Most Expensive Addiction Rant
Updated 1/19/21
Warning: This rant will be completely full of my unedited thoughts about the cost of shooting. Proceed with caution!
So you wanna be a shooter, huh?
In the beginning, shooting can be an extremely expensive sport especially when you don't own your own firearm. When I was creating my MSKD (formerly THFI) business plan, I realized that most of my target audience would not own their shooting gear. I wanted to make sure my classes included all materials needed to shoot. I also wanted to make sure that the classes were inexpensive enough as to not deter new shooters from attending a class-and it worked. Women flooded the classes and almost every class I've posted has sold out (humble brag, lol).
To put this into perspective, let's look at the shooting rates of a local Atlanta gun range. Let's say I'm a new shooter who doesn't own any of my own gear and I want some basic firearm's instruction on a Saturday morning:
$16-Range time (1 hour)
$15-Firearm rental
*$19.95- Ammo (50 rounds of 9mm)
$1.50-Hearing Protection rental
$1.50-Eye Protection rental
$1.50-Target (blue silhouette)
$60-1 hour private lesson
$115.45 total
*pre-COVID ammo prices
So this hour of shooting with 1 hour of instruction is $115.45. Just throwing it in there that my 4 hour classes start at $119/person ; ) This is why it's important to purchase your own protective gear, ammo, targets, firearm. It's not a dig at the gun range industry. They provide a necessary service and coming from someone who's shot all over the country, these prices aren't that bad.
If you're planning on being an avid shooter, the start-up fees can be expensive but it does save you money in the long run. Amazon Prime is also your friend! I wear Walker’s Razor hearing protection and I found it for $50 (Amazon). I get my 100 pack of targets from Son of A Gun Targets (Amazon) for about $40. That's only .40 cents per target vs $1.50 at the range. Ammo can be tricky but you can find ammo at Ammoseek.com or BulkAmmo.com. Pre-COVID, I would typically buy 9mm for 18-23 cents per round. The proper term for round is "cartridge" but I'm gonna call it rounds because this is my blog lol. Anyway, if a box of 50 rounds used to cost $9.71 (Cost of ammo divided by quantity) then its about .19 cents per round and that's a decent deal. Due to increased demand for ammo during the pandemic, now a 50 round box of 9mm is about $40 : ( Also note that ammo prices tend to fluctuate. I had to look up how to spell "fluctuate" but it's actually spelled exactly how it sounds. I've never seen it written before so I was unsure.....anyway back to the prices and stuff.
All in all, you just gotta buy smart and shop around. Gun prices fluctuate (hehe) too so it's a good idea to follow trends, sales, and current events to find the best time to buy. There's nothing wrong with buying a used firearm but I'd be extremely cautious about where or who I bought it from. Only buy firearms from authorized dealers. I wouldn't buy a firearm online (another blog for another time) but there are some good online dealers like gunbroker.com. There are more sites but I'm trying to finish this before lunch so....yea.
Refer to my previous blog "Buying a Handgun Do's and Donts" for more gun purchase tips.
Last thing, the Glock 19 is still the best handgun ever made. Fight me bro : )