Not being critical at all, but that old saw is only sort-of true.

The whole "cost of bullets" topic is an interesting one, tho.

A guy has to ask himself how well he wants to be able to shoot, instinctively and from various positions, reloading after shooting, etc.

When I was selling guns, the fellows we outfitted who owned the big ones shot them relatively little, certainly little enough that I wondered how most could hit a barn from the inside. This is often reinforced by PH's who comment on the poor shooting skill and/or positive fear many hunters have of their big bores. About the only way to shoot better is to shoot...alot.

How much?

I don't know, but based on my experience in the gunshop years ago, I bet most big bore owners don't squirt 100 rounds thru their guns in anticipation of a hunt, and that is in my opinion not very much ammo, barely enough to function test the gun itself.

I am going to guess that a large number of frequenters of this Forum would shoot and do shoot more than that with the gun they are taking to wallop Meneer Buffel, but there are many, many hunters who head to Africa, for example, every year. I personally do not remember a single instance of a fellow shooting a .458 or comparable gun who shot it very much at all.

To put 500 rounds through a big bore at just the price quoted by Rhett {along with powder, cases, new ones for the hunt, etc}, and you see the cost is actually significant, still less than airfare, but significant just the same. And is 500 rounds enough?

Who knows. For many guys it is enough to permanently infuse a Grand Mal-seizure-like flinch which is why they shun skill-building with the big bore in the first place, and why we read from many PH's that they would way rather have a guy bring a 9.3x62 he can hit a beer cooler with at 100 yards than a bigbore he can't hit the door of the scrapped-out Land Cruiser with at 25.

I'm interested to hear what others think, but it seems to me that reduced-load cast or otherwise cheap bullets are a good way to address functioning and gun handling aspects of this challenge, as long as enough full-powered rounds are used to really get to know the POI of the rounds at all reasonable ranges and to become accustomed to full power recoil, etc.

{This last bit being a trouble spot for doubles, obviously, due to regulation issues.}

What say ye?