Does ammo availability/cost affect your shooting enjoyment

[Boss Spearman]

I have to choose my rounds for economic reasons. I like .45s but cannot afford the ammo. Tonight is my last night on the job and I will be unemployed. 9mm is about all I can afford to shoot.

So I very definitely choose my firearms economically.

 

[rs3604]

I don't worry to much about cost because I do a lot of 22 shooting for practice and then before hunting season I put a few through my .308. Reloading is the way to go if you want to shoot bulk.

 

[JohnBT]

"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."


Thank you, I do. All I can say is...take care of yourself until your son can afford to buy you ammo. We had our disagreements when I was a teenager, but that's life. Oh, and don't forget to spoil him some, but not too much and not too often.

John

 

[NineseveN]

Gah! Another thread making me want to finally get around to reloading....

Can't be that expensive to gear up for .45 and .308, can it? I was thinking under $200 to start, or around that. .41dave's estimate of $170 for .45 seems about right, so for a bit more I could perhaps squeeze in .308 and I'd be happy. Hmmm, Christmas is coming soon.

 

[Rinspeed]

It used to be that when I wanted to do some shooting I would go to my dealers and buy a couple boxes of ammo and shoot it up the same day. Now that I reload I always have several thousand rounds either loaded or ready to be loaded.

 

[pbhome71]

NineseveN,

It does not have to cost that much to start reloading. The main thing is that you buy equipment to match your reloading need.

For example, I only go shoot every couple of months (time issue.) With a hand press (the kind that does not need to mount to anything), I can do 10-20 rifle rounds a day (45min-1 hours before going to bed.) it give me plenty of ammo to shoot the next time I go shooting.

What I recommend is a hand press, dies, caliper, good scale (non-electronic), some tools, and reloading manuals - lots of it.

Regarding how often do I go shooting... I used to go almost every weeks. However, lately, I have been very busy and hardly go to the range. Cost is also a concern, but at the frequency that I go, it does not matter much.

-Pat

 

[hso]

I concentrate on milsurps and buy 1,000 rounds at a time so I can wait for deals like the 1k 7.62 NATO for $125 delivered I just bought.

 

[thatguy]

When I was young and not earning much above minimum wage ammo cost was a major concern. Now that I'm older (OK, a lot older) and more financially secure ammo cost is not a big problem. The fact is that I don't shoot enough to worry about the expenditure.

I have a couple of rifles that are very expensive to feed. One uses an obsolete cartridge and the other is a big-bore wildcat. So both require very expensive cases, like $3 each! You haven't lived until the sales clerk at the gun store looks you in the eye and says "That'll be $63" for a box of 20 empty cases. The big one uses powder charges of over 100 grains, too. A pound of powder only fills 70 rounds. And jacketed bullets run a buck a pop. Even reloading this caliber is pricey. But I still shoot it when I can without worry.

I buy milsurp for plinking in my military caliber guns and buy other ammo on sale. I reload but I'm trying to get away from it because I find that I value the time more than the monetary savings. Saving $4 on a box of .38s make no sense to me if I spend nearly and hour at the bench. My time is worth more than $4 per hour.