An Expensive Hobby

Calendar June 21, 2004 | Posted by Aubrey Turner

I’ve been bad of late in failing to keep my ammo locker stocked up.  I was down to only two or three hundred rounds in each of my most commonly used calibers, and I’d practically run out of .22LR (scandalous, I know).

I put together a shopping list of what I needed in preparation for a trip to Cheaper Than Dirt over the weekend.  That list really brought it home to me the proliferation of calibers in my safe.  When I originally started buying guns it was for self-defense and I vowed to keep it simple and try to keep it down to a couple of calibers.  Then I started buying guns just because I took a liking to them.  Well, that blew my original idea of just having a couple of calibers all to hell. 

So I went with my friend Rodney over to Cheaper Than Dirt and bought a case of .45ACP, a case of 9mm, 500 rds of .380ACP, 500 rds of .357Mag, 500 rds of .38Spl, two bricks (1000 rds each) of .22LR, and 100 rds of .30Cal Carbine.  All told it was just a hair over $600.  It’s a definite shock to the system when you buy all of it at once.  It’s a lot easier when you do it a little at a time (a case here, a few boxes there, etc).

Category Categories: Guns

5 Comments

  2. Kevin White says:
    June 22, 2004 at 10:21 pm

    How long do you expect this purchase to last, overall?

    I think my brother is going in the same direction. Every other time I’m over there he’s got a new piece.

  3. Outlaw3 says:
    June 23, 2004 at 3:46 am

    You can’t just leave them all to remain orphans at the gun store…. you have a civic and moral responsibility to adopt as many as you can…

  4. Aubrey Turner says:
    June 23, 2004 at 5:58 am

    I tend to go through each type at a different rate.  The .45 goes fastest, with usage at 100-200 rounds per week.  So that case may last from 5 to 10 weeks, depending on how many .45 handguns I take to the range each week.  The 9mm lasts a bit longer, with me using 100 rounds every other week (on average).  The .22 tends to go pretty fast as well, at around 100 rounds per week. 

    I don’t shoot the .380 and .357 as much, so those will last quite a bit longer (maybe as long as 6 months).  The .38Spl is somewhere in between the 9mm and the .357.  I’m guessing those 500 rounds will last about 3 months.

  5. Kim du Toit says:
    June 27, 2004 at 5:26 pm

    Good thing you stocked up… I think it’s against Texas law to possess any less than 200 rounds of .22—or was it 500?

    Actually, I’m running a tad low on 7.62 Russian, myself. Down to about 200 rounds, which, if you think about it, is only ten 20-round mags’ worth.