How much have you fired through a single handgun?

[rchernandez]

Unto my 3rd case of Aguila SV ammo for my Benelli MP95E .22lr, used primarily for 50' indoor Bullseye (1-year anniversary coming up). Over the last 2 months I've been transitioning to a Marvel .22lr Conversion on a dedicated Essex frame and moving to CCI SV ammo...I need to buy stock in these ammo companies!

 

[JohnKSa]

With another 31 responses (27% more), the percentage of shooters who've put less than 10K rounds through a handgun changed only 1% from 60% to 61%. That's a strong clue that we're definitely in the right ballpark and that our sample set is sufficiently large to draw some conclusions confidently.

So, here are some results.

One in 4 shooting enthusiasts never fires more than 2,000 rounds through a single handgun.

About 60% of shooting enthusiasts have never fired more than 10K rounds through a handgun.

About 3/4 of all shooting enthusiasts will never fire more than 20K rounds through a handgun.

Only one in 20 shooting enthusiasts has fired more than 100K rounds through a handgun.

 

[Hkmp5sd]

75,000+ through my 1st Generation Glock 17.

 

[Plink]

I have over 60,000 through a Ruger 22/45 and it's still like new. In fact it shoots better now than it did 30,000 rounds ago. I recently bought a Pac-Lite upper for it, so I guess I'll start losing track of how many rounds go through the Ruger and how many go through the Pac-Lite from now on. Good gun though.

In second place is a Ruger P-85 (no, I'm not a Ruger fan! LOL) that has about 30,000 through it. It's a loaner I take along for non gun owners to plink with. It gets a lot of mileage. It's been 100% so far and is only recently starting to show recoil spring fatique. I have a set of Wolff springs waiting for it already though.

 

[Sleuth]

I most likely have the most rounds through my PPC gun, a .38 Spl built on a S&W M66. I was on my agency's National Team, and in 5 days (just before the National Championships) I put 10,000 rounds through that gun. No repairs, but every round was factory wadcutter. I ran the same gun for my 5 years on the team, say 100,000 plus. It was still X ring accurate when I traded it for a Sharps Rifle.

Before that, in 1968 I bought a High Standard .22 for bullseye, still have it. It has to have 100k through it.

I just broke the frame in 3 places on a Colt 1911, that I have shot regularly since I bought it in 1973. An easy 100k through that one as well. I saved all the parts, and will stick a new frame under them.

Now I have a 1911 .45 barrell that is in it's 3rd IPSC gun. It's a BarSto, so 200k through that barrel (bought it in '72 or '73 also, in it's 1st gun).

I tend to shoot a lot, but not enough!

 

[LiquidTension]

My Kimber has the most rounds through it, but I stopped keeping track several thousand rounds ago at about 2,000. I'm guessing it's somewhere between 5k and 7,500. The 10k figure will come, I just don't have the money to spend to shoot at much as I'd like, even loading my own. Now if Human Resources would get my pay scale right....

 

[kennedy]

When I was 18(33 years ago) I bought a high standard 9 shot revolver, only hand gun I owned for years, untill I started collecting. easily 20K rds still shoots great, and the best shooter I have, after all its what I am use to.

 

[isp2605]

M-9 was the high rd count gun. I'd have no idea now how many rds I put thru it. I was captain of the state national guard combat pistol team for several years and shot competition at various matches around the US.

 

[N.M. Edmands]

Approx 120'000 thru a Glock22 and got more in trade value than I paid for it.
Still have the G23 I got near the same time, and probably will never let it go. [25,000+/- thru it]. Wish I'd kept the 22.

 

[pax]

JohnKSa ~

There's a variable you haven't taken into account: how long has someone been shooting?

I have owned and shot handguns for only a little over six years. My favorite handgun (which was for quite a long time my only handgun) has over 20,000 rounds through it. If I'd been shooting at that rate for more than a decade, my numbers would be different.

So it seems to me that you might want to leave the "will never" out of your conclusions.

pax

 

[JohnKSa]

pax,

The poll has been answered by people in all stages of their shooting "careers". From very experienced to brand new shooters.

If anything, the more experienced shooters are more likely to respond for the bragging rights. When you take that into account and also consider that this board is made up of shooting enthusiasts and that this only measures the round count on a person's favorite or most used handgun, the numbers are, if anything, conservative. (If the poll indicates that 60% of all shooters will shoot less than 10K rounds, then the real number is almost certainly much higher.)

To answer your comment about your progression into your shooting career you have to look at it this way.

If I reposted this poll in a few years (when you have now shot 50K rounds or so) then the overall response will be virtually identical but different people will be making up those responses. Everyone who's still here and still shooting will have moved up a bit. Some will have left, some will have died, some will have given up shooting, but to take their place, there will be new members who are, once again, covering the same spread of stages in their shooting careers.

In order for time to change the results of the poll, the actual makeup of the board would have to change. Shooters (on the whole) would have to be significantly older, shooting significantly more, owning significantly fewer handguns, etc.

I've been watching the results and recalculating the percentages periodically, and we're now to over 180 responses. However, the numbers (percentages) I've posted from when there were only about 100 responses aren't significantly different from what they are now. That means that nearly doubling the responses didn't change the actual results of the poll. Pretty good indication that what we have is a good slice of what THR members are doing RIGHT NOW.

If we can assume that the overall demographics of THR members don't change much over time and that other factors don't significantly impact the availability of guns and ammunition or the use of those guns and ammunition then the numbers from the poll should be good for a long time. And that's in spite of the fact that the person who posts 20K rounds today will be posting 70K rounds in 10 years--because someone posting 500 rounds today will be posting 20K rounds to replace that person's response and someone who's not even a member today will be posting 500 rounds to replace that response, and so on...

NOW, on the other hand, if tomorrow, an ammo tax were instituted that drove the price of ammunition by $50 a box, then we could expect that in another decade, a similar poll would reflect significantly different results. You'd still have some of the same folks posting roughly the same numbers, you'd have the losses, but the newer folks would probably never come close to matching the shooting volume of people who did most of their shooting when practice ammo was widely available for only a dime or two a round.

 

[Darlene]

4,000 - 5,000 including practice and competition

One of my Thompson Center contenders had so much 7X30 Waters run thru it that the frame was bent, and I had to send it back to the factory for repair. They replaced the frame. It is on it's second barrel, but still shoots to point of aim at 200 meters.

 

[461]

This poll shows me one important thing. I need to shoot more! I thought having 5,000rds through my old 1911 was pretty impressive. I have way more through my Ruger MKII but I didn't think that counted. I think part of the issue with me is that I have so many guns that it gets spread out as I usually take at least half a dozen guns with me to the range on each trip. I've often thought I should take up one gun for a while and get very good with it but everytime I start packing up I just can't leave with just one.

 

[kbellis3]

When I initially voted I said 3000 plus, I however never even thought about the number of rounds I have put throu my Ruger .22 Pistol. . I like most have burned up whole bricks at the range and never even thought about the round count when the question was posted. I only though about my major caliber handguns, I have bought and shot bricks for my Ruger I can even try and count.

I have more round thru the Ruger than probably all of my other firearms.

Kyle

PS I need to shoot more. :banghead:

 

[Jenrick]

Used to intern at a range. Shoot roughly 200rds a day out of my G22 for the better part of 3 months. When I got the weapon it was a LE trade in, and very well broken in (smooth like butter). So myself personally 12k-13k, with probably another 10k before me.

-Jenrick

 

[Working Man]

I'd have to say no more than 12,000 or so through any one gun. I tend to get
into moods and just shoot certain ones for a while then put them away and
grab others that feel neglected.

There is a few I have not taken out for a couple years.... I'm afraid they
won't recognize me any more.

 

[KC&97TA]

I have 16k through my Beretta 92fs & about 5k through my Kimber TLE

Locking block on the Beretta is starting to get a bit loose and I should probly replace the recoil spring - Kimber is slated to be returned for extraction problems

 

[sturmruger]

I have aroudn 10K through my XD9

 

[huntershooter]

Highest rd. count I kept track of was 130,000+K through a 70 series .38 Super "Steel" gun (124 gr. jacketed @ +-1000 fps-reduced load). This was a "comp gun". Replaced the barrel, extractor, FP and springs during this interval. Oh, this was over a three yr. period.