Training Question

[Bigbird19]

In your opinion would it be better to do a large quantity of shooting all at once or spread it out over time? For example, I'm a college student which means low on money. Lets say I allotted myself 400 rounds a month to shoot for budgeting purposes. Do you think it would be better to shoot one set of 400 rounds, 2 sets of 200 or 4 sets of 100 etc etc. With the higher round count comes fatigue but would training under fatigue be helpful? Thoughts?

[stormvet]

With a 400 limit, I would do two 200 round days. Once a month not enough and at 100 rounds your just getting warmed up.
Thanks to loading my own, I'm able to do 300 to 400 rounds three or four times a month.

[echoThreeOneSix]

I would do two 200 round days as well. About the fatigue piece, are you practicing for CCW and HD? If so I doubt you'll be fatigued (from shooting at least) when those engagements occur. Most HD/CCW engagements don't use more than two magazines so I wouldn't think you would need to practice to fatigue. I'm not a trainer though so I don't really know.

[ricksOe]

I tend to shoot 200 to 250 rounds per session and im not even training.. groups tend to get less tight when im getting past the 200 mark.. mostly because boredom is kicking in and I've already shot a nice group that surpassed my last session.

[echoThreeOneSix]

I tend to shoot 200 to 250 rounds per session and im not even training.. groups tend to get less tight when im getting past the 200 mark.. mostly because boredom is kicking in and I've already shot a nice group that surpassed my last session.

at an indoor range shooting more than 250 rounds gets lame. there is only so much you can shoot at little circles or play battleship. out in the desert or running a 3 gun course you can put some serious rounds out there.

[Canadadry]

Shoot 100 rounds per week. That's plenty. Sometime anymore than that your just wasting ammo. You will start to get fatigued. If you want to develop your skills DO LOTS OF DRY FIRING.

Take and empty shell or nickel and place on your slide. Dry fire without making the shell or nickel fall off or better yet move. You need to do it every night. However, I don't even do that just due to time. The other option is to just watch you front sight. If there is any movement during dry firing then you're throwing the shot. Ideally, you want zero movement of the front sight.

Go buy some snap caps so that you don't damage your gun. 400 rounds is plenty per month.

[CSACANNONEER]

What type of shooting are you doing or training for? Olympic rapid fire? Run and gun? Bullseye? Basic SD? Tacticool "operator"? Or, just basic target shooting? Since you said "training", I'm guessing you have an instructor or coach helping you. Why not ask him/her?

[enzo357]

Do a 100 a week. Start with dry fire drills. Move on to live fire. Finish with more dry fire.

On the days you cant go live, do dry fire. Use one of the books like Anderson's.

[003]

As mentioned above, you can do significant training without firing a shot. Do a bit of on line research, and then work up a training plan that includes significant dry fire. Concentrate on the basics, slight alignment, trigger squeeze, etc. Think in terms of doing 100 to 1 dry fire to live fire.

[Bigbird19]

Training was probably the wrong word. Practice would be more accurate.

[CSACANNONEER]

OK, what type of practice? Just simple target shooting? What type of handgun? If it's a flintlock, 15-20 rounds is usually enough for most. If it's a bolt action, 40-50 rounds per session will probably be enough. If your doing rapid fire from a semi auto, 200-250 works well for most people.

Besides the cost of ammo you need to factor in the other costs associated with each range trip. It's a lot cheaper to shoot 500 rounds in one trip than 5 rounds per visit for 100 visits.

[stormvet]

SWAT/Combat qualification course 50 rounds, DOT torture 50 rounds, FAST drill 30-50 rounds, forward, reverse, lateral movement shooting drills 30-50 rounds. Add any number of other excellent drills and you can see how fast the rounds will add up.
Then add more then one handgun to the mix, I usually take three and you just tripled it.
Now for bullseye, target practice and plinking 100 is enough, any type of action shooting, heck you'd be done shooting in thirty minutes with only 100 rounds.
When people use the term training I assume they are talking about action/rapid fire run and gun type of shooting.

[Arrieta578]

IMHO, if it isn't clear already, what everyone I think is trying to tell you is that the kind of training you are doing, what you are training for, and what your training situation allows you do (location, kinds of targets, limitations, etc...) should all dictate how many rounds you are going to shoot.

At an indoor range where training is restricted to basic accuracy, different distances, maybe some magazine changes, and some simple malfunction drills, 100 - 200 should be more than enough.

In an outdoor range where you doing rapid response type training, perhaps 200-300 rounds might suffice in a day.

And in an outdoor range where you are practicing moving and shooting, shooting around barriers, shooting from different positions, in conjunction with accuracy, response time, reloading drills, and malfunction drills, etc... you might end up shooting 400-500 rounds in a day.

Let your training dictate your ammo needs --and as what was already said, dry fire drills are also very important!

[Squidward]

It wasn't mentioned but I'm assuming the allotment is for one firearm (?)

My answer is that it depends upon;
-What firearm you are shooting (200 rounds of 12 ga.? Yikes!)
-The type of shooting; target type, static or dynamic.
-What your goal for the day is going to be. For example, working on
draw from CCW.

For me, that drives what the round count will be.

[CSACANNONEER]

It wasn't mentioned but I'm assuming the allotment is for one firearm (?)

My answer is that it depends upon;
-What firearm you are shooting (200 rounds of 12 ga.? Yikes!)
-The type of shooting; target type, static or dynamic.
-What your goal for the day is going to be. For example, working on
draw from CCW.

For me, that drives what the round count will be.

He posted in the handgun forum and has a limited budget so, I doubt he has a 12g handgun in CA. But, I've watched 12 year old girls shoot 200 rounds of 12g in a day without issues at ATA matches. If you know how to shoot a shotgun and it fits you properly, 200 rounds in a day is NOTHING.