Patriots, Minutemen, 3%, Ammo is a Non Renewable Resource SHTF

[VTConcernedCitizen 302]

just some of my concerns I thought I would get out there

[Hammer3sf 176]

Media teaches us to rapid fire on purpose to get us to use up our ammo quickly.  Back during the Clinton years it was common for us to be given only 5-10 rounds for an entire exercise which could be 1-4 weeks.  You learned to pick your targets before all you could do is say bang bang.... bang.  Even at NTC and JRTC we would get only 1 mag's worth.  Our people need to pick up the same mentality.  Conserve ammo, pick your targets, and make each round count.

 

Reloading should be planned for by every militia unit and stocked for as much as humanly possible.  Brass should be collected up after every firefight if possible.  Develop the means to cast bullets even your own copper jacketed for semi-auto rifles.

[Whiskey6 520]

If you look back into guerrilla warfare over the ages, ammo was scrounged. The warfare continued, and those fighting in it continued to fight. I bring this up to put it into context. Stock piling ammo and reloading ammo is good, but having a plan to acquire more off of your opponents is the norm. When you ambush an opponent, do you just leave their bodies there? Successful ambushes that result in a total kill, you don't. You move through the target party, make sure everyone is dead, and take their equipment, ammunition, and weapons, and move on. If your opponents carry different weapons/ammo than yourself, switch to their weapons. Relying only on your preferred ammo is going to cause you more grief in the long run.

[Hammer3sf 176]

Stripping the Mobile Resupply Pods aka enemy dead is a given in guerilla warfare.  And guerilla warfare is how most of us will be fighting if/when things kick off.  The only ones fighting conventionally will be defector units (guard, reserve, active duty units) that choose to join us in the fight.  But remember in a fire fight the enemy will be shooting back.  Both of you will be expending ammo.  Never expect to primarily supply yourself off what you take off of the enemy.  If you do you will fall drastically short of ammo, food, medical supplies, etc....  Unfortunately many people do expect to fully supply themselves that way because that is what movies and TV tell them to do it that way.  Here in the USA the calibers used by the military (as we all should already know) are 5.56x45mm and 7.62x51mm.  Add to that your 9mm from sidearms , .50 BMG, and 12 Gauge.  But 5.56 and 7.62 Nato for primary infantry weapons.  Militias here should aim to equip themselves with firearms capable of firing those rounds.  Preferably civilian legal versions of the standard issue weapons for ease of use of captured mags,etc...  

 

As the old saying goes never put all your eggs in one basket.   You need to cache stocks of ammo and have a support element in place to reload ammunition also.  So you have 3 sources of ammo for your people (4 if you count theft and purchase of ammo from enemy depots and AHAs or Ammunition Handling Areas)..  In theory this will mean you can stay in the fight longer.  Even the VC (the "gold standard" of guerilla fighters) had workshops set up for producing and reloading ammunition along with weapons of questionable safety.  We most likely will not have outside support (another country) supplying arms and munitions which many consider essential in a guerilla fight.  Always plan for the worst case scenario.  Which would be the enemy denies you the time to strip their dead.  Or when you do you find they expended almost all their ammo because they were only carrying 3 magazines in their pouches (which was the combat load for AKs carried by the VC and NVA).  Your caches have been used up or found during counter-insurgency sweeps.  AND that your reloading/production workshop(s) have been captured.  Leaving you with what you have on or with you (carts, trucks, sleds).

 

If you have a knife you can get a pistol.  If you have a pistol you can get a rifle.  If you have a rifle you can get a machine gun.  If you have a machine gun you can get a whole bunch of rifles.- unknown Resistance fighter during WW2 (some say Mao Tse Tung)