7.62x51 How much is to much or how little is not enough

[HKTackDriver]

Can't carry what you purchased? Put it away hidden somewhere. You can always return at a later date and get it, or if necessary, fall back to the house if the bug out fails. Do I need 2 million rounds? No. But if I could buy that much, i would and I'd stockpile it for use, practice or barter.

To answer your question - not less than 5,000 rounds per main caliber as a "stock" with an additional 1,000/rifle in that caliber. Got 5 AR15's? 10,000 rounds. So far this calculation seems to work for the ebb and flow of ammo in and out of my stocks.

[Blacksmith]

If the LA Riots were any guide you should need about 50 rounds. That is much more than the amount of rounds fired by thousands of responding California National Guard forces conducting riot suppression and crowd control operations over a space of three weeks. These things are really hard to estimate though.

[sarky]

the thing about 7.62x51 is that it is heavy compared to many other rounds. So you aren't going to humping a lot of it around. BUT! if you are hunkered down and need to shoot through cars at the zombies on the other side, it is a damm good round to have because you may not get enough penetration with the 5.56.

[jamesaaron]

On the other hand too few rounds has its own obvious limitations. unfortunately like many of us out there I don't have the funds to simply buy thousands upon thousands of rounds (20k) As of this moment I am of the opinion that 2k to 3k rds of .308 is a good number to have on had for SHTF. 2-3k rds gives the flexibly for a sustained fire fight (not my first choice, would much rather be sneaky) or multi-combat loads, but not so many that if I have to cut and run I will be out copious amounts.

[AKFTW]

How many rounds is normally considered a "combat loadout" for .308 battle rifles? I would assume it's gotta be less than 5.56 because of the heavier ammo, and bulkier 20rd magazines. Any averages?

[mantis]

How many rounds is normally considered a "combat loadout" for .308 battle rifles? I would assume it's gotta be less than 5.56 because of the heavier ammo, and bulkier 20rd magazines. Any averages?

20 years ago when I was a reservist here in Canada, we were issued 5 magazines and our webbed gear included two mag pouches each capable of holding 2 mags. The idea being that you'd have 1 mag in the rifle and four in your webbing. I also know that ammo was issued on stripper clips (Canadian FN FALS had open-top breaches with stripper clip guides on them) in bandoliers of 140 rds. I seem to recall that a typical combat loadout would have been your five mags plus one or two bandoliers of stripper clips - around 240 - 380 rounds.

[Razor]

How many rounds is normally considered a "combat loadout" for .308 battle rifles? I would assume it's gotta be less than 5.56 because of the heavier ammo, and bulkier 20rd magazines. Any averages?

Over here our M14 gunners carry 7 20 round mags for a total of 140 rounds. Now understand that is the minimum required and many carry more. For example I only have to carry 210 rounds of ammo for my M4 on my kit but I normally carry 300 rounds and we always have extras close at hand. I personally have burned through over 100 rounds in a few seconds during initial contact to help provide cover fire for guys that had gotten pinned down in a bad spot. Depending on the type of fire fight it's nothing to burn through a bunch of ammo or not fire any rounds at all it really just all depends.

However one thing that must be kept in mind as mentioned before we almost always have the ability to be resupplied. If you start to run low on ammo in the Army there is always a plan in place to either get more ammo out to you or to have a fall back set in place that has extra ammo at it's location.

You can train your body to carry all the extra ammo and gear for example our 240 gunners carry 400 rounds each and their ammo bearers carry an additional 600 rounds keep in mind this is 7.62x51 ammo also. So it can be done, do you ever want to walk with a 240? Hell no. Can you? Yes. Just food for thought allot of these types of things are going to be mission dependent and based on the situation at hand.

[Blacksmith]

A generation ago I trained with the Germans and their G3. Their unit carried (6) +1 20 round magazines per soldier (140 rounds). I have no idea what they do now.

Since he is not preparing for combat I am not sure that is a good number to go off of.

[Crazy Wolf]

If the LA Riots were any guide you should need about 50 rounds. That is much more than the amount of rounds fired by thousands of responding California National Guard forces conducting riot suppression and crowd control operations over a space of three weeks. These things are really hard to estimate though.

Probably shouldn't use CA NG figures, unless you're an organization like the CA NG. Probably closest analogue position any one person here would be in would be that of the Korean shop owners, provided that members here make an effort to be strongly involved in their community's defense.

Of course, the riots ended with only local devastation and basically ate themselves. Prepare for whatever you're most concerned about. Say, a brigade of bear cavalry.

[Mannlicher]

I have three M1A rifles. I have somewhere in the neighborhood of 7,000 rounds of quality mil surp ammo. South African, Portuguese, Lake City, and Lithuanian.
I have a good supply of magazines, and still, I feel that little nagging thought in the back of my head.............that I don't have enough.

[HKTackDriver]

I have three M1A rifles. I have somewhere in the neighborhood of 7,000 rounds of quality mil surp ammo. South African, Portuguese, Lake City, and Lithuanian.
I have a good supply of magazines, and still, I feel that little nagging thought in the back of my head.............that I don't have enough.

Suggestion - start trading ammo to have one type. I used to have a ton of the German 308, but when that died up, I switched to Port and stockpiled it. Then everything I've purchased since, I've traded towards getting similar ammo so I don't have 8 different brands and levels of reliability. The only I've kept in spite of what I just said is some british linked 308, which could feasibly come in handy. Plus, 2k rounds of it won't break the bank and it's all sealed in ammo cans/carriers for long term storage.

[Alpha-17]

I have three M1A rifles. I have somewhere in the neighborhood of 7,000 rounds of quality mil surp ammo. South African, Portuguese, Lake City, and Lithuanian.
I have a good supply of magazines, and still, I feel that little nagging thought in the back of my head.............that I don't have enough.

Suggestion - start trading ammo to have one type. I used to have a ton of the German 308, but when that died up, I switched to Port and stockpiled it. Then everything I've purchased since, I've traded towards getting similar ammo so I don't have 8 different brands and levels of reliability. The only I've kept in spite of what I just said is some british linked 308, which could feasibly come in handy. Plus, 2k rounds of it won't break the bank and it's all sealed in ammo cans/carriers for long term storage.

While typically that would be a good idea, the overall performance similarities between surplus .308 rounds really make that unnecessary. I initially tried to stockpile nothing but Radway Green, but when that dried up, I picked up a lot of PMC M80. After zeroing my SCAR's ACOG Radway, I wanted to verify the POA/POI differences between the rounds. PMC, Lake City, Winchester white box, and Radway Green were all in the head at 100m. It's not "sniper" quality, but for a battle rifle, that'll do.