Things I do to save money

NIGHTLORD40K said:

I download and print my own target patterns and bring my own cardboard so I dont have to buy them at the range. The trick is to find patterns that dont consume copious amounts of ink.....

If Im feelin really cheap, err.......frugal, Ill just shoot one hole in a blank white paper, then aim at that hole for the subsequent shots.

Click to expand...

I buy bulk paper plates from them saver stores, the 1000 for $8 or whatever, and a sharpie.

Occasionally I'll print a target and cannibalize Amazon boxes for backing, but mostly I just draw on paper plates and go to town.

I just buy patches in bulk. Pretty cheap imo. My tshirts would never make it to the patch making bin. When the t shirts are done they go to the shop for rag use. I do use the legs on my old jeans for making sand bags. They sew up nicely on the old Singer. I eat Oat meal and grits as well...

JR24 said:

I buy bulk paper plates from them saver stores, the 1000 for $8 or whatever, and a sharpie.

Click to expand...

I was doing that too but as I move out to ranges beyond about 25 yds my eyes have a hard time seeing where I'm hitting. So I started buying glow shot targets. $40/100 is certainly more money but still reasonable to me.

The number one thing I do that saves money is not eat out. It's much cheaper to cook at home. I probably don't average one meal a year eating out and that includes real restaurants or fast food places.

I'm pretty hit or miss on where I try to save money. I have 5 or 6 bore snakes because I hate how tedious it is to use patches to clean my bores, but my wipe-down rags are all old cotton t-shirts I've cut up. I'm not above going through the trash cans at my range to find brass, but I upgraded from my turret press to a progressive because I'm lazy and it will be a LONG time before it saves any money. I keep all my brass in old food packaging containers, but I'm getting quite the collection of MTM boxes and plastic ammo cans for my finished reloads. I started picking up my .22 brass at the range and keeping it to see how much it'll be worth in scrap, but half the time I head to the range I'll grab bottled water from the store to drink instead of putting tap water in a water bottle. I got my workbench in the reloading room at auction for $5, and there's a free bench vise mounted to it. But then I dropped $150 on a new reloading stand from Lee because the press was taking up too much room on my bench. I build this rustic looking wall behind my reloading bench for the cost of the nails it took to hang it, using free pallets and leftover stain. Then I spent close to $200 on handmade hangers and shelf brackets off Etsy because the cheap ones from Lowe's didn't match the wall. I print my own targets on my wife's laserjet she uses for her business, but I bought a new staple gun to hang them at the range because my old steel Arrow was "too heavy" to keep in my range bag. My shooting supplies are all stored in old kitchen cabinets I got for free, but my range bag of shooting supplies are in a brand new Kelty (admittedly I bought on clearance). And I'm typing this on an old steel tanker desk I got off Craigslist for $35 sitting on a free office chair, listening to music on a pair of higher-end Paradigm speakers through a new Yamaha stereo.

frogfurr said:

Not that anyone that buys and shoots guns is all that frugal. I just spent 2 hours cutting up bulk flannel I ordered for gun cleaning patches. And I reload. I watch you tube videos and have asked gun forum advice and have managed to keep (3) 1911's running for 45k+ rounds without going to a gunsmith.

Doesn't sound like much but I recently bought another very nice 1911. And I think what I saved doing the above more than paid for it.

Click to expand...

I tried to save money by clearing out my own squibs. Who pays a gunsmith to do that?

now after hammering on my guns and being afraid to look and see what I’ve done to the barrels, I’m thinking I made a mistake

I bring a roll of butcher paper and a magic marker and no dirty birds are needed

I’m tighter’n a bull’s butt in fly time. Why would I pay someone to do something I can do myself, besides that, they’ed probably screw it up and I’d have to do it over anyway! Why would I pay good money for something I can make myself? Pay good money for patches? Seriously? I do actually buy good flannel to make patches though, when I quit wearing something it’s not good enough for patches. I turn lights off when I leave a room, get bread and cookies at day old stores. You buy fresh and keep it overnight it’s day old anyway. How else could I afford all the guns, loading components, equipment, fishing boat, (I bought it used), fishing equipment, two motorcycles, a King Ranch pickup, a Suburban, Toyota Convertible, my wife’s new Escalade, two golf carts, a 50 hp tractor With cab, rear blade, (hydraulic adjust), front bucket, pallet fork, new 8’ finish mower (to mow 3 acres). I could go on and on. It’s all about priorities. If I really want something I find a way to get it, but I don’t spend money foolishly, (there’s sometimes debate on that) or on stuff I really don’t need! (Says who?) Well, maybe once in a while, I probably didn’t need a tractor with a cab, heater and air-conditioning. I could probably hire everything done I do with it cheaper than the interest on the money it cost. Well, no, probably not, not at about 3/4 of one percent interest!
I don’t eat oatmeal! But I do cast bullets, stayed at a Holiday Inn Express once too! Did you know GM upper engine cleaner makes good bore solvent? So does Mercury Marine Quick Silver engine cleaner.
Watch the pennies, and the dollars will take care of themselves!
It never ends!

frogfurr said:

Not that anyone that buys and shoots guns is all that frugal. I just spent 2 hours cutting up bulk flannel I ordered for gun cleaning patches. And I reload. I watch you tube videos and have asked gun forum advice and have managed to keep (3) 1911's running for 45k+ rounds without going to a gunsmith.

Doesn't sound like much but I recently bought another very nice 1911. And I think what I saved doing the above more than paid for it.

Click to expand...

I save on rags/towels/patches much the same.

Also on solvents, lubricants and protectants.

I always have and beyond frugality too. I can't stand *running-out* at inconvenient times and in the days before the interwebulation that meant waiting until it was convenient to get to a shop or the rare gun-show back then.

Up Minnesota, we used to roll that into the phrases; "Garage-Logic" or "Farm-Logic". Up there anymore..... I dunno about logic in general.

It was always bore and chamber brushes bummed me out for availability. Not too many dodges for that area.

Another is that I scurry around the day or two after polls close and police-up campaign signs of agreeable; shape, form and subject matter for targets.

Todd.

JDeere said:

I just buy patches in bulk. Pretty cheap imo. My tshirts would never make it to the patch making bin. When the t shirts are done they go to the shop for rag use. I do use the legs on my old jeans for making sand bags. They sew up nicely on the old Singer. I eat Oat meal and grits as well...

Click to expand...

I can go crazy on the cheap bulk patches if they are right in front of me at a gunshow.

Even then - I go Captain-Frugal and get the largest ones they will sell cheaply so that I can cut them down to any other size.

Todd.

At this point in my life shooting is my hobby and passion, so I don’t mind spending money on shooting and cleaning supplies.

Having said that, I could not afford this hobby if I did not reload. Because when I go shooting I don’t want to be limited by the amount of ammo on hand. I just shoot all I want. I just can’t comprehend only shooting factory Ammo, what a waste.

And to take it a step further, I don’t know if I could afford to reload if I loaded with jacketed Bullets. In over 50 years of reloading I don’t think I have loaded more than a few hundred jacketed bullets; lead bullets all the way for me.

I reckon we all have our frugal ways in some sort of form.

i am frugal by nature, so I try and save where possible.

I shoot plastic guns that don’t need to be cleaned much...

Wife finally relented recently about me reloading...so I’ve started workin on collecting supplies. Yeah, I know...but I’m finding some decent deals and passing on the scalpers.

I shoot lots of steel targets and a can of spray paint goes a long way.

I do my part to help save money. I just don't clean my guns after every outing. Dirty is the new, um, frugal. Yeah, that's it.

Rockrivr1 said:

I do my part to help save money. I just don't clean my guns after every outing. Dirty is the new, um, frugal. Yeah, that's it.

Click to expand...

If you leave your guns in the bed of your truck with the action open while driving through the car wash, you’ll get a bonus cleaning!

Back when surplus stores were really military surplus stores bought a couple really big cases of USGI .30 patches for like $1 for 10,000 (?), Came in handy bundles of about 100 wrapped in brown paper. Having so many taking up shop room decided to put a case on fleebay. It went for an astronomical amount so sold others for near same and sorry i did. Points out how many don't like to make their own patches. Might add we made a few $ removing homemade patches stuck in bores. So there's that.

frogfurr said:

Spelling is on the package:

View attachment 983110

Click to expand...

I know the saying is 'you are what you eat", but consider the intelligence of the average cow.

I reload everything I shoot except .22LR. I too make patches from old shirts, and cut larger rags from them for general shop use. I always pick range brass (and brass based hulls) when I can, And load/shoot at a 2/1 ratio, so if I load up 100 rounds, I set 50 aside, and use 50 the next range trip.

Buying in bulk for ammo & components, though currently that is harder to do.

Do work at my club to bring my dues down to $25 a year.

Lately, I've been shooting .22's a little more often.

I put the "C" in cheap for sure. Did I mention I was cheap? Add to that I am an accumulator. I also love the "F" word (free). I buy my food in bulk, own a chest freezer, and dehydrator. I have never owned a car that was less than 10 years old when I purchased it. I use old calender pages that I rip off large wall calinders for targets. Make target stands from scrap wood found at the dump. Use chore boy for cleaning bore. Make patches out of old clothing. Make my own cleaning mixes and case lube from scratch. A hole in the cap of a soda bottle some string and you have an excelent reactive target. I reload. I save bad brass, steel cases and aluminum to take to the recyclers. I cast and use lead harvested from the berm and other places. I use my used motor oil for flux. I use my cardboard boxes (ceral, shoe, etc) and punch kit to make nitro and overshot cards. Legs of jeans for sand bags. Go to the skeet range at gun club and pick up undamaged skeet that they just run over and reuse. Collect fired hulls and resell on line. Many other things every day but my fingers are tired now.

I’m far from being one to comment on being frugal. I got into single shot guns to save money on ammo because I would shoot less. I now have over $3000 tied up in 2 contenders with a total of 5 barrels and plenty reloading dies and components to add into it. Then again, I started reloading to save a quarter a shot on .270 win and keep the .256 winmag barking. My reloading bench is probably home to about $4000 worth of stuff.

I should know better, everything I do is apparently an exercise in burning cash. I shoot, fish, like boats, guns, motorcycles, golf... and now I have 3 girls to help daddy spend money when we go play together. They want to hunt with me this year, so I bought the stuff to brace a contender pistol so that they can have a properly sized gun that is deer capable and easy to use. I may SBR an AR reciever and then build up a hunting upper around 12” in something like 300 blk or something resembling 35 Remington.

Reinz said:

At this point in my life shooting is my hobby and passion, so I don’t mind spending money on shooting and cleaning supplies.

Having said that, I could not afford this hobby if I did not reload. Because when I go shooting I don’t want to be limited by the amount of ammo on hand. I just shoot all I want. I just can’t comprehend only shooting factory Ammo, what a waste.

And to take it a step further, I don’t know if I could afford to reload if I loaded with jacketed Bullets. In over 50 years of reloading I don’t think I have loaded more than a few hundred jacketed bullets; lead bullets all the way for me.

I reckon we all have our frugal ways in some sort of form.

Click to expand...

Ditto. If it weren't for Brazos Bullets (three-cent bullets!), I'd have to start casting as well.

BLACKHAWKNJ said:

You'd be surprised at how many well-off and wealthy people are quite frugal-cheap, if you will.

Click to expand...

How do you think they became wealthy?

JT-AR-MG42 said:

Now that is frugal.

And coming from me, it means a lot.

I'm the guy who makes people nervous when I park next to them at the range.
Actually had one come tell me 'Your car is on fire'.
Just smoke coming from minor oil leak. I figure with 398,000 (and close to being paid for), a small drip is nothing to get excited about.

Now I'm trying to remember if I have ever gone shooting with a rig that was worth
more than the guns I had taken along?

'Can't justify buying multiple brushes when I've got a wad of choreboy (copper scrub pad),'

Great idea, thanks for the tip!



JT

Click to expand...

Oh ya, the value of the guns I take on an average range trip is easily 3-4X what my truck is worth.

I can do that with one. I did so yesterday going Trap shooting. The rest of the guns, it takes a couple.....

BLACKHAWKNJ said:

I print my own targets, I keep my masters in plastic sheet protectors, I had a part-time job which generated a lot of 8 1/2 by 11, lately I have been experimenting with different shades of paper. At those ranges which require a minimum target size of say 12" x 18" I will use a large target-a silhouette-salvaged from the garbage can. Use store brand adhesive tape to attach my targets and patch tears in the backing.
You'd be surprised at how many well-off and wealthy people are quite frugal-cheap, if you will. They understand "getting the most bang from your buck".
IIRC Fred Huntington of RCBS started out staging bullet jackets from 22 brass.

Click to expand...

over the years some of the range officers and a range regular have gotten to know my job which does pay a good salary. yet they also know i pick up my spent brass and nearby lanes brass. when i was in between jobs last year i told them "this is what an unemployed _____ looks like" as I was stooped over picking up 45 acp brass with my hands grungy from powder residue.

Targets:
-salvage cardboard
- use things like cheap paper plates or index card
- print turkey patterning targets from the internet with black & white ink, highlight the point of aim w/ red spray paint
Cleaning/maintenance:
- carb cleaner or brake cleaner is a good solvent for junkers like an old SKS
- generic motor oil as an exterior protectant
-white lithium grease for moving parts
-stuff your patches into a baby food jar and pour in your solvent. They will be ready when you need them, and it makes your solvent go a long way

Brake cleaner is a good solvent for any gun, especially shotgun barrels for plastic buildup. I use Valvoline full synthetic 5w-30 and Super Lube:

also works well on my MEC reloader collet sizer and on pool filter cover gaskets

Things I do to save money.
#1 I don't pay Rediculous prices for ammo.