I’ve read all of the slowing down on shooting or even stopping all together posts because of no supply of anything from ammo down to even head space gauges of all things. So this is a supply type question.

At the rate my son and I shoot, it’s a miracle to use 50rds per firearm we take to the range, usually take 3-5 which at least one is a .22. Single shot takes forever, sure, but even if I take a 30rd mag, I’m done after one go with it, lose interest. I’d like to know how folks can blast through darn near a crate every time they go and not be bored to tears by then. I’ve been a one a week to once a month type go to the range, my dad is the same way, even losing interest for a couple years, then picking back up again. These 2-4 times a week folks that blammo for hours on end, that’s too much like work to me, I’m not a fan of work either.

People that reload usually tend to have quite a bit of stuff on hand, just the nature of reloading, I’m good for a real long time at the rate the two of us go. And I don’t have much.

So how do you guys feel, I don’t want pictures, inventory levels, none of that. Just how you feel with what you have vs how you realistically use it.

different strokes for different folks. I am similar to you in that I don't go shooting very often. Get to the local range maybe twice a year, spend maybe 30 minutes to an hour shooting. I get back to my home town, which is about 2.5 hours away, for hunting and shooting with my childhood friend. We shoot rifles and pistols but that's maybe 4 times a year. Dove hunting once a year. In time I will increase shooting as I get closer to retirement. But I'm definitely a gun lover. I'm reading books about guns and looking for good deals on new acquisitions. Thinking about putting an ad in our paper offering to buy old crappy guns cuz I like to fix em up.

I'm pretty much right on par with you, the only shooters are me and my teenage grandson and most of our shooting is squirrel hunting and plinking with .22's. Occasionally we will break out the big stuff but they are usually reserved for working up new loads with a chronograph or getting them ready for hunting season. We have a lot of fun without blazing through a ton of ammo. As for my reserve I'll just say I seen all this coming when Odumba@@ was elected the first time, I'm good for quite some time.

I was on my High School and College Rifle teams....... shooting 5-6 days a week from Sept to March. A 1-2 hour practice session would consist of 30 for score and maybe 10-20 sighting shots.

Rifle Instructor at Summer Camps for 4 years.

I too don't understand the blast away concept.

Shooting rifle is more like meditation and yoga to me...... last couple of years informal .22lr, 3 position shooting at 100yds.... shoot 2-3 rounds walk down check targets.....walk back . Over a long lunch hour shoot maybe 30-50 rds..... walk a mile and a half.

I enjoy action shooting games like USPSA and IDPA ...... but have slowed down...... though will set up shooting drills at a buddy's range with a bunch of steel.

IMHO any session firing more than 50/60 rounds is just "blasting away"; making noise and for most shooters I've observed ..... getting sloppy.

Much rather shoot 4 sessions over a week or two than blast off 200-300 rds in an hour or two. (my local club is just 8 miles/ 10 minutes away) My buddy's range is just a half mile from the lake house.

Varsity R.O.T.C college rifleteam 50 years ago. Lettered two years, shot matches in Texas and Louisiana, and Arkansas. Back then practiced 4-5 days a week. Still do a fair amount of pistol shooting, but reload and cast my own bullets. Been a spell since I have bought factory ammo; just not accurate enough. For example only 38 Special available before the great stampede was 38 Special fmj which is worthless, or 44 Special which tends to keyhole since most is sized .428 or .429. And try and ever find 32S&W Long factory ammo with cast swc's ... not a chance in Hades.

Most of the shooting I do seems to be testing reloads I have made up. I do shoot a couple of postal rimfire matches every month that are 25 rounds per match. In the spring I chase groundsquirrels around that probably amounts to 500 -1000 rounds over 3-4 months, mostly rimfire but also some centerfire. Do some offhand practice with the hunting rifles occasionally to keep in shape for fall hunting season. Probably amounts to 10 rounds at a time.

I don't just stand and blast at a target to kill time. I do practice some with the CC pistols.

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Regards,

Tom

I haven't done a "magazine dump" in many years, and while I still shoot a few semi-autos I rarely fun off more than three or four rounds in quick succession. Perhaps it's getting older or mellowing out, but I seem to have drifted into slower accurate shooting. I don't spend 5 hours at the range anymore and there seems to be more time spent with tasks other than pulling the trigger (I'm a dedicated reloader and record, log my loads, and I spend time looking at the ground collecting something I may want; brass!). I haven't altered my shooting because of the current shortages as I have been prepared for some time with components to last me quite a while. I guess my age has more to do with my shooting style than anything else. I have gone shooting at the local "range", an unimproved spot up in the hills outside of town, and sat and looked at the critters for a while without firing a shot...

Can access the local Rifle & Pistol Club range in about 1/2 hour. It is open 24/7 × 52.
Indoor pistol range with the ability to also shoot from indoor benches to outdoor pistol/rifle targets. Rifle range with covered bench area, targets to 300 yards.

Targets are 10/$1. There is no counter, nothing else is for sale. No attendants, nor range masters. Follow the rules.

I go as often as practicable. There were times (in the not-so-distant past?) when my guests and I might shoot up a couple hundred rounds of centerfire pistol ammo, depending upon how many of us there were: considerably more when shooting 22lrs. Never was much that I would describe as just "blasting away", then...

Now ? "Not hardly, Pilgrim!"

Still, I feel fortunate enough to continue "as practicable"...?

Cheers!

P.S. Annual dues go from $100 per year to $50 the year of your 62nd Birthday: if awarded a Purple Heart your dues are -0-.

I am retired and shot just about every week last year when the weather was decent. The year before, I had a health issue and did not get to shoot much. I shot twice a week a few times and 3 times once when I was teaching a friend of my wife. It is a 45 minute drive to the range and once or twice I drove down and turned around and drove home as the place was full. My wife and I were staying real close to the house and I enjoyed the time on the road.

I typically load a bunch of magazines as I go to the range to shoot, not load mags. I probably shoot a hundred each of .45's and 9's. I usually take a .22 and shoot maybe 50.

I was shooting mostly factory 9 as it HAD been cheap and I had a lot of it. Toward the end of the season, I was shooting 9mm reloads as I had all of the components I needed. I have shot nothing but .45 reloads for over 40 year and had a good supply of that also.

Once the weather warms up, I intend to do the same as last year. As I said, I have a lot of stuff on hand. I am also having another birthday soon and don't know how much longer I can do this. When the time comes, friends will get my guns and divide up the ammo and components that are left.

I expect a lot of the folks who go through large amounts of ammo in practice are just blasting. Establishing fire superiority might be another way to look at it, but that generally doesn't actually accomplish much.

OTOH, I know some guys who were serious top tier IPSC competitors back in the day who might do 400 or so rounds per day before a big match. Now, the difference is that they were working to a plan to hone specific skills and were maintaining a performance level most of us will never reach. Some of us may shoot more than others doing a downsized version to maintain what they feel is an appropriate skill level.

Or are likely to ever obtain, without practice...?

Cheers!

Between loaded ammo and components, unless I increase my shooting by orders of magnitude once I am (if ever) fully retired, I expect that there will be some of both in my estate if I never buy another round.

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RIP Bob, Jimx3, Rowdy, Rick

I used to shoot in the summer at camp, and maybe once on a snowy Sunday in the winter at my club's indoor range. Now that I'm retired I shoot more.

Once a week at the club all Winter. Every other week at camp in the Summer.

No, I'm not scared. I'm old and have been thru enough silly stuff so I'm smart enough to have been prepared. I mean, give me a break, we all knew this was coming.

In any event, I have enough loaded and components on hand to weather the storm. If the storm lasts longer and I run out, I'll just go fishing instead.

We have enough problems in these times. Being scared will just add to the mess.

Someone once said that worrying about getting cancer is worse that actually getting it.

When I bring the kids with me, it's very easy to go though 200-250 rounds at one sitting. We'd go monthly- nice outing and helps hone their skills.

We're not doing that now. Not scared, just prudent.

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SWCA #3356, SWHF#611

If I had to go to a range I would probably get bored too. Luckily I live in a rural area and there are numerous places to shoot safely. Being able to get out in the woods with a packed lunch and a thermos to just relax and shoot adds another level of enjoyment.

I am a member of SASS and attend cas shoots monthly at a small club in eastern NC about 2 hours drive away. We rent a big bay at a great community range and have a shed there to store our steel and props. Our match consists of about 60 rifle, 60 pistol and 25 sg rounds, more if it’s a Wild Bunch match. As I live in the country I can check my reloads off the deck on my backyard range. I usually shoot 50 rds or so preceding the match just to check whatever firearms that I’m using for the shoot. Before the cold set in I was shooting my Model 52 .22 about 30 rds almost daily. I like shooting steel, poking holes in paper has never interested me much. This is how my ‘range’ looks.

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Being prudent is how I seem to be without knowing it,lol. I love shooting, just not shooting all day everyday. I get bored with it, my son and dad do as well, around an hour every week or month is just fine with us.

I didn’t mean scared about the end of the world, just if someone felt they’d realistically run out of supplies before this mess settles down, I’d love to have a warehouse full of stuff, but I’d never go through it in 40 lifetimes.

When this train wreck of ammo and component zombies waiting in line, having 100 websites open at 5am,etc calms. I’ll buy stuff again, but I’m not losing any sleep over it now. You’d think with how this stuff is nearly unobtainable, the whole country would be stocked to the point of shifting the earth’s rotational axis.

It’s wild how many items, not just firearm related are more difficult to come by now, ever think dishwashers would be hard to find? I now know someone having that problem.

During the 2013 shortage I went almost a year without pulling the trigger on any of my guns.

I try to get to the range once a week - doesn't always happen but that's my goal. I usually do either 1/ reload testing or 2/ pistol practice or both.

This shortage hasn't slowed down my normal shooting volume at all - and I could keep up this volume for quite a while.

...that I don't go anytime I feel like it and I'm conservative when I get there. But if I just take my time I can still fill up a couple of hours easy and don't feel like I'm missing anything. I can live like this if things don't get worse it won't cramp my style.

My only hold up is primers, I have a stock, but not a huge one. Probably enough to last about a year. Powder and brass no problem. I have enough bullets, but I can find enough to do me.

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"He was kinda funny lookin'"

I probably shoot about 50 or 60 times a year, maybe less, usually no more than 30 rounds each time. I generally have a specific objective each time I shoot.

I am 76, and probably have just enough ammo for the rest of my life, except for .223. Of that, I have a little more.

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AKA ImprovedModel56Fan

Steel targets

Depends on what I am shooting. It does not take long to run through a 30 round magazine shooting a AR15. According to some politicians it only takes 2 seconds to shoot 100 rounds out of one but I can't shoot that fast.
I don't go through that much ammo shooting revolvers or even semi auto pistols. I don't really pay attention either as I shoot until I don't feel like it anymore.
If I was paying a buck a round I would probably pay more attention.

If time and ammo supply allows, I could easily shoot 100-150 rounds a week and leave wanting to shoot more. There’s a point of diminishing returns, beyond which further practice doesn’t improve your skills.

As one who shoots cast in almost everything except hunting ammo and load work up, I have slowed a little but not a lot.

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Front sight and squeeze

A weekly trip to an indoor range with my shooting buddy includes a stop for lunch and 150-200 rounds through 3 pistols of different calibers. It's as much a social outing as a shoot. At the range my focus is on trigger control, not mag dumps. Frankly, without lunch with friend I'd be bored silly with 40-50 range visits a year.

Less frequent rifle trips . . . 3 or 4 times a year outdoors for shoots plus several more trips if developing a new load.

A lot less frequent during 2020 because of COVID procedures indoors lowering capacity and buddy's replacing both shoulders lol.

My usual consumption is 20k pistol rounds per year. That's called training, not work. If you don't get it, that's your privilege. I have cut that in half since the pandemic/panic hoarding and buying started. This allows me to keep my skill set honed and conserve my ammo. With what I have on hand, I'll be good to go for the next two years. By then, things should be back to normal or it won't matter.

My wife and I belong to two ranges, one small outdoor pistol range ten minutes from the house and another thirty minutes away. The one thirty minutes away has two each skeet and trap ranged and a clays range. There’s a very nice indoor, 1000yd, plunking, steel plate, competition Rimfire and 200yd bench rest. There are also 10 action bays and a 100yd 3 gun range.

My wife and I go together once a week and I may go another time and sometimes twice. During a typical day the number of people have dropped probably 70% and most often now people only stay a short time. It’s also very common for the people on the plinking range to be someone teaching friends to shoot. Usually they limit the ammo shot to 50 rounds.

On the steel plate range you used to hear folks blasting through hundreds of rounds but not now. You might hear one person blast through 30 rounds but that’s it and they go home.

When my wife and I go we take either lever action 22’s, single action 22’s, an occasional 317 or 617 and rarely our 22 semi autos like our Victory 22 or Mark IV. We shoot together at a dueling tree, poppers and swingers and what I’d call fun targets. Between us me may shoot 150-200 rounds of 22.

When I go by myself I’ll take a precision 22 rifle, 1911, SA Blackhawk, Lever Gun in a pistol cartridge or similar. I usually shoot 50-60 rounds.

After about a hour of shooting We’ve had enough to satisfy until the next week.

I’m not worried. After the last crisis I laid in plenty of everything. I counted the inventory a week ago and have enough 22 ammo for two years and enough loaded centerfire ammo for more than a year and enough components for another couple years.

I’m more concerned now with politics hampering us and I’m not losing sleep over that. As I’ve said before if things get really nuts as far a supplies or politics I’ll buy a couple of air rifles and shoot in my back yard. I have a big backyard with a high wooden fence and shoot my pellet pistol at steel regularly.

My "go to the club/range every weekend" days are way behind me. I work a lot and have other hobbies besides shooting. I have a good stock of new ammo and also reloading components to keep me shooting for a long time.

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American Infidel

I try to shoot 2-3 times during the week and shoot club matches on weekends. I shoot 50 - 100 rounds a week through My EDC and every Sunday afternoon I do a set of standards with a few LEO's. I also reload and try to get in a couple rounds of trap. I really enjoy shooting and I seldom spent more the 3 hours at the range, even when shooting muzzle stuffers.

I like to go to the range more often and shoot less rounds per trip. I normally go twice a week and shoot 40 rounds each trip through two pistols. That's enough to keep me familiar with them and maintain whatever proficiency I might have. Once the weather breaks I'll start back at the outdoor rifle range but I'm content to shoot one 30 round mag per trip there.

At those numbers I'm good for a couple years with what I have on hand.

Looks and sounds like a hoot! Wish I had enough land to make a range like that. I'd shoot even more.

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What could possibly go wrong?

We just bought a dishwasher, freezer and range. None were in stock at Lowes, and the lady said freezers have been completely bought out of every store. (Think restaurants forced to close down immediately with tons of perishable goods, and end of the world, civil war coming, stocking up on food). We bought them all over a month ago, and the dishwasher is the only thing that's been delivered so far.

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What could possibly go wrong?

I usually come home from the range with a couple hundred empty casings of 2-3 calibers. To me it's more of a quest for making ammo that's accurate. I almost always set up a chronograph with multiple targets and shoot slowly, mostly sitting from a rest, and log every round. I'm always tinkering with loads to find what's most accurate. Some days it's pistols, some days bench rest rifle, some days it's shooting steel with a lever action or revolver.

It's all fun to me, and I view it as an ongoing science experiment. I learn something new every time I go to the range. It's also something my wife loves to do, so we have a fun time together trying out different guns and ammo.

Our range allows us to scoop up lead as long as no one else is there wanting to shoot, so the cost of ammo for us is next to nothing. I've got enough powder for us to shoot the rest of our lives and never run out. Primers, not quite enough small pistol, but everything else. One thing is for sure, if it weren't for casting and reloading, I know we would rarely ever go shooting at a dollar per round or more.

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What could possibly go wrong?

I've always been a Conservative Shooter. I usually shoot 6-12 cartridges
in my Revolvers that I take (1-3) in my Revolver Range Bag.

Recently I have revisited shooting my Rifles, and that is usually
9 cartridges for groups on target. I been taking one different Rifle
each Range Visit per week.

I horde all Components that I need and find on Store Shelves.
I only reload in small batches of 10-20 cartridges. I have
enough for years, and continually add stuff.

The Best to you and your Endeavors.....

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SD social distanc'n since 1889

Your trigger finger has to be calloused up like iron by now. That’s where progressive presses come in handy.

Looks like most of us are in the same area of usage, give or take some of course.

I go to the range maybe once a month. I'm there for an hour maybe an hour and a half and I spend most of my time practicing drills that I've learned in training classes. I generally shoot between two and four boxes.

During past panics...I stopped shooting altogether.

This time around, I got into reloading when the getting was good...so I have plenty of ammo to last me quite some time.

When the weather is nice, I got to the range weekly...sadly (or not sadly, depending on how you look at it), 2021 has been miserable thus far so over the past 8 weeks, I've only been out once.

Also sadly, I ruptured a tendon in my right triceps and holding a pistol out in front of me is currency not something I can do, so my pistol shooting for at least the first half of 21 is going to be zero.

...but I can go shoot rifle...

I'm averaging two range trips a month. Typically three handguns and 200 rounds of ammo (mix of 22, 9mm, 38). Each session lasts 2-3 hours. My purpose is improving or maintaining my accuracy so when I feel I can't maintain focus I stop. Fortunately I'm well stocked on components and cast my own bullets (except 22 of which I also have a good supply). I have a good friend who just bought a reloading setup. I may have to provide him some primers which I'll let him replace when prices return to normal.

I've been a dyed-in-the-wool reloader all my life, but I've never reloaded a bunch of ammo beforehand. And I cast all my boolits.
I prefer to reload as I go. Maybe keep a couple boxes reloaded in advance. Doing a bunch in advance seems like drudgery. And I don't go out and knarl the earth either with a bunch of ammo. A box or two is my usual amount for centerfire. Prolly that's why I enjoy reloading almost as much as shooting.

Except for ever now and again I'll take out a 22 semi-auto rifle and a bulk pack of Thunderbolts and have at it. For that I prefer a tube feed. Don't gotta load no mags.

Ive pretty much stopped shooting anything unless it is for a match or has some known purpose. Most of my recreational shooting has moved to my air rifle. Just nothing out there at prices I'm willing to pay when I can punch holes in my basement for the price of a SCUBA tank fill.

The only time I fired quickly was at the bowling pin matches or in a prairie dog patch. Worst thing on a prairie dog trip is to run out of ammo and your friends don't share. I always go home with a little ammo left over.

As a bullet caster and reloader, I'm confused about running out of ammunition. I do have an inventory problem about small pistol primers after giving 2 cases to the indoor range so they could continue operations. I also gave them 2 full cases and 6 bricks of 22 LR ammo. You got to keep the boss happy.

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S&WHF 366

Based on my last year's consumption... I have enough stuff to last... forever.

Not skeered in the least.

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you can keep your gun. Period.

This may sound strange, but even when I was in the service I always kept my rifle on semi auto, never wanted to run out of ammo during a fight.

I’m using my hoarded factory stuff mainly to test fire newly acquired or rebuilt guns. I have rimfire in sufficient quantities that it has become my “go-to” answer for practice duty since I don’t do air guns, and for routine practice with center fire guns I reload as needed from my relatively strong supply of components. At my advancing age and declining condition, I probably won’t have to be very “skeered” about my ammo supplies... but my descendants may get some empty guns in their inheritance!

Froggie

I don't consider myself either a great shot nor an especially active shooter. That said, left to my own devices and absent any interference from life's circumstances, I'll go through at least 5,000 rounds a year.

I generally shoot 150-200 rounds per weekly session. 90% of the time I take one rimfire and one centerfire. Rimfire is roughly 25%. I miss some weeks. I shoot slowly. At an outdoor range, with ceasefires for target changes, it'll take me somewhere between 2 and 3 hours.

Boring? Not to me, and I shoot at black circles on white paper. I'm trying to shoot the smallest groups I can. I have no alibis. If they are all in one hole with a single flyer out at 4", that's a 4" group. I have a highly defined process that I follow and I'm not done yet. Probably never will be. There's no such thing as "good enough" to me. I've been doing it this way for 40 years.

The only reason I don't shoot more is now that I'm older I tire more easily. I work out to try and keep up but still, I'm not as young as I used to be. I used to shoot twice that.

But I recognize what I do would bore most shooters to death. We are all free to pursue the sport in our own way. But I'm always trying to improve, and that takes practice.

I can shoot for a few years before I'll have a problem. Ain't skeered.

Maybe I should put my primers in my will.....

I agree with using ammo correctly. I never "plink" but my kids will.
There is an exercise called Dot Torture (look it up) and it utilizes ammunition very well and hones skills to razor sharp.
A range trip only needs one target, but make sure your range allows holstering and firing to do this drill correctly.
As even one miss is considered failure, it can be quite fatiguing to pass this test.

I'm not sure I understand the question.

Ok, as I understand your question-

I have enough defensive ammo to last a lifetime. That, I'm not worried about.

As for range ammo and usage- I just posted on another forum about this.

I haven't shot as much this past year, and it's bummed me out a bit.
I grew up shooting pool and darts, playing horse, etc with my brothers. As the youngest of 3, I couldn't win footraces (until I got to highschool age), but at a fairly early age I could compete in anything requiring 'skill' instead of physical size/strength.

One of the other things I did as a youth was shoot 22lr rifles with a sheriff's program, competitively.
So I have always viewed a target as a scoreboard, like a dart board.

I brought my son with me to the range as he grew up, and while a lot of this early was just to get him used to guns and be comfortable using it, he came to enjoy it as I have. We own matching pairs of guns, CZ, Sig, S&W, Beretta, Star, 1911, etc. We "play", very similar in rules to a couple games of darts. Sometimes it's bullseye, sometimes it's blackout, etc. Sometimes it's tightest groups, sometimes it's total score. Very rarely do we get a silhouette, it's almost always some form of small, tight target. A lot of times we will take an empty box of ammo and use that.

So for us, it's a lot like going to the golf course, I guess. It's not a chore to shoot, it's a bit of competitive fun, we each push a bit to outdo the other, and still encourage each other to improve.

The last time we went, last week, for the very first time he spotted a flaw in my form, and told me. This wasn't 'internet lore' or professional training on his part- he's never had classes. But we've done this enough that he now understands the mechanics...
"hey Dad, I see why you're shooting a little to the right. You're squeezing your middle and ring finger just as you shoot, and I can see the gun twist".

Now, understand, we're shooting Star Modelo Supers in this session, at 10 yards, at 7" splatter targets, and I'm grouping about 1-1/2 inch groups right on the 9 ring, at about 4 o'clock as compared to the bullseye. I'm completely satisfied with my performance, I figure it's either my progressive glasses, or maybe the sights are a hair off.
But he spots what I'm doing without being asked to. And we figure out- I/we usually shoot a doublestack, the Star is slimmer in my grip, and my hand fits it different. Maybe it's better hidden on the wider grip, or maybe it's just different enough that I am adjusting. And he was right- in 'feeling' my hand, I am squeezing my left/shooting hand right as I squeeze the trigger. Not enough to miss substantially, just the slightest flaw pushing down-right.
And again, this is without any training on his own part, other than my own guidance, growing up.

That's an awareness that you don't get just casually blasting away, that's more like a QB coach correcting someone's mechanics on a throw.
Impressed the heck out of me- the young man 'understands' shooting now, he doesn't just go shoot.

I am lucky I just have to walk out in my front yard for practice. Shooting a 9mm can get expensive, shooting one of my model 29's or 586/686's is more enjoyable

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