Target practice on a budget.

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Mikeallison
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Target practice on a budget.

Post by Mikeallison »

I know I may have more luck with this on a gun forum, but I figured I would pitch it here since frugality comes into play too, and some of you seem like experienced shooters. My question is, what do you guys do to keep the cost of shooting down?

In my case I've managed to keep my pistol practice cost down by using .22 and 38 special. I've got a cheap supplier of lead wheel weights near by, and I melt and cast these into .38 special bullets for nearly nothing. The finished round only uses 3.5 grains of very reasonable green dot powder, so I can get 2000 rounds charged with a 27 dollar, one pound bottle. That means my only other cost is the pistol primers which run about 3 cents a piece. I estimate a 50 round box of ammo costs me about $2.50 this way. That's not bad considering a box of 50 is about 18 bucks at the store. Oh and I'm using recycled brass, which I've collected over the years.

*one of the other great things about 38 special is that it is a revolver cartridge, and revolvers, unlike modern pistols, don't eject the spent cases all over the place, making it much easier not to lose your brass.

The best cheap solution for non rimfire rifle practice that I've found is steel cased Russian ammo in my cz527 bolt gun, chambered in 7.62x39mm. I just use the Iron sights and plink with it out to 100 yards because that's all the room I have, so no ultra long range precision stuff. This is more expensive than the pistol at .21 cents a round, but still cheap enough to let me train frequently.

If any of you have figured out cheap rifle reloading, I would love to hear it!

Gilberto de Piento
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Re: Target practice on a budget.

Post by Gilberto de Piento »

Ive had fun shooting a good quality pellet gun. It costs very little. I don't think this is what you are thinking of but it is one option.

Mikeallison
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Re: Target practice on a budget.

Post by Mikeallison »

Gilberto de Piento wrote:
Thu Apr 12, 2018 9:35 pm
Ive had fun shooting a good quality pellet gun.
I was thinking about picking one up, not so much for target practice, but for quiet pest control around my house in town.
They make air guns pretty potent now days.

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Sclass
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Re: Target practice on a budget.

Post by Sclass »

Ditto. Air guns. I have thousands of pellets - 500 good ones (Crosman Premier) cost me $7 at Walmart.

It started a few years ago dealing with a pest problem in my garden. I got hooked. I own six air rifles. I’ve shown some on my threads here. The guns themselves are expensive as far as guns go. But the ammo is cheap. I hunt and shoot way more often than people using firearms because of the nature of air guns - quiet, cheap, no cleaning etc.

I have a cheap pistol I use for target practice. Crosman 1377. It is the only cheap one I own.

Here are some of my favorites. The Marauder is a great value PCP rifle capable of 1” groups at 50 yds out of the box.

I haven’t used a firearm in years. Those just sit in storage now.

Image

Edit - I’m not fond of spring powered airguns. The potent kind found at Walmart. PCP and pump up designs don’t have the trajectory bounce issue. No matter how good a spring gun is it’ll always squirm around as the pellet leaves the barrel making accuracy a challenge. Cheap pump ups don’t have this but they have cheap barrels made for B.B. compatibility. Do your research before buying.

And, the high end spring guns sold at Walmart are marketed with impressively high muzzle velocities that impress teenagers but kill accuracy as the pellet transitions through the sonic barrier. So I like slower shooting pcp and pump ups mostly sold online at this time.

My Sheridans above are BIFL. I got one of them at age 7 and it works like new after new o rings.

Mikeallison
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Re: Target practice on a budget.

Post by Mikeallison »

@Sclass

The main reason I've stayed away from air guns is the inaccuracy you mentioned. Of course I have yet to shoot the high end ones. Mine were always the cheap Wal-Mart kind as a kid, and they would shoot all over the place, even when I made a make shift rest.

Ill take a look at "The Marauder" as the accuracy you mentioned would work great for backyard duty.

That is quite the collection you have! Love the homemade rack, I did almost the same thing with dowels and a 2x4 in my makeshift jobbox gun safe.
Last edited by Mikeallison on Fri Apr 13, 2018 12:22 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Mikeallison
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Re: Target practice on a budget.

Post by Mikeallison »

Hmmm not a whole lot of people into target shooting/reloading here. I half expected as much though. If anybody is curious about the process let me know, and I can do a mini write up on how I do it, and the equipment involved. Target shooting Is a fun hobby, and cheap enough if you do it right.

I would recommend even people who dislike guns try it, because you will be much better informed about them after even a single trip to the range, and decisions based on knowledge/experience are much better than ones based on fear in my opinion.

jacob
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Re: Target practice on a budget.

Post by jacob »

Until a few years ago, I had never shot a real gun, but I spent many an evening in my teens putting holes through pieces of paper with my airsoft guns. Airsoft back in the 90s (before greengas, etc. when you had to rack the slide for the spring for every shot) were already accurate enough to consistently hit a dime from across the room and I can only imagine they've gotten better.

A few years ago, a couple of forum members invited me out for some shooting. I was accurate enough to win the target competition (because of course we had to have one), so despite never having shot a real Glock17, I must have put thousands and thousands of BBs through my airsoft Glock17L and that was good enough. OTOH, I also tried a few other handguns (1911) and I was not very good with those at all.

Marui was and apparently still is the gold standard.

Another solution is to use laser bullets, but those are pretty expensive.

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Sclass
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Re: Target practice on a budget.

Post by Sclass »

I just stopped by the Crosman website. They have been really good about bringing pcp to the masses. They have some new low cost pcp guns like the Maximus and Wildfire. Prolly smart to read a few reviews at Pyramyd Air first before buying. I suspect these are loud and may need mods to get accuracy. For instance Crosman uses stiff “lawyer springs” on the low end trigger packs to keep novice users from accidental discharges that hinder accuracy.

The Marauder is good out of the box but you pay more for that. Crosman did do the deed though in brining that kind of gun to market for half the price of the British, Swedish and German makes. The Marauder’s silencer makes it a game changer. It opens up a lot of hunting grounds unavailable to firearms. Very Backyard friendly.

Hand pump guns really force you to slow down. It’s almost like shooting blackpowder. It forces you to think through each shot instead of mindlessly popping off ammo. Very relaxing and the pcp pumps give you a workout especially if you charge to over 3000psi.

As for reloading I think a lot of the guys here do it. I have reloading equipment but I no longer use my powder burners and hence no longer hand load.

I forgot about airsoft. Those are really fun. I had a few inexpensive pistols that provided hours of entertainment during TV commercials. After a few months of spring powered airsoft shooting I can clear the action on my real pistols a lot faster. Cocking those toys builds muscle. :lol:

Reminded me that another way to cheaply train, especially with handguns, is to dry fire. It helped me a lot to just get a feel for squeezing off the trigger on a particular gun. I feel it helps the same way as airsoft does. It forces you to develop some coordination and muscle memory in the hand.

Curmudgeon
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Re: Target practice on a budget.

Post by Curmudgeon »

Sclass wrote:
Fri Apr 13, 2018 2:32 pm
Reminded me that another way to cheaply train, especially with handguns, is to dry fire. It helped me a lot to just get a feel for squeezing off the trigger on a particular gun. I feel it helps the same way as airsoft does. It forces you to develop some coordination and muscle memory in the hand.
Combine that with a laserlyte and you get some feedback on accuracy as well.

enigmaT120
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Re: Target practice on a budget.

Post by enigmaT120 »

Mike wrote: "They make air guns pretty potent now days."

I guess they have for a long time. Lewis and Clark took one on their expedition and used it to awe the natives. I tried to find pictures and details about it but never have been able to.

George the original one
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Re: Target practice on a budget.

Post by George the original one »

Mikeallison wrote:
Fri Apr 13, 2018 12:18 pm
Hmmm not a whole lot of people into target shooting/reloading here.
BTDT, not my interest these days.

George the original one
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Re: Target practice on a budget.

Post by George the original one »

enigmaT120 wrote:
Fri Apr 13, 2018 3:17 pm
Lewis and Clark took one on their expedition and used it to awe the natives. I tried to find pictures and details about it but never have been able to.
No shit! I had to google and learn... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Girandoni_air_rifle

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Sclass
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Re: Target practice on a budget.

Post by Sclass »

For the curious, Dr. Robert Beeman of Beeman Airguns spent a good part of his life searching for the original Lewis and Clark gun. They believe they found it based on some scarring on the stock and other field repairs that matched reports documented in the journey diaries.

https://www.beemans.net/Austrian%20airguns.htm

https://www.beemans.net/lewis-assault-rifle.htm

There is a nice example of a Girandoni at the NRA museum in Reston. This is basically the same pump and valve mechanism as found in the Benjamin Marauder. Amazing they were able to make a gun and pump capable of holding these pressures before the invention of urethane, Delrin, vulcanized rubber or the steam engine for that matter.

At the time the gun was unparalleled because it could repeat fire ten rounds of musket balls at a velocity sufficient to kill a deer before recharging. There is an interesting illustration someplace online of a European aristocrat making his hand servant pump the gun as he stands by. It probably was a beast to charge.

Edit - oops, I guess the rifle was developed within a year of the Watt steam engine design. I fixed a leak in my Marauder valve body this summer. It was quite a job and I’d only put three thousand rounds through the gun before it started leaking. Quite a show, it was like releasing a scuba tank in five seconds after I took a shot. Luckily it released the air through the barrel. I felt like I was holding a rocket. Looking at the Girandoni valves, I can see why they gave up on the gun. Too much trouble with low tech materials.

enigmaT120
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Re: Target practice on a budget.

Post by enigmaT120 »

Wow George, your Google-fu is better than mine. Thanks, that was interesting reading.

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