Being too cheap may well cost you in the end

[HighVelocity]

That's a hard lesson. Thankfully you learned it at the range. I believe it's oil seeping into the primer pocket that causes the trouble. Corbon is not on my list of ammo choices any more either after having one of their pow-r-ball rounds jam my gun so badly that it took 4 hands to open the slide.

I carry Gold Dot, Ranger or Golden Saber and fire the carried ammo regularly.

Another thing that I do in regards to carry ammo is NOT carry anything from a fresh box unless I have fired a few rounds of it. Bad lots get out so don't assume that a brand new high dollar box of ammo is any good just because the last box was.

My .02

[fm2]

Glad to hear that it happened at the range.

You discovered one of the great things about working with the gear you use for daily carry. "To understand, you must test" That's one reason I suggest folks run their carry gear in IDPA matches and when they take a pistol class etc.... Those are the times to learn how you and your gear work under a little pressure.

[badkarma56]

Good post, George. An LEO buddy gave me some tips about this very issue a while back.

First, he recommended that I only use high-quality factory JHP ammo for carry purposes (I carry an H&K USP Compact/9mm, and I either use Winchester Ranger-T 127 gr. +P+ or Federal HST 124 gr. +P as carry ammo). I order my carry ammo off the web from Ammo to Go http://ammunitiontogo.com in Brenham, generally a 50-round box of Ranger-T or HST runs about $19 to $21...not bad seeing as how it's for real-deal LEO ammo that most other retailers won't even stock.

Second, he advised me to keep the breech face and chamber as dry and as free from "penetrating" oil/lube as possible. Great lubes like BreakFree CLP will penetrate primers on ammo and deaden them over time. This is particularly important if you're like me and carry a round chambered in your piece...god forbid, you don't want a dud or a squib on that critical first shot!

Finally, he suggested that I replace my carry rounds at least every month or so. This last nugget of advice is easy to follow. I just shoot the rounds that are loaded in my carry mags (I carry two mags with my USP9C, each has a capacity of 13 rounds) during every third or fourth range trip. I generally get to the range at least once a week, so the actual rounds that are loaded in my daily carry mags only get "carried" for a total of 3-4 weeks. This step alone would seem to prevent any contamination of the primers by creeping lube/oil.

[mcub]

MY .02 cents,

I think some people actualy over oil and lube their pistols. The ideal is to leave a shean or film to prevent rust and wear.

I also believe it is not wise to keep your ammo in your clip for ever. I rotate clips about every two months, and at least twice a year I shoot out the home defence ammo and replace it.

[NcongruNt]

I rotate my rounds out often for simiilar reasons.

My primary carry is a Hi-Power, which I was primarily shooting at PSC this past weekend. One of my intended actions was to cycle through my carry ammo, as the cases on the top couple of rounds tend to get a little ragged from unloading/chambering as time passes with cleaning and changing out to practice ammo at the range, etc.

I decided to rotate out my primary carry mag of Gold Dots on my last Texas Star session, and sure enough - the most ragged round jammed (second shot in the gun at that time). It took pulling the mag (which was partially stuck due to the jam) and reloading after a tap-rack didn't work to get it to feed. That would have been a sticky situation had it been a real-life scenario.

I learned a valuable lesson: rotate your primary mag often, and if your cases aren't smooth any more, don't carry them.

Along these same lines, I found that the Hornady rounds I carry in my BUG tend to tarnish easily in my pockets and the humid weather around here between rotations. I've taken to polishing the rounds, as tarnished brass/copper isn't all that smooth. There is a noticeable difference in the ease that the rounds chamber after a good polishing. Just as you don't want oil to get into your rounds, you also don't want brass polish to get in there either. I make sure to use a very minimal amount of polish worked into a dry cloth so as to eliminate the possibility of liquid soaking into the interior of the casings.

[yerasimos]

After reading the posts above, I became quite apprehensive about my carry hardware, as I have been guilty of overlubricating my guns. So this morning I went to the range with the intention of shooting all of my carry ammunition to see whether it would function properly.

My first magazine +1 worked flawlessly, and I must admit I decided to stop at that point because of the heavy rain and the expense of replacing all the ammunition. Everything was carefully cleaned afterward, with an eye toward getting the amount of lubrication "just right", keeping the breechface and chamber dry, etc. By the way, I do spray the frame of my gun with seperate degreaser and lubricant spray, but both get shaken off pretty well after application and wiped down thoroughly. For the slide, I will apply both degreaser and lubricant sprays using cleaning patches so I can better control where it goes.

I strongly suspect that high-quality LE grade ammunition such as Winchester Ranger, Speer Gold Dot, etc, has sealed primer holes. That said, I am curious about:

1. whether such primer sealant is applied between brass and primer, or just wiped across the face of the primer
2. how primer degradation works; that is to say, I am curious whether stray gun oil can degrade the primer upon contact without seeping into the primer pocket (just contacting outer surface of the primer that faces the breechface), or whether the gun oil would have to seep in between the primer and the brass.

[Paladin]

Replacing Carry Ammunition

Some people call it “carry ammo�. Others call it “duty ammo�. We are referring to the ammunition you actually carry in your handgun for self defense purposes, as opposed to “practice ammo�.

Carry ammo should be shot up and replaced with fresh ammunition every six months. The ammunition you carry in your gun is exposed to extreme temperature variations, as you go from air conditioned office to summer outdoor heat, or warm, cozy office to 25-30 degree Winter
outdoor weather. If your gun is left in your car in the Summer, it is exposed to temperatures in excess of 140-150 degrees. Traces of gun oils and cleaning solvents inevitably get on the ammo. All of these things can lead to serious issues.

Not long ago, we had a student in a Level V handgun class who had been carrying the same ammunition in his pistol for “a couple of years�. He decided to shoot it up in class and replace
it with fresh ammo. The round in the chamber took a good, hard, centered firing pin strike, but it did not fire. This could have been a real problem in a defensive shooting situation. Ammo is cheap. Shoot your carry ammo in a practice session and replace it with fresh ammo every few months to avoid this hazard.

On a related note, some people habitually unload their pistols when not carrying them. If you do this, take the round that came out of the chamber and put it aside, for later use in practice. Do not repeatedly load the same cartridge into your pistol. When the slide slams the top round in the magazine out of the magazine and onto the feed ramp, the bullet nose takes a pretty hard impact on the feed ramp as it is chambered. Repeatedly chambering the same round can pound the bullet deeper into the cartridge case, resulting in drastically higher pressures. You can actually blow up a handgun with a round shortened a fairly small amount this way. I never chamber the same cartridge more than twice before replacing it. Ammunition is a perishable item. Carry ammo needs to be fresh and properly cared for.

http://www.rangemaster.com/

[Paladin]

OP did a primer test in the box of truth. He found that while primers can be affected by gun-cleaners, it does not happen easily.

http://www.theboxotruth.com/docs/bot39.htm

I've never personnally had a problem with carry ammo going bad on me, but I do try to change out carry ammo once per year. I understand that law enforcement changes out carry ammo every 6 months to 1 year.

[Keith B]

Since I wear that pistol in a shoulder rig, and it gets a lot of sweat, do you believe the sweat could have affected the cartridges, and not oil?

I would suspect you may be on to something more here than the lubrication. Carrying against your body, the moisture/humidity level is going to be increased greatly. Temperatures of close to 100 degrees plus, and humidty of 100% will definately kill ammo in a realativly short time.

[longtooth]

My work reg is a shoulder rig. I am in the summer heat & sweat a lot. I have never found the sweat to be responsible for an ammo problem. I do carry a revolver for my outside work rig.

[Keith B]

Here is a good primer on ammunition rotation from Winchester's Law Enforcement site http://www.winchester.com/lawenforcemen ... storyid=62

[lrb111]

I know some parts of the state are wet enough that nearly all the parts in carry weapon need coating. But out west here wet parts and dust means abrasive. So, dry silicones are in order in magazines.

Just take them apart, spray them, and reassemble. Spray the firing pin assembly and allow to dry. Light grease on the rails and slide grooves. That's for carry.

If I'm going to shoot a couple hundred rounds at the range, the gun gets sprayed with RemOil before shooting, and hosed with brake cleaner after about 75 rounds.

fwiw, my carry has a nickel plated stainless slide, and an anodized aluminum frame.

[JJR1971]

First, just wanted to say, what great information on this whole thread! Thank you all!

My question, though not strictly a CCW question, is in a related vein, and it is this:

For my home defense weapons, I have several strategically placed .357 magnum revolvers and a couple of back-up .22LR revolvers, all fully loaded, scattered in various rooms of my house. I sleep upstairs, and ideally if I were woken up by a loud noise downstairs, I'd like to reach down under the bed and grab my Mossberg pump 12 ga and stuff a few rounds of buckshot into the tube mag before heading downstairs to investigate. But the revolvers are placed where they are if things don't quite work out that way.

My question is, how long is it safe to keep them loaded with my .357 mag hollow-point defensive rounds? Unlike carry weapons, they're going to be exposed to a more consistently even temperature range, and they're either resting in gun cases or inside a small zippered gun bag, etc.

I'd be more inclined to cycle out the ammo in a semiauto also to relieve the constant pressure on the magazine springs. I feel comfortable leaving a revolver loaded for much longer periods of time, but how long is too long?

Still pretty N00b when it comes to this stuff, thanks in advance.