Ammunition is expensive, so how much do you use?

BRACES of Bristol - Sauer 100 XTA Stainless Package
Reloader708

Reloader708

Well-Known Member
Reading some of the comments on another post about the cost of our ammunition has made me think about our shooting habits here in the uk.
The post raised concerns about cost putting an end to recreational shooting, I was interested to see many don't see ammunition prices has having any relevance when compared to the price of their rifle, scope, cost of the day, and the venison/game at the end etc.

Well that is one way to view it. Even of your ammunition got to £10.00 per round it would be negligible all other costs considered? I suppose an average stalker might shoot 5-10 animals a year so would only need a box or two for the season.
I like many others have money invested in my gear but I like to shoot it...lots!
If I'm not stalking I'm practicing, I like to be confident at distance, in wind, etc but most of all I enjoy it and stalking aside get through about 1500/2000 rounds annually.
As such I'm proficient with a rifle....but not so with a shotgun. I occasionally use a shot gun (about 75/100 cartridge a year) and it shows!
A chap I know has a limit of 50 rounds of .243 on his ticket and it takes him a couple of years to use it, and that shows!
Part of the reason we pay more for our ammunition is we use so little of it, if we all went to the range every couple of weeks and had 100 rounds we'd be both better shots and better off.
In fact it should be a condition if owning a firearm; a need to regularly practice!

So how much ammunition do you get through a year?
 
A schiessnachweiss (proof of a range visit stamped into a small card) is getting to be more often required in Germany for driven hunts with some not all yet state agencies.
 
Bavarianbrit said:
A schiessnachweiss (proof of a range visit stamped into a small card) is getting to be more often required in Germany for driven hunts with some not all yet state agencies.
Click to expand...

Are these ranges open to the public with the appropriate license or are they like the clubs here which consist mostly of middle aged men who prefer to talk, drink tea in the clubhouse and practice secret handshakes :p instead of shooting?
 
Reloader708 said:
Reading some of the comments on another post about the cost of our ammunition has made me think about our shooting habits here in the uk.
The post raised concerns about cost putting an end to recreational shooting, I was interested to see many don't see ammunition prices has having any relevance when compared to the price of their rifle, scope, cost of the day, and the venison/game at the end etc.

Well that is one way to view it. Even of your ammunition got to £10.00 per round it would be negligible all other costs considered? I suppose an average stalker might shoot 5-10 animals a year so would only need a box or two for the season.
I like many others have money invested in my gear but I like to shoot it...lots!
If I'm not stalking I'm practicing, I like to be confident at distance, in wind, etc but most of all I enjoy it and stalking aside get through about 1500/2000 rounds annually.
As such I'm proficient with a rifle....but not so with a shotgun. I occasionally use a shot gun (about 75/100 cartridge a year) and it shows!
A chap I know has a limit of 50 rounds of .243 on his ticket and it takes him a couple of years to use it, and that shows!
Part of the reason we pay more for our ammunition is we use so little of it, if we all went to the range every couple of weeks and had 100 rounds we'd be both better shots and better off.
In fact it should be a condition if owning a firearm; a need to regularly practice!

So how much ammunition do you get through a year?
Click to expand...

Are you a member of a club?

The FEO's from south of the wall will start foaming at the mouth if they find out you have been not been shooting on a 'proper' range, even if you have all the sufficient backstops, overshoot areas and warning signs setup.

Considering the number of abandoned home guard ranges that exist, it shows that successive governments since WWII ended have tried to discourage shooting as a recreational sport/hobby in the UK. A country should be proud of it's citizens who have ability with a rifle, for them to harvest their own game, win international competitions and if need be, defend the country in times of war.

Sadly, we are reminded that we are actually subjects, not citizens. A fact that Westminster relishes.

Look at all the countries that were former colonies, some still in the Commonwealth, Canada, NZ, Australia, and most of all the USA. They have much better access to ranges and in most cases firearms for the explicit purpose of becoming a good rifleman/woman person, although their governments are also trying to clamp down. No doubt the willingness of the general population (who sadly, either view gun/rifle ownership with suspicion or fear) to comply with the draconian CV19 laws put in place the world over, will have encouraged the politicians to take more power and liberties away from the people.

If Scotland became independent under the SNP, I have little doubt that they would seek to make shooting as difficult as possible unless it was for deer culling (what happens if deer are cut down to less than 1 per square KM?), look what they did with air rifle licenses, might as well get an FAC!
 
caberslash said:
Are these ranges open to the public with the appropriate license or are they like the clubs here which consist mostly of middle aged men who prefer to talk, drink tea in the clubhouse and practice secret handshakes :p instead of shooting?
Click to expand...
There aren‘t too many shoot clubs in Germany. Most of the big bore and shot gun ranges are publicly accessible.
But still, middle (or even older) aged men play a predominant role🤣.
 
Do you know how few rounds a regular armed police officer gets ? Per year ! Put it this way I wouldn't want one shooting anyplace in my presence
Likewise how much range time an average squaddy gets ?
I am not talking about the elite just the regular! It's not good at all
Unfortunately if your pumping out 2000 rounds a year in your regular deer rifle your gonna be burning up barrels 1500-2000 will seriously effect the bore , two years of that and your going to find it very noticeable if you could actually shoot in the first place .
 
caberslash said:
Are these ranges open to the public with the appropriate license or are they like the clubs here which consist mostly of middle aged men who prefer to talk, drink tea in the clubhouse and practice secret handshakes :p instead of shooting?
Click to expand...
If its open which is a pig during the present Covid, my local one 60kms away now only opens on Saturdays, you turn up show your gun licence/hunting licence and maybe get charged a 5 euros insurance if you cannot prove having one and you pay for rifle range time usually by the 1/4 hour. Mine the targets are electrically run back and forth on cables by pressing on a button at your position

Schießanlage Bockenberg - Waffenobermeier

Die Schießanlage Bockenberg offeriert eine einzigartige Symbiose aus einer professionellen Schießanlage mit unterschiedlichen Schießständen. So können Jagd- und Sportschützen im Schießsportzentrum Bockenberg das komplette Schießvergnügen und die Faszination Schießsport kompetent aus einer Hand...
www.waffenobermeier.de
Buy a .308 and then rechamber it to 30-06 after shooting 2500 rounds???????
 
Bavarianbrit said:
If its open which is a pig during the present Covid, my local one 60kms away now only opens on Saturdays, you turn up show your gun licence/hunting licence and maybe get charged a 5 euros insurance if you cannot prove having one and you pay for rifle range time usually by the 1/4 hour. Mine the targets are electrically run back and forth on cables by pressing on a button at your position

Schießanlage Bockenberg - Waffenobermeier

Die Schießanlage Bockenberg offeriert eine einzigartige Symbiose aus einer professionellen Schießanlage mit unterschiedlichen Schießständen. So können Jagd- und Sportschützen im Schießsportzentrum Bockenberg das komplette Schießvergnügen und die Faszination Schießsport kompetent aus einer Hand...
www.waffenobermeier.de
Buy a .308 and then rechamber it to 30-06 after shooting 2500 rounds???????
Click to expand...
Different action sizes in the rifle normally
 
bowji john said:
It was ever thus

The average club shooter sees far more range time than even infantry units

Let alone all the REMFs

Not so recently perhaps with so much operational deployment
Click to expand...

Wasn't impressed what the guys got to re zero etc after deploying, cant reader if was as low as 20 rounds ?
in fact though talking po,ice a local rfd was selling more look and work alike bb guns to individual police officers so they might actually practice than any other single gun
Imo the bullets are the cheap bit , a bad shot can cost a lot more money as well as lives
 
I’ve had some AR teams at my place. They were doing an advanced trauma course

One of the Sergeants asked if they could use my place for some of their ‘fighting in countryside’ tactics ( my words - can’t remember what they called it)

Anyway, they planned to use the equivalent of paint ball rounds - well something like that - perhaps a bit more sophisticated than paint ball

They were keen to find locations where their tactics couldn’t be overlooked

Nothing ever came of it - presumably they train elsewhere
 
bowji john said:
I’ve had some of AR teams at my place. They were doing an advanced trauma course

One of the Sergeants asked if they could use my place for some of their ‘fighting in countryside’ tactics ( my words - can’t remember what they called it)

Anyway, they planned to use the equivalent of paint ball rounds - well something like that - perhaps a bit more sophisticated than paint ball

They were keen to find locations where their tactics couldn’t be overlooked

Nothing ever came of it - presumably they train elsewhere
Click to expand...
Probably don't want epic fails reporting to others . Or SOP well known to villans
 
Bowland blades said:
Do you know how few rounds a regular armed police officer gets ? Per year ! Put it this way I wouldn't want one shooting anyplace in my presence
Likewise how much range time an average squaddy gets ?
I am not talking about the elite just the regular! It's not good at all
Unfortunately if your pumping out 2000 rounds a year in your regular deer rifle your gonna be burning up barrels 1500-2000 will seriously effect the bore , two years of that and your going to find it very noticeable if you could actually shoot in the first place .
Click to expand...
Absolutely, I might add I don't shoot 2000 rounds of all centre fire and not all from one rifle. .22 rimfire is a valuable trainer.
 
caberslash said:
Are these ranges open to the public with the appropriate license or are they like the clubs here which consist mostly of middle aged men who prefer to talk, drink tea in the clubhouse and practice secret handshakes :p instead of shooting?
Click to expand...
Yes in Germany there are plenty of ranges open to the public. I know the area around Paderborn and there are 4 within half an hours drive. The one I have used several times has ten lanes, and is coin in slot operated. A €2 coin gives you 20 minutes with the 100 metre target on an electric pully. At end of 20 minutes your time is up. You need to wait 20min before you can start again. I have been there at weekends, first thing in the morning, midday and in the evenings and its always busy.

Such ranges have fixed targets, running targets and increasingly cinema targets. And range prices are really not a barrier - pop down in a evening, shooting some running boar with your mates and go to the pub being very common. And as said above their ranges are always busy. None of this £100 an hour we see here in the UK with one booking a week.

There are multiple brands of training ammo for use on such ranges. The Sellier & Bellot do boxes of 50 Cineshot cartridges in all the major calibres for €52, RWS does similar but are priced at €54 for 30. 22 hornet is even cheaper.

Mostly these round shoot close enough to the same point of aim as hunting ammo that most hunters don’t mess with zero.

And most have a 22 Hornet calibre rifle for training as ammo is even cheaper.
 
I shoot a couple of thousand rounds a year of centerfire , but I own a number of rifles and handguns so it doesn't take long . I do belong to a gun club , but I tend to do more shooting out at friends places or on crown land . I haven't shot much over the last month , it's been to freakin cold , but it has warmed up a bit this weekend . I think I may go thin out the the Yotes at a buddies place . We'll see what the wife has planned , she always has something planned lol .

AB
 
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