how much-too much
In my late teens I used to leave work at 4:30 everyday, spring, summer and fall and drive east of Calgary, with my 700 BDL .243 and shoot any varmint that moved until dark and was always out of ammo before getting back to town. I took 200 rounds with me every night and loaded till 2 am every morning. This rifle shot something in excess of 15000 rounds before it totally quit grouping. There was also weekend forays into gopher patches and hunting in the fall, plus dogs and jacks every week end in the winter. There is no such thing as too much shooting, don't overheat your barrel and shoot as much as you can afford, you'll only become a better shot.
The biggest downside to the amount of shooting I used to do was having my name and obsessed in the same sentence alot. It also made maintaining a relationship with girlfriends very difficult, but man did I become an amazing shot. I eventually got more guns so as to spread the shooting over more barrels in a year, but for more than 15 years I shot well in excess of 10000 centerfire rifle rounds a year and as many or more CF pistol.
With all that shooting I have managed to OFFICIALLY shoot out 2-243s and 1-7mmRM. I pulled these barrels and cut them and measured the wear, didn't just eyeball and proclaim them to be shot out. I'm also pretty sure I shot out a 6.5-08 I had built for sillouette and another 300 Win but rechambered both barrels to a significantly longer cartridge and carried on.
A lot of earlier post hold a lot of weight in the max a man can shoot these days, until the wife is angry, all you can afford, all that time allows etc etc etc. Unfortunately, all these factors weigh on my shooting time now (afford not anymore) but it has all whittled me down to a few hundred rounds a year and I fear I may never shoot out another barrel.
