How many rounds?

[kmoore]

Colonialgirl, yea I did and when I was rifle team captain, I verified targets for guys getting their ratings way back in high school. Once 2 guys handed me targets that did not have bullet holes in them, when a bullet passes through a paper target the paper is blown away leaving an actual hole. These 2 poked bullets through the paper and I knew they were not shot. I pushed on the backside of the paper and the holes closed since it was just ripped. I told them to go back and fire at the targets. They laughed and I laughed at them. I never told the coach; they just were average shooters, but I wanted them to stay on the team.

 

[protoolman]

My observation is I never met a gun guy in my life that shot over 2000 rounds a year, except maybe .22. Now I never hung out with any competition types. I do know a famous gunwriter who's health is so bad he hasn't shot most of the guns he writes about in the last 20 years. As a policeman I know several cops who shot maybe twice a year 50 rounds to qualify.

 

[bobski]

military issue guns have whats called a dopebook. armorers (use to) keep rounds counts to keep an eye on retrofits as needed.
i tagged my 45 and it shows 90,000 rounds as of this year. last shot fired shows the year 2001.
i have enough ammo to wear out my 45acp but i think im going to run out of life before that happens.

 

[Sam Summey]

As a Service rifle and F-class competitor I shoot around 1100 5.56/223 rounds per year. I just replaced the barrel for the third time on the Service rifle with more than 6 thousandths throat wear. The Service rifle gets around 600 rounds of use per season. The F-class rifle the throat wear can be dealt with by changing the bullet seating depth. The throat wears .001" per thousand rounds.

My first year of retirement I used up a case of large pistol primers, that was 18 years ago.

 

[Dave P.]

I make it to the range once and sometimes twice a month. Between rimfire and centerfire I'll shoot between 200-250 rounds per visit.
So over the last few years about 2500 -3000 rounds per year. When I was shooting some local competition, maybe added 1200-1500
per season to that figure.
Going way back to the old combat league there were a few seasons where I was buying .38 wadcutter reloads from a local loader,
getting 2000 rounds every month to six weeks. He used to charge $38.00 per thousand if you returned the brass.
I have a 6in stainless Security Six that I bought new in/around 1979 that I know has well over 75,000 rounds through it.
Have a Mark I target of about the same vintage that's up there at least that many. It's had a few firing pins and extractors and I had to
tighten up the ejector rivet a couple of times. Don't remember anything ever failing or wearing out on the Security Six, it's still
pretty tight.

 

[Sam Summey]

Well, I served in the Army; 38th Arty Bde AD: Hq Btry Commo Shop on Osan AFB, Korea 1967-68; Army taught me to climb telephone poles. Did you know that a ball point pen makes the same size hole in a target as a round from an M-14 rifle ?
The Btry Commander did and said he KNEW we didn't ALL fire EXPERT !!

During my 3 years in the Army I coached many "sharpshooters" so they qualify as "expert". 1st get over the fear of recoil, 2nd desire to shoot better, 3rd application off the fundamentals of sight picture and executing an undisturbed shot (trigger squeeze).

 

[dannyd]

I try to go to the range twice a week. Was working on my double action skills last night. Having to switch hands at 65 as been a challenge ut I getting there.

 

[jimbo1096]

Keeping track of how many rounds have been fired would be of no interest to me. I have better things to do.
But to each his own.

 

[Bob Wright]

My observation is I never met a gun guy in my life that shot over 2000 rounds a year, except maybe .22. Now I never hung out with any competition types. I do know a famous gunwriter who's health is so bad he hasn't shot most of the guns he writes about in the last 20 years. As a policeman I know several cops who shot maybe twice a year 50 rounds to qualify.

As a matter of note, my log book indicates
an average of about 15,000 rounds per year, as I recall. Slack years still accounted for 10,000 rounds annually.

Bob Wright

 

[vito]

I've never kept any sort of log book regarding my limited shooting, and still see no reason to do so. If I ever "wore out" a gun to where it did not function correctly I would have to get it fixed or replaced, and knowing how many rounds it had fired would be meaningless to me. I used to go the range about twice a month and probably fired about 250 rounds each time, so that would work out to about 6,000 total rounds a year. Now I go to the range more like once a month, and fire maybe 100 rounds. My bad shoulders make it hard to hold up even a small pistol for more than a few mags of shooting before my accuracy drops even lower than normal, which is none too good to begin with. But with the price of ammo being what it is, glancing at the boxes of ammo in my ammo cabinet makes me feel good and I have little reason to shoot it up at paper targets. I keep thinking that maybe I will need that ammo to keep myself safe, or as trading material in the not too distant future. Then I will only keep track of how much ammo I have left, not how much I have shot.

 

[Sugar River]

As noted already, there is a huge difference among various types of shooting. Serious competition vs casual competition vs simple recreational shooting.
From memory, didn't Ross Seyfried say that during the 12 months leading up to his world IPSC title he put 85,000 rounds through his 1911?

 

[graygun]

I guess somewhere under 10k,total. My .22 Sears/Cooey semi auto rifle has the most through it;I bought it in 75 or 76 at a Sears in Montgomery cty MD (how many folks up there even have guns nowadays?).

SR9 would be next (maybe 2k)
not many through the others

In Vietnam,we fired M-16s after our NY party at the MACV club. These were fired from a site within the Cu Chi perimeter. It was a no-no but we didn't get in any trouble. Some of us idiots had been drinking.


1-1-71 and the 25th ID had left the camp/country and ARVN troops taken over.

 

[DGW1949]

.............Ammo is not cheap, and as such,, doing the simple math,, let's calculate.
.9mm ammo, using a figure of $20 a box if purchased in bulk, and the current ammo crap not withstanding.......

Hey Contender....no disrespect intended, but you need to shop around more. One can presently buy Magtech, PMC, Blazer brass, or S&B 9mm-FMJ (either 115 or 124 grain) in case lots for aprox $13 per box and get free shipping to boot. No crappy stuff there, it's all brass-cased, and all re-loadable....source: SGAmmo.com. I didn't put in a link because I wasn't sure of the latest forum rules, but anyhow, hope this helps someone out.

 

[Pps1980]

Shooting 2x a week prior to COVID would lead to 8-10k 22LR, .5-1k rifle, and 5k or so pistol. Easy to track by purchases and shooters book. Nothing extraordinary with 100 visits to a range that means around 150 rounds per visit on average (large variation based on weapon of course).