I have some 9mm pistols. The Blue-Haired Fairie’s is an H&K in 9mm. The PC-9 is 9mm and takes Glock magazines, so I have a Glock.
What I didn’t have was an EDC that I actually liked. I’ve never been particularly fond of the Glocks. It might be because I was driving nails with my Kimber in .45 ACP and with the H&K, but the Glock had rounds going “that-a-way” for me. I traded it for something.
My Kahr got upgraded to a Sig P938, which I like. I just don’t like shooting it. It is so small and so light that it bites when it is fired.
That Kahr and later P938 were my EDC when I needed something small for when I was in the office. I had one box of Hornady Critical Defense for it. I fired just enough of those $1-per-round personal defense rounds to know that my FMJ reloads went to the same place.
So I looked through all the cans looking for 9mm. I found over 1,000 rounds of FMJ or copper-plated rounds. No problem there. What I didn’t find was any JHP.
This led to a big thank you to my son. Yesterday he moved every single ammo can until we found the crate with 9 mm and .45 ACP bullets.
The Ammo Hunt
My ammo cans are in crates: 4 30-cal cans per crate or 3 50-cal cans per crate. I also have some simple crates that hold bullets, brass, and other fun stuff. Each can is properly labeled.
The issue was that the crate labeled “bullets” was at the bottom of the hardest-to-reach stack of crates.
My son diligently worked his way to that stack and handed them all out to me until he got to that final crate at the bottom of the final stack. Therein he located 2,000 JHP bullets, just waiting to grow into Freedom Seeds!
I see reloading time in my future. There is no need to have bullets when I have spark buttons, powder, cases, and seeds.
As we say, shooting is a perishable skill, and I need more range time.
Conclusion
What do you think is the proper ratio of seeds to seed dispensers? My current is around 1,000 seeds per caliber or 500 per dispenser, whichever is greater.
Newcommers
- EDC
- Every Day Carry. It can refer to a firearm, knife, light, or IFAK. The stuff that you have with you all the time.
- IFAK
- Individual First Aid Kit
- Spark Button
- Primers
- Seeds
- Bullets
- Freedom Seeds
- A complete cartridge, ready to fire.
- Seed Dispenser
- A firearm
You can buy cartridges, or you can make cartridges. The process of making a cartridge is called “reloading” because, in general, we are recycling the cases of fired cartridges.
A cartridge consists of a case, normally brass, sometimes aluminum or steel, which holds all the other components. A primer, which causes a spark when struck correctly by the firing pin of a firearm. A propellant called powder, gunpowder, or smokeless powder. Gunpowder is not the same as smokeless powder; using smokeless powder when the firearm expects gunpowder or black powder causes bad things to happen. And a bullet.
We use a reloading press to prepare the case and insert the primer. We add powder to the case, then place the bullet in the mouth of the case and use the press to seat the bullet. Once done, you have a cartridge that is as good as, if not better than, factory cartridges.
Magazines are also important. We have more magazines than we “need” for our EDCs thanks to various promotions and sales. But, that lets us keep a number at the house loaded with defensive rounds, and take several more each to the range already loaded, so we’re not burning range time reloading magazines. (And yes, we occasionally cycle through a mag or two of defensive rounds and make sure to replace it with an equivalent.) We chose to standardize on the same EDC make and model, which helps. Thanks to various sales and promotions we probably have 7 or 8 mags per EDC, and I usually like to have at least 4 per other hole puncher. (A frustrating experience trying to find Boberg mags for .45 ACP has led me to order extra mags as soon as I buy the gun itself, unless it comes with enough. Few do, and so I factor that into the purchase price estimate.)
Ammo storage and organization is a whole ‘nother topic. I don’t yet reload, maybe someday. But we need to burn through the current ‘pile a ways before I’d really feel the need, and I don’t have anything too exotic there’s no other way to feed it. (Another deliberate choice.) Although in recent years .357 SIG is coming close. Sigh.
How many freedom seeds you ask? As many as possible. The only time you can have too many is in a sinking boat or in the middle of a fire. But the problem is when you have a sub optimal load, i.e. a 185 gr .30-06 BTHP when you really want a spitzer… Or a wadcutter when you need a JHP. That’s the problem to avoid if you can.
My EDC is a S&W M&P9 2.0. Modded with a SlincerCo threaded barrel, an Apex trigger set to factory trigger pull and suppressor height trittium night sights.
My EDC ammo is Super Vel 115-grain solid copper hollow points. They expand into 5 petals and do not break apart in impact. As far as number of rounds I consider 5000 rounds of HP and 25,000 rounds of training ammo to be the dead minnimum. As always YMMV and your wallet may vary that number
https://supervelammunition.com/gel-tests/
My training ammo is 115gr SuperVel certified select 9mm. Currently priced @ $209.95/1000 + shipping.
Certified Select is once-fired military brass reloaded on Super Vels loading machines. I have been shooting SV since the 1970s, whenever it was available.
https://supervelammunition.com/
Most of the employees @ SV are competitive shooters
https://supervelammunition.com/our-story/
If you want an insightful look into SV look into The Hush Puppy Project
https://hushpuppyproject.com/
https://hushpuppyproject.com/hush-puppy-history/
Carry ALL the time, even at home, because bad things happen suddenly, and the bad guys are not going to wait while you go and get your gun.
“God created all men, but Samuel Colt made them equal.” – Unknown
“A Smith & Wesson does more for empowering women than Feminism ever could” – Greg Gutfeld 29 Jul 2017
“An armed society is a polite society” – Manners are good when one may have to back up his acts with his life.” ― Robert A. Heinlein
“People sleep peaceably in their bed at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.” – Eric Arthur Blair (AKA – George Orwell)
Not cheap but (a) unusually compact and (b) unusually low recoil for the size: the Boberg XR-9, now made by Bond Arms as the “Bullpup”. I have the original; it is said that Bond has improved it further, though mine is reliable if fed with known suitable ammo. I’m still waiting for Bond to improve and re-release the XR-45, an almost as small EDC gun that takes .45 ACP. The Boberg original for that one unfortunately is not reliable enough; Arne did some odd things with the magazine for reasons that made sense at one time but made it not work well. (The reasons were that he wanted it to be able to take .45 Super also, and apparently it does though that is not a documented feature and I haven’t tried it.)
When it comes to freedom seeds and seed components, plenty is good. I dont speak to actual numbers; but approximations.
Enough to stock the shelves at a big box retailer.
Since where I live has a huge impact on EDC, I select pocket carry. KelTecs are selected for size, reliability and economy. A P-32 and PF-9 serve the purpose.
amount will vary by individual desires..
there actually isn’t any “official” amount out there. right now I have less than 1000 rnds of .223, but I only have one rifle in that and it rarely gets played with. thinking about selling it.
.308 I have bunches because I have a long range rifle and a P51 in .308
how many is enough is what ever amount makes YOU comfortable.
Id like gto have a 53 foot box trailer full of ammo but until the wife wins the power ball what I have will do.
When gubmint was throwing money at us during covid I bought a Dillion XL750 press.well worth the money and time to learn it.
its set up for .308 and .45, the two I shoot the most.
I have a Lee turret press for other caliber stuff.
I saw an interesting recipe: every time you go through a box of ammo, buy two.