Back in the day, I’d bust some caps at the American Firearms School two, three, sometimes four days a week. After moving to The Live Music Capitol of America, my trigger time gradually decreased to a bi-monthly visit. There are lots of reasons for that, none of them particularly good. Thanks to TTAG’s new home range — The Range at Austin — I’m back to bi-weekly shooting. Where and how often do you go shooting? Rifle, pistol and/or shotgun.

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87 COMMENTS

  1. Like to get out a couple times a month, maybe once for rifles and once for handguns. Ammo’s too expensive to shoot much more than that IMHO.

    • Try http://www.sgammo.com/, they have extremely low prices at the moment (like 15¢ steel case 9mm and 20¢ steel case .223), or ammospy.net, where you can find the absolute cheapest ammo on the internet.

      • This one’s even better; http://ammoseek.com/

        SG is one of the few places you can get the LEO only boxes of self defense am mo. You can get 50 round boxes of Gold Dots, Federal HST, etc. for around $25/box.

        • SG-ammo and TargetSportsUSA are where I get Federal HST– which is my carry ammo– for great prices.

          I’ve also had good luck finding other stuff at good prices with… acceptable… shipping costs.

      • Wow wow wow, Omnivorous I’m a greedy cheap shooter. Sgammo is sold out on enough stuff already please don’t go advertising it.

      • True, but after taking $25 or $30 out of my wallet and lighting it on fire I’m usually ready to revert to something a little less expensive to feed, so overall they’re not as big of a money suck as you might think.

    • I shoot about 20 .177 pellets using iron sights off my deck with my Ruger air rifle every day. I have a metal pan hanging on my fence 70 yards away as my target. The fundamentals are the same as any rifle but the cost is nominal.

      • Lot of satisfaction and relaxation shooting aluminum cans at 25 yds with scoped break barrel .22 pellet rifle and a variable pump .177 pistol/carbine with peep sight. I take my 12 gauge pump and .380 pistol out occasionally to check sights and function.

    • https://www.freedommunitions.com/ has some pretty good prices.

      Granted, I rarely shoot now either. Ammo is expensive and my closest gun range is like 45 minutes away. Really hard to carve out a 3-4 hour block on most weeks to go shooting.

      Most of my shooting practice now is with my SIRT laser pistol. Expensive up front but saved me money on good dry fire practice in the long run.

    • All of our range loads come from either LAX or Freedom Munitions. The only complaint I have about either of them is their 44 magnum is wimpy. All other ammo is fantastic and I don’t believe I have ever had a FTF in tens of thousands of rounds.

  2. Not nearly enough. Haven’t shot my pistol in probably 2 months. Need to make time in my studies.

  3. About twice weekly on average, but that ranges from every day to once or twice a month depending on outside factors. My shooting is mostly handgun drills limited to 100 rounds or so, but sometimes it’s only a couple three-round groups when sighting in a rifle.

    This is all done in a close-by area of the Black Hills National Forest that’s popular with recreational shooters, but also used by the local PD and sheriff’s department for training.

  4. Another “not near enougher” here probably 1-2X a month. Start getting antsy after that; Need to make up more ammo anyways my stash is growing kinda thin in the hand gun caliber department.

  5. Once a week at least at a great indoor range here in Colorado Springs:

    https://whistlingpinesgunclub.com/

    Thank goodness it’s 10 minutes from home or work. Since it’s indoors, “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night…” applies. It has increased my frequency of shooting at least fivefold.

    O2*

    *I am a member of the club but otherwise unassociated with it in any other way.

    • I thought Colorado Springs was one of the liberal havens in Colorado.
      And they allow a gun range?

      • No, Colorado Springs is in a very red county (with a small blue city, Manitou Springs). The Blue stuff is up North: Denver and Boulder and a small pocket to the South: Pueblo.

        We sucessfully recalled a blue State Senator (John Morse) and replaced him with a very pro-gun Senator, Bernie Herpin (first sucessful recall in Colorado history).

        The Dems responded by quickly gerrymandering Herpin’s district to include more of Manitou Springs so they could recapture the seat in the next election.

        O2

      • Yeah you probably cant do much better than Colorado Springs/El Paso County when it comes to gun stuff, at least in Colorado. Big red population with all kinds of gun shops. I do my shooting at Magnum Shooting Center about 3-4 times a month.

        • colorado springs is awesome for guns, I’m about an hour away, but the shops are all cool owners and most of the general population sees an open carrier as a normal event, I have a public outdoor range about 4 miles from home, I reload and sell brass so I shoot at least a little bit 3-4 times a week, I find live rounds all the time with no dimple and have free ammo to pop fairly regularly, especially .22lr.

  6. I try to go every other day. Or at least once a week. During nights after work or weekends usually. .22 LR pistol for Bullseye practice.About 50-100 rds each session. .45 ACP maybe once or twice per season. West side Rifle and Pistol range in lower westside in Manhattan.

    • West side Rifle and Pistol range in lower westside in Manhattan.

      Is that an April Fools joke? There cannot possibly be any gun ranges in New York City.

        • You’re kinda limited on what you can shoot there:

          Standard pistol calibers only (.22 .38 9MM .40 .45)
          No magnum, steel jacket or military ammo allowed

          No military ammo, no NATO standard 9mm ball? Not even standard .357? Not even .380, it looks like.

          Having a monopoly on a business sure is nice…

      • Yup! The Only range in Manhattan. It is the de facto Red State embassy here. The no head shots rule was just put up to discourage newbie shooters from aiming too high and shooting the target clips off. Since they have A LOT of classes offered. Otherwise, no body cares where on the target you shoot. There are plenty of tactical shooters to the right and left of me popping paper hostage takers in the head?

        • If any of you find yourselves down in NYC, you should drop by and say hello to the good folks down at the westside rifle and pistol range at 20 th st. It’s a real old school range and the coffee and donuts are always free. It is very chill and has a good community of shooters. The staff is super friendly. Yes, the decor hasn’t changed since the late 70s, but it has great character. Kind of like CBGBs back in the day.

        • No .380? Where’d you get that info?

          Here is the scoop as of yesterday: Magnum ammo is permitted on the left lanes. I fired my .45 WinMag there last month. .223 with frangible ammo and .12 gauge with buckshot is occasionally permitted. Most people shoot FMJ ammo there. .30 carbine is fine. Pretty much all Pistol ammo is fine.

          Maybe their website info needs to be updated.

  7. Range time at least once a week, and coach the shooting clinic once a week where I often don’t get to shoot myself. No more than a dozen rounds or so used each time, to verify my dry fire practice. I do need to take my HD shotgun and at least one rifle out much more often. Can’t use the club rifle range for the shotgun, and have to deal with the shotty bunch at the separate range, so it doesn’t happen much.

    Where in the Black Hills, Don? I’m in Newcastle, Wyoming.

    • “…the shooting clinic once a week where I often don’t get to shoot myself.”

      Darn those shooting clinics and their safety rules!!! 😉

    • IM A PD firearms instructor. It’s only a part time gig so I do it about 5-6 times a month. During actual instruction I don’t get to shoot much but during lunch I can shoot any of my personal guns using my own ammo or my duty gun with a box or two of department ammunition to maintain proficiency. It’s not a bad setup at all.

  9. A couple times a week. The club is only 2 miles from my driveway.
    Since I go there to check on the place often, I’ll pop a few caps.

  10. I get to the range a couple times a month on average, sometimes to actually practice, other times to just have fun.

  11. Just got into shooting again after not going to the range for a few years. Aim is still pretty good…buying another gun this month(3rd since December) and maybe a cheap AR after. No nearby outdoor ranges so I’ll need to find that. And I have to get the wife up to speed. And AMMO!

  12. Surprisingly very little considering I can go out my back door and shoot rifle, shotty, or pistol. Its been a couple months since I last shot, not counting taking down a couple of feral dogs that were after my livestock. I gotta get out there and practice some drills although I sometimes fear that shooting alone or with the family I might just be reinforcing some bad habits.

  13. Wife and I bust caps 2X per week at an indoor range. Rifle not as often, especially in F’edUP CA. We typically shoot 9mm and 45. When we do go to the rifle range, it’s with a SOCOM that We both love to shoo.

  15. Before going off to college, once a week. Currently I’m lucky to do once a month when I go home. No outdoor ranges in Orange County CA really keeps me from going more too.

  17. I used to go 1-2 times a month. Last year I went 3-4 times the whole year. Not nearly enough. It will be another year or two before my schedule allows more frequent visits.

  19. I go do some shootin’ about 4 times a year. I have three friends within 1 mile of me who have a dirt berm (outdoors of course) and are kind enough to let me shoot pretty much any time that I want. All three of them are close enough that my family at home can hear me shooting if they are outside.

    While I could go every week, I figure that might get kind of old for them and I don’t want to wear out my welcome. (On the 8th day of a particularly intense continuous string of days sighting-in various rifles for hunting season, a neighbor walked over and asked me to stop. While I was under no obligation to give my friend’s neighbor the time of day, I knocked-off anyway.)

  21. Usually twice a week, weather and other stuff permitting. I try to make one of those days a month a dedicated rifle day.

  22. Every Sunday from Oct-May. Then it gets too hot and I may go once or twice until October rolls around. I can deal with outdoor shooting in freezing cold but not in the heat and humidity.

  23. Once a week with live ammo in winter where we have a place to shoot. When I can while on the road, April thru October. Laser Target every couple of days while on the road.
    All handgun, defensive style.

  24. I go to the indoor range every Saturday. 50 rounds downrange, mostly pistol or revolver EDCs.

    About 6 times a year I get to the club for a day of rifle & pistol shooting with friends. As I get closer to retirement, I’ll be getting to the club more often (and reloading more).

  25. Monday is date night at the range for me and the wifey. Then I supplement that with some back yard range work or trap shooting. Don’t shoot the AR that much. That fucker’s loud as shit. Need a suppressor for my wife’s Mossberg MVP 5.56 and she would be more into the back yard shoot. I did get her out there with the SR22 today. Nymph deer ticks are already active here in GA.

  27. I try to go once a week. Sat or Sun. My range lets members go from sun up to sun down. I go early before range is open to the public and it gets Texas hot.

  28. I shoot every off monday and wednesday. That works out to about 4 days a month. I wish I could shoot more but it is what it is.

  29. Usually on Sunday afternoons when the indoor range opens up. I sometimes go during the week. The owner is opening a second range closer to my husband’s office, so he may be able to go during the week, next Fall.

    For ammo, I pay $50.00 per year for free shipping from Brownell’s, then shop their sales. So, on sale, no sales tax and no shipping costs saves me money over the local retailers. I’ve checked a couple of other sites, the sales are better, but when I add the shipping charges, I head back to Brownell’s.

  30. My range is just about 20 feet to the left of my driveway, unless it’s raining, in which case I shoot from the porch. For all that though, I only shoot a few occasions per month. Between time constraints and ammo cost, I just dont shoot as much as I used to. Perhaps when summer finally drags itself back around I’ll shoot more. I know my wife would like that, which definitely helps with the motivation.

  31. Question for everyone :
    Should I get NRA instructor certification to start teaching pistol fundamentals?
    I have no quals so far so I would have to take the online course, $60, the basic pistol course, $300, the instructor course, $300, then $50 for the certificate that expires every two years.
    So that’s over $700 if I didn’t leave anything out. Is it worth it just to use on my resume? Is there liability protection with the certificate? Seems like a large investment for a guy that’s just going to freelance.

  32. Depends on the weather. Usually 3-4 times per month during the winter, when I have to truck to an indoor range. In the summer….trap on any decent Wednesday, range day on sunny Saturdays. Probably averages to six trips a month.

  34. At the rate I’m going, about once a year. Between work, weather, money (or lack thereof), and finding a place to go to shoot, I don’t get to go much at all. When the weather is nice, I’m either stuck at work, or don’t have the gas to drive anywhere. Last year, I had a single box of ammo to shoot, no money to get more, and I shot all of what I had the one time I actually went. So far this year, I’ve only shot when my wife an I took our conceal carry class last month. But now, instead of my SR9C being the sole gun in the house, my wife bought an SD9VE, my son finally got the Henry .22 his grandfather left him, and I acquired a second-hand ATI 1911 and a new M&P Sport II. And yes, I stocked up on ammo. So now, I just have to find a place to go and hope the weather isn’t crap on my one day off each week (short staffed at work so I’m stuck pulling 6-day work weeks).

  36. Lhstr, well I reload everything except my 5.7. Still pricey, but I’m not one to fool with, practice, practice, practice. You now how the story!!!. Gotta keep ready for anything, the rest is just plain bull shit!. Be safe out there.

  39. I average once a week, but some weeks things happen, so I double-up the next week. Usually Three weeks in the month with pistol and one with rifle ( 5.56 NATO or 22LR). Once the weather warms I go once a month to a range in the Local Mountains and shoot .30 Cal or Black Powder. Don’t know if I can keep this up once CA Ammo Laws kick in this Summer. We’ll see.

  41. It used to be 2-4 times / year.

    This past year or so I’ve gotten out much more often, say about 1-2 times every 2 months. Not enough to justify a range membership in my mind.

    Time is also split between a local indoor range or going up into the mountains around Seattle to do some plinking in our local shooting pits. My preference is the shooting pits but they are seasonal and take about an hour and a half one-way to reach. In the winter they are buried under several feet of snow and much of the time there is a chance of rain in the area.

    But, when I can, I go to the pits and take the rifles.

  43. Unfortunately i live in England..
    But twice a year i go to Poland to shoot AR, AK, and pistols in their range… (they have great selection, but its 2000mile drive).
    Other than that its Air rifle and co2 pistols in back garden few times a month.
    And airsoft game once a month.

  46. Zero times in the past couple years. Too busy and failed to find a good range. Should be able to fix both of those soon.

  47. I shoot pretty much every other sunday and a rate of about 500-600 rounds of 9mm and 100-150 rounds of 5.45.

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