How many rounds for a season?

np307

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 25, 2018
Messages
1,256
Location
North Carolina
Just curious how many rounds y'all usually load for a hunting season. I deprimed, sized, and primed 30 cases tonight. That should last the season for me between confirming zero, antelope hunting in Wyoming and deer season here. I'm sure those who shoot multiple rifles or calibers may have differing answers. Or maybe I'm the oddity and y'all have so many rounds loaded you dont have to give it a second thought.
 
If everything is zero'd 30-50 per except long range rig gets 70-100. But i hunt for 4 months. Better to have to many rounds just incase you drop rifle, zero checks etc... sometimes when things are slow its good to kill a rock for confidence.
 
I load enough to supply target shooting for the January-August period and only keep 20-50 on hand for hunting per rifle.
I shoot 150-200 per rifle on average most years.
But I have ran as much as 600 through my .223 plinking and varmint hunting.
This year I have been too busy working on all my used vehicles so I haven't shot more than 200 rounds all year.
I'm gonna try to make up for that next month.
 
I shoot about 2,000 rounds in the course of a year.
For hunting season i have 20-50 rounds of each caliber ready to go.
I only take 5 with me on any given trip though.
 
I used to shoot a lot and always had lot's of ammo on hand for hunting season. Realized one year, I load the magazine and put a few extra's in my pocket and I'm good to go. I don't think anyone can give a really good answer to this, just depend's on how they feel about it and then again a lot of guy's need to feel they are ready for WWIII if it breaks out during hunting season. My son keep's a couple thousand round's for his AR type weapons all the time! No idea what he keep's on hand for his 308 or his 243.
 
for actual season 20 thats deer and elk maybe bear if i need more something is wrong
 
Maybe a better thing to think about is how many game animals you expect to shoot with each type of firearm you have.
Some people are lucky to even shoot one animal a year.
I take 8-10 deer in my home state, maybe 1-2 in adjoining states, a black bear every three or four years, 12-20 squirrels, a handful of rabbits, some doves and maybe a turkey, and if I'm able I go out west to Wyoming and shoot what I can get a tag for and find.
That still doesn't take more than a box of ammo in each gun at most , except for the doves. They can require more than a few rounds to fill a bucket with birds.
 
I'm of the opinion that practice is quite important. If you only shoot 20 practice rounds per year and give yourself 10 rounds for hunting that may not be enough. But I've been guilty of the 20 rounds/20 years for whitetail hunting in Wisconsin as well... so I can't judge.

I currently have about 20 loaded in my '06 ready for fall and 30 hunting rounds for my long range rig for hunting with several hundred shot this year out of both combined.
 
I have 3 antelope tags for 2 rifles. Likely take a box of ammo for each and bring back most of it. I shoot just enough to work up a load and verify zero before I leave.
 
Granted I'm still fairly new to reloading, but the past couple seasons I've probably only loaded up about 40 of the ammo I wanted to use hunting in a particular rifle. Still have some left over from the fall before last. I'm taking my 7-08 after mulies this year, I tumbled 40 casings with that in mind. Haven't gotten farther than that. Life gets in the way sometimes.
 
I don't reload and am not an ammo junky. 2 boxes (40 rounds) is usually what I have for the hunting season. I rarely use more than a half dozen rounds, but that second box is nice peace of mind in case the first came up missing.
 
I typically load in batches, not to fulfill my needs for a time period. Usually 40, 50, or 100 at a time. I really ought to do bigger lots than that
 
Oh, I'll go through quite a few practice rounds, but try not to use very many when actually hunting.

Distresses me a bit when I need to shoot a critter more than once, but it's happened.

For practice and hunting, I'll load up at least 100 of each, and go through many of 'em prior to hunting season. I will admit though that I do most of my rifle marksmanship training with a 22 rifle. It's a lot less expensive, and an awful lot of fun. Then I'll tune up with the hunting rifles before season.

Guy
 
I typically carry about 14 rounds while hunting, usually have 6-10 big game tags per season.

I run out of tags before ammo...
 
I bring 20 rounds per rifle. Last year I shot 4 rounds on antelope trip (3 to confirm elevation zero and 1 for the buck) and 4 rounds on elk trip (3 to confirm zero and 1 for the cow).
 

Forum statistics

Threads
110,815
Messages
1,935,404
Members
34,888
Latest member
Jack the bear
Back
Top