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how many mags per firearm?

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how mags are enough for troubled times?

5425 Views 51 Replies 34 Participants Last post by  [486]
how many good box mags should one stock up for each firearm?


were talking about survival/SHTF type rifles and shotguns, like the ar-15, ak, m-1 carbine, Saiga shotguns. camp carbines, semi- auto .22 rimfires and so on.

this poll excludes pistols and clip fed rifles like SKS.

i might have another poll about pistol mags later.

only good reliable mags count. not those junk ones that half work on a good day. drum type mags do count if their fully functional.
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Just don't forget the belts & belt loader!!!
The way I look at it is, how many can I carry (including food, water, etc) on a 20 mile hike?

If the S truly HTF, it's a week's walk (assuming no other transportation) at 20-30 miles/day to my bug-out destination from where I now reside.
I try to have 10 mags min per rifle and about 5-8 mags for each pistol. less for the pistol because the pistol is only used to fight your way back to your rifle.. Uncle sam says you'll need (7) 30 rd mags of 5.56mm love.. that's ok for a military guy who may get resupplied.. but 10 is a good number.. if you have to carry them 10 can be done with the right Load bearing vests.. quite easily.. As far as a 20 Mile hike.. a bike will make 20 Miles with a much heavier load much more easily..and faster.. The gooks in nam used bikes like we used helo's as a supply train.. they can carry aprox 300 pounds of gear with little trouble if packed correctly.. where even a hard core Airborne, ranger can only do about 150 on his back.. for any distance over 12-20 miles.. B2B
I have more than 10 mags for each rifle type I have. I probably have 20+ ar mags, but I have several ar's so I don't meet that requirement for that rifle type yet. I sold the ar15 drums I had as they seemed to weight as much as the gun when fully loaded and I figured all that extra weight can't be good for an aluminum receiver.
10 sounds like a good number to me. Don't even bother getting 100 mags like some guys do, you can't test them all, so what good are they? In my mind all mags are range mags until they've had at least 2 full loads through them without jamming, better to have them fail at the range and then be able to tinker with them to get them to work than have them fail when you need them...
I go with Bolt2bounce. Back when we were young whipper snappers we carried 300 rounds.
Then add food, water, other essential implements of destruction and damn it got heavy. You got in shape real quick.
We were in the mountains and could not get resupplied so we had no choice.
Now I am 62 and have trouble walking to the mail box.
So I can not really answer.
If the SHTF I aint going nowhere.
I am staying home and protecting my beer with my life.
They will pry my beer from my cold dead fingers. :redchug:
Edit: Kind of read it wrong sorry. Hell if your stationary probably 10 mags per weapon should be plenty. I guess.
one thing i forgot-- a couple C_mags or drums add up to a car trunk load of 20 rounders!--LOL

i have about 7-8 mags per rifle myself. some rifles have more and some a little less, i do have a lot of rifles so i could have way more than just 8 mags if i needed them.

on pistols i have about 5 mags per pistol.
I have more that 20 mags...30s and 40s. Also, over a 1000 rounds on strippers in the can. Hopefully that's enough.
Each rifle has 5 loaded mags in each carry case.
Most surplus mags will last the life of a gun so you should not need to worrry about wearing one out. however I could see the need to ahve 3-4 four mag pouches loaded and ready to roll. they are easier to carry and no time needed to reload mags when the mag is empty.
SHTF, give me a Finnish M39 Mosin and a bunch of stripper clips... If you get close enough that I need something with mags, the answer is simple... Saiga 12. For that, I believe that 4 mags is enough.

Seriously though, you should, for your one go to semi-auto SHTF rifle have 10 mags for it... Why? Because you never know... I'd rather have a few too many mags than too few.

Mark
If one is assured of future availability of mags ( when they become damaged or lost an affordable source of re-supply exists) then probably 10 mags per rifle is adequate. 200-300 rds typically, reloading during a lull in firing should be possible in anything but an all out Zombie Apocolypse.

OTOH, if you figure in a "lifetime" supply of mags (lifetime of the gun) because the future availabilty of the magazines is in doubt, well an AR15 without a mag makes a lousy club after you fire the single chambered round. Stock up accordingly.
If one is assured of future availability of mags ( when they become damaged or lost an affordable source of re-supply exists) then probably 10 mags per rifle is adequate. 200-300 rds typically, reloading during a lull in firing should be possible in anything but an all out Zombie Apocolypse.
Most of us should face up to the fact that either you get the fight over in the first half of your first mag [maybe even the first 5-10 rounds of deliberate semiauto fire], or just run like hell in a situation like that. Sure, you may be able to get back on target in a hurry, and maybe reload pretty quick, but not as quickly as a mutant zombie biker can line his sights up on you.

If something like that happened I know I'd be doing more running from others than fighting them.
I'm like 4th. I don't even make the 100 foot trek to the mail box unless I'm pretty sure there's something good out there. Not hiking or running anywhere. If things go downhill....I'll start mining my perimeter, dig a hole & sit with my 1919 & crankfire.
But I doubt very much if any of us will ever have to shoot another American.
Mags remain affordable implements.
Needs generally exceed expectations.
I always figured you should have enough mags for a lifetime. AK's and AR's hardly ever die. 1911 mags are a different story. The feed lips crack eventually, rendering it useless.
I figure a dozen for each caliber should be fine even if a shortage came along.
I PRAY WE NEVER NEED THIS STUFF!!!

I hope like HELL, that it NEVER comes to a point where I may need to use any of this stuff I have!!!!! This stuff is FUN at the range. GOD please help us if it ever requires us to use these things to survive here on our HOME front!?!?!

:hugegun:
If one is assured of future availability of mags ( when they become damaged or lost an affordable source of re-supply exists) then probably 10 mags per rifle is adequate. 200-300 rds typically, reloading during a lull in firing should be possible in anything but an all out Zombie Apocolypse.

OTOH, if you figure in a "lifetime" supply of mags (lifetime of the gun) because the future availabilty of the magazines is in doubt, well an AR15 without a mag makes a lousy club after you fire the single chambered round. Stock up accordingly.

AMEN OH LEARNED SIR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I had to go 8 years without resupply due to my westerly location.

AR Mags were toast. Needed springs, some bodies just wore out. Locations that fail? Mag Catch, bodies become too flexible and swell when loaded, causing an insertion issue (wish they made viagra for THAT!).

Let's be honest. At $7.00 to $12.00 per mag for "good" AR or AK mags; buy a couple of extras.

Here is my simple formula:

AR or AK:
19 Mags per rifle.

M1A or FN-FAL:
13 Mags per rifle.

Pistols:
5 mags per.

Shotgun:
It's an 870 or a Moss. 590....Lots of 00.

1000 rounds per weapon is good. 4000 per weapon is better. 10,000 is really cool.

Take your time, invest in simple reloading gear. SIMPLE is the OPERATIVE word.


Spares are GOOD!
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I had to go 8 years without resupply due to my westerly location.
I'd like to hear your story, if it wouldn't bother you to share it.
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