all this talk about choosing a caliber carefully so one can buy ammo locally

I am very curious

How many people on this forum have actually ran out of AMMO and need to buy ammo locally ?

I can the possibility of ammo not arriving

but all this internet talk have been circulating around for years when international travel was different from what it is today.

Over to you boys ...............

Three trips -- arrived back home with most of my ammo. But, IF I'd had to buy ammo, .375 H&H factory would shoot in my .375 Weatherby. 7x64 Brenneke, .270 Wby, .300 H&H not as much.

WHAT????????????????????

considering I take two or three rifles and about 50 rounds of ammo each, if I ever did run out, I'd be renting a semi to bring back all the animals.

quote:

375 Weatherby

I dont have any experience with this cartridge but, if its on the internet it must be true;;
As per wikipedia "As the .375 Weatherby is an improved cartridge, .375 H&H Magnum ammunition can be fired in .375 Weatherby chambers with a slight loss in performance of the .375 H&H ammunition."

Only one time and that was shot gun ammo on a crow shoot. We killed a lots of crows and after 150 rounds.

I had to get down on my knees and beg my buddys for more.

I still haven't live it down and that was years ago.

Yea it's tough to pack enough ammo for a Texas dove hunt or trip to Argentina too.

p dog, 10-4 on that! Decoying and shooting crows is about as much fun as a guy can have with his zipper up.

I am planning an Arkansas light goose conservation hunt and plan on taking 2 flats of 10ga and 2 flats of 16ga ammo and hope I have enough. Macks Prairie Wings is just down the road though.......

quote:

Originally posted by nashville:

quote:

375 Weatherby

I dont have any experience with this cartridge but, if its on the internet it must be true;;
As per wikipedia "As the .375 Weatherby is an improved cartridge, .375 H&H Magnum ammunition can be fired in .375 Weatherby chambers with a slight loss in performance of the .375 H&H ammunition."

The 375 Wby is simply a blown out 300/375 H&H case with radius shoulder. A mild performance gain over the 375 H&H.

Ken....

I've run out of ammo hunting small game with a shotgun before, but I've never run out of rifle ammo. The most I've ever shot during a deer season was 5 rounds, and I got four deer.

I'm always out of ammo when I come home. I always leave the remainder with the PH's for their guns But have never run out during a hunt. plus it lightens my luggage.

I've never run out...but I have got there only to find out that I've forgotten the ammunition!

Also in Europe where we may have to cross national boundaries it is sometimes "the line of least resistance" just to take the rifle ON ITS OWN and obtain the ammunition there!

Now this isn't, per se, about legalities of the ammunition but that some means of travel forbid explosives and ammunition is seen as explosive.

In fact here in England it is an offence to use some road tunnels with "explosive" in your vehicle which means ammunition!

Despite the fact that you have twenty odd gallons of petrol/gasoline slung underneath that same vehicle!

I once (35 years ago) sort of ran out of .300 WBY ammo...at a very awkward moment, which resulted in my losing a head of wounded game (mule deer) in the badlands adjacent to the South Saskatchewan River. I wasn't out of ammo for the hunt...I had 90 more rounds back at the 4x4. But that was a good mile walk away, and I (unknowingly) had expended all but one round in my rifle before I shot that deer. And damn, it didn't even fall down so I could use my knife to dispatch it.

I shot from about 40 yards above and behind the deer, and the 180 gr. Nosler Partition hit right between the right shoulder blade and the spine. The deer staggered and for a moment I could literally see into the deer's back between the shoulder blade and spine. Then the deer stood still, weaving to and fro, and the wound closed. I tried to shoot again and that's when I discovered the rifle was empty!!

I ran down the hill with my hunting knife until I could almost touch it. Then the deer started to walk away on a shallowly uphill winding trail. The faster I pursued it, the faster it walked. I finally could not keep up,. and it just kept going, seeming to get stronger and stronger. I finally fell so far behind I couldn't even stay in sight of it.

For some reason it didn't leave a blood trail. I tracked it until it finally crossed a cattle grate into a game preserve and kept going.

That whole wretched episode was my own fault for losing track of the number of rounds in my rifle after having previously killed a deer wounded by my hunting buddy. I have never forgotten the shame and unsporting aspect of it, and now always carry at least 10 extra rounds either in pockets or on my belt, or partly in a rifle butt-stock bandolier.

But I never go on a hunting trip with less than 60 rounds of ammo (a spare MTM box full). Usually I take two MTM boxes full if the hunt is more than 40 miles into the bush, so I have never run out of ammo enough for a hunt.

I hope never to be dumb enough again to not take a sufficient number of the rounds from that box with me when actually out walking up game.... and I now devoutly keep count of rounds fired.

I've seen many many times where an invited hunter showed up with one twenty round box or partial box thinking his rifle was shot-in. More often than not a newbie with a brand new rig that was boresighted by the shop he bought it from.

Then wasted away all twenty rounds because they were inexperienced or incompetent and unable to sight a rifle in with 20 rounds. Usually they come back from the range mad at the equipment and unquestioning of the operator. Regardless, they have to beg borrow or steal a solution and some more ammo.

This is a part of what happens when you only take 15 7x57 and 10 404 on a goat hunt and run into a mob of 30 or more.

What happened next will be remembered often over the years. Goats came from everywhere and a mob of about thirty boiled out of the rocks where the first one died and went downhill and we thought we had lost them for the day, so we were trying to work out whether we would try to work our way through the bluffs to collect it when the mob came up the gully we were overlooking and the bombup began. I will say that any other time we have been out that 7 rounds has been the maximum we have ever fired so I had only taken 15 for the 7x57 and 10 for the 404. We got 21 of the goats and then everything stopped and there was no more sound of departing goats, that is live ones getting AWAY from there and the odd dead one falling over bluffs and crashing away down hill.
We started the sometimes difficult task of recovery and took the back legs and backstraps from 8 or 9 which gave us both about 80-90 lbs each to carry out.

http://forums.accuratereloadin...5621043/m/2801043151

Von Gruff.

quote:

Originally posted by Alberta Canuck:
I once (35 years ago) sort of ran out of .300 WBY ammo...at a very awkward moment, which resulted in my losing a head of wounded game (mule deer) in the badlands adjacent to the South Saskatchewan River. I wasn't out of ammo for the hunt...I had 90 more rounds back at the 4x4. But that was a good mile walk away , and I (unknowingly) had expended all but one round in my rifle when I shot that deer. And damn, it didn't even fall down so I could use my knife to dispatch it.

I shot from about 40 yards above and behind the deer, and the 180 gr. Nosler Partition hit right between the right shoulder blade and the spine. The deer staggered and for a moment I could literally see into the deer's back between the shoulder blade and spine. Then the deer stood still, weaving to and fro, and the wound closed. I tried to shoot again and that's when I discovered the rifle was empty!!

I ran down the hill with my hunting knife until I could almost touch it. Then the deer started to walk away on a shallowly uphill winding trail. The faster I pursued it, the faster it walked. I finally could not keep up,. and it just kept going, seeming to get stronger and stronger. I finally fell so far behind I couldn't even stay in sight of it.

For some reason it didn't leave a blood trail. I tracked it until it finally crossed a cattle gate into a game preserve and kept going.

That whole wretched episode was my own fault for losing track of the number of rounds in my rifle after having previously killed a deer wounded by my hunting buddy. I have never forgotten it, and now always carry at least 10 extra rounds either in pockets or on my belt, or partly in a rifle butt-stock bandolier.

But I never go on a hunting trip with less than 60 rounds of ammo (a spare MTM box full). Usually I take two MTM boxes full if the hunt is more than 40 miles into the bush, so I have never run out of ammo enough for a hunt.

I hope never to be dumb enough again to not take a sufficient number of the rounds from that box with me when actually out walking up game.... and I now devoutly keep count of rounds fired.

So much, obviously hard won, wisdom in this post I've just quoted it.

"I've left it in the F$%&*ing car" is the hardest phrase a man can speak sometimes...

quote:

Originally posted by enfieldspares:
I've never run out...but I have got there only to find out that I've forgotten the ammunition!

I havent done this myself, but I seem to recall my father going to the local store for ammo years ago. I think that was why. To me the simple soloution to this is redundancy. I always take a back up rifle. I can see the wisdom in having an 06 or something along, "just in case".

I usually take too much but twice I have been elk hunting at Chama and seen people use up all their ammo trying to sight in and going to town. One gentleman had to be shown how the rifle operated. He was shooting at 25 yards trying to hit the target. He was terrified of the 300 Wins recoil. He used up his two boxes and 10 rounds I gave him before he went shopping. Finally his guide just sighted in the gun. The other gentleman had the scope bases so loose they wobbled. He insisted the gun was fine till one of the guides grabbed it by the scope.

I've never arrived anywhere to find that my ammo was missing nor run out on a hunt but a friend of mine that posts here and my brother have experienced the long walk back to the truck to get more ammo
Usually makes for some funny stories to tell at camp!

Never ran out,but did forget mine once,hunted the rest of the morning with my camera.

I left camp without ammunition and that was sufficiently embarrassing that it only happened once. Run out? I can't even imagine that.

Hmmm been hunting for 40+ years never ran out. Did get down to my last 2 shells on a quail hunt.

Did have a guy hunting iwth us after we spent a day getting through the snow up to the elk base camp figure out his ammo was in his car. He ended up sharing a rifle.

Never happened. Since my guns & ammo fly together, if the qammo doesn't make it, then I have no gun either. I think the whole ammo thing is over done. I have hunted in several countries & many states using wildcat rounds or obscure stuff & been fine. Just pack the limit of 11# when you fly & happy hunting.

I have never run out either but once I was hunting with my brother and he ran the 30-06 dry shooting at a warthog, the tracker had the extra ammo but he had gone back to help the driver change a tire on the truck.

OTH there are advantages to having a "wrong 'un"!

Here in Britain we have to use non-lead shot on any wildfowl. And in our old English guns that usually eliminates steel shot.

So the solution is expensive bismuth shot.

It is all too common to hear the "old boys" caliming to have "left there bismuth shot at home" when the time comes to shoot the duck drive or flush!

Left it a home? Bullsh1t! They never had any in the first place and seek to cadge of others on the shoot!

So all the experienced guns will either respond that they've only got 2 3/4" shells (that won't fit in these old boys' 2 1/2" 12 gauge guns) or even bring a 16 gauge!

I haven't ever run out of ammo but I had a magazine feed Browning A-bolt once. I had a bad habit of not keeping up with the magazine and was forced to hunt with a single shot bolt gun that was VERY hard to reload. I always had a few extra cartridges in my coat pocket though.

quote:

Originally posted by pagosawingnut:
I'm always out of ammo when I come home. I always leave the remainder with the PH's for their guns But have never run out during a hunt. plus it lightens my luggage.

I've thought about leaving mine w/ the PH, too. But, would be conserned that my reloads would be later shot in a rifle that they were NOT worked up for!?

Ran out of shotgun shells hunting birds in Zim. Dove breast wrapped in bacon was a mighty tasty appetizer - that is until we ran out of shells.

BigB

Have I ever ran out of ammo.....Kinda sorta.
Deer hunting in NW Louisiana years ago. I parked the truck and walked 40 yards to my climbing stand. Approximately 2 hours later I dropped a button buck. He was kicking and hollering so I made the shot to finish him. Missed, Missed again. Finally came down out of the climber, walked down and popped him in the head. After gutting I walked back up to get the foot platform from my climber...it turns over making a sled to drag the deer out on. Leaned the empty rifle against the tree, looked back at the truck and there stood the 9 point I had been hunting for two years. I SWEAR he was saying nana nana nana ya ain't got no bullets, and walked off. Cross my heart hope to spit. Since he was between me and the truck, and I could see both...I rationalized that I could not have made the shot anyway. Saw that deer 3 times. twice with a bow in my hand and this time. Not one shot.

I have never run out personally.

But I have had to share my shotgun shells as my partners did not bring enough. I have been down to my last shell of the day though. Then the next allotment arrived.

I have had one of my friends bring the wrong ammo for his 300 Wthby and I had to loan him some. It was our great plan, but not him bringing the 257 Whby ammo for a 300.

But I saw it happen in camp once. A guy had a super custom and I dont remember what it was, maybe a 7mmSTW or a Lazeroni or something. He shot his 4 rounds up and I dont believe had an animal. I think the guides almost crapped right there when he said he did not have any more ammo. They were over with their hats in hand trying to borrow any spare rifle and ammo we had.

I read that Lewis and Clark returned after 3 years exploring the West, with plenty of powder and ball to go on another expedition. I liked that planning !

Ok guys I have been on the side line for the past few days because I really wanted to hear from as many of you as possible.

I guess the conclusion is that nobody has ever ran out of ammo

Its a myth that's been porpagated from generation to generation

I remember reading guns and ammo in the seventies and even the great elder Keith saying something similar

In real life it's just a myth

BUSTED

Once i ran out of ammo on a week of driven hunt so for the last roe i had to borrow ammo of my brother(.308w insn`t hard to find when both my father and brother use it too).
Damn 9rounds use to last two to tree years of moose hunting.

I bet it has happened. Just not to 20 guys here on this thread.

Most likely the ammo got separated from the rifle on a plane. I know that has happened. And I have been lucky a few times when the other bags, or the rifle case either one was delivered on the next flight.

I am pretty sure Custer and his men ran out of ammo. My Dad said they were out of ammo in the USMC in Korea. So it has happened.

With so much infrastructure now it is less likely to happen. But the further away you get, the more you have to insure you got what you need. Say like a Marco Polo sheep hunt - no I have not done that, but if I did I would quadruple check the ammo before it took me a month to get up those mountains.

quote:

Originally posted by Von Gruff:
This is a part of what happens when you only take 15 7x57 and 10 404 on a goat hunt and run into a mob of 30 or more.

What happened next will be remembered often over the years. Goats came from everywhere and a mob of about thirty boiled out of the rocks where the first one died and went downhill and we thought we had lost them for the day, so we were trying to work out whether we would try to work our way through the bluffs to collect it when the mob came up the gully we were overlooking and the bombup began. I will say that any other time we have been out that 7 rounds has been the maximum we have ever fired so I had only taken 15 for the 7x57 and 10 for the 404. We got 21 of the goats and then everything stopped and there was no more sound of departing goats, that is live ones getting AWAY from there and the odd dead one falling over bluffs and crashing away down hill.
We started the sometimes difficult task of recovery and took the back legs and backstraps from 8 or 9 which gave us both about 80-90 lbs each to carry out.

http://forums.accuratereloadin...5621043/m/2801043151

Von Gruff.

Holy cow, are there no limits in New Zealand?!

Seriously. . . . Ran out of ammo. . . . really?

Never


once my boy forget his ammo...

But we had extra

that count

quote:

Originally posted by montea6b:

quote:

Originally posted by Von Gruff:
This is a part of what happens when you only take 15 7x57 and 10 404 on a goat hunt and run into a mob of 30 or more.

What happened next will be remembered often over the years. Goats came from everywhere and a mob of about thirty boiled out of the rocks where the first one died and went downhill and we thought we had lost them for the day, so we were trying to work out whether we would try to work our way through the bluffs to collect it when the mob came up the gully we were overlooking and the bombup began. I will say that any other time we have been out that 7 rounds has been the maximum we have ever fired so I had only taken 15 for the 7x57 and 10 for the 404. We got 21 of the goats and then everything stopped and there was no more sound of departing goats, that is live ones getting AWAY from there and the odd dead one falling over bluffs and crashing away down hill.
We started the sometimes difficult task of recovery and took the back legs and backstraps from 8 or 9 which gave us both about 80-90 lbs each to carry out.

http://forums.accuratereloadin...5621043/m/2801043151

Von Gruff.

Holy cow, are there no limits in New Zealand?!

The goats are feral from released goats many years ago and they breed big mobs if not kept in check. It is a curtesy to the landholder to shoot'm when you see'm. This is very hard country and few are prepared to climb down into it as the bluffs are over 1000yds from where we go in down to the creek at the bottom with another 200yds up to the top, and that is vertical yds not running yds.In some areas we have shot they have had to get the helicopter shooters in to thin the mobs out. They make very good eating though so I go 3 or 4 times a year to keep the table supplied.

Von Gruff.

Never, just shouldn't happen...as a hunter should be prepared outdoors.

The only time have ever ran out of ammo is after killing an elk, we had a couple of days to go before going home and we shot at rocks etc betting on shots. Had to get some brass ready for the next year's reloading. Won some, lost some.