I am kind of curious, and it just may be me, but do you feel the need to always have at least some ammo on hand for all of your firearms chambered in rare calibers, no matter how rarely you shoot that firearm? For example when I bought my Type 99 I bought one box of Ammo too, since the person was selling it for $35 and I figured I could find it cheaper online. Turned out I could not at the time as all online places that listed it were sold out. Well I took the Type 99 to the range and fired only 10 rnds, and saving the other 10. It really bothers me not having ammo for one of my firearms. I just feel the need to have ammo for all my firearms just in case, even though there is literally no conceivable situation where it makes sense that I'd need to use a Type 99 with only 10 rnds. I did the same thing with my luger that's chambered 7.65. I bought one box because how expensive it was, than shot 40 rnds and saved the last 10.

 

So do any of you feel the need to keep ammo on hand no matter how little the amount, for even your firearms chambered in very rare calibers? If you have a highly collectible firearm, that no sane person would ever shoot would you still feel the need to have ammo on hand for that firearm even if you had nothing else in that caliber?

No matter how collectible gun or how much its worth the purpose of a gun is to help you defend yourself.

You might need those 10 rounds someday or lose all your guns but that one. So get more ammo.

Yes i do feel naked without 100 rounds for any rifle i have in a rare caliber.

 

You can t assault Budapest but a 100 is better than 10.

A gun without ammo is useless! I keep a least 100 rounds for rifles and pistols i don't often shoot. And for the calibers I shoot most I always have enough to last a year maybe 18 months without buying more. Thats if i figure I will shoot a few hundred rounds a month. Sometimes I do and sometimes I don't. I will also replace stock when I can or see a deal this way I don't get stuck paying bloated prices. You are right on with rear calibers I would do the same as you shoot some save some until I can get more. Danjam was right that gun may be all that's left in a worst case scenario and the 10 rounds will save your live.

Thats why I load my own. I have a Type 99, and roll my own for cheaper than can be bought online now. I suggest you look into as well, that way you can enjoy you're rarer firearms more often. Especially the older rifles with odd ball expensive calibers. Luckily 7.7 Jap brass, and .311 bullets are still cheap and plentiful, and the Die set is only gonna run you about 30 dollars. All said and done, if you go with a small Lee hand press, you'll only spend about 80 dollars on tools. Only thing you would need is powder, primers, and brass and a way to prime. 

 

ETA: If you are interested, Powder Valley has Alliant Reloder 17 in stock which is similar to load data for IMR 4350, but a bit faster burning. And they have Winchester Large rifle primers in stock as well. 

No matter how collectible gun or how much its worth the purpose of a gun is to help you defend yourself.

You might need those 10 rounds someday or lose all your guns but that one. So get more ammo.

Yes i do feel naked without 100 rounds for any rifle i have in a rare caliber.

 

You can t assault Budapest but a 100 is better than 10.

I eventually did find more ammo, for those firearms, and for a better price than what the first box of ammo cost. Having a minimum of 100 rnds for each of my firearms is a goal I try to maintain and have been doing a pretty good job of maintaining it recently. I am only a little short in 3 calibers that I bought ammo in, and two more that I have yet to find any ammo in so I have not officially started my ammo count for.

 

 

Thats why I load my own. I have a Type 99, and roll my own for cheaper than can be bought online now. I suggest you look into as well, that way you can enjoy you're rarer firearms more often. Especially the older rifles with odd ball expensive calibers. Luckily 7.7 Jap brass, and .311 bullets are still cheap and plentiful, and the Die set is only gonna run you about 30 dollars. All said and done, if you go with a small Lee hand press, you'll only spend about 80 dollars on tools. Only thing you would need is powder, primers, and brass and a way to prime. 

 

ETA: If you are interested, Powder Valley has Alliant Reloder 17 in stock which is similar to load data for IMR 4350, but a bit faster burning. And they have Winchester Large rifle primers in stock as well. 

I had been thinking about getting into reloading for quite a while now, though due to my complete lack of knowledge on reloading, I had been very hesitant. Two weeks ago I decided I have been hesitant to long so I purchased the small lee hand press. So now I am currently in the process of buying the rest of what I need to reload, though I have not yet started to looking at powders. It is something I have no knowledge of other than there are many different types. Right now for example I don't have any clue why IMR 4350 is significant enough that you based you the comparison of Alliant Reloder 17 too. (if I had to guess, I'd guess either its a military powder, or it's the most common powder) Obviously I am going to need to do a lot more research into before I actually start reloading.

The IMR powder line was created by Dupont. Its an Acronym that stands for 'Improved Military Powder'. The reason why I chose IMR and Alliant, are that they are two very popular powders. For the powder choices, IMR 4350 is considered the perfect powder in the IMR line for reloading rifle cartridges. And Alliant's Reloder 17 very closely mirrors IMR 4350 in its performance, but with a slightly higher velocity. Plus Reloder 17 is in stock, and figured I would post something you could get instead of a powder thats never in stock, like IMR 4350. 

The IMR powder line was created by Dupont. Its an Acronym that stands for 'Improved Military Powder'. The reason why I chose IMR and Alliant, are that they are two very popular powders. For the powder choices, IMR 4350 is considered the perfect powder in the IMR line for reloading rifle cartridges. And Alliant's Reloder 17 very closely mirrors IMR 4350 in its performance, but with a slightly higher velocity. Plus Reloder 17 is in stock, and figured I would post something you could get instead of a powder thats never in stock, like IMR 4350. 

Do you have a good recommendation for a pistol powder? Also what would you consider to be the best source for the reloading tables, that also covers some of the rarer military calibers?

I don't reload pistol rounds so I couldn't recommend any thing. How ever I believe pizza bob has been reloading for quote some time and would ask him. He'd be able to tell you things most people would never have learned.

a gun without ammo is just an expensive club

 

 

NEVER FORGET THAT

For any and all my guns, be it a brand new pistol or a 100yr old gun, I always have ammo stocked for it.

 

A big reason is a lot of calibers for older surplus guns are not always stocked on websites. So really sometimes you're unsure when the next time it may be available.

 

With that said, I think a few hundred rounds at the very least is mandatory IMO. 500rds minimum preferably.

I just realized I never answered the second half of your question:

 

I use the Hornady Handbook of Cartridge Reloading Vol 9. Covers a fair amount, like 7.7 Jap, 6.5 jap, 6.5 carcano, so on, so forth. You might need to get a couple manuals to cover most of the cartridges you have or want to load.

Do you have a good recommendation for a pistol powder? Also what would you consider to be the best source for the reloading tables, that also covers some of the rarer military calibers?

The Lyman book is considered by many to be the best reloading manual because they don't make bullets or powder and will give you a fairer evaluation than the books put out by bullet and powder makers. There is also a good deal of general reloading information in the book to learn about it. You should also read the posts in the reloading section of this forum, there are many knowledgeable people here who can teach you a lot of things. You may need to get recipes from the internet or old reloading books for some of the more obscure calibers, but be careful with these, try to independently verify them if you can.

 

The best thing is to find someone who can show you the ropes to get you started. Reloading seems a bit scary when you have no experience with it, but is not really that hard once you get some rounds loaded and get a feel for it.

Thanks for the advice every one, Ill take all my future questions to the proper section, since we are kind of going off topic here.

 

Since it seems the answer is universal for having ammo on hand, In your opinion does the same hold up for firearms chambered in a cartridge that you can not buy or make yourself? For example suppose you had an original 1860 Henry rifle that's been passed down in your family since the civil war, chambered .44 Henry, the only ammo you will find for it will be at least 80 years old and has a pretty good chance that it won't fire. Do you still buy 100+ rounds of it?  Would you try to find a way to have new manufactured ammo made for it, which would probably cost at minimum $10 a round and most likely a lot more?

 

Would you keep ammo on hand for firearms that are generally considered unsafe to fire such as a very late last ditch Type 99 or one of the low serial numbered M1903s? (assuming you did not have any thing else in the same caliber of course) What about a family heirloom that's no longer considered safe to fire?

I honestly don't see the point in having ammo for something that doesn't shoot. Like I have a breech loading Belgian Hunting Rifle chambered in like .32 Long, and a Veteralli Rifle chambered in 10.4x35 rim fire, and the conversion isn't really needed since the barrel is totally shot out. Since the ammo would be stupid expensive, or just not around. 

So at what point do you consider a firearm no longer shoot able, because technically based on your very brief description of your Veteralli Rifle, it sounds like it could still physically shoot?

 

I am not quite understanding what's wrong with your Belgian Hunting Rifle? They still make .32 Long, while quite expensive for what it is, it's still under $1 a round.

Its .32 Long Rim Fire. Not center. Hasn't been produced in years. Plus the breach won't work the extractor. The Veteralli Rifle could shoot with modification to the bolt (rim fire to center fire conversion), but the barrel has no rifling left and I wouldn't feel comfortable shooting it. 

I keep enough (target) ammo for the next time at the range, at least. That is in addition to the boxes of self defense type ammo for my ar and my beretta.

I also keep a few boxes for each of my antique rifles.

 

 

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I keep ammo on hand for every gun and caliber, even the way obscure stuff.  I keep it on hand so I can show what the gun fired to friends, or if I ever have a weird desire to shoot it i have the ability to.  I have a 577 snider and sure enough I have ammo on hand for it althoug I have never shot it, dont aske me why but I have the ability to shoot it although I haven't shot it. 

sorry i had too...

One question that I rarely see is not "do you have enough ammo" for whatever rifle, but "can you carry enough ammo for your rifle?"

 

Having ammo is all well and good, but if you can't carry it, it is useless to you. ALICE, MOLLE, or ex-Soviet web gear systems may be a good investment to have, and keep packed with ammo to grab and go if needed....