Question on leaving a round chambered

[dukalmighty]

I just did a quick test in my RIA compact 45 I cycled the same federal 230 grn HST round 20 times and measured oal it hadn't changed at all.There are some guns that feed harder than others if you're bullet hits the feed lip at a more direst angle the impact could possibly over time set the bullet back in the case which you could tell by comparing it to another bullet.It also depends on how the bullet was crimped,a lighter crimp obviously will not hold a bullet as tight as a heavier crimp.If you wanta check bullet length harbor freight sells calipers around $15.00 you can check your rounds to see if chambering them in a specific gun over several times creates bullet set back

[kitty]

I'm confused, and I think it's because of some of the terms you are using.

I put hollow point rounds in my .9 mm, and they are pretty expensive about $20 - $25 for a box of 20. How should I "recycle" them when I carry? I carry chambered as well, but I completely unload after I get home, and then rechamber when I go out. Should I not be doing that?

I used to do that (cycle rounds - kept my pistol loaded, tho) when I first started carrying, so you're in good company.

Not only is there the possibility of pushing the bullet into the case, but I have found that after a while, your cases tend to get a little ragged. While not an issue cosmetically, it does mean that you may have feeding problems with that round in the future. This is what happened with me. I kicked the habit last year at Forum day when one of my SD rounds that I was cycling through to replace with new rounds failed to feed properly. I ejected that round and tossed it. I learned how to press check, which negated my need to cycle rounds. Had that feed issue been in an emergency, I could have been in trouble.

As others have stated, I suggest you keep the gun loaded. There is no advantage to unloading every night, mechanically speaking. If you need your pistol in the middle of the night, you're at a distinct time disadvantage if you have to load up before deploying it. I don't know your living situation, but if your concern is kids (or other people) in the house, get a quick access safe for your pistol. The GunVault Mini 1000 is a good option, and I have it installed under the seat of my van. It can be operated on touch alone, and opened within a second or two (depending on how complex a passcode you use). They can be found at various sporting goods stores such as Cabela's for around $100. Here is a link to the site:

http://gunvault.com/minisafe.nxg

I like the safe idea. Compvest also mentioned that to me, thank you. I do have two kids in my home, one is 17 and she's no problem, one is 8 and she's really no problem either; she respects guns, but I'm keeping another 8 year old for a friend over the summer, and I don't want to risk her finding my gun or my daughter finding it and wanting to show it to her. I usually have it fully loaded at night, especially when my husband isn't home, he works nights, but during the day I keep it in my credenza in my desk, but not with a chambered round. With a safe that would no longer be a problem, then I could leave that round chambered without unloading and rechambering. I appreciate all the helpful advice in this thread. I hope I didn't hijack it from the OP, but it is something that I have been having to deal with.

[Rayden]

Every time I eject a chambered round, it will go into a separate special box and will not be used for my carry gun again. Over time, that box will be full and then I will use those rounds in that special box for range practice etc.

Likewise you could just make the habit of leaving the SD round chambered when you go to the range, just swap the mag for one with practice ammo and then you will fire off the carry-chambered round first. Then when you reload for carry you just add a fresh round to the top of your SD-loaded mag and you've recycled the chambered round.

Depending on what ammo you choose for SD, sometimes it is not really very much more expensive than the practice ammo. Mine is about 10-15 cents per round more expensive for the SD ammo. So I add 10 cents to the cost of the range trip.

Not a bad idea but in reality might not be the best or allowed practice. Some ranges don't allow you to go there with a round chambered. Most of the time they dont' check but they would once in a blue moon. Either way would work but for those that have to deal with ranges that don't allow a round in the chamber, my way would be ideal :D

[mr.72]

You know I wasn't thinking about a regular commercial range... oops.

[dukesean]

I just did a quick test in my RIA compact 45 I cycled the same federal 230 grn HST round 20 times and measured oal it hadn't changed at all.There are some guns that feed harder than others if you're bullet hits the feed lip at a more direst angle the impact could possibly over time set the bullet back in the case which you could tell by comparing it to another bullet.It also depends on how the bullet was crimped,a lighter crimp obviously will not hold a bullet as tight as a heavier crimp.If you wanta check bullet length harbor freight sells calipers around $15.00 you can check your rounds to see if chambering them in a specific gun over several times creates bullet set back

How did the casing look?

[DoubleJ]

What would be interesting would be to see how far a bullet would have to be backed into a case (the OAL reduced)to cause a significant pressure increase. and then how much of an increase would it take to be bad....

oh, the theoreticals...

[Wildscar]

It would also make a diffrence if you let the slide slam shut or if you slide it forward easily.

[htxred]

oh my thats dangerous, arent you afraid of your gun going off?

[Wildscar]

oh my thats dangerous, arent you afraid of your gun going off?

What's the proper reply here. Ummm. "But its the cool thing to do...!"

[NcongruNt]

What would be interesting would be to see how far a bullet would have to be backed into a case (the OAL reduced)to cause a significant pressure increase. and then how much of an increase would it take to be bad....

oh, the theoreticals...

That would vary with caliber, as they have different tolerances. The .40 design has been criticized because of the case design often has less support in the chamber compared to other calibers. Couple this with the fact that it's a high pressure load, and the incidence of kaboms with .40 tends to be higher. Here is a quote from the Wikipedia article on .40 Smith & Wesson:

Case failure reports

The .40 S&W has been noted in a number of cartridge case failures, particularly in Glock pistols due to the relatively large area of unsupported case head in those barrels, given its high working pressure. The feed ramp on the Glock .40 S&W pistols are larger than normal, which leaves the rear bottom of the case unsupported, and it is in this unsupported area that the cases fail. Most, but not all, of the failures have occurred with reloaded or remanufactured ammunition. Cartridges loaded at or above the SAAMI pressure, or slightly oversized cases which fire slightly out of battery are often considered to be the cause of these failures. These failures are referred to by many as "kaBooms" or "kB!" for short. While these case failures do not often injure the person holding the pistol, the venting of high pressure gas tends to eject the magazine out of the magazine well in a spectacular fashion, and usually destroys the pistol. In some cases, the barrel will also fail, blowing the top of the chamber off.

While the .40 S&W is far from the only cartridge to suffer from case failures, it is more susceptible for a number of reasons. The .40 S&W works at fairly high pressures (33,000 psi/230 MPa typical, but 35,000 psi/240 MPa SAAMI max) for a large caliber handgun cartridge, significantly more than, say, the .45 ACP. Since the .40 S&W is a wide cartridge for its length, and is often adapted to frames designed for the equally long but narrower 9x19mm cartridge, the length of the feed ramp must be longer to provide the same angle, which causes the feed ramp to extend into the chamber. This in turn leaves more of the case head unsupported. While this is not necessarily unsafe, it does reduce the margin of safety; when exacerbated by out of battery firing (leaving even more case head exposed) and potentially weakened brass (due to reloading) these factors appear to lead to the higher incidents of chamber failure. The number of case failures in the .40 S&W is serious enough that Accurate Arms no longer recommends reloading of .40 S&W cartridges for firearms without complete case head support.

9mm operates at similar pressures to .40 S&W, but because it lacks the design issues of the .40, my guess that a slight overpressure would be handled better by most guns, so reports of 9mm kabooms are less common. Doing a quick search, the only 9mm kaboom I could find with any detail as to what happened said that it was an underpowered load, didn't exit the barrel, and then when the action cycled, there was still pressure in the barrel and chamber, which shredded the case as it exited. Not exactly a high-pressure kaboom. On the other hand, I've found lots of reports of .40 rounds kabooming, several of which were bullet setback issues due to the round being rechambered lots and lots of times, as we're discussing here.

[CompVest]

This why S&W did it right with their M&P40. They made the 40 caliber first so it is a fully supported chamber.

[Jesse1911]

I always thought about this question and makes sense that rechambering of rounds should not be a good idea. While we don't carry weapons where Im stationed now, I remeber in my last duty station, when we carried our berreta M9's on watch, we chambered the same round every time a releive would take the watch. This means a round would get re-chambered 6 times a day, becuase the new releive has to verify the rounds being turned over to them and assure he is taking a condition one weapon. This same weapon and same ammo would be in circulation for at least a week before we rotate them, but then usually would just swap out the gun itself. In the 7 years of this duty, I never heard of an accidental discharge during watch turnovers on my command or any other on our base. But then again, never had a situation where we had to use it, so it is hard to tell if there was any problems with ejection of cases. At the range, I don't remeber having missfires, and never kept track. I still plan on rotating my personal ammo for peace of mind.

[TacShot]

I reduce my concern about bullet setback and the chore of cycling my SD ammo by top-loading the first round, i.e. the round is manually inserted into the chamber with the slide back, the slide is then closed and the magazine inserted. When I unload my SD ammo, I remove the magazine and eject the top-loaded round only to repeat the process next time I load my SD ammo. I don't worry about my range ammo, as those rounds are never repeatedly auto-loaded again and again. My guns are Glocks. I'm here to learn. Tell me about any problems you see with this procedure.

[KD5NRH]

I haven't noticed any problems from repeated chambering with my carry gun. I take all the rounds out and check them for any issues when I check and clean it once or twice a month.





























Wait for it...









Then, just to be sure, I reload from the speedloader and put the rounds from the gun back in that

[DoubleJ]

I reduce my concern about bullet setback and the chore of cycling my SD ammo by top-loading the first round, i.e. the round is manually inserted into the chamber with the slide back, the slide is then closed and the magazine inserted. When I unload my SD ammo, I remove the magazine and eject the top-loaded round only to repeat the process next time I load my SD ammo. I don't worry about my range ammo, as those rounds are never repeatedly auto-loaded again and again. My guns are Glocks. I'm here to learn. Tell me about any problems you see with this procedure.

you may wear out your extractor. I believe (from what I've read on this-here forum) that handguns aren't really meant to be top loaded. Now, mind you, it'll take a boat-load of times before you see any wear, but still.