I've heard a hundred times that its best to bring a gun that shoots common ammo when traveling for a hunt. If you ever lose your ammo, you can always find 30-06, 338WM, 375 H&H etc. wherever you are. For the most part I've followed this advise. For example, I brought a 30-06 on my plains game trip to Africa last year.

But I have yet to ever meet anybody that lost their ammo on a trip. I've hunted on dozens of out of state hunts and a couple overseas hunts, but never lost my ammo. Is this advice just an old wives tale? If anyone has ever lost there ammo on a trip, I'd be interested to hear about it.

I know a guy who went on a black bear hunt and forgot his .300 RUM ammo. None to be found anywhere. As luck would have it a couple of mos. before the hunt he had loaded his ammo over at a buddies house (he was in the middle of a move and his reloading outfit wasn't set up at his house) and never took the box that had his loading supplies (dies, empty cases, brass) out of the truck. The outfitter had a press and some supplies (primers, powder). The hunt had a happy ending.

Lou

Two of my friends went to Zim this spring. One lost his bag between JHB and Harare (re-checked in JHB to be "sure" it made it onto the plane... ).

Had they not shared ammo between their bags, he would not only have been without hunting clothing for the next five days, but also without ammo. As it was, both had ammo, and he was shooting a fairly common caliber (.416 Rigby), so could probably have procured ammo if he had had to.

Precautions like shooting a common caliber or packing a minimal set of hunting clothes in your hand luggage are all unnecessary - until the shit hits the fan, and then it may be too late unless you took precaution. Place your bets...

- mike

I can see the value of the advice, but it has never happened to me. I do split ammo if I am traveling w/ someone else, or stash a small ammo wallet in the gun case. It would get you by.

Scene: Sitting around the table the night before a moose hunt out of "our" cabin close to Robb, Alberta. Our shack's a small dingy place, no electricity, no plumbing, lit only by a coal fire in an old iron stove. (We used coal picked up from seams which jut out of the earth around Robb.) Robb is a rural town of maybe 100-150 people on the E edge of Jasper National Park.

I have a brand new, just introduced (then) Marlin .444 lever. Opening my one box of ammo, I take out a round to show to my hunting partner Lance Paul. Funny...it doesn't have a rim and looks awfully wrong in length and diameter.

Dang!! The head says "30-06"!!

Sudden flashback occurs. Factory ammo having not been available yet in our locale, I had loaded a box of .444 from new brass yesterday. Also had some '06 sitting on the loading bench. Had obviously slipped the wrong "divider box" into the .444 outer box.

We had driven pretty much all day in the 4x4 (and had our windshield broken out by a passing truck) to get to our cabin from our home in "Edmonchuk", and it was getting dark FAST. Couldn't possibly go back for ammo.

So we go to the general store in Robb. They have four "sizes" of centerfire ammo - .303 British, .30-30 winchester, .30-06, and .270 Winchester. Nothing else. Desparate, we call the gun shop in Edmonton to see if any of our friends who also have cabins within 50-60 miles or so of us are coming out but haven't left yet.

Eureka! One close friend is just about to leave the shop for Hinton, Alberta (45 miles or so from us). He will come on out to our cabin with a box of stuff which the shop owner (Lance's dad) will load up immediately.

We wait. 6 or so Hours pass. Finally pick-up lights, then a honk to make sure we are awake, and finally a friendly beaming face. He hands me a box of ammo, labelled .444 Marlin. I thank him profusely, pour hot coffee (it is about +5 degrees F out) and we sit down for a friendly bull session before he heads back to Hinton.

Then he asks to see this new-fangled rifle which takes such special ammunition. I show it to him and he asks how many rounds the mag holds. I tell him I think it is 6, but am not positive if that includes one up the spout or not.

He wants to know EXACTLY. So, intending to point the rifle out the one tiny window of the cabin and to load the magazine, I open the box of ammo and begin to take out rounds.

"WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?!!" I exclaim. Some cases have the primers in upside down, some have been necked down to .22 caliber and are rather wrinkled in the process, some are opened to .50 caliber at the mouth and have all-lead bullets. None are useable .444 rounds.

"I dunno, That's what Doug (Paul) sent you", he says with a serious, straight face. I am floored, disappointed, angry, frustrated, you name it.

Five minutes later, he gets up to leave, still looking rather chagrined and apologetic, even though it isn't his fault. As he goes out the door, he reaches into his parka pocket, pulls out a box and says, "BTW, you might want these too."

It was a box of .444 Marlin factory rounds which arrived at the shop just before he left Edmonton.

Now, as you can tell, I had some really good friends, and some really good luck. But from then on when I went hunting moose, I carried a .30-06.

If I ever had to rely upon the availability of ammo, I'd be in a pickle.

Rarely do I shoot anything that's a commercial cartridge, so all necessary precautions are taken when leaving for a trip.

I've never had ammo "lost," but I did have a scope ring screw on a 6.5x.308 (before the days of the .260) commit suicide by decapitating itself as I unpacked my gear. Fortunately, because I am a packrat and have a bit of a messy truck, I did have another set (I didn't plan it; it just happened that way).

I replaced the screw, checked the grid on my boresighter -- and everything was still aligned as before. Nonetheless, I still was not satisfied. The next morning, I set up a makeshift rest, found a chalky-white rock some 180 yards out and proceeded to dust it.

After that, I was ready to hunt.

You fellers just arn't paranoid enough. If I got to a hunting site without ammo;

1. There would be no ammo shop within Cooee.

2. If there were, they would be closed.

3. If they were open they would have sold out of the popular stuff, but they'd have .257 Weatherby.

I carry a box to the ranch when we go hunting. In it, among other things, are three ammo boxes with ammo for 12 different rifles, 5 rounds each. Even with a 30-06, we had occasion to get out there without any 30-06 ammo. I scrounged around in an old truck and came up with two rounds behind the seat. They were pretty old but it saved a young man's hunt. One of my nephews brought VMax ammo for his 243. I had my box with my 5 rounds in 243.

I pays to be overprepared.

Alan

A friend of mine forgot his ammo one year...300 weatherby mag...and yes he almost never found any...a local man told us at a small store he new a guy who might sell him a box of his personal ammo......he paid a HUGE price but got some ammo.

quote:

But I have yet to ever meet anybody that lost their ammo on a trip. I've hunted on dozens of out of state hunts and a couple overseas hunts, but never lost my ammo. Is this advice just an old wives tale?

You need to fly more. Airlines do the darndest things with luggage---to put it mildly. Sometimes it never reappears. Sometimes it reappears quickly. Sometimes you can see it but can't get. Many years ago, on a family trip, one of my mothers bags got tagged as lost and placed in the room next to the baggage carousel area. The door was clear glass and we could see it in the room, but finding someone with a key who would open the room took an hour!

Sometimes it shows up at the oddest hours. American, to its credit, brings it to you as soon as they find it. My brother-in-law had a bag misplaced on a return flight from a business trip. His bag arrived at his door at 3:00 a.m. He was not amused at the pounding on his door at 3:00 a.m. after a long trip home without luggage.

My father took a business trip and on the return flight his bag went to Atlanta not D/FW. He didn't know this at the time and had given up on the bag's ever reappearing, but three weeks later a Delta rep showed up at his office with his bag that had been thoroughly soaked with water at least once.

Now that I am traveling with small children, we've taken to UPSing items ahead. UPS and Fedex are dramatically more competent than any airline every thought to be, and with the new luggage weight limits and charges, it really doesn't cost much extra to do this.

Remember, 2 is 1 and 1 is none.

LWD

It never happened to me, but on one deer hunt, I ran into a guy on a Sunday that asked if I had any 30-06 ammo? I did. seems like he'd left that morning for the hunt and forgot to load his ammo into the truck. he went into town, and being Sunday, all the possible places he go go to were closed. I gave hime five rounds as I only had the one box of ammo. He offered to pay for the shells but I said to forget it. I hope he got a deer.
Paul B.

I loved the story about the man who approached an airline ticket agent, long before 9-11, and said, "I want a ticket to Chicago and I want that bag to go to Cleveland and that bag to Omaha."

Ticket agent replied, "We can't do that!"

Man said, "Why not? You did it the last time."

No lost ammo, but I did have an entire families worth of luggage put on wrong flights and we spent half a week in Texas without. Luggage was finally delivered about 2 days before we left.

So things do happen. I might bring a wildcat chambered gun somewhere but it won't be the only gun at my disposal.

My dad flew to Scotland for a re-enactment and had put all his weaponry (swords, etc) in a gun case, which was tossed on a wrong flight at Heathrow. It took several weeks to get the case delivered back home and he never did get his stuff over there. Not exactly pertinant to this dscussion but it is all stuff to keep in mind.

All my hunting rifles have an ammo sling on the stock so if I have the rifle I have 6 or 9 rounds depending on calibre. You probably can't do this if you're flying though. Years ago we went antelope hunting in Wyoming and me buddy forgot his 25-06 ammo. We didn't have to shop for it though because 2 other guys with us shot 25-06.

i had a trip where delta lost the bag with all my ammo. found one box of 470's is joberg, so ended up going on a 18 day hunt with 20 rounds. been in mind when choosing rifles ever since

Have I ever "lost" my ammo? No. But stuff happens anyway.

I once had a week long anti-Bambi trip planned with a son in law. We packed his truck the evening before we were to leave to speed our departure the next day. But he then had an emergency that prevented him from going so I very quickly transfered my gear from his truck to mine and we went our seperate ways. Next morning I found that I had left my ammo with him.

A small town Walmart had what I needed and it only cost me a fairly short trip back to town but if I'd been shooting an uncommon cartridge it might not have had such an easy fix.

I've lost Ammo, guns, clothes, "everything" at one time or another.