Forums.NitroExpress.com

To answer the questions.
I am a professional in 2 ways I guess.
#1 I earn most of my living these days as a gunsmith and so I fire various guns every day of my life, about 5-6 times a week, but I am not being paid to fire those shot per se. I am being paid to insure the guns (rifles, handguns and shotguns) are in working order and most times, that they are zeroed in, and ready for service.

So some days I may fire 1-3 guns and some days I may fire up to 6-7. As an average I will fire about 20-40 round per gun. Just in the last 4 hours I went through 30 rounds of 38 Special, 18 rounds of 223 from a M700 bolt action and a full box of 45 ACP from a 1911. So today so far I have fired 98 rounds and the day's not over.

So lets say that comes to a loose average of 14 guns per week, with maybe an average of 25-30 shots each. If we call it 27 rounds per gun as a rough guess, that comes to 378 rounds a week, X 49 weeks. ( Not 52 because I take time off for Hunting, Christmas and sometime when I am on the road) That's 18,522 per year, from guns I am working on.

Add to that the 2-3 cases of AK74 and AK47 rounds (5.45 and 7.62) I fire, plus an average of 1,500 5.56 rounds from my AR15s I fire as in instructor, and for students who ask for tutoring, plus most years I'll fire a 1000 round case of 45 ACP and about 2000 rounds of 9MM as an average, and on top of those I will fire about 750 to 1000 rounds of mixed 38 special, 357 mag, 44 mag and a few 454s every year.

This is a loose average, and some years the totals will vary quite a bit, but not so much the round-count.

2 years ago as an example, I fired a lot more 45ACP then I did 9mm, but last year my 9MM handguns went through just under 3 cases (1000 rounds each). I also go through a few hundred 308s and 6.8SPCs every year too.
Throw in my fun-shooting, in calibers I am playing with for myself on top of this pile. 8X57, 9.3X57, 9.3X74R, 30-06 270s, 6.5X54 Mann/Scho, 25-06 300 H&H 404 jeffery and muzzleloaders.

So my guess in my post above (7,500) is actually way low.

But I am not a celebrity.

I don't even own a video camera. In fact I don't ever even take my regular camera with me when I go hunting. (something I find I am kicking myself for at times)

So there are no videos of me to the best of my knowledge, unless someone in the Navy or Marine Corps has one, and in classes on Military and Polices ranges I don't know if they would even allow a camera. I never asked. But I somewhat doubt they would.

There are a few members who have posted here in the past who know me however, and have been to my home and range, and shot with me. I won't call them out here, but if they see this post and are comfortable with adding anything, they are very welcome.

If someone doesn't believe me it's 100% ok with me. I don't have a dog in the fight. Their disbelief costs me nothing.

But what I have seen and tested I am willing to report. And that costs them nothing.

Those the have read my posts for years, and those that know me, know I am always focusing on improving my students abilities, and almost never focus on gear or tools. That includes guns and scopes. I will focus on bullet selection in many cases, because this has more to do with the effectiveness of kills then the guns they are fired from in my experience.

Skill trumps everything else in 99.5% of the cases, and skill can be improved, even when students are not wealthy and can't afford the "latest and greatest" or the expensive "elite class" guns of this era or the last one.

It's the man doing the shooting, not the gun.

Edited by szihn (07/03/18 08:51 AM)