Does ammo availability/cost affect your shooting enjoyment

[DMK]

Everyone seems to have a real ball shooting 22LR for pennies. I love shooting my 7.62x39, 7.62x54R, 9mm Luger, and 9mm Makarov guns because I got the ammo dirt cheap and have stacks of cases of the ammo.

However, even though I enjoy shoot my 38S&W revolver or my .303 Enfields, they are great guns, I always feel a little like I'm wasting money and I know in the back of my mind that it's difficult to find.

I've even avoided buying very nice guns with hard to find or expensive calibers for those reasons.

Does anybody just not let that stuff spoil their fun?

 

[Gunpacker]

Expensive ammo

Well, it is sure nice to shoot milsurp ammo, although it is eventually going to run out for most calibers. Reloading is the answer, since you can reload for about the same cost as some of the milsurp ammo. Rifle ammo can be reloaded for approximately .25 a round. In .38 cal, lead bullets (only thing I usually shoot) can be reloaded for 6-7 cents a shot. Takes some time to reload, but that is part of the hobby for some of us. I have bought surp ammo, and have a good bit of it, but it won't last forever.

 

[Working Man]

I love shooting .44 and .45-70 so reloading is becoming a must.
I don't have as much disposable income as I once did but I saved all
my brass. Now its just time to move my butt and start reloading.

 

[jacobtowne]

Agreed. I have three revolvers chambered for .38 S&W, and I'd be in the Poor House if I had to pay $17 a box for ammo. So I handload for that caliber and for .38 Special, .357 Magnum, and .45ACP.
.380 and 9mm Para. Sellier & Bellot are inexpensive in case lots, so for those I shoot store bought.
JT

 

[The Grand Inquisitor]

I'm a huge proponent of 5.45x39 ammo, but I always have to be concious of how much I'm shooting, because it can be hard to get at times, and it is impossible to reload.

All of the cases use berdan primers, and I don't know of anyone who sells the bullets for a reasonable price (one guy sells 20 bullets for the price of 50 loaded rounds).

 

[dfaugh]

Yup.

I shoot alot of .22, 9mm and 7.62x39. But i would like to shoot more:

.303 Britich
8mm Mauser
7.62x54R
and .35 Remington

But being on a fixed income, I have to justify every penny. and, yes some of these are available as milsurp, but I've not gotten good accuracy, and I really like to shoot for accuracy.

Hoping I can scrape together enough to afford a basic reloading setup, but that will only help so much.

Lately, pretty much all I can afford to shoot is .22, and then only occasionally(gas prices are killing me).

 

[WarMachine]

Well, most of my guns are .22's for this very reason. I don't have lot of extra cash for messing around with, so I don't get to shoot my SA 1911 as much as I would like. Even 9mm can start emptying your wallet after a long shooting session. I wish there was an infinite ammo cheat for real-life.

 

[Shooter973]

Ammo costs affect shooting?

No the price of ammo doesn't hold me back much. I cast bullets for most of my handguns and some of my favorite rifles. So the cost of reloading for them is very low. I reload 44 mags for about $2 per box and 357 mag and others are about the same or even less. With 9mm brass being so freely available it costs about $1 per box to load. Thats about the same as boxed 22 ammo, not the bulk. A pound of Bullseye lasts a long time at 4gr. per charge.

 

[Buck Snort]

I just LOVE my Dillon 550B!!

 

[Rob1035]

college, low income, no room/time/$$ for reloading stuff, so yeah ammo cost affects me, even though I just shoot .22LR and 9mm. Like was said, even 9mm can get spendy depending on your financial status. 22LR is always there when I need a fix though

I'll probably never (never say never though right?) get anything that shoots an oddball caliber, as I like having ammo available.

 

[Standing Wolf]

I don't let ammunition costs bother me: I load my own.

 

[JohnBT]

Not a bit. Not any longer. I don't care, I can remember spending a week at my grandparents' farm and having 50 .22s. Okay, I spent my other 50 cents on firecrackers.

I know I can't take it with me. Of course, I am thrifty in some areas...cheap so I'm told...for instance, my checking account is worth more than my car.

I do take the price tags off some of the ammo I give my father though. He can afford whatever he wants, but at 83 he's a tad prone to sticker shock when he sees a case of $19 boxes of .38 Special match wadcutters and multiple $12 boxes of Eley and Lapua .22 LR. Then there's that 28 ga O/U he bought - that thing eats boxes of $7 ammo like an autoloader.

John

 

[roo_ster]

JohnBT:

Man, you must love your dad. Not only do you buy him ammo, but you take of the price tags.

If my boy buys me ammo when I'm 83, I think that'll be one more sign that I done right by him.

 

[bpisler]

No it doesn't because i reload
for all the calibers i shoot.

 

[neoncowboy]

I reload almost everything I shoot.

1000 primers = ~$20
1000 rds worth of powder = ~$20
1000 jacketed .45 bullets = ~$75-$90
Brass I pick up at the range and have a lifetime supply of already.

so, 1000 rds. costs me about $115-$130. I'm OK with that...hell I'd spend a lot more than that if I had to.

 

[Smythe77]

Bar .22 rim-fire I buy by the case, my 9mm, 38Spl & 45ACP are all reloaded. Fact is I am so lazy that a few yrs back I bought two Posness/Warren Metallic II presses to match an even older of the same. So 9mm reloaded by one, another handels the 38Spl of course the other takes on the 45 ACP.

Once in a while it is a bit of a cost when it comes to buying a case of Large or Small primers or possibly eight pounds of a specific powder.

Tack on all the red-tape we Cdns go through just to own & use our h/guns for target shooting it is something we accept. Sort of a bit like life.LOL

 

[Berek]

It used to...

I received a Savage 11FXP3 in .300WSM and I found that the rounds for it were $22 a box of 20. Not too long ago, that jumped to $34/box.

Luckily, before the price jump, I had purchased about 5 boxes of ammo and received a Lee Classic kit for Christmas. Now, instead of paying about $1.70 a round, I pay about $0.30. I will get my arm wrestling practice, but saving almost a buck fitty reloading my own is worth it.


Berek

 

[Silent-Snail]

Yes it does. I have yet to find a place within reasonable distance that sells 7.62x25, and the stuff online and in magazines will be too pricy for me for a long time to come. :banghead:

 

[TIMC]

My biggest enemy is time, finding the time to go as often as I would like is hard but I do try to get out twice a month at least.
Cost does not bother me too much except when I take this thing out for some fun. At 450 RPM it can be expensive even with surplus ammo.

 

[Lennyjoe]

Reloader here too so ammo isn't the issue. Time is.

 

[scout26]

"Splitting your own firewood makes you warm twice".


Reloading is kinda the same. Doubles your enjoyed of the sport/hobby.

And you can shoot more for the same $$$

 

[Azrael256]

I'm going to have to get into reloading at some point. 7.5 Swiss ammo will get hard to find someday, so I've been saving all my brass. I know it's Berdan, but I'll tap out all those little primers by hand if it comes to it. $150 for 420 rounds is pushing it for cost, so I'm slowly stocking up for when GP11 is no longer available.

I could buy Wolf 7.5, which they assure me will be available in five weeks. Of course, they said that on 9 May when I last emailed them, and I have yet to see a single round. Go figure.

 

[WarMachine]

Kinda of off-topic, but I was hoping if somewhere could quickly answer this question.

What is the average (I know there are many different variables) cost for someone to get into reloading? Preferably for .45ACP and 9mm. Just a ballpark figure would be nice.

I am trying to see if I shoot enough to justify the costs...

 

[.41Dave]

What is the average (I know there are many different variables) cost for someone to get into reloading? Preferably for .45ACP and 9mm. Just a ballpark figure would be nice.

You can buy the Lee Anniversary kit that has all the tools you need except dies for about $70. Add a set of .45acp carbide dies for about $20, A can of powder for $20, 1000 primers for $20, and 1000 lead bullets for $40. If you've been saving brass you can get started for about $170. This allows you to reload your first 1000 rounds for $8.50 a box, and every 1000 thereafter for about $5 a box.

 

[CajunBass]

That's why most of my guns are 9mm and 22.