new guy with a newbie question

[letsGOphills]

im sorry if this is an issue that i wasnt able to find an answer for, but when going to the range can you shoot too much at once? ive never owned my own gun until recently and when going with other people to the range ive shot as much as theyd let me. be it 50rds or 500. but now that im using my own, is there a limit as to how much i should shoot at one visit to the range? thanks

 

[GhosT]

letsGOphills,

I'm gonna play along as just yer second post..
You might be asking a serious NEWBIE QUESTION?


"ive never owned my own gun until recently"
What is the FIRST GUN YA BOUGHT?

"be it 50rds or 500. but now that im using my own, is there a limit as to how much i should shoot at one visit to the range?"

Safe bet nobody is gonna recommend 500 rounds on a single trip to the range.....even rim fires!

Safe bet.....
Tell us the gun ya just bought, or expect zero responses.

 

[9isFine]

500 rounds in a single session? Yes, as long as you dont overheat the barrel and not shooting lead reloads.

Welcome to the forum.

What kind of gun did you purchase?

ive never owned my own gun until recently

Ive never owned my guns until I purchased them...J/K

 

[axisofoil]

If it's the first gun you own, YOU will be done looooong before the gun is.

 

[pisgah]

Shoot as many as you can afford or stand.

 

[revhigh]

Shoot as many as you can afford or stand.

Exactly ... don't worry about the gun ... no matter what the gun is .... shoot until you've had enough, find your concentration waning, or you run out of ammo.

Shooting should be fun ... 50 or 700 ... it's up to you.

REV

 

[letsGOphills]

what i meant by ive never owned my own gun was i always went with friends and would shoot theirs when i went. and i just bought my own pistol and didnt want to damage it or over shoot it at one period if it was possible. like i said i am NEW to guns. first in my entire family to own one. i bought a p93. thanks to all the actual response's

 

[bada61265]

ive shot upwards of 1500 rounds in one session. no harm to the guns. most of it .22 lr, but have shot 700 .223 from an ar 15 in one sitting. ive shot at least that much on a few occasions with .45 auto, i think 500 rounds is a decent start for a nice couple hours at the range. bring plenty of targets, pop, stapler or tape, and enjoy. limiting factor for me is shooting high cap autos with hard to load mags. i tend to load the mags prior to going to the range and then only reload the mags as often as sore fingers allow.

 

[Mike J]

ive shot upwards of 1500 rounds in one session. no harm to the guns. most of it .22 lr, but have shot 700 .223 from an ar 15 in one sitting. ive shot at least that much on a few occasions with .45 auto, i think 500 rounds is a decent start for a nice couple hours at the range. bring plenty of targets, pop, stapler or tape, and enjoy. limiting factor for me is shooting high cap autos with hard to load mags. i tend to load the mags prior to going to the range and then only reload the mags as often as sore fingers allow.

It sounds like you need to get a magazine loader.

As far as the OP's question I usually just shoot a couple hundred rounds at a time in a range session but it depends on what I'm doing and how much time I have.

 

[LuckyGunner.com]

There isn't a set number of rounds you should shoot. I've shot as few as 15 rounds at a range session. I've also shot a 2k rounds over the course of a day. For me it depends on the type of firearm and the setting. Rifles I can shoot all day. I have a limit on handguns of around 400 rounds before fatigue becomes noticeable. I've also found that I can shoot a whole lot more a outdoor ranges vs indoor. Less sound waves hitting you and cleaner air.

What you want to keep an eye on, and this is especially true for handguns. You will hit a wall where your accuracy is starting to slip. That's when you want to put the firearm down for the day or at least a while. If you shoot too much at one sitting you can develop a recoil flinch.

I would suggest you shoot around 50-100 rounds until you feel comfortable shooting more.

_________________
9mm Luger ammo

 

[kstoneking]

Your P93 will shoot as much as you want to with no problems. Have at it and, most of all, have a great time. My only caveat to you would be to make sure you give your Ruger a good cleaning afterwards. That way it will be ready to do it all over again. You have a good pistol that will last forever with a bit of care. Enjoy it.

Kenny

 

[letsGOphills]

thanks for the replies. i went today and put 300 rounds through it and came home and cleaned it asap. its my ccw gun also and wanted it clean before i went out for the evening. love the gun and am already planning on another purchase. suggestions welcome!

 

[DGW1949]

thanks for the replies. i went today and put 300 rounds through it and came home and cleaned it asap. its my ccw gun also and wanted it clean before i went out for the evening. love the gun and am already planning on another purchase. suggestions welcome!

If it was me, and if my CCW gun was the only gun I had, and if I'd only had it long enough to fire 300 rounds through it....my next purchace would be a couple of spare factory mags and all the practice ammo that I could afford. Then I'd buy more practice ammo. After I got good with it from different positions, one handed, two handed, pointing it from hip level, could do OK with my weak hand, could reload a mag in the dark, got real good at replacing a mag without having to look at the gun, could consistently draw from my carry holster and put a good hit on a target in under 3 seconds.....and after I was absolutely confident in my abilities....then I'd think about buying a second gun. That second gun would be a light/handy carbine of some sort.

Probably not the suggestion you was wanting to hear, but there it is.

DGW

 

[letsGOphills]

but much appreciated. ive spent a good amount of time at home practicing drawing my gun and spend almost the whole time at the range working on different scenarios i might face. the advice is much appreciated.

 

[mohavesam]

Actually, this is one of the more interesting questions I've seen in a long time.


I've always noticed a point of no return when shooting at organizaed ranges. That is, there comes a point when fatigue begins to cause you to change something; beit grip, trigger squeeze, sighting pose, etc. I recommend whenever you notice that point, STOP.

There is no better way to acquire bad habits than to change something due to fatigue. Even in my youth, some time during shooting my sights would blur. Or my finger cramped. Or the walk to change targets got a bit longer.

Using a range with others present, is most usefull for honing accuracy and consistent muscle memory. Use the range for that, not for marathon sessions or shooting until that extra brick is gone.

 

[Cheesewhiz]

Actually, this is one of the more interesting questions I've seen in a long time.


I've always noticed a point of no return when shooting at organizaed ranges. That is, there comes a point when fatigue begins to cause you to change something; beit grip, trigger squeeze, sighting pose, etc. I recommend whenever you notice that point, STOP.

There is no better way to acquire bad habits than to change something due to fatigue. Even in my youth, some time during shooting my sights would blur. Or my finger cramped. Or the walk to change targets got a bit longer.

Using a range with others present, is most usefull for honing accuracy and consistent muscle memory. Use the range for that, not for marathon sessions or shooting until that extra brick is gone.

I agree with this to a point but you can work up to quality marathon sessions if that is something you find that you want to do. I look at range trips in a bunch of different ways (I try to go to a range twice a week), practice, meeting up with my friends, helping out somebody that's newer to shooting or has a new gun that's not working so well at first.
I have fatigued through some of my long range sessions but I work myself out of them, most times. I find that is also practice, working out of a problem during a bad spot in that day. Figuring out what you are doing wrong and fixing it is a good thing.
...but there are sometimes I think I'm just wasting ammo and quit, those are my bad days at the range.

 

[rugerfan100]

I always try to go home empty handed...

 

[Verndog]

I always try to go home empty handed...

Lets hope the BG's don't find that out! :shock: :wink:

 

[letsGOphills]

my next endeavor is finding decent ammo cheap. i was having a blast when i ran out last time, practicing some things, competing with my buddy and so on. the one thing i did most that i was really having fun was practicing drawing from my holster and taking 3 quick shots aiming for center mass. not sure if it will actually help me but thought itd help if i needed to do it in a self-defense scenario. maybe i just really love shooting....

 

[DGW1949]

LOL....yeah, finding decent cheap ammo stays on my list of endevors too. In that respect it's not much different than the search for affordable powder, primers and bullets for reloading.
It's all perty-pricey these days but what's the use in having a gun that ya aint profecient with?

DGW