How much powder have you burned?

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loose noose said:
Try shooting trap on the weekends and once during the week, last year just shooting a 1 1/8 oz load in front of Red Dot I shot 24#s that doesn't include the rifles and handgun ammo as well as the Black Powder; Man come to think of it I'm gonna have to take a second on the house just to keep shooting.:eek:
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It was amazing the amount of supplies I went through in a year when I was shooting skeet competitively!
 
Just a wild guess, I'd say about 25 lbs in the last 4 years.
Half of that being Tite Group (38 spl, 357 mag, 9mm, 45 ACP)
about 8 or 9 lbs of AA5 in 45 Colt, 7.62x25 & 45 ACP.

I've also used a pound of Universal, Lil Gun, W296 & 2400.
 
I started reloading way back in 1971 and while I haven't kept extremely accurate records of every single round loaded, I can estimate somewhere north of 1400 pounds of rifle powder and maybe a tenth of that much pistol powder. Most of that ammo went downrange courtesy of one of several machine guns I own. I'm not a competitive shooter any longer.
 
I couldn't begin to guess how much powder I've used totally.

Last years shooting season I went through at least 4lbs W231, 8lbs H4895 and a few pounds of H4350. Throw in a bunch of other powders I would guess at least 18 lbs or 19 lbs last year alone.

The powder is easy, it's the primers that are hard to count and keep in stock!!!
 
My first pound of powder was HiVel #2, used in my 30/06 back in the 50's. I've probably shot 4-500# over the years, just guessing.
 
It was amazing the amount of supplies I went through in a year when I was shooting skeet competitively!
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try that now with #8 at $39./bag..

we're (hunting buddy) and I are on hiatus... we might shoot a round of clays or five-stand every now & then..
 
Let's see...35 years of reloading. That's about 140 pounds...of just Unique. Then about the same of Red Dot for shotgun. Then double that of 4895 for various rifles. That's just the basics. Then add in a bunch of 231, HS6, Varget, H335, 2400, etc. I'd say easily 1000 pounds no problem. Good grief...
 
Interesting question and answers too .... about 750 pounds since the early '70s.
 
Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh, I think I burned a pound of powder from all the Syrian surplus rounds I pulled in 7.5 French. Trashy surplus , but was able to salvage all the 139gr Spitzer bullets for future use. Powder burned a flame almost 3 feet high :D
 
If my math is correct:

300,000 rounds of shotgun, averaging 17grs.=5,100,00 grs /7000grs/pound=approx 728 pounds

metallic is less, approx 100 pounds for rifle and about 35 pounds for pistol
 
counting black powder for front-stuffers along with smokeless around 30 lbs likely closer to 50 since about '74

this is discounting the many bricks of .22lr - estimated at least 2 bricks/yearly, boxes of shotty shells (I don't load those) for small game, grouse and quail although I have'nt shotty hunted much last 8-10 years, and a few hundered buck for practice and hunting. and lots of factory 9mm, .45acp, x39 and '06 lot of surplus ammo there
I also reload 30-30 cheapo 'plinking rounds' and some 'premium-type rounds' for 2 nephews deer rifles maybe 200 or so yearly
 
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I've been reloading about 10 years for .223, 25-20, 243, 25-06 and .308. Some like the 25-20 doesn't get fired very often. I'm still on the first pound since I started reloading for it. .223, about 15 lbs. 25-06 about 5 lbs. .243 about 3lbs. .308 3lbs. By some standards, that's not alot of powder. The .223 gets used the most. When i first started reloading, I was on fire, went about 3 years and just reloaded very little. Since I retired 3 years ago, I have more time to shoot and piddle with it.
 
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My father designed vehicles and some guns like the M110 203mm, M107 175mm, M55 155mm, XM-70 115mm, and some others.

The burned powder made a mess and had to be shoveled. We went with him to the Yakima firing range and the Yuma firing range, like a vacation.

He designed some machine guns too, so the gov provided cases of 308 ammo. We kids shot it in rifles, and had to take it off the links.
 
well, unfortunately, all of my records got lost when my computer died, so i lost years of load date and experiment results. i would guess about 65-70 pounds, since 2007. the only one powder that i shoot enough of to buy in large quantities is IMR4831, for my (and my brothers) 300 magnums.
 
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