"The spike in ammo prices over the past few years has not only made stockpiling more expensive, but has also made for a much more noticable disparity in pricing when comparing inexpensive ammunition best suited for target shooting & the kind of higher quality ammuntion most often recommend for self & home defense.

For example, I generally see the following prices when buying ammo for my two handguns:

9MM FMJ Target ammunition: .25-35 per round
9MM JHP Self Defense ammunition: .75-1.50+ per round

45ACP FMJ Target ammunition: .44-.50 per round
45ACP JHP Self Defense ammunition: .80-2.00+ per round


With this kind of disparity, the choice of where to place limited funds for ammunition is kind of tough. Do the advantages of SD specific rounds outweigh the downside of walking away with half as much ammo? Hard to say, especially if getting twice as much ammo means much more target shooting to improve your marksmanship.

My general approach right now is to have 100 or so rounds of high quality ammo on hand & loaded into magazines, but I'm otherwise buying FMJ rounds & splitting them 50/50 between stockpile & target shooting. The one exception I make is for my shotgun where a wide variety of ammo seems almost obligatory given a 12 guage's versatility.

What about everyone else? What's your approach? "