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Weekly/monthly ammo consumption for self-defense training, ccw

3K views 29 replies 21 participants last post by  tramp 
#1 ·
Guys,
What's your opinion
How much money... yes, and money too, you spend for training ammo+firing range rent?
How much ammo you shoot weekly/mounthly for ccw self defence training?
Someone says about 200-500 rounds a week.
This is one of the reason to switch to 9mm, cheaper ammo.
Also dry training, to save ammo
 
#4 ·
honestly 250 rounds a week is kind of overkill. After as many years as I've shot a little brush up now and again is good, but you don't have to be blowing hundreds of rounds of ammo all the time to be good. perfect practice is better than imperfect all the the time practice.
 
#5 ·
I shoot when I feel like it.

I have been shooting for decades. I do not feel as though I need to put a certain number of rounds down range within a given time frame to feel as though I can acquit myself well in an altercation.
 
#6 ·
Suggestions to increase handgun shooting proficiency.....

These are my opinions, and others may not agree.....

1) If you are new to handgun shooting, it would be a good idea to get an instructor that knows now to teach handgun shooting and proper technique. Some firearms instructors are better at teaching different weapons, but not all may be able to communicate the ideal/optimal technique for fast and accurate shooting.

2) Learn how to reload your own ammunition, and purchase a good progressive best. This will lower the cost of ammunition, and you can make
your own ammo when needed. I would estimate a person can save 40 -50% over the retail cost of most pistol ammo by reusing their empty brass cases and reloading.

3) Once you learn the basic fundamentals of area aiming, sight alignment, and trigger control, spend time doing dry fire technique. Dry fire practice will re-enforce proper sight alignment and proper trigger control.

4) Shoot as often as you can, with as much ammo as you can afford. Shooting 100 rounds with good technique is better than 400 rounds with poor technique.

I have never enjoyed dry fire drills, but I did purchase a very accurate air pistol, and would practice with my air pistol in my back yard at 10 yards, and used a large cardboard box filled with a 3/4" plywood backer and stuffed with magazines and paper.....
 
#7 ·
What's your goal?
be proficient and stay sharp?
Or master to a level where you can run with the national class shooters?

One will get pretty expensive
One not so (relatively)


me personally, there's generally always a "purpose" to my range play.
That's probably what's helped me the most.
I'm also not limited to what drills I can do on my own range ..that helps even more

The drills I do have practical application, but the truth is, I do them because it's simply FUN to me
Same for the few pro training classes I've paid for ..I do them because they're FUN to me

what will you need to stay sharp?
donno...if/when your fundi's are solid sound, I've found I'm better when shooting a little with purpose once or twice a week rather than a lot once a month

..L.T.A.
 
#9 ·
I used to work at a range. There were Self Defense" guys who shot a bazillion rounds a month and regular (but good) Defense Shooters who would just shoot a few boxes a month.

I'm not speaking about competition training, just the Defense people.

My take-home from this is that the bazillion-round shooters were better shots & faster too. But at 15 yards (likely the outside distance for a defensive shoot) the difference was, in my opinion, pretty small.

I did NOT see a "double the practice, double the talent" equation at all. It was closer to a 15% improvement from monumental time, money, & effort expended.

The increase in speed, to me, largely appeared to be from the seamless & instinctive gun-handling & sight acquisition that came from presenting, aiming, & mag-swapping 1000's of times.

Which could be done in one's living room.

So after watching this stuff going on & looking at the groups on paper I came to a conclusion:

One can save a ton of time & money by doing the 80% of practice that is NOT shooting, at home.

Draw, sweeping the safety, get a quick sight picture on that knothole in your fence or thermostat down the hallway, dry fire. Do THAT a few thousand times during a years worth of TV commercials. One of those LaserLyte things would be good too.

Combine this with a few boxes a month at the range & you will be FAR FAR ahead of 99.99% of the badguys on the planet. If that is what your purpose is.

That's my two cents.

When I range shoot I only use my carry gun a bit. I'm competent enough with it.

My main purpose is to enjoy shooting a heap of my vintage guns. No big round count needed to do either.
 
#17 ·
The increase in speed, to me, largely appeared to be from the seamless & instinctive gun-handling & sight acquisition that came from presenting, aiming, & mag-swapping 1000's of times.

Which could be done in one's living room.

That is an excellent recommendation.. I've only done this a little at my house... gonna try to add to a daily routine.

200 to 400 per month at indoor / outdoor range. (Relative to my available time to reload).
 
#11 ·
Most indoor ranges do not allow drawing from a holster. And I don't pay for range time. I shoot out in the country with freedom to do anything I want. I do dry practice at home and only take 100 rounds or so out to shoot. With family and work I don't have much time to do a lot of live fire practice but I do get my dry practice in.
 
#12 ·
230slugster---------- Yep, That's exactly what I was getting at. From what I saw on the job, the actual *BANG* part of shooting was a relatively small part of the process.

I noticed something else: Flinching. When a gun failed to fire through malfunction or most commonly, it ran dry, the shooter would flinch on the "Click"

It was just not normally visible during boom & recoil. But quite apparent when the gun just goes click. Even very good shots would do this. So clearly they had developed a way to shoot around their flinch, but it's still not a stable platform to build on.

Perhaps one could do some surprise "ready or not" gun handoff practice when NOT at a range that would get uptight about it. Don't watch as a buddy racks your 1911, engages the safety, & hands it to you.

Then you, without knowing if there's a round chambered or not, attempt to fire the gun without any flinch at all. This may reveal a flinch that you never knew you had.

I also like the old dry fire with a coin balanced on the barrel/slide technique. A great way to learn good trigger work.
 
#15 · (Edited)
I shoot more than the average shooter.....

I shoot a little over 15,000 rounds per year, which is an estimated average of 300 rounds per week. Three week-end days out of each month I am shooting an action shooting match like IDPA or USPSA.

I don't practice specifically for self defense, but the drills I do in practice have very solid potential for use in self defense. Anytime a shooter can develop their speed and accuracy with a handgun, it has beneficial applications for a potential self defense situation. I always use a shot timer to judge my speed on the draw and target transitions. I will often "push" my speed when shooting at multiple targets to see if I can improve my transitions and accuracy to the max before I get "sloppy hits" on the target....

I enjoy shooting, and have been shooting and competing for over 40+ years. I am now over 65 and retired, but I still enjoy shooting. Even though I am an "old fart" I am still in pretty good shape for my age, and am able to shoot IDPA at a reasonably high level of performance. At a local IDPA match on 1/22/17 we had 64 shooters. My 51 year old shooting buddy was high overall, and I was fortunate to place second overall.....I am not stating this to brag, but am pointing out that even when a person is over 65, if they are in good physical health, they should be able to maintain good shooting proficiency with practice. I enjoy shooting and will continue as long as I remain healthy! :rock:
 
#19 ·
Perhaps. Overall it was a good batch of shooters we had at the range. Most folks were safe, knew what they were doing, & appeared to improve over time.

And often they were one visit & gone. Usually with new guns.

The few unsafe yet arrogant yo yo's we had seemed to be mostly younger, Camo-Clad Tactical dudes. Now keep in mind that in the 1980's the tactical scene was only a small minority of gun guys. Nowadays everybody & their brother has an AR, but it was less common back then in the late '80's.

But the regular unsafe newbies were okay because they could be coached. The Tacticals, not as much. Btw, the newbies & Tacticals would always take their targets home with them.

Then there were the serious Spotting Scope & Handloads guys. With spreadsheets on clipboards. Usually very safe & fired few rounds but with excellent results, that they were often unsatisfied with! Great dudes.

Old hunters with old guns: They would zero in their rifle then leave.

The funnest cats were the Blackpowder & Cannon guys who would stage Rendezvous Events. Camping overnight in teepees, wearing full Civil war, Indian, Trapper, & even Arab/Bedouin attire. We had Hetians in helmets eating dinner with matchlock-carrying conquistadors & Napoleonic regulars.

Hilarious! When shooting there would be more smoke & fire than accuracy but who cares? It was awesome.
 
#20 ·
I LOVE shooting. I can get to the range 3-4 mornings a week if I am lucky. I mix sd/hd shooting with attempts to master my craft :)

shoot 2-300 rounds per session usually

it is my hobby,my sport, my relaxation and worth every penny to me

it is also the only activity I have left. arthritis took away traveling and boating a few years ago. so glad I found hooting and out community of gun nuts( lol).
 
#21 ·
Pistols 1-2 times a month, few hundred rounds each time.
Rifles not so much because it's a farther drive to the outdoor rifle range.
But I try to do that at least once a month. The older I get the less I look forward to cleaning my ARs and my OCD prevents me from leaving them dirty. So I just don't shoot em as much as I used to.
 
#22 · (Edited)
I used to be a dog nuts shooter, part of a gun club, bla bla bla, then Obama came, everyone bought gun, the price of ammo went up. Now I make sure I have a box of rounds in the car when I'm at the farm. I take new shooters to the range so they can try it out, or if a friend is feeling bad. Shooting is a great date night, then have a cheese platter, crusty bread, and wine for after. My actual ammo cost is way way down, a box every two weeks. And it's not good to practice self defense shooting to much; I draw and fire a few times as I move and take cover, I try to think how a real shooting would go down

The "If I take a class exception" like a weekend shooting class or 16 hours of shooting instruction, all bets are off. I bring a thousand rounds to something like that and I remember those classes years later, the people I was with, the new people I meet and still keep in touch with on FB. The money spent is part of the fun, "the spice of life" and that experience is priceless. But if I had to throw a number on a thousand rounds of 9mm, I'd say about $200-$250
 
#24 ·
I generally shoot either for fun or matches. For fun I shoot as many rounds as I want but generally even when fun shooting I set a goal, after all Americans like to win, even at games. I have seen many folks at the range go through boxes of ammo with no improvement. I think they are re-enforcing bad habits more than developing better shooting techniques. To sum up when I train I make a practice of shooting no more than 250 rounds. If I shoot more than 250 rounds I get tired and my grip loosens or I loose focus and concentration or some other distraction pops up. I get the most improvement under 250 rounds. It odd but I find the same is true even shooting .22 cal. target pistols. The grip and focus is the same. It doesn't matter about the caliber.
 
#25 ·
For health reasons I haven't shot much over 100 rounds in 5 years. I'm gonna try to get out more this summer, every week for a little practice to get the feeling back.
 
#27 ·
I shoot frequently (several times a week), but am usually only on the range less than 30 min. I may only shoot 10 or 50 rounds. I pay by the year, retired, and live very close to the range. I avoid weekend shooters. The only round that counts is the first one each day, think about it.
 
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