LM2024

Not everyone can afford to shoot as much as you, or reload their own ammo, or join an outdoor club and make the drive to an outdoor range. And not everyone here lives in Florida or Hawaii where you can simply shoot outdoors all year round. I don't think it's right calling people armchair warriors because they can't do everything you do. If you have the means and the time to do all that, good for you.

Bark'n

I think if you can afford to shoot at least one 50 round box, every payday and go for quality shots, you'll be ahead of the game of most shooters.

Actually if you can do that once a month, you'll be ahead. You can change up what drills you shoot at each session.

Shooting and marksmanship is a depreciable skill, and shooting a small amount every two weeks or once a month is a whole lot more productive than shooting a lot 2,3 or 4 times a year.

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-Bark'n
Semper Fi

"The gun is the great equalizer... For it is the gun, that allows the meek to repel the monsters; Whom are bigger, stronger and without conscience, will prey on those of us who without one, would surely perish."

ExSoldier

Sixto, you echo what many of us are thinking about the way in which the OP put this thread into words. I didn't much care for the manner in which he casually put a majority of the folks here into the "armchair warrior" profile of shooter. There are MANY real live warriors here as well as LEOs who put their rear ends on the line every single day. There are folks who've been handling firearms for so many years the number of muscle memory draws probably numbers in the tens of millions or more.

I'm a school teacher and the summer is ending. Next week the kids return and the grind begins again. This summer I doubt I have put more than 200 rounds downrange for myself. I have been too busy running ccw permit classes, critiquing technique and creating the valid templates for muscle memory actions in novice shooters who wish to become experienced sheepdogs to worry about my own level of practice BECAUSE I don't worry about my own level of practice. So I don't much appreciate the "armchair warrior" title applied anywhere on this board. The folks who're novice shooters want to become experienced shooters and sheepdogs probably don't much appreciate it either. Since I hate beating dead horse, I'll stop now.

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Former Infantry Captain; 20 yrs as an NRA Certified Instructor; Avid practitioner of the martial art: KLIK-PAO.

wmhawth

Same here. High round count seems to yield diminishing return for the effort for me. Better to shoot a few with concentration than to mindlessly sling a lot of lead downrange.

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William

Mardet65

Let me start by saying. I LOVE TO SHOOT! I will shoot at anytime I get the opportunity. When I was working, our department took us through an intensive qualification process every six months. Of course, we used their ammo and got paid for the day. I'm now retired and can't tell you how much I miss those days at the range. If they called I'd be the firtst one to jump at the chance to shoot with them. However, I'm retired and on a great pension but a pension after all no matter how good, only goes so far. Can I afford the expense of joining a shooting club, driving all the way there spending a day shooting up a bunch of ammo every week or month? Maybe, but there always seems to be something else that comes up needing to be paid. Right now I'm allotted an hour once a week or so at an indoor range to shoot up a box or two and I just make the most of it. Many of us just have to settle for what we can manage to do.

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Simpson's dialog:
Bart: Can I hold your club?
Officer Lou: It's not a club it's a baton!
Bart: What do you use it for?
Officer Lou: We club people with it.

wmhawth

[QUOTE]How, pray tell, do you know this?

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William

VR4

I shoot 600-800 9mm rounds a month. I have 3 IDPA match's a month and I hit the range once a week to get some practice. I reload so it helps with cost.

dwyermw

There are some very cogent repsonses to the original question. Cleary, round count is not the importnt issue - placement and improving technique is. And yes, living in Florida does allow more outdoor time. The idea was to encourage exploring club membership and training. The annual cost to join most clubs here in Florida is the same as it would be to go to a public range once a month. If you volunteer for range safety officer time, you can earn enough credits to pay for your annual membership! Why the "arm chair" and other terse words - simply a way to get us thinking about training and improve involvement with other shooters. Most public ranges allow you to only shoot one round a second, no double taps, etc. Frankly, some of the rules are hazardous to your future health!
There is more focus on the web sites on equipment than there is on effective ways to train. If you carry concealed/open, legally, do you have an obligation to have some proficiency level? There are hundreds of thousands of CCW permit holders -our clubs should be over run with membership! This is a call to all of us, find out if there is a local club; investigate the real cost of membership. ARE there volunteer hours provided for cost credit?

farronwolf

The only legal obligation to proficiency is what your state requires. Texas requires 70% of 50 shots from ranges of 3 to 15 yds. Beyond that, it is each persons call on what they choose to do for their training.

How one developes their proficiency can vary. Some choose to do dry fire drills, or use airsoft guns in their homes since they can't do range time. Some like to go out and shoot 1000s or rds a month, and others choose to do little or no additional training.

Which is right, well in my opinion it boils down to the individual. I am guessing that there are folks in this world that can put thousands of rounds down range and still can't shoot worth a darn because they learned bad techniques. And shooting at paper, or dynamic targets isn't going to change that one bit. Then you have folks that learned good techiniques when they started, and have adhered to those good practices, that even if they didn't shoot a gun for a year or more, would still be very effective.

Everyone is going to fall somewhere in between those extremes. Just remember shot placement is much more important than anything. If you can't hit what you shoot, I don't care how many rounds you shoot or what conditions you shoot them in, misses are still misses and may cost you dearly.

What is the old saying, practice makes perfect, well that isn't necessarily true. Good practice makes perfect, bad practice makes for expensive ammo bills.

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Just remember that shot placement is much more important with what you carry than how big a bang you get with each trigger pull.

dukalmighty

I normally wouldn't shoot that much in one session,but my shooting buddy is a range nut and we never leave in less than 2 hours,I reload so my cost for the ammo I shoot is about what 100 rounds of factory range ammo would cost.IOW my ammo is about 25% of the cost and availability is whatever I want to reload.Some people can afford a box a month and that is more than a lot of LEO's shoot

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I like Poetry,Long Walks On The Beach,And Poking Dead Things With A Stick