I do tend to agree, however, that there’s sort of a common bell curve for action competition shooters likelihood of reloading vs. volume of fire (or ranking level). Before I started in action shooting, I had gear to reload for my 3 Gun and CAS/SASS cartridges, but rarely did load them. When I started, my volume went up and it made financial sense to reload. Eventually, the volume increased enough that reloading no longer made sense, in terms of time commitment, so I went back to factory loads, ordered in bulk. That seemed to be the common practice for most elite guys shooting that high of volume (not that I was ever elite in action shooting). In precision rifle competition, there ARE a surprising number of top guys using factory or factory custom ammunition, but it’s still a remarkably low number. Even a few guys each year who make the Finale are shooting factory ammo (reportedly), and there are a few boutique outfits making custom ammo for precision shooters with specified components and dimensions. Far more newbies are shooting factory ammo than elite guys, and the common mass of us are shooting reloads - As I mentioned above, out of 80-120 shooters at a given match, I’d bet 3-5 guys, but less than 10 are shooting factory ammo. I don’t recall ever seeing a benchrest shooter with factory ammo, at least not outside of glassed gas gun or hunter classes where a lot of folks were just there to do something on a Saturday and “run what ya brung.”
I also agree, the “1/10th of 1%” could very well be accurate regarding the relative volume of long range and precision shooters. Competitive shooters are a very, very small minority among all shooters and firearms owners. If someone told me 25% of owners were also competitors, I’d know it to be false. If someone said 1%, I’d expect it’s within a reasonable margin of error. Among competitors, precision games are much, much smaller than action games. I’d easily believe there are 10 action pistol, 3 gun, sporting clays, and cowboy action shooters for every benchrest, F-class, or precision rifle shooter out there.
Alas, as interesting as that particular stat might be, we’re putting too much emphasis on a relative fool’s statements. He contradicts himself twice in a matter of seconds, first by saying 1/10th of 1% need to load, followed by 99% don’t, instead of 99.9%, and he acknowledges precision shooters as the 1/10th of 1% who do need to load, then accidentally says 99% of precision shooters don’t need to load, literally in the next breath. He was dropping word vomit in an attempt to cover his ass about a blanket statement he made, while focused on a different statement, and he speaks in broken English, with little attempt of accountability for what he says. Much ado about nothin’, and we’re giving him far more attention than he deserves.