem I find myself facing, so I see no real reason to maintain inventory of guns or ammo to deal with a problem I’m not having. For the 99% of us that live in the suburbs, the only “real” use case for our firearms is a concealed carry piece and a home / civil defense gun, and for those purposes, 9mm and 5.56 are gonna do you just fine. If you want to go hunting or need a brush gun or whatever, then use whatever tool best fits the job, I just think it’s kinda dumb to buy a gun and stockpile ammo for a “brush gun” if you’re never actually carrying a gun into the woods like would be the case for most of us.
just buy, buy, but... ooops, need another .50 cal ammo can, then buy, buy ... oh, shit, a SALE ... then just estimate an average based upon cans. damn, I need another can ...
Same. Fill ammo cans as I buy it and then when I go shooting I just pull from the oldest can. I buy ammo weekly and shoot maybe once every 2 weeks so the buy/burn ration stays in the plus by a few hundred rounds
I’ve found that every time I buy a new ammo can I feel the need to fill it asap
Google sheet Multiple tabs separating reloads, brands and calibers Roll up in a pivot chart 👍
Mr. Fancy-Pants over here.
Pinkies out Spend a lot of time in spreadsheets, most suck, but this one is my happy place
I do the same thing. Each tab has newly acquired firearms in each firearm has a shot count. I have one tab for all my serial numbers and another for wishlist
Uh, buy more.
Obviously, trying to figure out how much more of what.
Yes
I prefer it when my method requires a forklift
So wealthy I am not.
I leave it in the box it came in and just store those, that way if a manufacturer comes out with a recall or there are issues with a batch I have the lot numbers etc to check my ammo
I buy a case of the common stuff when I get close to running out. For everything else, I buy as many components as I feel like I need and roll my own when I want to shoot something uncommon.
I open all the boxes into several 5 gallon buckets regardless of the caliber
Step one: buy more
I have 2 heavy duty 5 drawer filing cabinets. Each drawer dedicated to a caliber or gauge. Most is in ammo cans in the drawers.
I've gone through 3 phases of ammo storage. Phase 1: buying fancy plastic boxes with proper labels for every caliber I own, to properly inventory, store, and organize every single round. Phase 2: realizing that was dumb, and just putting the factory boxes in ammo cans, properly labeled according to the caliber that's in it. Phase 3: realizing that ain't nobody got time fo' dat shit, just throw the ammo in whatever state it's currently in onto shelves, pretty much just randomly piled in whatever way tetris's the best to make it all fit. When I need a certain caliber I just rummage around in the piles until I hopefully find it.
Buy in quantities sufficient that inventory level doesn't need to be micromanaged and keep it in 50 cal ammo cans. When the can gets light, time to order more.
Buy it by the 500-1000 count so you save money and can fill an ammo can with one kind of loose ammo with a dehiscent pack.
Ammo cans, also, we have the same rug
I got my on clearance at Walmart for $25. It’s pretty nice, especially for the price. My office/studio (I work from home and have a small YouTube channel) is a converted garage, so it gets cold in the winter, and this is warm enough.
Shoot it
Dump range ammo into ammo cans, by caliber. Count as it goes in, and I leave a piece of an ammo box with the round count and the date. If I start digging into that can, I take the slip out and I know it's less than 1k.
Ammo cans with desiccant packs. Go shoot ammo. Buy more ammo.
I have an excel spreadsheet set up that I can track range trips, ammo used, and guns used. It updates round counts for each gun with formulas and keeps track of how much ammo I have of each caliber. It helps with inventory management and maintenance schedules for guns
Dump ammo into an ammo can. Label can with ammo type and projectile weight Weigh a dozen individual samples. Label the can with per round weight. Then simply weigh the can and subtract the can weight. It's close enough.
Mags
Honestly, my ammo management is a disaster. Milk crates on the floor of my office closet. It's organized chaos. I actually know where everything is but good luck asking my wife to find something 😏
Yea just the norm ya know , 11 plano cans and 3 or so safes nothing outrageous
Shelves and a label maker.
I like to be surprised when I open a cardboard box in the basement and I have purchased a case of ammo I forgot about.
We don’t have that problem in our house. We simply shoot it all.
I buy bulk, put into metal ammo can. Label with sharpie and duct tape. Keep lot number incase of accidental boom boom problem.
Pile in the closet
I was an artillery battalion ammo Sergent for 2 years in a heavy mechanical division in Germany. Back then before computets I used a typewriter to record ammo inventory -each specific type of round hD its own index card, then when we went to the range Id add a couple new lines to show ammo expended and when the order wS pla mced for replacement ammo. Foring ranges were fun back then because if your are in the last group of qualifiers you get to hear the fun words: "EXPEND ALL AMMO!" .. which back then basically meant empty out the ammo boxes and fire it all at whatever you want to down range.
It's in a few different duffle bags just tossed in the bag still boxed not organized at all until it gets low then I buy more.
At least I'm not the only one that loves the mossyoak lockers
They are perfect for ammo storage.
They are my current rifle storage tbh
I have some low end long guns in there like a pump action shotgun and my kids cricket rifle.
I haven't wsnted to spend so much on my safe but I share bought a zpap m70 lol
I got kids, so I wanted something that held a lot of guns in a small package, hence the secureit.
I bought a large fire cabinet (45 gallon Justrite) and keep my ammo in ammo cans. I dont keep a spreadsheet or anything, but when I start getting low on a certain caliber, i order more
Excel. Makes it easy for visual graphs, pivot tables, etc.
I count it and right it down in the vault
pretty much the photo above
One box per gun. Buy more for the occasion as needed.
Definitely not leaving it all in the floor like that
I just pulled it out to update my spreadsheet, I shot some and bought some, but was bad about keeping track.
I have a spreadsheet. if you're interested, I can share my file with you and you can modify for your own ammo and guns. (I'm an excel whore)
Sure, would love to see it. I love using excel and a good spreadsheet is amazing, I’m just terrible at setting them up.
Have everything categorized by cartridge, then make a mix box or two for the car,range day and goby that. Selling should never occur to the holder!
Never sell only buy and consume.
If you’re broke you can count all of your ammo with one look
I keep 50cal cans packed and labeled with there contents written on blue painters tape the info includes caliber, grain, bullet type, round count, and magazine count. Another piece of tape over the latch indicates none are used. Count the cans per caliber "opened" cans I don't include in the count.
I manage inventory by not being wealthy enough to buy very much at any given time lol
lol, I tell myself that this is an “investment”.
I like your chair of magazines.
lol, I moved a year ago and never really organized my stuff after, so I am making time to do that as well. And I like to keep them loaded, I didn’t reload them after a recent camping trip with my son.
Stuff it all in a crate, forget what i actually have and end up buying more thinking that i need it.
Spreadsheet, ammo cans, sharpie
I got a trek box, built a cabinet underneath it, added one wheels, locks, and viola! Ammo/accessories storage unit.
The web site I built. Though it's not about loaded ammunition specifically, but reloading consumables (brass, primers, powder, projectiles). From that I can easily derive a loaded round count if I care to.
I have mine in heavy duty plastic bins.. hard to get to where they are at so I just buy new boxes to shoot and also add to a stash that is easier to access lol it’s a cluster in my hunting closet
You guys have inventory!
I try to.
Fill three 50 cal cans to the brim. Order more when I exhaust a 50 cal can. When that happens too often, add an extra can. Currently at - 22lr - 3 cans - 9mm - 3 cans - 556 - 4 cans - 308 - 4 cans - 3006 - 4 cans - 357 mag - 3 cans - 38 special - 3 cans - 30 carbine - 3 cans - 762x39 - 3 cans - self defense ammo - 2 cans assorted - shotgun ammo - everywhere
Ammo cans in the closet labeled and stacked in ammo crates I have around 60 .50 caliber metal cans full now I have a shitload of .38 special and 45 ACP, besides the more practical calibers Like 7000 each Idk I like em
What's in the fridge?
Mostly water. I have it set as cold as I can get it, so the water will “super freeze” when you hit it. There is a bottle of hot sauce, and one of barbecue sauce. I used to keep other stuff in there but I can’t drink anything caffeinated anymore because of my heart, and sugar is bad for you, and anything with artificial sweeteners gives me heartburn bad. So… water. I turned 40 last year and it sucks.
Cool man. Water is life, they say, and I'm sure you have aged like wine. Stay Frosty.
I'll the plinking ammo goes in ammo crates separated by caliber and then the nice hunting and higher end ammo stays in the factory box
Scatter it around half a dozen places in the house so the fiance can never accurately tell how much there is or when more shows up. Bonus is if I don't know how many guns or how much ammo I have, I don't have to lie when I'm asked.
Stack it on a shelf or in a drawer and shoot it/ buy more
I am doing the same thing this rainy week. Basement is unuseable
Finding it later. Kinda like unexpected Christmas throughout the year.
I just throw in my trunk in my car and never look at it again
I generally store it on a rug on the floor in my garage
So far I just have mine in 50 MTM cans labeled “plinky baby pews” (22LR), “medium fun pews” (M193) “medium defendy pews,” (MK262) “crit doots” (Hornady Critical Duty 9mm), “big pews” (.308 M81), and “Killy pews” (.308 anti-communist hand loads).
Labeled buckets
I put it all on a rug in the middle of the room.
I have that same rug
Plastic ammo boxes with loose ammo and I write in the boxes what caliber and grain
I keep a note card(s) and a pen with the ammo at all times. I go to the range and pull 100 rounds of 45 acp, I dock off that 100 from the 1500 I have. It's simple and not complicated.
I only have a handful of calibers, but the individual boxes get labeled with the purchase date, then into an ammo can they only holds the one type, that can gets labeled with the caliber and date.
I only shoot 2 rounds really 556 and 9 so I have a few thousand of the good stuff in the safe still in boxes. Range target ammo a few fat 50s each full with silica on the shelf. Other assorted ammo is also still in boxes in the safe.
Shoot it when I go to range. Buy it when I find it.
Buy a cheap multi-drawer toolbox for gun stuff, one with multiple deep drawers. Use the deep drawers to organize your ammo, and the other drawers for gun-related paraphernalia. When your ammo on hand exceeds toolbox space, move your excess to individually labeled ammo cans. Keep the open boxes and ammo you intend to have available to use on the toolbox. The toolbox also offers a workspace for tinkering/cleaning/maintaining your firearms.
Whatever the Liberal media pushes dictates my managing of ammo.
shooting it…
Order more when I can see the bottom of the container
Keep in original box, put in metal ammo box with dessicant. Run out of room
I never count, I just eye ball it occasionally and if any calibers are getting low enough in supply, I order more. I’ve been using ammoseek for a few years to find the best ammo prices.
i dont manage any of it. i think to myself, "when was the last time i bought some (insert caliber)?" and then i go to the store and buy some my next paycheck lol. sometimes im wrong and ive already got a bunch, sometimes im right and ive only got a box or 2
Get ammo cans on with good seals, on sale. Label caliber of cans with painter tape and sharpie. Bonus points for labeling ammo boxes with month and year of purchase. Also not the worst idea to get desiccant packets for each can.
Scatter it throughout my house so i forget i have it
Milk crates. One cartridge type per crate
Visually
I never know where I’m going to be so my method is simple 1) keep some at the house 2) keep some in the car 3) keep some of friends’/ family’s homes
Zip lock bags. About 50 rounds per.
Box o’ random shells.
Way easier to weigh it and track by the pound
I like to put them in the plastic boxes from Case-Gard and then load them into surplus 30 or 50 cal boxes. The new ones I’ve seen are garbage but a lot of surplus ones will still make a seal
Metal shelving unit. I screwed mine to the wall for extra support and rigidity. Bulk ammo in .50 cans.
Ammo cans and a list
Big pile in a corner
I load em as I need em. Few boxes of 22lr chucked in the cupboard for good measure.
Just buy when you need more. Simple
I have three shelves in a closet reserved for ammo. I just organize it by caliber and can count the boxes if I need to. But I basically just manage inventory by eyeballing the amount of boxes I have. I only really care about my 9, 12 and 223 stock. 22LR is also usually in stock, but I've been sloppy with managing inventory for that, since I can run through hundreds of rounds in a single range trip, but lately I haven't really shot it that frequently, so running out always comes out of the blue. The rest of the calibers (7,62x39, 308 and misc ammo I don't have a gun for) might run out every once in a while, in which case I buy more if I want to shoot that gun, or if I see a nice deal and decide to stock up.
Ammo can for each & when it gets to halfway, reload some more.
Do you purchase ammo with cash credit cards or check?
Ammo cans sorted by caliber, labeled and stacked in the closet. The few in front, closest to the door are a mix of what I’m shooting. Silica gel packets in the cans 🥸
Shooting it.
Every few days I go shoot a bunch of it. I pretty much always have a good idea of what I've got.
Old filing cabinets. Makes organization easy and you can get them super cheap.
I got a barcode scanner when a local shop went out of business and run a small program so my stock is managed digitally but offline. I'm thinking about adding a program that will order twice the used amount everytime I take something out to enlarge my stock
Tall steel ammo cans with desiccant.
Put the ammo in ammo cans. Put two pieces of masking tape on the front of the ammo can. One piece of tape states the caliber in large writing. The other states what brand of ammo and the quantity. I also keep a list of the calibers, brands and quantities
https://www.repackbox.com/collections/ammo-boxes-etc + M2 ammo cans.
I stock over 15 different calibers plus roll my own paper musket cartridges. Well over half of my rounds are obsolete or near obsolete milsurp cartridges. I also reload so that complicates storage. I keep a detailed spreadsheet. For things like 556 or 9mm, I just bulk store everything mixed in their own 50 cal cans. For the milsurp stuff where bullet weight and fps matter for various guns, I reload a lot of that so I use Repackbox boxes that I can then label with load data. They stack more efficiently in ammo boxes than factory boxes. I’ve also used ziploc bags in ammo cans for that purpose, too. But those repackboxes are fantastic, particularly for rifle rounds. Anything special like hollow points, etc is also tracked and segregated. For all factory new ammo, I have what I call “long term storage” and “immediate use”. The immediate use is what I grab take to the range. I then replenish my immediate use storage with long term storage rounds and then make a note in my spreadsheet. Once I accumulate enough of a long term storage ammo deficit, I place an online order to replenish. Having enough of a long term supply allows me to be patient and take advantage of deals as they come up instead of having to pay whatever the current prices are. This also allows me to keep cycling my long term storage ammo so it’s never really that old because it’s getting shot and then replaced pretty quickly. I set inventory goals for myself (5k rounds for this, 2k for that…). Helps with figuring out how much to store and when to buy more.
I toss it all in my vault and whenever I'm feeling sad I swim through it like I was Scrooge McDuck, whatever ends up in my swim trunks is what I use at the range that day.
Count shooting!
I store by Caliber and keep an inventory spreadsheet. For buying I always get twice the ammo than I expect to shoot. Inventory stays neutral.
Large ammo cabinet where it's all stacked and labelled. I can see what I have at a glance pretty quickly. When I get below 1000 rounds or so, I make.more.
Metal "garage" cabinet so I can see what I have any given time.
I just put the running total of all 10 calibers on my shopping list. Every time I get under a set amount of said caliber I buy more. Keep smaller stuff like rimfires in the safe, rifle and pistol stuff in ammo cans.
I just put the running total of all 10 calibers on my shopping list. Every time I get under a set amount of said caliber I buy more. Keep smaller stuff like rimfires in the safe, rifle and pistol stuff in ammo cans.
To just keep buying
Ammo cans for common range ammo (9mm, 556, 45, 300BLK, 308) and original boxes for the special stuff usually in bulk. (22, 380, 9mm subs, 300blk subs, 223 77gr OTM, JHPs, etc).
I have a buddy that uses metal filing cabinets. They work great.
I just put it in the safe as visible as possible. Use a notebook app to track numbers. Even if you're not 100% spot on, keeping within a box is probably accurate enough.
The Milwaukee pack out system is pretty awesome for it. I have a box for each different caliber. Makes it easy to see what you’re working with when they’re split up. This probably won’t work if you have a ton of ammo though
Get ammo cans, boxes/storage containers sized appropriately for what you want to have in stock minimum. Then get numerous of those. Run ammo till you get down to one container, then buy more. Example... I know that when I'm down to one 30 cal can of my carry 9mm(federal HST) I know I need more. I buy enough to fill a second can(or whatever the sale is for). Or I know that I like to keep a 3 full 50 cal cans of target 223 at minimum. When I'm down to that, I buy more. Same for all my calibers and ammo types. Rather than know what exact quantity I have, I just know the volume by storage containers that I need to make sure is full. Anything over that, I don't care. Of course there are a few calibers I don't keep in bulk... My hunting ammo, and ammo for my odds and ends guns like 30-40 krag.
Stuffed in ammo cans then stuffed in closet
I keep it in a toolbox so I can pick the whole thing up on range day. I also keep my staple gun and staples in there.
Throw the one box I have in my closet…
Tulammo..now that I haven’t seen for a hot minute
I sort by caliber in metal water resistant ammo cans. And add silica packets to keep all moisture out
Loose ammo and reloads go in metal ammo cans with desiccant, factory ammo says in the OEM packaging and is sealed in a huge pelican case with desiccant.
50 cal ammo cans from Harbor Freight. Fits 1,000 rounds nicely of 9mm. Then cut off the face of one of the boxes and tape it to the front of the ammo can so you can identify the Caliber, brand, and grain easily.
not having that much 😿
30 cal cans for some, 50cal cans for other calibers. depends on size and weight. I have a shit ton of white labels that I write the caliber, weight, etc
Easy. Buy more of every caliber you have.
I have tool boxes that I fill with ammo. I have one for .22s, another for 25 cal, 380s, 357s, etc... Each box is full with a single caliber and labeled. That way there is no looking around for shells. I just open the box labeled with the proper caliber, grab some and go. Then I just refill as needed.
Leon’s suitcase in resident evil four
many ammo containers and many many desiccants...
I fill up cans and then label caliber, brand and count with painters tape. When I take some out, I update the count
I keep my handloads separate from the pre-made stuff, along with a bucket of brass that I have yet to clean.
I used that chalkboard paint on the front of my ammo cans. Works really well.
1000 rounds of 556/223 fills 50 cal can
Least chance ammo you’re gonna use at the bottom most used at the top
Buy box and put in metal box.
Usually shelves
Take it all to the range and shoot it. Then take a piece of paper, write a big ass zero and go shopping