Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters At what point is shooting just too expensive?

They're out there......


Small Rifle

at Lohman Arms

Small Pistol at Lohman Arms

Powder is available at Hodgdon

Some CFE Pistol

Some H-110

they had HS-6 last week.

I'll admit that prices are truly outrageous most places for primers, but if you have to have them. The local LGS mirrors pretty much what you see online. They do however have a pretty good selection of reloading supplies and rifles and pistols fill the racks and display cases.

I have not shot a gun in 4 months. Now days I shoot my bow in my 19 yd. basement range. I get arrows for about $7 each and can shoot them
at least several hundred times. I would say that 99.9% of the time I shoot, it is at a target, so why not just shoot the very cheapest thing. It is all in the fun ya know. Does it make much difference if it's a .22LR or a 300 Mag.? This dawned on my a long time ago when I was catching shiners for bait about 30 yrs ago. I took my little niece and she went fishing for 3" shiners. Ya know what ? That was so much fun that I still think of it now and again. It doesnt have to be a walleye. I had more fun with my kids catching bluegills with my son and daughter.

Going back 30 years every once in a while I would figure out the costs of a making a premium big game round. Back then I told myself I'll never see the day when it costs me a dollar a round. Guess what? Never mind the cost of equipment that I seem to find an excuse to continue buying........

Even though I have a lot of components that I bought at a discount a long time ago, I know they won't last forever........

Shooting will allways be to expensive for those who only buy what they need a day or 2 before they need it...
Mb

This.....++

I thought and planned ahead like many here have done. I have 30 caliber and 7mm, bullets that cost less than $10 a hundred, primers that were .89 per hundred, my last 8lbs of powder was $130, other powders under $20. I am well stocked and more than likely NOT, outlive my supply. I watched for sales and always bought more than I needed. What I buy now is more costly than my older stuff. I limit my causal shooting and do not waste components. When things level off and the prices become more manageable. Buy as much as you can.

Wait for the price to normalize, then buy it cheap and stack it deep!

Shooting to just shoot has been too expensive to do it all my life..No sense in changing now.

I shoot to wring out a rifle, develop a load, or to sight-check before hunting season. I once killed 3 moose and two caribou over a 3 year span out of a single box of shells. That included the pre-season sight checks.

I'm cheap, but not stupid..... I'll burn up the old stock first and save the investment ranked stuff for my portfolio. .

If I run out of stuff for the .338WM, I'll just buy a 7 mag barrel to use up that ammo. At this point, a new barrel for the 7 Mag ammo on hand (no rifle!) will save money over buying the equivalent rounds or components in .338WM. In fact I just swapped the Stub's 17 inch 30-06 barrel for a 22" take-off .270 (for which I had ammo, no rifle for 30 plus years.). That just leaves me with 2 30-06's. to feed . The take-off barrel price would have bought a box and half or so 30-06 ammo, which isn't available anyway. I do have components for all above, however.

Same deal with Eileen when she first started hunting. Within a couple of years we settled on a first-year Browning A-Bolt that was light enough for her, but also shot various handloads to the same POI at 100 yards. The first was the 90-grain Sierra HP at 3100 for for varmints, the second the 130 Hornady Interlock Spire Point at 3000 for deer-sized game, and the third the 150 Nosler Partition at 2850 for anything bigger than deer (though she did kill a big 5x6 mule deer with that load as well.)

Eventually she killed 10 big game animals in a row with one shot with that rifle, including a buck pronghorn at around 440, that muley buck at 150, cow and spike elk, and an average-sized Shiras bull moose. But she got that good by shooting the "cheap" varmint load a lot at rockchucks--and after those 10 big game animals still had 16 rounds of 150 Partition loads The missing four accounted for the 5x6 mule deer, a cow and spike elk, and the moose. I

In between she shot LOT of ground squirrels with .22 Long Rifle ammo, mostly purchased when a brick went for $10 or less.

I shoot because I like to handload and tinker and see the results. I don't run a bass boat or play golf, and I very rarely eat out.

Don't know when it will stop but till then i will continue to shoot.

I have several that can be rotated so i don't get tired of any one rifle.

A lot of us have had a good time. Shooting & fishing ,etc. for fun or sport. It's been real.

But memories of some of the old timers Or further studies of how they lived & operated might be in order. Different times financially & in mind set for sure. Shooting was a chore or job. Done to protect or feed. Fishing was for relaxation or food, maybe both but damn sure not to catch the most or biggest at any cost.

I'd damn sure miss plinking at my 25 & 100 yard berm off the back yard, or spending time in a good Prairie Dog town. But realize ammo or components might cost past levels of common sense & might need to be reserved for far more important things than just fun.

Different lifestyles might be on the horizon. Belt tightening better done sooner than never.

I think 6.5-300 Weatherby ammo is over $5 a pop now. I bought several boxes at $69 and some new brass and 127 gr LRX to reload when I burn through those. I did pay $42 a pound for US869 to feed the beast. I’m good on all my other components bought at 2019 or earlier prices. I just bought some 168 gr TTSX from Barnes that were about $1 each with tax and shipping. I have more than a lifetime supply of everything else. I have 4 Mark V magnums set up exactly the same so I can practice with one of the 7mm’s for which I have a ton of components on hand. I don’t shoot the .300 Wby that much due to recoil and I don’t shoot the 6.5-300 much to keep the round - count low on what many consider to be a barrel burner. I do shoot my .257 Roberts more than the others. Happy Trails

I seem to relish my time at the range where I don't have to think about anything but putting several bullets in the same hole.
It's the only thing I do for fun.

No other habits or hobbies to spend money on so when it comes to $100 primers or $48 for powder, I have resolved to pay the price. Sure, I grumble as loud as the next guy, but when I'm on the bench, Price is forgotten.

Luckily like most guys here, I'm well stocked for a couple more years.

But when your only vacation is three weeks of shooting rats in Oregon and Montana, You will go through the components pretty fast.

And like I said I'll continue to pay the price.

We're at that point currently. It's unreal what things cost compared to wages. Our purchasing power is in the toilet and it's only going to get worse.

It's just not demand and shortage issues but much of this silliness is due to global supply chain issues. Bottom line is companies bought up the producers and old suppliers and "restructured". A lot of it isn't made here and that's an issue. Gun powder is made in Australia, Hodgon shut down domestic black powder production and who knows what else has been phased out.

In other industries like mining and resources development a lot of powder comes from Canada and primers and fuse primer are imported from Chile. That's really the problem. Everything just isn't made here or isn't made here on the scale it once was and the world has moved onto the just in time model where there little to no inventory. Most of us remember when times were far different.

It's pretty simple. It gets too expensive when you can't afford it. For some that's sooner than others.

Everyone forgets that when they paid $8.00/pound for powder and $1.00/100 for primers that it was expensive then.

Like most here bought enough to last a long time, probably the rest of my life. Certainly the case with rifles and pistols. And .22rf.

Even so continue to buy at intervals, even if smaller amounts. Paid 7.5 cents/primer for 209s recently. Thought that was stupid, but now glad I did.

One option is to make your own black powder and cast your bullets. If percussion caps get too expensive, get a flintlock.

Will we ever see prices where they were 5 years ago? When the government spends trillions of dollars, our dollars are no longer worth what they were!

Having a million dollars of property, money, stocks and whatever when I was a kid meant a serious difference than today.

$.30 for a box of 22 shorts, $.40 for 22 long and $.50 for a box of long rifles.. $.17 for a gallon of gasoline. $5 for a Mauser, $7.50 for a Springfield. Cars for $300 new. My first job I earned less than $1 per hour. The list goes on - that’s what I remember.

If you think you can retire on social security, you maybe can if your house is paid for, you walk instead of drive, your meals consist of red beans and rice -maybe more if you grow your own food. Forget about vacation travel.

Go down to your Ford or Chevrolet dealer and try to buy a new pickup. My first new pickup cost me $3,000. My first new car cost $2,300. My first used car cost $60.

Go to your archery equipment dealer and buy all new equipment - you’re looking at $1,000 or so. My first bow cost less than $100 - I don’t remember for sure the $ amount.

Go to buy a new house. The first house I bought was three bedroom on a large corner lot - $38,500.

Seriously! Do you actually think prices will be what they were 5 years ago? If you do I have a lake side wooded property for sale in Arizona.