Ammo Stockpiling – Busting Myths with Real Data ~ VIDEO

Opinion by Rational Preps via Youtube. All credit for video and transcript is the property of Rational Preps.
This video uses select data to debunk common myths about stockpiling ammunition for SHTF situations. It explains why using ammo for barter is a terrible idea, how much you really need for self-defense and hunting, and the truth about hoarding ammo for militia activities.

USA – -(AmmoLand.com)- So-called experts love to pontificate on the amount of ammunition preppers should stockpile. Some say 500 rounds per gun. Others say 1000. Still, others scoff and say those numbers are child’s play.

This video looks at real-world data to cut through the B.S. and determine what a smart investment in ammo really looks like. There are four primary rationales used for stockpiling ammunition. Self-defense, hunting, militia activities, and perhaps the worst idea ever. Using ammo for barter.

First self-defense.

In 2018 only a minuscule percentage of U.S. citizens actually fired guns in self-defense. Cops confront criminals daily, but most have never fired their weapons in the line of duty. Smart preppers also know to avoid gunfights like the plague. But if you must fight it’s good to know how many shots you should expect to fire when guns are drawn. A New York City police report based on more than 30,600 shooting incidents showed that cops fire an average of only two point nine shots per incident. Claude Werner surveyed close to 500 successful firearm self-defense reports 36 percent of which involved multiple assailants. He found successful civilian defenders fire an average of only two shots per incident. Greg Ellifritz studied more than seventeen hundred real-world gunfights. He determined that all weapon types incapacitate aggressors with an average of less than two head or torso hits. There will always be outliers on the high end, but that’s three different real-world sources with large sample sizes all saying you can expect to fire an average of three or fewer shots in the rare event you are ever in a self-defense gunfight.

But that’s today. What about after SHTF the American Wild West with its homegrown law enforcement, guns, gangs, and violence is the best historical example we have of a real SHTF like situation. Here are the Wild West most prolific gunfighters and their legendary kill counts.

Now here are their actual historically verified numbers of kills. It’s important to understand that these men represent the extreme highs of gunfight participation for the time. By today’s standards, they would all be considered psychopaths. Out of these five record-setting Wild West killers only two are verified to have been in more than ten gunfights. So ten gunfights times an average of three shots per fight comes to just 30 rounds. Even if you panic every time and fire an average of 10 rounds per gunfight that’s still only 100 bullets, it’s the folks playing too many video games that think you need more than that for self-defense. One more thing. It turns out murdering lots of people has some fairly predictable consequences.

Next up hunting.

Just because you plan to hunt it does not mean you’re going to be successful.

More than one hundred and five thousand hunters registered for the Oregon 2017 deer season. Only twenty-five thousand deer were harvested that year. That means more than 80000 hunters went home empty handed finding game will only get harder during SHTF because every 4 with a 9-millimeter pistol or shotgun will also be out there trying to murder animals. The Alabama DNR notes that deer are almost hunted to extinction in that state during the Great Depression. Given these stats, you don’t really want to rely on gun hunting as your sole source of protein. Trapping, fishing and raising livestock are much more reliable and don’t consume non-renewable resources. But let’s imagine there is game available and you are luckier or more skilled than 75 percent of hunters. The next question is how many deer can you expect to harvest. The Ohio DNR did a study on successful hunters. They found that only 27 percent bagged more than one deer and less than 1 percent bagged more than five. Five deer, by the way, can be turned into close to 1000 meals. Now good hunters know five shots are required to harvest the first year of the season. Four to zero their weapon, and one to kill the animal. This means that the most elite deer hunters will fire about ten rounds per season. The vast majority of folks will fire four to six. If the SHTF scenario last 30 years you wouldn’t need much more than 300 hunting cartridges.

A hunting strategy based on small-game like rabbits would require obvious adjustments. If you are prepping for an event that lasts longer than 30 years, it would be wise to invest in hunting technologies with naturally renewable ammunition like bows or blowguns. Remember humans somehow managed to survive for hundreds of thousands of years before firearms were invented.

Next militia actions.

Let’s be clear. Fighting a personally funded militia war against an invading modern military force is an absolute dead end strategy. The government’s resources and equipment will always be vastly superior to whatever you can scrape together as a civilian. The notion that a civilian AR-15 and a 200 round combat load can blaze a path to victory against a modern military force is nothing but a glorious fantasy. In 2018 Afghan militia fighters managed to kill only 14 of the eight thousand four hundred and seventy-five U.S. troops stationed there. Of those 14 just six soldiers were killed by small arms fire. Six that means despite firing hundreds of thousands of rounds. Militia riflemen only managed to kill a pathetic zero point zero zero zero seven percent of the military force occupying their country. The fact that modern military forces are equipped with level 4 body armor is a key reason for the spectacular failure of militia riflemen.

This protection is specifically designed to stop five point five six and seven point six two rounds. Considering the state of the modern battlefield, it wouldn’t matter if you hoarded a million rounds of AR-15 ammo. Those munitions are simply not effective against today’s soldiers. You might as well stockpile spitballs. If your survival is important to you armor is a much smarter investment than ammunition. Sniping is the one potentially effective militia rifle strategy. The greatest sniper of all time is Simo Hayha. Finish military records show that he tallied two hundred and fifty-nine sniper kills against the Russians during the Winter War of 1939. His sniping career ended after only one hundred and nineteen days when he was shot in the face and permanently disfigured. So if you think you can match the very best sniper in the history of mankind, you won’t need more than 300 rounds to prove it.

Ammo Barter

Finally, some people stockpile ammo thinking they will use it to barter with. This is a terrible idea. Bartering with ammo will primarily attract two types of customers. First the desperately unprepared. People with no ammo are not likely to have anything else of value to trade to a well-prepared person, and you’ve got to ask yourself what they plan to do with the ammo you give them. Do you really want to top off the magazines of all the random desperate souls who wander through your community?

Common sense dictates that you should never barter away something that can be used to kill you.

That brings up the second group. The “dangerous.” These folks will be looking for ammo because they use a lot of it. That means they’re are likely criminals or those prone to violence. Barter out ammo to them is about as smart as setting up a free-range rattlesnake-ranch next to a daycare center. The worst part of bartering ammo is that it is a bright shining advertisement to criminals saying that you are the one who has exactly what they want most. That’s not a theory.

The Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms says thieves often see gun dealers as easy targets. Their data shows gun store thefts are rising and the smash and grab techniques are growing bolder. These fellows didn’t let anything stop them from getting what they wanted during SHTF will you have the security to stop a raid like this. They were in and out in 30 seconds. Why would you invite this kind of trouble when the world is already awash with chaos. Finally, if you think through the problem of paying soldiers and guards, you will understand why no one in history has ever used ammunition as currency. So how much ammo should you stockpile? That answer is easy. Stockpile as much as you want to.

Just don’t get fooled into buying more than you really need.

*Source Links…

• Percent of US citizens involved in self-defense shootings in 2018: 1,795 shootings divided by 327,100,000 people in the US. https://www.gunviolencearchive.org/pa…
• Percent of police who have fired in the line of duty: http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/…
• Number of shots fired by police: Page 5, Chart “NYPD SOP-9 1988-2001 COMPARISON OF SHOOTING INCIDENTS”, “AVERAGE SHOTS PER OFFICER” Column… http://www.theppsc.org/Staff_Views/Av…
• Number of shots fired by Civilians (Claude Werner): http://gunssavelives.net/self-defense…
• Number of shots for Incapacitation (Greg Elefritz): See my other video for a full description of the study… https://youtu.be/nycYxb-zNwc
• Original report here… http://www.activeresponsetraining.net…
• Gunslinger Information:
• Tom Horn… https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Horn
• Jim Miller… https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Mil…)
• Billy the Kid… https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_t…
• Wild Bill Hickok… https://truewestmagazine.com/how-many…
• John Wesley Harding https://www.thevintagenews.com/2015/1…
• Oregon 2017 Deer Hunting Season: https://www.dfw.state.or.us/resources…
• Hunting during the Great Depression: https://www.mossyoak.com/our-obsessio…
• Number of deer harvested per hunter (Ohio DNR Study): http://wildlife.ohiodnr.gov/hunting-t…
• David Koresh and the siege of his Waco Texas compound: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege
• US military deaths in Afghanistan in 2018: http://icasualties.org/App/AfghanFata…
• Number of US troops in Afghanistan in 2018: https://www.forces.net/newsoperations…
• Military body armor protection level: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Improve…
• Simo Häyhä sniper: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simo_H%…
• Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms quotes and gun store robbery data: https://www.thetrace.org/rounds/gun-s…
• Background Music: Tumbleweed Texas – Chris Haugen

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