"GETAWAY AMMUNITION"

Having been frequently entertained and sometimes stunned by online conversations which began with "How much spare ammunition do you carry when you go to the store," it struck me the question really boils down to a poorly defined term: "getaway ammunition."

Whassat?

Once a couple of years ago, when I traded some correspondence with a fellow in Alaska whose wife is a dogsled musher and had just bought her a shotgun for defense/emergencies on the trail, I suggested she only needed to have "getaway ammunition" rather than carting along a whole box or belt full of shells. Of course, he quickly inquired, "What's getaway ammunition?"

That will teach me to maybe not use slang terms so loosely.

The quick definition is the amount of ammunition necessary to get oneself out of a jam, be it an emergency on the trail, or a sudden (they always are!) urban gun battle, mass shooting incident, riot or whatever. On the trail in winter, it could be an angry moose. It's the number of rounds you think you may need to get clear away from the threat, and if things go really bad, enough to neutralize the threat. You can return when the cops show up, but remember, you've got to be alive and well to do this. .....