Hello Navalwarrior,
Several boxes of pistol ammunition is about what you would expect. Probably somewhere in the neighbourhood of 150 rounds, but it doesn't seem like that much because if I am shooting pistol, there are usually at least two guns. I just about always shoot a full box of 50 at a time because it doesn't make sense to load less than 50 rounds of pistol ammunition at a time if you have already worked up the loads.
It is pretty quick with a Dillon 550 progressive press and I have two of them set up.
One is for Large Primer and one is for Small because I got tired of having to switch and adjust the primer feeds.
I used to go out to the range after work every Friday at least during the Summer months and spend about 2 hours or so there.
In the Winter, it got dark too early to make that kind of thing worthwhile because the ranges I went to were outdoors.
When I was shooting a .22 pistol, I generally shot A LOT.
I would try to see how fast I could knock down 6 steel plates at 25 yards and would have about 4 magazines in front of me and not keep track of how many rounds were left in the gun. The point was that when the gun ran dry, it was not predictable and I would have to immediately reload and continue on the next plate.
If I missed, I just had to keep shooting until I knocked the plate down.
What was really cool was that there were a couple times when I made a hit but the plate did not fall fast enough and I made a second hit as it was falling.
I figure I was burning about 300 rounds on an average session and would go through an entire carton of the Federal .22 which was 550 rounds in one trip.
The .22 pistol I was using was inexpensive and nothing to look at but was incredibly accurate.... When it was new.
When I first got it, I was able to shoot 10 round groups that were 3/4 inch center to center at 25 yards with Remington Target ammunition from the bench.
With Remington High Velocity, it was doing around 1 inch groups and didn't seem to like other brands as much.
I believe after 15,000 rounds or so, it needs a new firing pin and the accuracy isn't nearly as good as when it was new.
Then again, my eyesight isn't as good as when it was new either!
Now this is the sad part: I didn't realise how unusual this level of accuracy was at the time. When this gun started malfunctioning, I could tell the firing pin strikes were light and the firing pin tip and breech face were worn as was the feed ramp on the barrel. I figured I would just buy a new gun, so I bought a higher grade version. The accuracy of the new gun wasn't bad but was never quite as good as the first one.
- Ivan.