Tuesday, March 01, 2016

Round Count

Surfing through the newspaper (digital, online stuff), I see that the preoccupation seems to be a poll that the nation is taking in several states.  Louisiana votes on Saturday, and I'm bored with politics, so we turn to reloading.

Joe Huffman posts that his round count for all time is something in the 70K range for an all time total.  I looked at that figure and considered my all-time total, and I must say I have no clue.

Reloading is an OCD activity.  One must keep strict attention to numerous little details and I have several recipes that I use in any of about a dozen calibers.  For example, my standard .38 Special load is 4.3 grains of Unique under a 158 grain semi-wadcutter.  Anybody's primer.  I've loaded this round for over two decades.  Likewise my .44 Special load.  7.5 grains of Unique under a 240 semi-wadcutter.  I could tell you about .308 or .30-06, or any of another half-dozen calibers, but if you asked me how many rounds I've loaded over the decades, I couldn't tell you.

I started reloading in the '70s when I joined a skeet club.  Skeet shooting burns through a lot of ammo and I reloaded to keep my clays bill down to a tolerable level.  Likewise raising three rambunctious boys in a little place way out in the country.  I loaded shotshells by (literally) the bushel basket.  Likewise centerfire ammunition.  But, I never kept a round count.

I don't keep round conts on individual firearms, either.  I suspect that I've shot about 4000 rounds of wax-bullet ammo this year, simply because I've bought about 10,000 wax bullets (and I'm about to order some more).  But, if you ask me how many rounds of ammo my Blackhawk (for example), or my Savage 11 has shot through them?  Not a prayer.

So, the question begs itself:  Who keeps count of such things?  Evidently some of us do.

4 comments:

Joe Huffman said...

I'm a bit of obsessive personality so keeping track of my load data for various guns and bullets is important and the number of rounds sort of comes with the territory.

And since, other than .22, I don't shoot much factory ammo it also gives me a clue as to how many rounds I have shot in a month/year/whenever.

Gerry N. said...

I began handloading in the Early 60's as a result of purchasing a M. 1891 Argentine Mauser for which ammunition was quite expensive. I kept meticulous records for approximately six weeks. By then I had found a load that was sufficiently accurate and powerful enough to end the career of any big game animal in Washington State. After that I simply reloaded whatever usable brass I had in the caliber I was shooting at the time. I've been doing it that way for 53 years now.

Robert said...

I literally just started reloading about a week ago, so far my round count is a whopping 20! Right now I'm just set up to reload for my 30-30, handgun ammo is cheap enough that it's not worth it (for me) to reload. If my wife knew what I was planning on spending for my new hobby I'd probably be in the dog house. :)

.45ACP+P said...

I am pleased to say that I have more ammo in stock than the 15k or so I have shot. It gives me something to work on.