Because loading components are too expensive. I haven't been to the range this year.
Losing interest in firearms?
- Thread starter nomas
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As long depression, etc. isn't a factor, it's normal for our interests to shift and oscillate as we go through life.
Back 50 years ago, I enjoyed burning through 100 rounds of .308 . . . now with the price of everything, and age taking its toll, my range buddies seem to all be .22 LR, with the occasional .38 Specials thrown in.
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- Oct 31, 2022
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Yeah, I found myself going with .22 more and more lately. Ammo prices are way too high to shoot 100s of anything but .22 at this point. Sometimes I'd shoot some 5.56 or 9mm but 95% of the time it's .22 right now. Simply can't afford to use anything else for plinking.
I don't find range time very fun anymore. Because of the noobs, I spend too much time with my head on a swivel keeping track of the other guy's muzzle.
I think noobs are important for the sport but some of the things I've observed makes me nervous.
I think noobs are important for the sport but some of the things I've observed makes me nervous.
I like going to the range however it's much more fun actually going pheasant hunting with a good friend. I have been out pheasant hunting several times this year. I usually go to the range by myself because I go during the week and everyone is usually doing something else. I love shooting .22 pistols at targets.
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I've been there as I have lost almost all interest in hunting or target shooting. Skeet is great but old knees and eyes doesn't make me enjoy as much.
I have a few hobbies and I find that I'll get into one and put aside the rest, for a bit. Then circulate around again.
Personally I stopped going to a gun range as it got too political. I realize owning guns is political but for brevity I stick out like a sore thumb now. Building a range now in my back yard, might get back into shooting again. But boy, nothing gets cheaper, does it? Reloading components took a big hike. I kinda enjoy reloading my 38's, but at 25c/rnd, I think twice about blazing away. [That and owning a snub means it's not that much fun.]
Personally I stopped going to a gun range as it got too political. I realize owning guns is political but for brevity I stick out like a sore thumb now. Building a range now in my back yard, might get back into shooting again. But boy, nothing gets cheaper, does it? Reloading components took a big hike. I kinda enjoy reloading my 38's, but at 25c/rnd, I think twice about blazing away. [That and owning a snub means it's not that much fun.]
Man does this hammer home... since the pandemic I've been on a different schedule, first 100% WFH and now in-office a couple days a week--but 5 days a week I swear, I'm either working, commuting or sleeping. I don't unwind on the weekends and it's only by like Sunday night that I might have unwound enough to do anything enjoyable. Feels miserable. During the summer months I can do what I love most--long bicycle rides--but once fall hits, that falls away, and a long slow winter depression sets in...
Years ago I used to enjoy flying remote control model airplanes and bicycling. I did that for several decades. And after a while I lost interest in flying the remote control model airplanes and took up walking instead of riding bicycles. I realized that I needed another Hobby to enjoy because I was no longer flying remote control model airplanes. I've always enjoyed listening to folk music and country music and realized one day that most of the music I was listening to had acoustic guitar in it. And decided that I would like to learn how to play the acoustic guitar. So I borrowed an acoustic guitar from one of my brothers and learn to play enough of it that I could go to music stores and play the guitars they had and choose one that I like the sound of and how it played. I travel to every music store within 15 miles that sold acoustic guitars and found the one that I wanted and bought it. It was very expensive but I still enjoy playing that guitar very much. I even attended adult evening classes taught by the local Community College in the evenings at local high schools to learn how to play guitar. First I attended guitar one, and then I signed up for guitar two. But twice when I signed up for guitar two I got a phone call from Community College telling me that there hadn't been enough people signing up for the course for it to be offered. I remembered that on the literature for signing up for that course they offered it at two different times so the third time that I wanted to take it I called up the admissions office and ask them if they would please look at the number of people that had signed up for both of the times it was offered and if there were not enough people signed up for either one of those time intervals to please call each of the individuals who had signed up for both the time intervals and ask them if they would be willing to attend any other time interval that was offered. So they could figure out what time interval they could have enough people sign up for. The admissions office agreed to do that and by combining the individuals there were enough people to have the course.
I also attended an adult evening class in singing.
And then after that I joined a local folk music support group called Calliope that meets once a month and everyone brings an instrument or two and we form a big circle of chairs and take turns going around the circle about who gets to play their instrument and perform a song. If anyone else in the room knows how to play along with the song that the person is playing who has their turn to play they're welcome to play along with them. Nowadays when the weather is warm enough quite often I go to a park and take my guitar with me and play guitar for a while, have a lunch that I brought along and then walk in the park. It's a very relaxing and enjoyable day when I find the time to do that and the weather is good enough.
So you see I have applied that wise philosophy to my own life in some ways to keep life worth living.
I also attended an adult evening class in singing.
And then after that I joined a local folk music support group called Calliope that meets once a month and everyone brings an instrument or two and we form a big circle of chairs and take turns going around the circle about who gets to play their instrument and perform a song. If anyone else in the room knows how to play along with the song that the person is playing who has their turn to play they're welcome to play along with them. Nowadays when the weather is warm enough quite often I go to a park and take my guitar with me and play guitar for a while, have a lunch that I brought along and then walk in the park. It's a very relaxing and enjoyable day when I find the time to do that and the weather is good enough.
So you see I have applied that wise philosophy to my own life in some ways to keep life worth living.
I am not really into the shooting sports. I do have a shooting range in my backyard. I typically use it to remain proficient and to zero the tools when things are changed. I find it's fun when some recurrent training or "test and tune" is required.
With 308 ammo over $2 per round FGMM 168g SMK BTHP, I don't do a lot of shooting. Might as well take a $50 bill and throw it out of the car window.
I'm pretty much the same. I can't see the target without my glasses and with glasses I can't see the sights on the gun.
Have you painted the sights? I did some nail polish on one gun, two different colors, to help out. Hi-viz sight might be nice too.
My old eye doc made me some excellent shooting glasses
Ya. It's just all fuzzy looking. I'm extremely near sighted. I don't need glasses to read my small phone but I can't see much past the end of my arm.
What's that cost?
Around $100 as I recall around 2014. Probably in the $300 range now.
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I have recently went to the range, twice and I'll be going again today, I'm trying to get back into it, even if I only shoot 100 rounds, it feels like I've done something. I have a lot of ailments, I have back issues, I'm only 52. I got out of shooting the last time about 3 years ago.. I really didn't think I was going to get back involved, because of my back.. I'm really missing my Ruger MKII Hunter right about now, I had to let that go, I needed cash I let that go with some Big bore revolvers, I don't miss them. Some days it's difficult for me to even get around.. Especially in the winter.. when I'm at the range I can't stand long, so I have to sit to load my, magazines.. and I usually take breaks.. Year's back I used to enjoy my hunting, back when I was with my first wife. I moved on. Never seem to meet, no good shooting and hunting friends anymore..
I have four handguns that don't get a lot of use. I put maybe a box of ammo through each at the range every two months or so. I enjoy them for the mechanical things they are, enjoy the process of practicing using them correctly, etc., but I no longer shoot to get better at it. I just shoot to make some noise and put holes in paper in a reasonably-sized group, and that's pretty much it. After an hour I'm usually good for another month or two and sometimes question why I own four of them that all do the same thing.
I know what you mean! And yet I sit here looking to purchase another one
