Originally Posted by las
I guess I'm a Fudd. smile

I consider it a good year if I make it a 3 round year for any of my rifles. One to check zero (these have been previously rung out so I know how they shoot), one to drop the whatever, one insurance shot from a few yards out. If needed or wanted.

Clean the rifle and put it away until next year.

I once made a box of .338WM ammo last 3 years, including 2 caribou and 3 moose. That was about $35 well spent! Yeah, it was factory.

Changing scopes, ammo, working up loads, new to me rifles, bedding, etc all cause the tally to go up until I'm confident in the rifle, then it goes to the hopefully 3 and out group.

I see no point in just pouring lead down a barrel, but YMMV.


With some cartridges yielding pretty short barrel life, it doesn’t make sense to beat them to death with hot loads without purpose. Load them down or shoot something else for practice, once you’ve “learned” that rifle and primary load. On the other hand, it’d take a lot of shooting to wear out something like a .223, .308, etc. O’Connor made the point long ago about the cost of the ammo required to shoot out a barrel vs. the price of replacing one. His numbers are laughable now, but the principle holds.

Right now, a feller’d have to be pretty flush to be able to afford enough factory to wear out almost anything, assuming he could find it.

What fresh Hell is this?