Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Backpack Hunting How much ammo do you carry with you on a hunt.

Same here, and thank you. Just leaving for an antelope hunt within a 1/2 hour and forgot my uncle mikes ammo carrier.

Only been two times when I've needed more than 2 shots in probably the last 15 years.

One time I had those extra shots, another time I did not and what would have been a quick ordeal turned into a nightmare.

Blizzard was coming in and I had a deer hit poorly (muzzle loader) ran outta bullets. Had to snowmobile in near white out conditions a few miles to a local farmers place and get a gun from him. Snowmobile back, got stuck, exhausted, found the deer thankfully not far from where I'd scene him last and finished him off.

On backpack hunts... I have 4-5 in the rifle, and one of thse 10 round plastic thingies from factory ammo loaded in the pack.

On short hunts from the truck, its 4-5 in the rifle, and 1-2 in the shirt pocket.

Most i've ever carried on a sheep hunt was 50 rounds, least was 9. To be fair though, I was flown in on my sheep hunt where I carried the 50 rounds but I did carry them to the area where we sheep hunted. Glad I had them, I ended up using 4 of them on a DLP grizzly. That was in my younger days, now I don't go out with more than 10 rounds when doing day hunts, on fly-ins I take 20 or 30, so I will have enough to re-sight should something happen to my rifle, like slipping on a flat rock and my rifle going airborn.

It certainly depends on where you are and what you are after.

For bunnies in the back yard, 10 would probably do it.

If you are in Africa and might shoot at 5 species before you get back to camp and still might have to deal with something toothy walking home after dark then 20 is an absolute minimum and probably way too few.

I tend to fall on the paranoid, worst case scenario side of the fence. I have a box at basecamp. When we go up for 4+days at a time to the higher altitude spike camp.... I have four for the rifle (but usually only three rounds in the belly and nothing in the chamber.....one in my pocket). Then, I have six more on the velcro flip open- belt holder. I hate that this is velcro due to the noise. But wait, that's not all. I have another 10 in another flip open belt holder packed up in my pack.

So I bring 20 with me to spike camp and I usually leave 10 in the tent. I carry 10 on me when I hunt. I realize 20 bullets is overboard, but that's just how I roll. I've had to eat up bullets re-sighting in my rifle in camp after discovering my scope had come loose. So you never know.

One good thing is, 3 out of the 5 of us all hunt .270 weatherby. 2 of us even shoot the same bullet. So worst case I have to steal a couple out of their stash.

Just can't talk myself into the possibility of limiting myself over a few ounces.

I can't shoot worth a piss so 10 go with me and 10 stay at camp.

I load the gun and carry the other 7 on one of those uncle mikes stock slevees.

As mentioned above you never know when you may need to resight your gun.

i carry one factory box of whatever weapons i have on me. pistol or rifle... plus the guns loaded to the max

While hunting I carry a full magazine in the rifle, one in my pocket to to off the rifle, and three magazines full in plastic factory ammo holders in my pack or a folding carrier on my belt. Back at the truck I have a plastic MTM box of 60 rounds, I hand load my ammo, so that's the best way to carry them around.
If carrying a handgun, I have it full and three reloads for it, too.

At least 50-60 go with me when I'm traveling, and 42-52 of those stay in base camp. I take 3 in the mag and 5 on the rifle stock sleeve for the day hunts.

5 in the rifle, 10 in my pockets, 5 stashed in my pack.

one in the rifle, 6 on my belt,
5 more in the pack if planning out overnight.
Day hunts just the seven
PLENTY in Base Camp usually at least 50 for each rifle.
I have never needed that many ever.

I grew up with a dad who liked to reload and shoot more than he liked to hunt. I grew up thinking it was normal to have 500+ rounds along on the deer hunt. We'd hunt until lunch time and then go shoot rabbits in the afternoon. 30-06 does a number on a jack rabbit and there were a lot of jack rabbits then. We never ran out of his reloads but we sure tried.

I still reload but I much prefer the hunt. I carry 6 in my rifle (5 in the magazine and 1 in the chamber). I have a velcro holder on my belt with an additional 10.

I usually also have 50-100 in the truck. I fell one year and knocked my scope real good. Ended up using 12 of my 16 getting the scope figured out so now I always have extra at the truck. My dad did teach me something.

10-20 unless there are zombies in the area.

Ten rounds. Never needed more than two. A few years ago I'd have said I never needed more than one...

1 in the pipe (getting it done), 2 in the magazine (for insurance) and 9 in a Kifaru ammo pouch (to satisfy my paranoia) that securely holds a total of twelve. Handy and comforting, but probably 6 too many.

I typically carry four in my gun and four in my pack or pocket.



Thank God. Now we know. If you need ten, you should still be hunting; but, if you need more than ten, you shouldn't be. At least now we know where the cutoff is.

Yep, glad I know where the line is drawn now, next time I find more than 10 rounds in my pack I will just turn around and go home.

Depends on the kind of hunting I'm doing. If I'm hunting a day or two from the car, I'll carry 20. That way if something happens that makes me doubt my zero in any way, I have enough to take a sighter and re-zero the gun if necessary. If I'm hunting close to the car, I usually take 12-15. Probably never need that many, but I'll probably never need homeowners insurance either.

I posted that just to see what people would say. If you want to carry around 20 rounds and use one or two to kill an animal then you can do just that.If you carry around 20 rounds and shoot all 20 rounds at or in that animal you are hunting, then you probably shouldn't be hunting.In reality you only really need to carry one round .Now you Alaska guys in bear country, thats a different story.