Expensive Fun?

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Originally Posted By: billt460
That's a financial disaster right there. Come with your own gun, ammo, and targets, and you'll save a bundle right out of the starting gate.

Yep, I need to buy a pistol soon so I can start using the 1000 rounds of ammo I bought off a friend of mine. The range had a bunch of nice newer pistols to try out so I wasn't even aware of how much I spent until I got home. I didn't tell my wife! lol
 
Originally Posted By: bubbatime

My best advice really is to get to know the neighbors and casually ask for some gun training/shooting if they are willing to help a newbie. You just might find a new hobby.


Bring a cheap $10 12-pack of beer over when they're shooting, and they'll let you shoot everything there..... especially if you tell them you've never done any shooting before.
 
Originally Posted By: billt460
Originally Posted By: Bottom_Feeder
........ 200 rounds of rental-approved ammo.


That's a financial disaster right there. Come with your own gun, ammo, and targets, and you'll save a bundle right out of the starting gate.


Yeah, the rental-approved ammo is a killer. If you know the caliber you want to shoot ahead of time, you can usually get by with buying one box of ammo from the range, then shooting your own ammo. I'd make sure to buy brass cased ammo, not aluminum or steel, just so it's not too obvious you're not shooting their "approved" (aka, heavily marked-up) ammo.

I go to a local private rage (no public ones within an hour), they charge something on the order of $25/hour and $22ish per box of 9mm (Sig FMJ). If you buy their dozen range pass, it calculates out to about $13 per visit. I get my cheap targets on Amazon, and reload my own ammo. Depending on how much I shoot that day, on average a range trip is about $30 out the door.

Also, even if you have no intention of reloading, try collect and save all your brass! You paid for it, it's yours. You can sell it to someone that does reload or just save it. I didn't start reloading until recently, but so far, I have not needed to purchase any 9mm brass. I'm pretty sure I typically come home with more brass than I left with. That's not the case with 10mm though.
 
Yeah, 9mm ammo for the rental was like $18.50 a box and I went through four of them. I don't even recall what brand it was. Something in a mostly blue box with some gray and white. Larger boxes like what Blazer Brass comes in. Some flavor of Federal or something. No idea. My buddy told me I should have kept the boxes and filled them with my own brass-cased stuff but I guess I have too much of a guilty conscience!
 
I frequent a local outdoor range 2 miles from my house.The owner has separate pistol/rifle ranges, and a huge field for shotgunners and rents the skeet/clay throwing machine out to anyone interested in using it. He charges $10 to shoot all day and $1 per full sized targets. Small targets are $.50 each. Judging what range time costs here, I guess I'm lucky. My wife WAS a doll collector in a prior life. It seems all hobbies can get really expen$ive.
 
Originally Posted By: ArcticDriver
I don't care how you stack it up...target shooting in the evening and at night as this poster has described is a pretty un-neighborly behavior.

"At any hour of the day or night" is certainly offensive, but I am going to have to at least partially disagree with you about shooting in the evening.

Almost all jurisdictions have noise ordinances with time restrictions. For example in my town it is from 10pm until 7am

I pull it in a couple hours on each end and at least an hour before sunset. So that is no earlier than 9am and depending on the time of the year no later than 3pm - 7pm. However, I am not offended by neighbors who might go to 8pm - 9pm in the summer.

Who the heck (I can't believe the puritans have censored [censored] in this day and age) is shooting at night anyway. Testing their night vision???
 
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Originally Posted By: spiritrider
Who the heck (I can't believe the puritans have censored XXXX in this day and age) is shooting at night anyway. Testing their night vision???


Zombies come at night. You have to be ready in all conditions.
 
And this is why the hearing protection act needs to pass.

Most other areas silencers are considered polite. Here thanks to Hollyweird we have people thinking Jason Borne and all of the Spectre assasins are going to be killing people in the streets with completely silent pistols.
 
Originally Posted By: DuckRyder
Here thanks to Hollyweird we have people thinking Jason Borne and all of the Spectre assasins are going to be killing people in the streets with completely silent pistols.


Just as they thought they would be slaughtering each other in the streets over fender benders, if they passed concealed carry. Facts and reality have a way of escaping these peoples thought process.
 
Originally Posted By: billt460
Originally Posted By: DuckRyder
Here thanks to Hollyweird we have people thinking Jason Borne and all of the Spectre assasins are going to be killing people in the streets with completely silent pistols.


Just as they thought they would be slaughtering each other in the streets over fender benders, if they passed concealed carry. Facts and reality have a way of escaping these peoples thought process.


Swords are now going to be legal to open carry in Texas. I think swords would also be pretty silent.
 
Originally Posted By: GrtArtiste
I live in an unzoned area of a rural township where it appears that there are no restrictions whatsoever regarding the discharge of firearms on one’s own property. Though I am not a gun owner myself, I have no problem with them as long as they are owned and used legally. What surprises me is the frequency of this usage. I have at least two – maybe four neighbors who seem to use their guns a lot. By a lot a mean many hundreds of rounds fired at any hour of the day or night...often this happens several days a week. Being very unknowledgeable about guns, the rate of fire would make me think that automatic weapons are in use...but that could be wrong. Over the 7/4 holiday somebody called the Sherriff’s office to complain about the noise. A deputy sheriff came out and soon left, apparently satisfied that no laws were being broken and the activity continued as before. I know nothing about what ammunition costs...but isn’t this a rather expensive pastime?
I guess the bright side to all this we don’t seem to have much of a problem with burglaries.


A $100 'bump-fire-stock' will allow certain semi-auto's to 'spray bullets' sounding just like a full-auto; using one in 22LR or 9mm doesn't tear up the pocket book too bad, but it's really just a 'novelty' that wears off quick - they're not very accurate, as you have to 'concentrate on your HOLD' and 'point' rather than 'aim'.

You oughta try to meet the neighbors, and ask them to show you how to shoot. I believe most would be very accommodating. At least you'd discover that (hopefully) they are doing it in a safe manner (for the whole neighborhood).
I personally don't shoot after dark (except maybe predator control).
 
Originally Posted By: oldoak2000
Originally Posted By: GrtArtiste
Being very unknowledgeable about guns, the rate of fire would make me think that automatic weapons are in use...but that could be wrong.

A $100 'bump-fire-stock' will allow certain semi-auto's to 'spray bullets' sounding just like a full-auto; using one in 22LR or 9mm doesn't tear up the pocket book too bad, but it's really just a 'novelty' that wears off quick - they're not very accurate, as you have to 'concentrate on your HOLD' and 'point' rather than 'aim'.

Given the OP's unfamiliarity with guns, I think it is far more likely this was just rapid semi-automatic fire.
 
I'd agree that full-auto is unlikely, but there again no problem as long as the guns are legal. Many non-gun people have never been around full auto fire and don't know what it sounds like. With that said, I tend to only shoot full auto in short bursts as with most guns keeping it on the target is too difficult with that.

My reloads come out to 10-25¢ each depending on the caliber and how long I can get out of the brass. I can even get cheaper using bullets cast from free lead
smile.gif
, although I usually end up buying lead these days.
 
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My next door neighbor has a motocross track on his yard, which he and his friends use for hours every evening. Drives my wife crazy.

I take the 50 cal out and send a few rounds downrange behind my house and into the berm. I follow that with a few shotgun blasts, a few 30 round magazines from my AR pistol and so on.

I'm not sure who is more annoying, my neighbor or me..... It's possible the 50 cal disrupts his motocross concentration.... (of course, I'm a dirt bike guy too)
 
Originally Posted By: Cujet
My next door neighbor has a motocross track on his yard, which he and his friends use for hours every evening. Drives my wife crazy.

I take the 50 cal out and send a few rounds downrange behind my house and into the berm. I follow that with a few shotgun blasts, a few 30 round magazines from my AR pistol and so on.

I'm not sure who is more annoying, my neighbor or me..... It's possible the 50 cal disrupts his motocross concentration.... (of course, I'm a dirt bike guy too)


Sounds like redneck heavan. Guns firing, dirt bikes revving away at night.
 
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