A patient of mine who's kind of a 50-ish prepper type told me that he's not really that interested in firearms per se, but realizes they are a necessity, especially if there would ever be a long-term power outage or other social catastrophe. Their kids don't live at home anymore so it's just he and his wife, and he says they each have an Mossberg pump 20 gauge, a Ruger 10/22, an AR-15, a Ruger Mk-2 pistol, and a Glock 17. He has quite a bit of money and I'm sure could afford far more firearms than that, but he was asking my opinion on a more powerful and long range centerfire rifle that they could share. I made the comment that "as much as you are interested in your long-term food storage and all that I figured you'd have lots more firearms". He said "I figure you can only use one at a time, and that although they might make good things to trade, ammunition, is better because you can use if for small-change items" so he said he has always kept 10,000 22 LR, 223, and 9 mm on hand, and 1,000 each slugs, buckshot, and birdshot. So he has 33,000 rounds divided by 10 firearms, or 3,300 rounds per firearm.
I have some guns I probably only have 50 or 60 loaded rounds for and maybe a couple hundred cases I can reload...
![Sad :(](./images/smilies/icon_sad.gif)
![Embarassed :oops:](./images/smilies/icon_redface.gif)
I think the problem is that for many of us, it is the firearm that is interesting, either because of its history, it's mechanism, or just the pure fun of recreational shooting with it. Those of us who hunt don't really need very many rounds of ammunition for the annual harvest, so probably only the competitive shooters go through enough volume of ammunition to really feel compelled to have that much inventory. It's just hard to have $800 in your pocket and look at a really nice gun that cost $750, and not buy it, instead of 'blowing' $800 on a boring box of ammo.
Anyway, his rule of keeping 10,000 rounds of any rifle or pistol cartridge, and 1,000 rounds of each shotgun load he uses really makes sense, but I have been too weak-willed over the years, so wind up spending more money on the firearms than the stuff to feed them.
Those of you who are younger and just starting out with firearms as a hobby or obsession might want to keep this guy's principles in mind. If anything, his gun 'collection' is rather boring, but it is hard to argue that it's not extremely practical.