Hoe much ammo to bring

[midnightmalloy]

I was thinking that, do you pack in a back up rifle too? Seems like sooner or later your over thinking this and packing in everything INCLUDING the kitchen sink

Are you backpacking in or using pack animals? You may want to load up all the things you think you need in your pack, including that extra rifle and all the ammo you want, then see if you can hike with it. Then you will start cutting out what you don't need.

I pack one rifle and 13-15 rounds of ammo (3 magazines).

If you're hunting elk in Colorado you won't need any ammo!

 

[Sprucegoose]

Depends how far your packing in. I'd say 10-20.

 

[valleysnyper]

We will be using a mule team and the packs we carry

 

[jmike]

In my group, we each pack in 1 box. The key here is we all shoot the same loads.

Mike

 

[valleysnyper]

I guess I was just thinking for if anything happens like dropping the gun or who knows what and I need to resite in

 

[tankgijohn72]

I think it really depends on how far to back country you are going. I have never packed a second rifle. Not a bad idea to have an extra one in camp if you are using horses. But if on foot, its too much weight. I usually take 20 rounds and an extra scope. I like to level the back up scope and zero it on the rifle that its intended to be used on. Then take the scope AND rings off and zero my main scope on the rifle. Should my scope get destroyed for some reason, I should be able to install the new scope and rings and be relatively close to zero with the new scope. Should be able to get it zeroed in the field with a few rounds and still have some left to continue hunting.

 

[Elkeater]

I carry 9 in a elastic ammo sleeve on my gun stock. And no back up gun. If you're packing in without horses keep things as light as possible.

 

[codyadams]

I carry a box of 20 at least. The worst feeling I can imagine is being in bear country with an empty rifle. Plus, you never know when crazy **** might happen. What if a pair of ****ed off Sasquatch decide to mess with you?? Sounds crazy, but more messed up things have happened in this world. Just sayin....

If I am gone a day, I have a box of 20 in my pack. I have never been gone for 9 days....I may take 30 on a trip like that. That is just me though.

 

[FEENIX]

I carry a box of 20 at least. The worst feeling I can imagine is being in bear country with an empty rifle. Plus, you never know when crazy **** might happen. What if a pair of ****ed off Sasquatch decide to mess with you?? Sounds crazy, but more messed up things have happened in this world. Just sayin....

If I am gone a day, I have a box of 20 in my pack. I have never been gone for 9 days....I may take 30 on a trip like that. That is just me though.

Agreed! I also carry a side arm with me in bear country. It's better to have it and not need it than the other way around.

 

[ATH]

I carry 9 on a 3-day backpack hunt with 2 tags in grizzly country (with backup revolver). I carried less once...filled both of my tags on the same day, but had to use a few to make sure the elk stayed down.

Walking out in the dark and wind through dense grizz country with one single round left in the rifle was NOT optimal....

 

[ssssnake529]

I carry 5 rounds. If I can't hit it with 5 rounds, I need to re-think what I'm doing.

 

[cholt64]

The Meateater guys just did a good podcast on this. They came up with 13 as the magic number. Enough for rechecking zero if you drop your rifle, enough for a worst case attempt on an animal where you end up missing and getting more opportunities, and enough to have some in your rifle on a pack out through bear country.

 

[tmmcampbell]

I enjoy watching the meat eater. However I must disagree. First 13 is totally unlucky so that takes you to 14. Then you might see a couple three coyotes now your at 17. Then if you don't have a cougar tag you should be beat with wet noodles. A cougar might cost you 2 more so now we are at 19. Now then, tell me you have never been bored after a few days of not seeing game, and not been intrigued by that rock at 1200 yards. Yep that's going to cost 1. So now we are back to the magic number of 20 which just happens to be a box. You don't want to pack a partial box so you should take enough to load your gun so 4 more is 24. Then if your carful like me you will have a shell holder on your stock that fits 4 rounds very comfortable. Yes 28 is the perfect number.

 

[tmmcampbell]

Lol and I can't believe no one asked if we were talking how much ammo. Or how many hoe's.