Gas price jumped to $3.99 here yesterday.This price is at a refinery owned gas station 50 feet outside where it’s made.Starting next week this refinery will be shutdown for its regular maintenance for 30+ days.Other refineries do the same this time of year.
Plus the cost of a current barrel of oil.
So my questions to all competitors is.
What’s your limit of dollar per gallon to travel to silhouette matches?
Or what’s your limit of distance to travel?
Will you attend the long distance major events?
Will you just shoot local club matches?
Just curious.

Hermit, I think everyone is concerned about fuel prices and the situation in the Ukraine. Me, I'm just trying to remain positive and hope we can reasonably travel this summer.

To me, it's just the cost of doing what I love, there's no threshold above or below which I decide not to travel. If I have to skimp in some other area, I'll try to do that.

I don't know if I could publish a number (let's say $4.50 per gallon) below which I'm willing to travel, but at $4.51, I'm staying home.

The same kind of discussion took place around ammunition cost over the last several years or more. The people who enjoy shooting were willing to pay the big increases in ammo cost, as opposed to sitting at home and watching Netflix.

Steve.

This was a very cheap sport over 20 years ago when we started.
For the amount of money we spent the first few years, it was a huge amount of fun.
We simply cannot justify the costs now for a hobby.
We are participating in cheap hobbies now that have no entry fees and use no consumables like ammo, pellets, etc.
Hopefully fuel prices will return to normal but I doubt ammo and components will ever decrease back to reasonable prices.

Distance Fuel Economy $ per G $ per mile Total Fuel cost


1700 17.50 $3.10 $0.18 $301.14

1700 17.50 $4.50 $0.26 $437.14

I don't know how to upload a spreadsheet but this gives you a visual....

My house to Whittington Center. Basically a dollar fifty a gallon increase in gas prices equates to a dime a mile. It would matter to me if I was a OTR driver but for a once or twice a year match the cost of fuel doesn't seem to be a huge burden.

It is not just fuel.
It is everything.
Spending more money on every living expense means less money for hobbies.
Our youngest has not turned on the heat this Winter.
His electricity provider was bought out and they more than doubled the price of electricity.

Fuel hasn't hit where it was back in about 08 or so. The price of everything along the way has sky rocketed.
It'll come down to more of a pick the matches a person really wants to go to, and let the other ones pass by until another time.

A lot of us are on a fixed retirement income and are no longer physically able to work a job.
We have no way to increase our monthly income to meet the increases in the prices of everything.
I like to keep a positive attitude and avoid negativity but facts are facts and numbers do not lie.

Have been drawing my old age pension for several years now, and enjoying the benefits of medicare, but it's still a matter of figuring out if you want to go to a match then you'll figure out what to cut to make it fit in the budget.

I'm working age, I make a very decent living but housing where I am is astronomical to the point where I'm renting and have a roommate.
Fuel isn't a big factor in my shooting. It's the cost of food and accomodations that makes any big shoot out of reach. I spend so much just to have a home.

We only travel to one match monthly that is 70 miles each way. We take turns driving, and the other has to spring for breakfast. Used to be the gas was cheaper than the food. Don't know about this year. I'm missing the March shoot, as I have a local 100yd. Rimfire Benchrest match the same day. The other guy said if it was windy, he would skip the Silhouette match for the local one also. Both of us are "retired", but we still do work a bit. I sell Beer, ciggies, and Lottery tickets two days a week, and he does taxes. I bought a brick of Xact and it cost me my whole paycheck! I will be VERY discerning where I'm using it!

At 73 and reduced income I have already reduced my travels accordingly. Cost of travel along with lack of ammo component supply are major factors. A wise man said, lower demand is a solution to inflation and supply.

For those who didn’t live through the 70’s….

Raw cost of fuel is only one component.

Everything you purchase is either partially or totally made from petrochemicals and makes it to your house or the store in something that uses fuel.

Everything is about to get much more expensive…

God willing the Military Industrial Complex and the Media won’t get us sucked into WW3. They are the only ones who benefit from that.