How To Lower Shooting Costs

When I recently complained about the cost of ammunition and handloading components, my helpful wife suggested I not shoot as much. Wrong answer! But it got me thinking of more realistic ways to minimize the cost of pulling a trigger. Here are a few ideas I came up with.

SHOOT CHEAPER CALIBERS

Even a quick glance at a store's ammunition counter will quickly reveal it costs more to shoot some calibers than others. The big magnums have the highest price point when it comes to rifles, so to save money, do most of your shooting with a cheaper, smaller caliber. For rifle shooters, the cheapest centerfire choices are .223 Remington and .308 Winchester, simply because of popularity and the fact both are "military" cartridges. And don't forget .22 rimfire or even air guns if you want to save a lot of money. Dry fire is also an excellent way to maintain your shooting skills. Firearm professionals like Paul Howe advocate for 90% dry fire and 10% live fire.

Rimfire ammo isn't as cheap as it used to be, but it's a cheaper training option than centerfire.

BUY LOCAL

Much of what we shooters buy comes with shipping challenges. Lead, brass, and copper are heavy, while powder and primers are "explosive," ensuring specialized shipping methods are needed. This means that if manufacturers of these products are in your local area, they might provide the best deals because of significantly reduced shipping costs. And some even have factory stores where they sell blemished seconds or overruns. Those kinds of deals might even be worth a long drive.

USE SUBSCRIPTIONS

The opposite of buying local can save money too, just harness the power of the internet. These days, there's no shortage of online retailers offering everything we need to supply our shooting needs. Most send out regular sale bulletins offering special deals on their product lines. However, it is necessary to sign up to receive these. While we all get too much junk email, I've narrowed my selection down to a few retailers who regularly offer great deals on the products I need most often. Just last week, I got a bulletin from one of them telling me they had primers I was looking for in stock at 15% off, and they'd ship for free with a minimum order. I was all over that deal.

You can save money by loading your own ammunition, especially if you can get brass for free.

LOAD YOUR OWN AMMO

Can a person save money by handloading? I usually say it's impossible because they just shoot more, resulting in no saving. However, it is possible to save money in some circumstances, much of which has to do with the calibers you shoot. One of the keys to shooting cheap is not buying brass but scrounging it. Like those bottle-pickers you see along the highway, it's possible to pick brass discarded by non-handloaders at the local shooting range. Since that brass case is the most expensive component of a centerfire rifle cartridge, the price to shoot goes way down if it can not only be reused but not purchased at all. Again, the easiest calibers to find are .223 Remington and .308 Winchester. I've purchased brass for almost all the rifle handloading I do, but I have never purchased a piece of .223 or .308 brass. I've scrounged it all.

BUY IN BULK

It's obvious manufacturers can provide savings when they deal in large volumes. But it's also true for consumers. I use this principle when buying bullets for handloading, as containers of 250 or 500 are considerably cheaper per bullet than the small 100-count boxes. Hornady offers many of its most popular products in 500-count boxes, with some even available in 6,000-count containers. Bulk buying also works when buying cleaning patches, cleaning solvents, and gunpowder. While I haven't done it recently, but I can team up with other shooters and purchase large quantities. My largest bulk purchase to date was shared with two friends many years ago when we bought 50,000 bullets at once.

High-volume shooting, like varminting, requires buying in bulk to keep costs down.

DON'T BUY CHEAP

At this point in the discussion, there is no savings in buying poor quality products. But where do we draw the line between good value and a lousy product? That's harder to determine. For example, I've had great luck with some of the value-priced rifles currently offered by various manufacturers. They aren't fancy, but they get the job done, and there's enough money left over for upgrades like a chassis system. On the flip side, there are value-priced optics out there that aren't worth bringing home at any price. In those circumstances, it's cheaper in time and frustration to buy a higher-priced, quality product than to try and save money on something incapable of doing the job you bought it for. In that case, you're better off buying a quality used optic with a lifetime warranty.

In closing, these are the best suggestions I can make for reducing shooting costs because we all know that shooting less is never an option.

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