Bluesman

When I was at SOCOM, we literally had all the ammo we wanted to burn up. We had unlimited access to the range, and I could go out with my own personal M4 whenever I could get an armorer to show up with it.

I'm ashamed to say I only went twice, out-of-cycle. We had to qualify twice a year, but anything else you wanted was between you and your regular workload: if you could afford the time...go for it.

I wanted to go fire some MP-5 course-of-fire, and it never happened, but not because of lack of brass. But my weapon was MY WEAPON, and SOCOM was literally limitless on the number of rounds we could take.

Shoulda taken more afternoons off...

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"The quickest way of ending a war is to lose it, and if one finds the prospect of a long war intolerable, it is natural to disbelieve in the possibility of victory."
- George Orwell

braindead

Shoulda smuggled couple of buckets of 5.56 out and send here . You´d be Hero over here by now for our conscripts

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Ucar

Quite right, but the big brass of TuAF regards conscripts as cannon fodder. Thus the 3 round shot is more or less the norm, in my years I never witnessed a recruit firing a full combat load unless they are positioned in sensitive areas.

Our conscripts are not recalled for refresher training, and all they fire is around 20-30 rounds in 15 months.

This of course goes for units that are not in the Eastern and South Eastern parts of the country where they are allowed to shoot more, and regularly. Even then, the average conscripts marksmanship is very poor due to a lack of proper training.

Stan187

Lucky.. what a missed chance. Then again, I'm sure there are mothers out there today who are thankful that you kept working to help out their boys instead of blowing down paper targets at the range.

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In Iran people belive pepsi stands for pay each penny save israel. -urmomma158
The Russian Navy is still a threat, but only to those unlucky enough to be Russian sailors.-highsea

lemontree

In a peace location a standard infantry battalion undergoes its annual training cylce when troops get time on the firing range.

The firing range gets utilised, depending on the coy commanders inclination.

In good battalions, troops fire a minimum of 150 rounds per year.

In op areas units fire an average of 8000-10,000 rounds of training ammunition per annum.

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Cheers!...on the rocks!!

dundonrl

Garand uses 30-06 ammo correct? If so, it's almost cheaper to just buy ammo at Wal Mart for it than it is too reload.. I do reload 44 Magnum, need too setup my progressive reloader now for it.. The Expensive ammo that my brother and I shoot is definitely hand loaded. The 375 Ultra Mag is about 60 dollars a box of 20 and about 90 dollars for a box of 20 for 30-378 Wby Mag. When we go shooting, we'll take a dozen or so guns (long and short) and probably shoot off 800 too 1000 rounds in an afternoon.

For my job in the Navy, every 6 months we shoot off I'd guess 400 or so rounds, from the M-16 and Beretta M9...

Zhang Fei

That's 8,000-10,000 rounds per soldier? Sounds like it could get expensive.

Officer of Engineers

3 cents a round.

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Chimo

braindead

3 cents (USD) x 8000rds. = ~ minimum wage over here. But security is never cheap.

omon

On good days i fire about 1000, rounds a day on the range(all weapons combined), with wolf ammo it isn,t expencive, thou .44 mag, isn,t made by wolf, and cost much more than the rest of ammo, i do about 2-3 trips to the range, a mounth, on avarige shoot 500 round a trip(sometimes more) so it makes about 12000-15000 a year(give or take few hundreds), i wouldn't trade my range hours for anything in the world, and when i don,t go i feel weekend is wasted. even cleaning guns is fun to me.

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"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote!" B. Franklin

Bluesman

Dead-right, bro; I was WAY bizzy, and the afternoons I could even leave early could be counted on both hands with some fingers left over.

Wish I was bizzy again, right now, though...

Any o' you Californians got any leads for me? I didn't think it would take me this long to get work...

texacali

that Russian ammo has nearly doubled in price at the Academy surplus store since Iraq. first the 7.62x39 and now the .223. used to go for $2.79 for 20.
bought 1000 rds in Ft. Worth at $70 three years ago of 7.62, then unavailable the last 18 months. brass case domestic out of my price range for target practice. any comments as to the drawbacks of steel cartridges?

RustyBattleship

I've always found the Garand very comfortable to shoot. Or should I say I felt very CONFIDENT with it. I had a little problem with my 03-A3 Springfield when I first bought it. Nobody told me that with that straight grip stock I was supposed to lay my thumb along the side.

Very embarrassing trying to explain a swollen upper lip from the thumb knuckle.

And for a later post, yes the Garand and Springfield (and 1917 American "Enfield") used the .30-06 cartridge. Unfortunately you can't find National Match ammunition for it anymore. I only have one box of 20 left. But I have a case of AP that prints the same so I use that instead.

By the way, some Garands (for the Navy) were modified to take the .308 Winchester cartridge until enough M-14's were issued to replace them.

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Able to leap tall tales in a single groan.

gunnut

I do reload my own ammo. I reload hundreds of 357 mag for plinking. It's probably the most cost effective reloads on my menu. I might try 30-06 one of these days. No 44 mag though since I don't even own one.

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"Only Nixon can go to China." -- Old Vulcan proverb.

Stan187

How rare are those? I bet they cost a bundle.