You Gotta Pay to Play: 2020 Edition

Here we are again.  Each of the last few years (see here, here, here, and here) I have written an article along these lines.  These are meant mostly as an audit for myself, as I find it interesting (and somewhat depressing) to see how much I spent on classes and competitive matches over the course of the year.  But, if it is worth writing down then it probably worth sharing with our readers.  So, here we go…

In 2020, I downshifted even more than last year (where I took six classes), attending only four classes:

1.  C2T2:  “Contact and Control Techniques and Tactics with Pistol Integration”

2.  American Tactical Shooting Instruction:  “Compact Carbine Deployment”

3.  360 Performance Shooting:  “Shotgun 360”

4.  Practically Tactical:  “Who Are You With a Gun?” Force-on-Force Class

I spent a combined $1650.00 on tuition and range fees for these classes.  This would have been even higher had Mike Green of Green Ops not given me a 15% discount on the C2T2 class.  Thanks again Mike!

Travel expenses this year were less than 2019, when I had flown to the Rangemaster Tactical Conference and spent 9 total nights in hotel rooms.  This year, I only spent 5 nights in hotel rooms (three of which I split with others), and other than some tolls on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, gas, and meals, I incurred no other travel expenses.  The above classes added up to about 62 hours of instruction, which brings my lifetime total up to about 688 hours. 

 I fired a total of 940 rounds during those classes.  By comparison, I shot 1,457 rounds in classes last year and over 4,000 in classes in 2018.  Why the big differences?  Well, for one thing, I only took four courses this year (as opposed to 6 or 7 over each of the last two years).  Second, one course was a shotgun course.  Even though this was a two-day event, most shotgun courses do not require as high a round count as pistol or carbine classes.  Third, one course required no live firing at all (just UTM rounds, of which I fired a whopping 13), one only had live fire on the second day of the two-day course, and one was a one-day carbine course.  Considering how the nationwide ammunition shortage developed, I cannot complain about my reduced shooting in classes this year.

Competition

Hooray!  I finally achieved (and surpassed!) a goal this year, shooting in seven IDPA matches.    The matches cost $20 each (plus an additional $10 for a separate Classifier), for a total of $150.  I shot a combined 719 rounds during these seven matches.

Final Thoughts

If you prefer to have all math done for you, I spent a total of $1,800 on classes and matches (only $41 short of last year’s combined total) and fired a total of 1,659 rounds in those classes and matches.

As always, thanks for reading.  If you have any questions or comments, please post them below, as we always welcome civil discourse.  I can be reached privately at civiliangunfighter.robert@gmail.com.