# How much ammo for a trip to the range?



## HawkRam (Sep 20, 2008)

My new gun should be here any day now, and I have been stocking up on ammo.

Right now I have 300 rounds of 9mm and 100 rounds of 22lr for a little .22 rifle I picked up.

How much can a person go through in a session at the range?


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## kev74 (Mar 22, 2008)

Last time I went, I burnt through 100 9mm and about 350 .22. It took me about an hour and a half. :mrgreen:


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## cvillechopper (Jan 27, 2008)

How much time do you have?
I usually go through about 100 rounds with my CW9 and the fatigue starts widening my groups. With a larger, more stable/ range friendly gun you might get more. Just depends on how long you want to spend. Do you have a few extra mags? It gets really old shooting and reloading with only one.


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## unpecador (May 9, 2008)

I usually shoot 300 9mm rounds in a one hour session.


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## JustRick (Sep 14, 2008)

My wife and I together went through about 250 rounds of 9mm and 120 of .22LR. I usually shoot about 100 rounds of 9mm, but I was trying out different cartridge brands and loads. (Turns out that our FNP9 doesn't care -- it seems to like whatever ammo I stick in the magazine.)


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## HawkRam (Sep 20, 2008)

I've got 2 15rnd mags for the 9mm and just one for the .22 that only holds 10.

I plan on buying some more mags hopefully 17 rounders.

I'm new to this but 300 in an hour sounds like a lot, you must be blastin away!


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## unpecador (May 9, 2008)

HawkRam said:


> I'm new to this but 300 in an hour sounds like a lot, you must be blastin away!


The range that I shoot at doesn't allow rapid firing if that's what you mean. While I'm there, I'm totally focused on shooting and producing well placed shots.


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## Ram Rod (Jan 16, 2008)

I can usually burn 100-150 rounds in pistol calibers when I go to the range, and I always take two, 9mm, 40S&W, or 45acp, so figure 300 rounds there. If I take my AR or AK, that's 100 rounds easy, and always take one of the 22lr's, so that's at least 300 so figure about 7-800 rounds total of all ammo, not including the possible bolt action I've reloaded for which don't ammount to more than 15 or 20 shots.


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## Hairy Clipper (Nov 3, 2008)

Man, That's like asking how much lobster can you eat after a hard days work.

Hairy


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## Bisley (Aug 24, 2008)

I used to burn up about 300 rounds of handgun ammo, mostly .45, in a 2 hour session.

However, when I was doing that, my shooting was not really improving very much. I have found that it's best (for me) to spend most of my time loading 5 in a magazine and to shoot slowly, at paper targets, with short breaks every so often. The ammo lasts longer, and my shooting is obviously better.

Then, for the last few minutes, I move over to the steel silhouettes and practice knocking them down as fast as I can, from 20 yards. I don't try to use up my ammo, but rather try to accomplish some marksmanship and speed goals. I shoot as fast as I can and still hit the targets, and if I start missing, I slow the pace. (This sounds very basic, but surprisingly, a lot of folks just shoot faster.)

If I do shoot up all my centerfire ammo, I'll drag out my .22 conversion kit for the CZ-75B and shoot bulk-pack ammo from Walmart till my fingers start cramping from loading magazines. It's not such a sin to waste this ammo.


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## DevilsJohnson (Oct 21, 2007)

Most of the shooting I do is at my own range here at home or a friends place. Depending on what kind of practice we decide to get into I/We cna burn through a pretty good amount of ammo. Many times here st home I might just do a mag or two or I might go through a few hundred rounds. We have been doing this thing where we set up three man targets at different distances and run through a few different drills. Like two rounds in each in 6 seconds then one in each then come back through in the same time and score them to see who wins it. That can get you spending a lot of ammo pretty fast.

Most newer shooters I tell to not try and burn a bunch at a time especially if they are shooting bigger bore pistols mainly because they are not all that used to dealing with a couple/few hundred recoils. It can wear a person out of they are not all that used it it. I will advise trying 50/100 rounds then move from there with whatever they feel comfortable with. I've seen more than one new shooter get a new gun and 500 rounds then not want to pick it up for a while because their wrist gets worn out.

It is a great idea to have something like a 22 to get warmed up with. No recoil to speak of and it can help get your grip right before you bring out the "big guns":smt068:draw:


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## tekhead1219 (May 16, 2008)

HawkRam said:


> Right now I have 300 rounds of 9mm and 100 rounds of 22lr for a little .22 rifle I picked up. How much can a person go through in a session at the range?


How long do you plan at being at the range? How fast are you going to fire them out of the pipe? How much money do you have? Past weekend, my wife and I went to the range and went through 150 rds of .45 acp, 200 rds of 9mm and 50 rds of .380 in about 1 1/2 hrs. Ran out of ammo and money before I ran out of time.:smt022


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## JeffWard (Aug 24, 2007)

My new house is 10 minutes from my range, I paid for a full year in advance in membership, I make all my own targets now, and I shoot about twice per week...

I about 60-75% of my shooting practice for speed, draw-practice, reload-practice, and folow-up shots. The rest is slow-fire trigger practice.

I load 3 mags with 2 rounds each, plus one in the tube. Then I shoot two quick shots, reload, two shot, reload, and 2 shots into each of three side by side targets from 5-10 yards (leaves one round in the gun). Practice for USPSA. This burns ammo FAST... It's 6 rounds in 4-5 seconds...

With this, I shoot only 50-100 rounds per visit. Last trip was 50 rounds:

5 rounds, slow-fire, 1 string at 7M,
5 rounds, slow-fire, 1 string at 15M,
30 rounds, controlled pairs, 2 per mag x 3 mags = 5 strings at 5-7M, 
5 rounds, slow-fire, 1 string at 7M,
5 rounds, slow-fire, 1 string at 7M.

Takes me about 20 minutes to burn 50 rounds this way. Twice per week.

If I shoot 100 rounds, I add a few more strings of controlled pairs.

I get really sloppy past 30 minutes non-stop. Matches take 4-5hrs for 120-150 rounds, but it's more waiting and reseting targets, than shooting... But a 20-30 shot stage takes under 20 seconds... So it's fast.

Jeff


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## HawkRam (Sep 20, 2008)

I don't plan on much rapid fire I want to always be aiming at something.

(But I will probably burn one mag down rapid fire before I leave)

What distances should I start out at? I tend to think of shooting longer distances but after reading hear that may not be realistic with the hand gun, maybe shoot at targets 15 to 20 yard or is that too far?


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## BeefyBeefo (Jan 30, 2008)

HawkRam said:


> I don't plan on much rapid fire I want to always be aiming at something.


Just for the record, there _is_ aiming involved with rapid fire (or atleast I'd hope so). :smt033



HawkRam said:


> What distances should I start out at? I tend to think of shooting longer distances but after reading hear that may not be realistic with the hand gun, maybe shoot at targets 15 to 20 yard or is that too far?


I would highly suggest starting out at 7 yards, or even 5 yards. 15 or 20 yards is definitely too far to start. Don't worry about anybody else at the range, just worry about yourself and your own abilities. Concentrate on improving your own shooting, and starting out at 15 or 20 yards is not going to facilitate improvement in my opinion.

-Jeff-:smt1099


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## Spartan (Jan 1, 2007)

unpecador said:


> I usually shoot 300 9mm rounds in a one hour session.


Ditto.


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## ttomp (Jan 28, 2008)

250 rounds of .45


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