I have been hearing a lot of stories about some of you guys in the states owning 20-30 firearms and reloading for all of them and firing 20,000 odd rounds off in a year!is this ture or just bull shit.Cheers James

20,000 is far more than I go through. Personally I only own 16 firearms and go through maybe 2500 rounds per year. I do reload for everyone of them. My hunting partner owns over 30 firearms and probaly goes through close to 5000-6000 per year. (Excluding his skeet shooting- that probably adds another 2000-3000.)

IV

TP

It's all bullshit...

I only have nine rifles, 5 handguns, four shot guns and a muzzle-loader. I don't believe I've ever shot more than 8000 rounds in a year. I don't reload for any of my shot guns.

Hope this clears up any rumors you might have heard.

Regards

Elmo

Unless you earn a living shooting competively it BS. And even so you would have 2 maybe 3 rifles you competed with.

Golly, I've lost count of the actual number of firearms ... but it's over 30. Includes 15 rifles in calibers from .223 to .470 NE, and a couple of exotics. Chuck in 5 or 6 field shotguns and riot guns, and more than several handguns and I think I make the numbers.

I don't shoot all that much any more, but for a number of years I bought and used more than 20 thousand primers every year ... mostly for practical shooting practice. I now hunt more than I used to and shoot less on the range.

This is not a "common" collection of toys, but it is not an unusual collection either ... one of my acquaintences last indicated he has 168 guns.

I reload for at least 23 calibers of rifle and pistol and 2 shotgun gauges,

So ... it isn't always BS

Don't know about the US, I'm in the UK. I've got 30 rifles plus sundry shotguns.

The rifles are in 8 calibres and I reload for all except the .22" RF. Each rifle has its own load.

They are mainly classics as thats my discipline, even my stalking rifles are classics Mannilcher Schoenauer, Lee Speeds etc.

I shoot around 5-7,000 rounds a year, would shoot more if I could fit in the range time.

I guess if I we were allowed autos I'd maybe shoot more rounds.

20,000 rounds is a lot of ammunition.

My primary job as a physician has me down to 5,000 rounds per year (mainly shotgun and pistol practice). My secondary job as a ballistics consultant has me up to 87 firearms spread out over rifles, pistols, shotguns and muzzle loaders. Also three safes, some iron bars, an alarm system with video and motion detectors and two very alert doggies. That is why I love this country.

lawndart

quote:

Unless you earn a living shooting competively it BS. And even so you would have 2 maybe 3 rifles you competed with

Monticello, what planet are you calling from?
I own and shoot more rifles,shotguns,slug guns,pistols,revolvers,muzzleloaders,air rifles and air pistols,sling shots and peashooters than you and I could carry.
And I reload for all.

Time was I shot lots of 45 acp, 25,000 per year.
With a large number of 45 Colt. I kept count by the number of primers I went through. I buy my primers in lots of 50,000 from Powder Valley, in Kansas. Powder is purchased in four eight pound canisters once I know the powder to use. These are Unique, , IMR 3031, IMR 4895, IMR 4064.
The loading was not the time eater, casting the bullets was the big time consumer.
Jim

I would say it's not that unusual. I own 50+ assorted firearms, and reload for most -although not all. I don't reload for shotguns at all. I don't reload small pistols, only .357 Mag and up. I normally shoot 3k-5k rounds a year (including rimfire).

BS. I don't know how many guns I have at the moment without counting them, my memory is for crap these days. Don't shoot that much unless you count shotguns and clays. I don't, clays are like fishing, doesn't count against your lifespan or primer inventory.

Excuse the brief response, there's a lump under the seat cushion...now when did I put that Sharps there?

quote:

Originally posted by TOP_PREDATOR:
I have been hearing a lot of stories about some of you guys in the states owning 20-30 firearms and reloading for all of them and firing 20,000 odd rounds off in a year!is this ture or just bull shit.Cheers James

I have at one time or another owned as many as 30 different guns, including handguns and muzzleloaders. I rarely ever fire factory ammo in any of them. Some are for odd cartridges like the 8X60RS or the 9X57mm, so there IS NO factory ammo!

When I was an active competitive pistol shooter, I fired many a round in a year, but seriously doubt if the total ever got as high as 20,000! 5,000 maybe. But not anymore. Now I shoot mostly black powder in muzzle-loading arms, so the number of shots fired is pretty low. I go through a couple of pounds of BP in a year. It takes me several years these days to shoot up a pound of smokeless rifle powder.

Top predator will some of the storys you have heard are true. I gave up counting them lets say the 30 would be on the low end for a lot of the people I know.

I personally reload for over 50 calibers. When I was shooting in compitations I shot well over 20000 a year. Now it is in the 10000 a year range. It is nothing to go on a p dog hunt and shoot a thousand plus rounds in 3 or 4 days.

I know people who have hundreds of firearms in there collections and reload for most of them.
Yes shooting is big in the states and in most of them there is no lic requirement you can own as many as you can afford.

I know several trap and skeet shooters who shoot into the 20000 plus rounds a year range and reload most of them progressive presses like PW and Mec 9000h or g make it simple to crank out thousands of rounds of ammo.

I know that some of that might be hard to belive when you live in a area that the goverment resricts the owner ship of firearms. But for the most part in most of the states one can own as many as I said before that one can afford.

At this point, I don't have a lot of guns: five rifles, three shotguns, and one handgun. Over time I've had probably four times that many.

I prefer to have a fewer firearms and shoot more. Less complexity in reloading as well.

There are several thousand rounds of rifle ammo in various calibers in my gun/reloading room, plus a couple hundred shotgun and handgun cartridges (12 ga. and 9mm Para).

I used to shoot shotguns competitively, now concentrate on Highpower Rifle. I normally go through 3000+ rounds per year counting my target rifles and shotguns, my hunting rifles and shotguns, and just plinking around.

I live in the state of Ohio, so I need no license or permit to buy any firearm or any ammunition in any caliber. I only need to go through the FBI's instant background check IF I buy a firearm from a licensed dealer. However, if I buy a firearm privately from another Ohio resident, we just legally exchange money and merchandise without so much as a "by your leave" to the government.

Also, some of my guns (AR15, Smith & Wesson 915, Remington 870 and 11-87) are virtually impossible to own in Australia, yet I can buy them as easily as I can buy a bolt action rifle.

quote:

Originally posted by Monticello:
Unless you earn a living shooting competively it BS. And even so you would have 2 maybe 3 rifles you competed with.

I reload for 6 rifles and 4 handguns. I shoot something like 400 rounds a month, mostly handgun. A friend of mine shoots around 1500 a month of 45ACP and it's all just for fun! He also shoots around 500 of 223 and countless numbers of 9MM & 308. The 9MM & 308 aren't tracked as he doesn't reload for them.

Rick

Between rimfire, rifle and shotgun, about 10,000 rounds per year, I suppose. Counting the shotshells I load for the wife and kids, about that many reloads per year, too.

Never counted my guns, but my wife does. Then again, she has nearly as many as I do. Then again, she has enough guns, and I don't..... FWIW,Dutch.

quote:

Originally posted by TOP_PREDATOR:
I have been hearing a lot of stories about some of you guys in the states owning 20-30 firearms and reloading for all of them and firing 20,000 odd rounds off in a year!is this ture or just bull shit.Cheers James

I have been looking over everyone's claimed statistics and I wonder is this the norm or are these stats abnormal? Ie is this not a percieved norm when in fact if you look at all arms owned in the USA to the number of owners ratios the picture is actually very different.

Regarding the number of arms I think the majority of arms owners own no more than 2 or 3 pieces and if one should take the total amount of owners and devide the total ammo sales in the USA by that one would find the majority fire off very little ammo in a year, a few packs of 20 only.

Now there are "high output" sporting shooters such as the IPSIC and Trap and sporting clays shooters and yet how much do they expend in a year. 20,000 rounds?????

Hmmmmmm one may think so but the true stats show differently.

I am a member and active participant in the PITA. Due to geographical location I belong to them and not the ATA.

Like the ATA they have by virtue of competition the exact stats available of all clays shot in their respective competitions this excludes practise shots fired per member per annum. As published in the annual Averages and history books of both organizations.

The stats are actually quite low.

For the 2004 season, PITA has only 4309 members shooting a total of 5,245,725 competition shots giving an annual avarage of 1217.4 competition shots fired per member only. ( this does not take annual practice into account)

If you look at "lifetime awards" for competition shots fired over a lifetime there are very few shooters out there who make the 500,000 mark.

The 200,000 shot mark is more the high end achievement norm but few ever get there and that achievement is sporadic.

Based on my personal experience of the shooting patterns at our local shooting range and then actually having seen measurable numbers as submitted by hunting regulatory bodies the actual number of shots fired per annum per shooter is very very low !

i don't own THAT many guns. i decided i wanted a few expensive ones instead of hundreds of cheaper ones that i'd never shoot.

i reload for them all.

i just got started this past year in competitive shooting, and coincidentally, just bought components for 20,000 rounds. i expect to go through that before the end of the year.

however, i know lots of people with more than 100 guns.

by the way, from the way you asked, we should probably point out that all these guns are almost NEVER used in any violent crime. once you get a felony conviction, it is illegal to own all these guns. so aside from prison, and the electric chair, people with $30,000-$100,000 firearm collections have a lot of incentive to behave.

It's hard to say what "typical" is. The people on this board certainly have more firearms than most people do.

I've heard the statistic that half of all US homes have a firearm... can't vouch for it.

Here in the western US, a lot of homes will have 1-2 deer rifles, and will take 2-3 seasons to work through a box of 20 cartridges.

In Utah, about 3% of people have permits to carry concealed weapons. States that allow concealed carry have experienced declines in crime. Criminals just never know when they might be looking down the muzzle of a 9mm, and that's a good thing.

There are organized groups that shoot competitively. If you're in one of those, you'll go through a very large amount of ammunition very quickly, especially some of the handgun competitions.

I don't shoot in competition. My wife and I own 12 rifles, 2 shotguns, and 5 handguns. I probably go through 1000 to 1500 rounds per year, and I was not aware that you could buy ammunition already put together.

Just taking a mental tour of my neighborhood...

Neighbor 1-- concealed carry permit, at least 1 handgun. No reloading

Neigbhor 2-- probably a dozen firearms. Reloads.

Neighbor 3-- unknown

Neighbor 4-- 0

Neighbor 5-- unknown

Neighbor 6-- probably 24 rifles, 12 handguns. Reloads.

Neighbor 7-- unknown, but former law enforcement

Neighbor 8-- probably 2 deer rifles, commercial ammo.

Maybe that will help with perspective.

ALF, since the United States has no central firearms registry, and not all competitive shooting is sanctioned and/or reported, trying to guess whether we are fibbing or not on the number of arms we own based on data available to you is an exercise in futility.

We are fortunate to be able to own as many of just about anything we want in the USA. I have more than 1 & less than 50. I reload for everything except 12ga. I used to shoot a lot of competition & probably used to shoot 12K-15K per year. I've tapered way back as I seldom compete anymore but 2K-3K per year is still easily done (I live in the city so opportunity is less).

I know a LOT of people that own more than 20 firearms.......the 20,000 rounds a year figure would be the exception though!

I agree the 20,000 number is high, unless you are a serious competitive shooter. By far the most rounds I expend is in practice (plinking with a 22), and on the Sporting clays course. We usually shoot two rounds per week in the summer, and then some five stand in the winter. It's rather easy to get to 5,000 shotgun shells that way. A nice Saturday afternoon at the club and it is not unusual for my family to go through most of two cases of shells.

It's hard to get off 250 rounds of high-powered rifle in an afternoon! FWIW, Dutch.

Dutch, the trick is to switch shoulders at 125.

I personally know a guy - not someone I've heard of - buy actually know, that EASILY shoots 20K a year. Heck, he generally shoots 400 rounds of pistol ammo (.45 and .22) per session, at least twice a week. Then he shoots rifle too.

He says people used to shoot more before the internet.

quote:

have been hearing a lot of stories about some of you guys in the states owning 20-30 firearms and reloading for all of them and firing 20,000 odd rounds off in a year!is this ture or just bull shit.Cheers James

20-30. That's all. you gotta be kiddin me! Some of us have that many in one caliber. Here is a pic of some of my .44 mags. I don't shoot but about 10,000 rounds a year now. Old age is catching up with me. I do reload for 80 or so different calibers.

quote:

Originally posted by TOP_PREDATOR:
I have been hearing a lot of stories about some of you guys in the states owning 20-30 firearms and reloading for all of them and firing 20,000 odd rounds off in a year!is this ture or just bull shit.Cheers James

Why? Is that a lot?

Hey Top Preditor .. here in Northern Pennsylvania (up in the wood) most everyone has some sort of gun collection .. and they hunt .. schools close for the first day of deer season ,, there are active pistol and rifle ranges, with skeet, trap and sporting clays coming on stronger each year. I have a full time job and still manage to shoot several hundred rnds of rifle and shotgun ammo each week .. I would suspect that if the number of firearms had anything to do with crime we would be the crime capital of the world .. ..mb

You have to realize that the folks that spend time on these boards aren't the average shooter, rather the serious enthusiast. Some guys have well over 30 guns, some guys reload for every one of them, and some guys fire 20,000 or more rounds a year, darn few do all of those things. If it was my only hobby, and I had more free time, then I don't think doing all of those would be any tough task.

I have a gun range that I can use during my lunch breaks, and can easily fire off a couple hundred rounds a week, just during my lunch break. Say 500 rounds a week, and 40 out of 50 weeks put's that at 20k rounds a year.

I'd say your average serious enthusiat will easily have a dozen or so guns, reload for some if not all of them, and fire off a couple thousand rounds a year.

If you average up all the folks that own guns, then you'd be down to 3-4 guns on average, reloaders are the exception to the rule, and less than 100 rounds down range a year.

Just look at our gracious host, while not in the states, he has a rather nice collection of guns a reloading setup that is the envy of us all, and I'm sure he puts alot of rounds down range a year.

If you include rimfire guns in some cases guys will go out and shoot a case (5000 rounds) in a day with their semi autos just for the hell of it. I shot 180 rounds of .223 centerfire last saturday loading one at a time shooting for groups in one rifle alone, that didn't incluse the 500 rounds of .22 rimfire I shot between groups plinking while waiting for the barrel to cool. Oh and don't forget the ammo I shot out of the other 6 centerfires I also took along. When I go to the range it is an all day affair, then I went back again on Sunday and I been reloading a couple hours every night this week to do it again this weekend.

quote:

Originally posted by Paul H:
Just look at our gracious host, while not in the states, he has a rather nice collection of guns a reloading setup that is the envy of us all, and I'm sure he puts alot of rounds down range a year.

Perks of royalty.

I own less than 20. I don't reload for shotgun or pistol. I do reload for 4 or 5 center fire rifles. Between hunting upland, waterfowl, deer, bear, coyote, sporting clays, etc, I may fire about 2,000 rounds a year. That does not include hand gun or rimfire.

I used to do quite a bit of hand gun competition, but the eyes have betrayed me over the years. Thank goodness for lasers..

Recently started looking at 22 rimfire benchrest on a non-competition level. Which will drive up the ammo consumption.

I do know people who fire 1,000 rounds of rimfire a day, but I would consider them unusual. Most people I meet at a rifle range may go through a 100 or 200 rounds a year of center fire. While the hand gun crowd can easily do that in 1 day at the range.

quote:

I have been looking over everyone's claimed statistics and I wonder is this the norm or are these stats abnormal? Ie is this not a percieved norm when in fact if you look at all arms owned in the USA to the number of owners ratios the picture is actually very different.

Alf,

You raise a good point. I am not sure anyone can come up with accurate numbers.

Certainly, most urban americans do not own any where near this many arms. Nor do they shoot this much. That is evident by the decline in the number of places to shoot and the declining number of retail gun dealers.

I personally think the numbers are highly political. Many groups have reason to inflate them.

Also, I would guess that the "average" user of these forums has at least some interest in hunting. Some may have an involvement in one of the shooting sports. Else, why even bother to come here?

I would say the most shooting I ever did was when I was 18 and unemployed.I would head out ever summer day and shoot 200-250 rounds from my 1911 that where reloads.I would shoot as many from my Mini 14,and that was before noon.The .223 was all surplus ammo.Hell when Bill Clinton got elected I bought $5,000.00 worth of ammo figuring it would be resricted in some way.As far as 20 to 30 guns I dont know.

Thanks guys,so its not just bull shit some of you guys do a hell of alot of shooting good on you I have 2 shotguns,2 centrefire rifles,2 rimfires and reload for centrefire rifles and load a few 12ga rounds for gesse,I would use 1000 12ga,500 centrefire,1500 rimfire in a good year.Gun laws are not too bad here,once you a have licence you buy and own as many class A firearms as you want.

I certainly wouldn't say that 20-30 guns and 20,000 rounds is the norm here in the US but, it is common.

I personally only own 35-40 guns and only shoot a few thousand rounds a year. Some years I shoot more than others. Reloading and shootin' em' is one of my hobbies. I guess it's an addiction.

Good Luck!

Reloader

quote:

Gun laws are not too bad here

I know that NZ Police can revoke your license for just about any reason they wish, and the burden to prove otherwise is on you.

By American standards, that is pretty bad.

As someone said, "Thank God we live in this country!" Statistically, we are the most heavily armed country in the world. One of the anti-gun groups said we had enough privately owned weapons for each person (family?) to have five or six. We have well in excess of two or three per person.

Do we fire 20,000 rounds a year? That is a tough thing to do. That would be 400 a week every week. When I was active in pistol shooting, I might have fired 5,000 rounds of all kinds, center fire pistol, centerfire rifle and rimfire pistol/rifle in a year. I was reloading (using that many primers); however, I still have not fired some of the rounds I loaded during that very active period.

Most of my shooting today is heavy caliber rifle, and you just can't handle that much punishment. However, in getting ready for a big hunt, I might take seven rifles to the range and fire fifty to one hundred rounds of big bore and two to three hundred rim fire rounds in a day.

Because of other range activities and other personal activities, it is very difficult to do this more than twice a month. Seven hundred to a thousand rounds a month is a good bit of shooting. It certainly isn't average, and doesn't come close to what a dedicated skeet, trap or IPSC shooter would launch in month.

I'd say that for an active, non-competitive shooter, I probably shoot a bit more than my peers. On the other hand, I shoot a lot more than the person who has a pistol in their bedside table for house protection. So, we don't shoot that 20,000 rds per year.

Like so many who have replied, I reload for every centerfire firearm that I own but one, a Moisant-Nagant. I can't reload cheaply enough to make that worthwhile. All the rest of the pistols and rifles and shotguns I can and do reload for. Kudude

I have about 25 between rifles pistols shotguns and muzzleloaders. Probably only shoot about 3 or 4000 rounds a year though. Come to think of it though, I used 3000 shotshell primers last year. I can buy Federal Top Gun target loads for 2.99 a box on sale here and the shotshell reloading may get less. My rifles do not know what a factory round is. There are several members in our club that shoot much more then I though.

quote:

I have a gun range that I can use during my lunch breaks, and can easily fire off a couple hundred rounds a week, just during my lunch break. Say 500 rounds a week, and 40 out of 50 weeks put's that at 20k rounds a year.

Paul, yeah, a nearby range is sweet. I took a little "flex time" today and stretched my lunch into early afternoon, and with some friends put about 1000 rnds of .223 through an M16 and 3 ARs. it goes fast plus, i shot 400 rnds of .45acp myself while the barrel was cooling.

I'm planning to attend a CMP clinic on saturday, which will be 80 rounds, and then practice for steel challenge on Sunday, which will be 400-600 rnds or so. Plus I shot some earlier this week.

wish i could do this every week, but with all the mundane stuff like work, I get a 1000+ rnd week maybe 1/month.