Match Expenditure of Ammunition

[Bwana Six-Gun]

Like most of the others, I try to carry at least twice what the match calls for and maybe a little extra. It never hurts to be safe. Case in point, at this years Gator Classic, a shooter in my squad from California brought 400 rounds. he had one reshoot and when the match was over he had exactly 15 rounds left. That is just cutting it too close for comfort.

[shred]

I took 750 to the 551-round World Shoot. I had 98 left over after the last stage, sight-in and a little function fire.

If we'd been able to re-export ammo with ourselves, I'd have at least 800+

Realistically, you're never going to have 200 rounds worth of reshoots in any major match

[Blueridge]

I appreciate the response that I have gotten so far, and the first question has been answered well. The second question is how may rounds (on average) do people expend over the minimum required. People have given examples of re-shoots causing expenditure of ammunition beyond the required, but little has been said about extra shots taken for other reasons (such as extra shots for long range targets).

I compete with a revolver, and avoid extra shots in effort to keep reloads to a minimum. If I know that a course requires 21 rounds, and I will have to reload 24 rounds anyway I will make use of "extra" 3 rounds if I feel the need. On the other hand if a course of fire requires 18 rounds (for example), then I will not reload to make up shots.

[bbbean]

Like most of the others, I try to carry at least twice what the match calls for and maybe a little extra. It never hurts to be safe. Case in point, at this years Gator Classic, a shooter in my squad from California brought 400 rounds. he had one reshoot and when the match was over he had exactly 15 rounds left. That is just cutting it too close for comfort.

At this year's Pro Am steel match in Arnold, I made a mental mike and figured the required rounds wrong. Good thing I took twice the required rounds because I ended the last stage with one full mag (20 rds) and an empty ammo bag.

[kevin c]

At my level (A in Limited, pushing at it in Productiion, which is where I like to play now), I often shoot clean (no extra shots), but may shoot 10% more than the minimum, occasionally more with movers or nasty little 6" plates at 20 yards WHO (thank you, Ron).

So, 5 to 10% more than the official round count.

Better shooters will use less ammo during any match...

[Nik Habicht]

The second question is how may rounds (on average) do people expend over the minimum required.

Production --- perhaps 1 or 2 more per stage than the stage description calls for. Often I fire exactly the required number of rounds, occasionally I have an imperfect sight picture and fire an immediate makeup, occasionally I'll plan to engage a fast mover with three rounds, occasionally I miss a piece of steel....

Limited --- because there's more ammo on tap and I shoot it less frequently I tend to make plans that are more aggressive than they should be. (Exceeding known abilities.) That tends to drive up the rounds required for all of the production reasons listed....

[warpspeed]

I always take double.