After 17 years in the Army I am not new to shooting, though I am new to gun ownership. My wife and I just purchased our first guns in January - S&W M&P Shield 9 for her and Taurus PT1911 for me. Range trips so far have been about (re)familiarizing with the guns, and working on basic marksmanship fundamentals - I can put 18+ out of 20 in a paper plate at 25 yards , and one would generally do well not to piss off the missus , so that's been achieved. My usual trip has been 100-150 rounds, though I will probably cut back for a while and just shoot to remain proficient. She usually limits herself to 50 rounds or less, but will continue like that about once a week for a while yet til she is confident in her shooting. We have brought each of the kids (all 21 and over) to the range a few times, and the youngest is always asking, “We going shooting this week?” Now that I have my LTCF, and she has applied for hers, I am going to start practicing my draw and presentation at home with snap caps, and suggest she do the same after selecting a holster.

I bought 100-150 rounds of Remington Golden Saber for each of us for carry ammo, enough to verify that the guns like it and that it behaves like our practice ammo, with a decent amount left for carry and backup. We have been buying our ammo (and shooting) at Targetmaster in Chadds Ford. Remington UMC 230g FMJ for my 1911 is currently $210/500rd case, and I did manage to snag a 500rd bulk pack for $200 a few weeks ago. Remington UMC 115g FMJ in 9mm has been $120-130/500rd case, and I did get a 1000rd bulk pack for a little less than twice what I pay for cases. They usually have some other calibers as well, but I do not generally take note of the prices. Current policy is one box/case per caliber per party, and any time we've wanted to buy it was available - until last week. They had .45 in stock, but 9mm was so scarce they were limiting to one 50rd box instead of one 500rd.

I didn't come into this with any stockpile of ammo - as in zero bullets in the homestead - and did not know when I started what prices were previously. I have bought what I need to practice with, and a little extra. Wife likes to replace what we shoot as we go along but, as we found out last week, that may not always be possible. I have a little over 1000 rounds of each right now, so we could go at least a couple months without buying more - shooting for proficiency, not shooting for fun – but there’s no telling what prices and supplies will look like by then. We bought our guns for self/home defense and, while we enjoy trips to the range together, we need to realize that – with the ammo situation the way it is – we should probably limit our shooting to necessary practice and not just go killing paper for fun.

The kids may not like it, but I’d wager our bank account probably will…