Carry Pistol Ammo Cycling/Storage

[mbaza3]

I was wondering how everyone manages the ammo in their carry pistol. I typically manually eject the chambered round at night since I do not use my carry pistol for home self defense. I was wondering how many times the same same round should be chambered? I have heard that it is not a good idea to chamber it more than a couple of times.


Any advice on best practices to managing carry ammo would be appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[45fan]

I leave mine chambered, unless I change ammo for target practice, or cleaning. Chambering a round repeatedly can cause bullet setback and/or deform the rim, causing higher pressures or possibly a failure to extract.

As far as rechambering, I check for setback, and inspect the rim of the case, as long as its all good to go, I put it back in, if not, I shoot it the next time I load up for target practice.

 

[barrelmaker_2002]

For nightly storage, I leave a round in the chamber. I also try not to cycle too many rounds through over an over and if one gets a bit dinged up on the rim, I might load it as the last round in my third magazine or just replace it with a fresh one. They key is to inspect a round that has been chambered multiple times and verify that it is still in good shape.

Longer term, if I am not shooting as frequently as normal, I might unload all of my carry mags and let the springs "rest" a bit. However, if I am making it to the range at least every other week, I do not worry about this as I will have to unload my carry ammo to load my practice ammo anyway.

Finally, I try to replace my carry ammo at least 2-3X a year and if I had more funds, I would probably replace it 6X a year. However, at $36 per 50, it gets pricey.

PS - I do the same sort of routine with my back-up gun. That ammo is a bit cheaper at least....

 

[gunfreak6989]

leave it ready to go, when u switch ammo for range eject and move that bullety down one

 

[Hazwhopper]

I agree, I leave the same one chambered. I use another mags for range shooting and have carry mags. That keeps things simple. I rotate the top bullet to the bottom or fire it to check for accuracy. Don't want any old rounds that won't go bang with needed.
Good post

 

[shibumiseeker]

Once a month or so I shoot the top round out of my carry guns magazines and the round in the chamber. This is because the those two egt interchanged when I load and unload. Then I take all the remaining rounds out in their order, and move them up, adding new rounds to the bottom of the magazine.

 

[foszoe]

I have mags for carry and mags for practice. Two weeks ago, when I got a PX4, I decided to test some newer SD ammo than the Hydrashocks that I had loaded in my 92F magazines. So I emptied out the fully loaded magazines that had remained that way for 7 years without any issue than ran 9 different types of ammo through each gun, decided I liked the Hornady Critical Defense 115gr loads the best and loaded up the SD magazines for both guns withe the Hornady and unless I get involved in a shootout, plan to leave them there for several more years.

 

[gunman41mag]

I leave the round in the chamber, but I change the mags every 4 months

 

[mmartinsbin]

I keep the round in the chamber, drop the mag and insert a mag of range ammo and shoot it. Then add a new carry round into the mag.

Keeps the first round fresh. Once a year I range fire the cary mag, strip it clean it and load all new rounds. I'll go through two boxes of cary ammo a year that way.

 

[2cool9031]

I carry a wheelgun, I keep it loaded all the time and change out the ammo about once a month.

 

[BlueEagle]

Don't mess with the round in the chamber unless you absolutely have to. Removing a round from the chamber, (especially in an urban environment such as an apartment or subdivision,) is just not something I like risking.

Yes, it is absolutely 100% possible to do it safely. But it also increases the likelihood of an ND exponentially. And even if you just put a hole in the floor or a small crater in your back yard, your neighbors, (and local LEO's,) will probably not appreciate it.

If you're lucky enough to live out in the sticks where you always have a verified SAFE direction to point it, and your neighbors won't remark at a gunshot or two, its a different story.

I generally leave my round chambered, and will swap out the mags occasionally; on the order of once every two months or so. I could get by with less, I'm sure, but this works for me.

 

[mbaza3]

Thanks for all the great advice!