Ammunition Issues – Part 2
Picking up from my Saturday post on ammo purchases, Kim commented...
Hmmmm... spendy stuff, but excellent performers. Once you've sighted it in, of course, you'll only need a half-dozen per year, so cost isn't really that much of a factor. I never understood hunters who'll happily drop a couple of grand on a rifle/scope combination, and then try to save pennies on hunting (as opposed to practice) ammo. Makes no sense.
& I am pleased to report that the pain from where they removed the kidney to pay for that Norma has receded a lot this morning
However to pick up on the whole cost of hunting ammo thing, since I purchased my Remington 700 (about this time four years ago), it has been feed a strict diet of Federal 150-grain Power Shoks; mot the most expensive of ammunition in the big scheme of things but certainly well up there. Looking a cost-in-use over that period, after the initial testing that is so vital to find what your new pride & joy shoots best, I went out & purchased 200 rounds at not inconsiderable cost at the time. A quick stock check over the weekend reveals that I am down to the last 16 rounds of that original batch.
Even though I probably get to shoot a bit more game & vermin than some, I still reckon that over half of those 200-rounds were shot as periodic test groups. Extrapolate that & it would appear that on average I have shot 25 rounds in anger per annum. If fact, expressed like that it sounds a little generous – off the top of my head I would have put the number at between 10 to 15 rounds a year through that particular rifle. Even taking into account check groups, a total ammunition burn of approx. 50 rounds a year is nothing in the big scheme of things to know that on those few opportunities that you get to really shoot, everything is going to work.
Practice ammo on the other hand is completely different however: go to the range, blow through whatever cheapo brands you have in your bag, go buy more...
Comments
That Norma ammo must be evil (eviler than most, that is)--the box art features (shudder) a cowboy!
Posted by: D.W. Drang | October 13, 2009 9:27 AM
Mmmm. Norma. Nice ammunition, but not cheap. I was lucky to get a stash of the 7.5x55mm Oryx long ago. It's only gone up 100% or so in price since.
Recently, I was very lucky when testing my .308 to discover that the hunting ammo it likes best (Winchester 180grain Silvertips print cloverleafs at 100 metres from a sandbag rest) was also the cheapest stuff available. I bought the gunshop's entire stock of it. Wohoo!
Posted by: Denis | October 13, 2009 10:38 AM
LOL when I bought my first Schmidt-Rubin K11, the dealer had no cheap 7.55 Swiss ammo in stock, so I bought two boxes of Norma just to have something to shoot (in case I was attacked by zombies on the way home).
At the time when you could get GP11 surplus for about $5.99 per 20, the Norma cost $27. I never did shoot any of the Norma off -- in fact, I still have the two boxes, virgin, in the old ammo locker, along with an undetermined amount (i.e. a lot) of GP11, which I purchased the next day at our local Academy. (Mr. FM, you will remember Academy, where you can buy as much ammo as you can carry just by sweeping it off the shelf into your shopping basket.)
I still shudder when I think of that spendy Norma stuff.
Posted by: Kim du Toit | October 13, 2009 2:17 PM
Kim, quit yer moaning! $27 indeed. When I got the *cheap* 7.5 Swiss hunting ammo, it cost fifty euro for twenty bangs. I think I bought four or five boxes, which was equivalent to about two-thirds the price of the rifle. A battle-pack of GP11 cost 250 euro, and I bought two. Now the Norma stuff costs double the old price, if you can find any, and the GP11 seems to have run out altogether. At least the rifles stayed about the same price, so I could still buy one and just shout "bang" as necessary :-)
Congratulations on the new "radio" show, by the way - I loved the trailer, but haven't caught the real episodes yet.
Posted by: Denis | October 13, 2009 2:45 PM
My 9.3x74R O/U double was factory regulated for Norma ammunition. It's right on the money.
More conventional calibers (.270, .30-06, etc.), more conventional hunting (deer, sometimes boar) I use either handloads or one of the conventional brands (Remington, Winchester, Federal).
And no, I never thought I would ever use the word "conventional" three times in one sentence.
Posted by: Bob K | October 13, 2009 5:53 PM
Kim ...
GP11, 49 cents per round.
http://samcoglobal.com/Ammunition.html#75
Posted by: Kristopher | October 14, 2009 5:46 PM
Denis,
Remember that back in 1993, when the first rifle ammo went over $20 per box (20), there were riots in the streets.
(Actually, there weren't, but there should have been.)
Now we're faced with over $25 for .45 ACP PRACTICE ammo, when 24 months ago, it was less than $10. There should have been riots about this, too, but shooters were all too busy buying reloading equipment.
Posted by: Kim du Toit | October 14, 2009 5:47 PM