How Much Do You Shoot?

In my circle of friends and acquaintances, I am “the gun guy.” If you’re reading this, you probably are too. Because of this, I often get comments like, “You must shoot a lot!” Or, “How much do you shoot?” In my head, the answer is, “Not as much as you’d think,” or “Not as much as I want.” But the truth is, I honestly don’t know.

I’m really bad about keeping round counts. So, to answer this question, let’s do a little math and come up with a conservative estimate and a “holy crap, that’s a lot!” estimate. Grab your calculator and follow along!

In any given month, I take at least one 2-day training class or two 1-day classes. A typical class like that usually calls for 1,000 rounds of ammunition. Therefore, right off the bat, we’ve got 12,000 rounds per year. Now, not every one of those classes is a shooting class. Some of them are medical classes, combatives classes, knife classes, etc. So, on the conservative side, let’s cut that in half to 6,000. This also accounts for the possibility of not shooting all 1,000 rounds in the class.

Next, let’s look at classes I teach. During the course of any given week, I might teach 2-3 classes and shoot approximately 200 rounds doing demos for the students. With 52 weeks in a year, that’s another 10,400 rounds down range. Not every one of those classes requires me to do a demo or is a shooting class (some of them are medical and non-lethal classes). And, there may be some weeks where I do not teach at all. So, again, on the conservative side, let’s cut that number in half to 5,200.

That means at a minimum, between classes I take and classes I teach, I’m putting 11,200 rounds down range every year. On the high side, it’s possible that I put 22,400 rounds down range per year.

Truthfully, it’s probably somewhere between the two. As I mentioned, I’m bad about keeping specific round counts. If you add in practice sessions and shooting with friends, it’s fair to say the answer is somewhere around 15-16,000 rounds per year.

Is that a lot? That depends. To the casual “I go to the range every once in a while” person, it probably is a lot. However, there are competitive shooters out there who would dwarf that number in a month.

How much do you shoot? Leave a comment and let me know, and I’ll see ya on the range!