The facts on this story aren't entirely clear. Unfortunately the Brit press reports seem confused. Sgt. Major Cook is being tried in a military court. It's not clear whether the alleged crime is possession of the ammo per se, or whether he is charged with taking ammo that rightfully belonged to the Army. Still there's much of the account with is disturbing.
I also wonder if the "up to 40,000 rounds of .22 ammunition" was in fact just rimfire stuff since the article refers to "5.56 ammo" as something different.
If this is mostly .22LR ammo, I know rimfire shooters who have gone through 2,000 rounds a month, so these quantities are not unusual. If Cook shot four 50rd boxes a day, this "cache" represents a 200-day training supply.
Heck I knew cowboy action shooters (at the championship level) who shot 700-1000 rounds a week combined centerfire pistol/rifle/shotgun.
Keep in mind that this is an active duty soldier who has been rated #1 in the world, and the British Forces shooting Champ. Cook is also is a double winner of HM The Queen's Medal for Shooting Excellence and holds the record for the largest winning margin ever achieved by the Marksmen Champions of the British Army since competition began in 1869.
Here's one comment that puts things in perspective:
The dedication of competition shooters is immense, and the practice time required to be competitive is enormous. Competition shooters count rounds in CASES, not rounds, so 40,000 rounds (80 cases) is not that much for a competition shooter. My son shoots both air pistol and .22 competitively (he's ranked in the top 20 nationally for both) and tried out for the US Olympic team (missed, sadly). I estimate that 40,000 rounds is about 6 months' supply, at his practice rate (5 practice sessions a week, 300+ rounds per session, do the maths). Shotgunner/gold medallist Kim Rhode goes through 20,000 rounds a MONTH in practice. Britain needs to get back some of that much-vaunted common sense, and realize that sometimes, guns aren't the evil things the politicians and the Terminally Fearful would have you believe.
That same writer (from Texas) declared:
Sar' Major Cook: your own country may think you're a criminal, but we don't. Please emigrate to the United States; we LOVE our competition shooters, and nobody cares how much ammo you keep at home. (I have over 25,000 rounds of .22 just for recreation shooting, and that's not considered much around here.) Our Army Marksmanship Unit is one of the best in the world, and I'm pretty sure they'd welcome you with open arms. There's even a temporary visa available for you: it's the same one used by UK pro golfers to play over here on the PGA circuit. So come on over; we'll look after you.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2225166/British-pistol-shooting-champion-Morgan-Cook-facing-jail--having-large-cache-bullets.html#ixzz2B1ljXREm
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--------- Also, for what it's worth, the British media doesn't seem to know the difference between "bullets" and ammunition. The stories from the UK use the terms interchangeably, saying that Cook is being prosecuted for a "large cache of bullets".
