PRICED OUT?

[silhouette13]

hi every one,

i have been shooting fsilo for 3-4 years now. i started because it was fairly inexpensive to shoot(not counting start up/equipment cost)...

alas those days are over.i went on a 4 hour expedition ,store to store, walmart to walmart, mom and pop to mom and pop. fed 550 bulk paks 25$ ouch.no automatch to be had in 7 stores. i finially bought some cci std for 10$ per 100 WTF? i talked the guy down too implying he was an a-hole. he wanted 15$/100 75 a brick ,not even match ammo.

heres the real problem, if i could find a consistant source i would buy it, even at a slightly elevated price. i cannot get new scope settings everytime i am forced to get an alternitive. at 10 puls cents a squeeze. and that is providing the ammo is compatible with my gun. i am d-scusted!

some would say buy a case or 2, i would say if i had cash falling out my butt i would. i have a young family and am paycheck to paycheck and the wifes job is precarious at best.

i am competitive, if i cannot practice i do not want to go to matches.

there was a woman at the 75 a brick store who was going to get more cash to buy every thing he had, apperantly she has a hard time finding it to. to those who are buying up all they can find, good for you. you are just making it impossible for the most of us. i am done after the state pistol championship match in NH.i will hold on to the gear and see if the tide changes.

if not i will spend more time hunting and less time shooting, hell at the rate i can find deer i should beable to enjoy SOMETHING for pennies a year.maybe back to archery. maybe try to shave time off my 5k times. but i sure as hell cant afford smallbore silhouette any more.

thanks for the help and guidence through the years.

handsome dave

[BlauBear]

My tactic with short supply parts and supplies is to place the back-order with Midway and wait, and there's always another shooter that will loan ammunition or sell me a brick from their stash until the order arrives. Fortunately, I started the season with enough ammunition on hand that I could wait out the shortage.

[malinois]

I have just given up on finding any great ammo at resnable prices, I have found that some of the cheap stuff will shoot well....Not one hole groups but well enough to keep me in the game.....Thats all we can do till supplies start to catch up.

[BlauBear]

Try Cathy Winstead-Sevrin at http://www.goodshootinginc.com/ - Eley is never cheap, but it doesn't sound so bad next to the prices you were quoting!

[mordecai]

I saw that J&G had the Centurion in stock again for $179/5000 which is like $3.60/100... It's certainly no worse than Federal Bulk.
Strike that, just checked, sold out. LOL - gotta be quick!

Go with Cathy, buy bulk.

[Ghostofwar]

Have you tried the Aguila Match ammo? It seems like thats all I see at the Gun shows around here. You can get match for 30-40 a brick and the standard velocity stuff cheaper than that.

[Innocent]

Agulia Match and Eley Sport shoot the same through most of my stuff. Go to Cathy and get a brick from her.
Mary

[Jerry G]

GW, the Mexican Eley wasn't too bad. A few years ago we could get it for about $100 a case but I'm sure it has gone up like everything else. If you are buying ammo a brick at a time, it would seem to me that you would have to get new 0s every time you changed lot numbers. On the other hand, I know a guy that is so insecure with his 0s that he has to shoot at least a box on the bench before each match.

Save some money and buy a case of the Mexican Eley and enjoy your shooting. 1 1/2 inch groups at 100 ain't so bad.

[atomicbrh]

silhouette 13, When we started Silhouette around 9 years ago with Smallbore Rifle we were buying Eley at around $160 per case of 5000 shipped to the door. It was called "Trainer", came in a multicolored plastic box and would hold 1 MOA at 100 meters in the CZ 452's that we competed with at that time. We did not know enough about Smallbore Silhouette to appreciate this group size. We thought this was common. This Smallbore Rifle game was cheap and fun when we started and a young family could afford it.

I had this same conversation (that ammo costs are killing Smallbore Silhouette) with Bart of Zanders Wholesale at the 2009 Winnsboro Southern Nationals. Bart said he had been hearing this same story for years and that the Eley sales numbers in America did not show a decrease in sales over the years. I beg to differ due to the fact that I am missing a lot of the regulars at matchs mainly due to the increase in ammo and travelling expenses.

I do not mind paying slightly over $500 per case for the ammo we shoot in Regionals, State Championships and Nationals but there is nothing out there that shoots to the same zeroes that you can practice with daily that we can afford either. The Eley Sport is not good enough for a high AAA or low Master to practice with. The Eley Sport lube gets our bores and bolt faces too dirty and gummy also. There should be a practice ammo in the $200 per case range that shoots close to the same zeroes as the Eley EPS ammos. OK, I have heard the argument that the new Eley production line is producing more precisely manufactured ammo and that is why the cost has increased but we have never bench tested any EPS that consistently shot the small groups that the old $160/case round nose trainer did years ago.

It sounds like dry-firing is going to be the only practice that the average working man can afford. If we did not already have Smallbore equipment we would not participate in Smallbore Rifle Silhouette. We would only shoot the Target Air Rifle, Open Air Rifle and NRA Air Pistol Silhouette and never think twice about shooting Smallbore unless we had a boat load of money dropped on us. We would still attend the Southern Nationals in Winnsboro though to visit friends. Pellets and Scuba Air are still a whole lot cheaper than Smallbore Ammo.

Bobby R. Huddleston

[BlauBear]

Eley Target Rifle currently sells for $410 per case or $4.35 a box, maybe 8% more than Eley Practice 100 cost two years ago. The biggest difference now is availability. Responsible retailers have kept cost in line and done what they could for stock.

Other issues will, I believe, work with cost to drive our sport to air guns or extinction within 20 years. We all fear (or should) loss of ranges to urbanization, and environmental regulations on ammunition, so we need to begin developing air gun programs to survive.

[Dee]

I've shown up late to the silhouette dance and got in just when the ammo started to jump in price. I would have bought a bunch of ammo then had it not been for my daughters college habit. Now the cost has gone up a bit on the ammo which sucks. I do also shoot airgun however and let me say getting a nice airgun rifle setup for 2 much 3 seperate classes can be a costly venture. But the pellets are cheap 5000 rounds match ammo JSBs $70! There is and should be a lot of your trigger time to practice a lot and save money. Besides dry firing not much else but airguns. I shoot smallbore here at home so I can run through a box + a night practicing shooting a match. So I break out the airguns probably 2/3 of the time all depending on what match is coming up I'll shoot the airgun swingers and steel plate for groups on white.

Nothing like the long range clang though from the SB Ram. I just bought a 1712 so I guess I am going to be spending a little $$ on ammo to feed it. If CCI SV shoots good in it I will practice with it and buy bricks of the match stuff for events.

I think about how much money I would be spending if I bought the boat I would buy to go fishing and the ammo seems mighty cheap after that. It is a hobby and like any of them it has costs associated with it those costs will keep most people away. We get people out to our airgun range looking at the place and if someone tells them we are all shooting $1000+ pellet rifles many will watch and try one but you never see them again. This is something you have to want to do because your sure not going to feed yourself on $12 NRA dollars from the Nationals.

The cost of gas and range time are probably a big reason as well. I spend more on gas by far to shoot a few matches a month. But I never drive to practice so I save there and no range fees


Dee

[pistolero45]

I feel everyone's pain on the availability and price of ammo.

Although coming up with the money for a case of ammo may be difficult, it will save money and much frustration in the long run. I've had very good luck with SK Standard Plus, and I think this is available at www.championshooters.com for about $415 per case.

And a little bit cheaper, but just as good, is Winchester Subsonic (not to be confused with T-22). Manufactured in Australia, this is a relatively new offering in the USA. Unfortunately, no one seems to have this ammo in stock - I've had a case on back order for several months.

Also, Federal Automatch 22, which is sold in a bulk pack at Walmart, is plenty accurate enough for practice or even shooting a match (B, A, AA classes).

I try to put in about 10 -20 min. of dryfire practice every day. This is done at home and really pays off. Plus the cost is zero.

Once a week we will head out to the public range, which requires one to use paper targets at 50 or 100 yards. My solution to the ammo shortage is to practice at 50 yards with whatever cheap .22 fodder I can get my hands on. This is almost always high velocity, but accuracy is okay at 50 yards. The main thing is to concentrate on shooting a tight group. I clean the bores prior to a match and do some practice with SK Standard Plus during the sight in period.

The bottom line is, if a person wants to play the game bad enough, he/she will find some way of making it work.

[Quonset Hut]

...Nothing like the long range clang though from the SB Ram. I just bought a 1712 so I guess I am going to be spending a little $$ on ammo to feed it. If CCI SV shoots good in it I will practice with it and buy bricks of the match stuff for events.
Dee

I tried that route. CCI SV (0032) works fine in my two guns. CCI Green Tag never did - the Match stuff is new - maybe try 50-100 before you get a brick...

[BlauBear]

Federal Automatch is very good stuff for the price when you can find it! The only other drawback is that it's a little hot, so the noise may bother other shooters, match directors may not appreciate the way it whacks the targets (I kind of like it...) and your zeros are different. So hand out ear plugs, offer to pay for any animals you break and shoot it all the time!

[silhouette13]

gosh darn it i miss you guys! i am going to try and shoot more matches this comming year, i will just have to be smarter with my practice.

unfortunately i moved, i used to have a barn and bullet trap. now i have a bullet trap and close neigbors

this issue i have is my 50' adapter is only good down to 50' so i cant dryfire in the house. i do have 10yds . i guess now i have to save for an airgun. this is a drag cause there is no silo AG in the area. durant7 shoots and has a nice set of resetables . so it will be practice tool only. drat!


i am saving for a case of some thing. ammo is still hard to comeby here and priced gouged all to hell. was going to put piggy bank food away for a 1710/12 but now maybe an air rifle will serve me better? but to practivce for what? the 1710 is the way to go....but i can practice cheaper with an air rifle.... but what for? ahhh yes the 1710... but then again the air rifle will be cheap practice for small bore......so ya i should bank the 1710 moneys.......

I LOVE THIS GAME!!!!!!!

dave