Surprised to find my 9mm carry ammo, Federal P9HST2, with a light coating of green oxidization on the mouth of the plated brass case. The copper-clad hollow point seems to have leached oxides which created green rings on each round. The rings wipe off easily.

I have been carrying the Shield, IWB, for a year. Those oxidized rounds have been in my carry magazine the whole time. I have a range mag that is cleaned monthly after each use. My erroneous thinking was that since the carry mag wasn't used, it didn't need attention.

I had replaced the chambered rounds after reading on this forum about bullet set-back caused by re-chambering, but left the mag alone. I will now schedule carry-ammo and carry-mag maintenance.

Is there a rule of thumb on the duration one should keep using carried ammo, when concealed IWB, in a mildly humid environment?

I am sure the vast majority of you were aware of this, but I saw no mention of it in the posts, so this is an FYI for the new shooters like myself.

Disclaimer - The mentioning of Federal ammo and S&W Shield were for context only. The author takes full responsibility and fault in this regard.

I shoot my carry ammo often. There was a time when I used to shoot my carry ammo every week or so when I got home from work on Fridays. Not the case anymore, but I do shoot my carry ammo after about two months of carry. Mainly so I stay familiar with it, and partially to allow for "fresh" ammo. Magazines are cleaned after every shooting session. Carry guns are also cleaned weekly, whether fired or not. Gotta get that lint out of there...

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- The Federalist #46 -

Shoot your carry ammo about every six months, and check the magazines every month, no matter where you live. Sweat and humidity does bad things to ammunition.

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Wisdom comes thru fear . . .

As a rule, we shoot our carry ammo out once a year during qualifications, so at most our duty ammo is still under a year old. If I were stating to get green corrosion on the case mouths, I would be shooting the ammo off and replacing it with fresh.

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Don

I inspect weekly, clean after each range trip. If I miss my range trips, clean at least once a month.

As others mention, I shoot the current carry ammo somewhere between 6 and 12 months.

I took a class back in the day, in which the instructor preached, that you should change, or even better, shoot up all your carry ammo, every three months. Heat, sweat, body oils, leather, etc. does very bad things to ammo, including primer damage.

Yes I ran into carry problems ,that now I have fixed. I use to carry a critical defensive Rounds. What I would do is remove the critical. Defensive Rounds and shoot range ammo threw .when done and cleaned i would. Bit critical back in for carry. Well some. Of it was a few years old , i ended. Up shooting it or trying too.i jad failure of rounds bolth in semi auto,and wheel gun yes wheel gun.so now i shoot my carry and never let it get old. I did use to over oil guns i dont do that any more either.

The ammo that you actually carry on you will be the crappiest ammo that you own. You want to shoot it up (or pull it and stash it for hardcore shortages) at least once a year, if you live in a harsh climate twice a year isn't a bad thing.

I expend my carry rounds down range at least every 3 months. It gets rid of the carry ammo before it gets too old, and it ensures that a) it still fires with 100% reliability at the end of that time period and b) that your carry ammo functions in your self defense handgun and magazines with 100% reliability.

This is also based on the knowledge that the ammo is not prone to set back after being chambered several times. You need to check for that.

Yep once every other month or so when I go to the range my first shots out of my carry gun will be from concealment with the loaded carry ammo.

Not sure where that comes from. My carry ammo is always the best ammunition that I own . . .

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Wisdom comes thru fear . . .

I remember opening ammunition crates that were 20 YEARS old in the Army. The rounds worked fine

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Retired Career Security Guard

Certain not a bad policy but find it hard to believe that good quality ammo would be affected in such a short amount of time - unless of course it were in the most extreme of extremely humid or wet climates. Also not a bad idea to have routine practice sessions with your carry ammo - keeps you familiar with recoil and poa/poi.

Most LE departments mandate that carry ammo is used in the next qualification period (quarterly or whatever the dept does by routine.) Then fresh ammo is issued and the basic load is thereby replaced each 3 month or 6 month period. That is a good rule of thumb to use regardless of climate. That insures that IF you have to use the weapon in a life or death situation your ammo will always be capable. There are some exceptional circumstances that also cause replacement...ie. if the weapon is subject to a water dunking such as a lifesaving swim, or if subject to a severe windstorm where dirt is blown around etc. In those events you don't wait for qualification but replace and set the ammo aside for practice as needed.

The weapon should be serviced by an armorer with a detail stripping and check, as well as a lube once per calendar year. Try to get acquainted with an armorer in your locale and see if you can talk them into doing it for you on that basis. The fee for that would probably be minimal. I am armorer certified and gunsmith qualified to do my own weapons so it's not a problem for me and I do it for my acquaintances as needed since I retired several years ago.

Many people seem to object to shooting their own carry ammo because factory ammo is expensive. The fact of the matter is that you should qualify with factory ammo. If you want to practice aside from that with reloads so be it. But you should shoot what you carry, if for no other reason than it acquaints you with where your weapon shoots and how it feels with your carry load. The fact of the matter is that there are things in the environment like silicone sprays that will deactivate primers just from their vapors and they don't need to be sprayed directly on the ammo to do it. You won't know if it happened until you go to shoot your ammo. I know at least one person in my own department who got in a shooting situation and had his ammo not fire. When the factory tested the ammo for the cause and effect, we found out that he used WD40 on his weapon to keep it from the effects of snowy winters and moisture condensation getting in and out of the car. That was years ago and coincided with the time we went to quarterly qualifications and ammo rotation.

I was only concerned with the mags I conceal. I won't live long enough to outlast the boxed stuff I have.

Had not heard anyone suggest yearly service before. I'll check with the smith at my club.

I don't mind using up my carried ammo quarterly, now that I see the jacket oxidizes. It's only eight plus one.

You buy the best available. Then you put it in your pistol or revolver, carry it everywhere, expose it to dust lint, high humidity, moisture, solvents and gun oil, vibration, chamber it multiple times, etc, etc, etc.

2-3 months down the road, you've got the rest of that box of new ammo still living comfortably at home, and then you've got the rest of it in your handgun and spare magazines or speed loaders. That is now the crappiest self defense ammo you own, and it's the ammo you have to rely on if you ever need your handgun for self defense.

That's why you expend it down range and replace it with new ammo every 2-3 months.

Age has nothing to do with this scenario, it's the conditions in which the ammo is carried. Heat, Sweat, Exposure to body oils and the environment in general. As I understand this issue, Primer Contamination, from body oils, airborne vapor and whatever, is the biggest concern.

Dear Muggins, the statement wasn't about the overall quality of the particular carry ammo you use, it was a reference to the particular rounds. The ones that you have on you are the ones that are exposed to the elements, get handled, get loaded and unloaded depending on exactly what you administrative requirements are, and are exposed to lubricants from your weapon. It wasn't a knock on your brand, it was a simple statement that the actual rounds you carry around with you daily will almost certainly be in relatively poor physical condition unless you get rid of them regularly. Sort of like what Johnnyflake just above said.

When I shoot my carry gun for practice, I start with the ammo in it, then with the spare mag. If there's going to be any problem, I want to know about it before I stake my life on it.

Carry what you shoot, shoot what you carry, and practice often.

Certainly can't fault that habit, and I wish that I had the available funds to make such a scenario practical. I do practice with my carry options at least monthly, though with FMJ.

Carry ammo at work is swapped out once every year for new. We shoot the carry ammo when we arrive for qualification on the times we switch it out. We qual. two times a year.

With that said when ammo was hard to find we waited about 2 years to get new one time. The old stuff worked just fine and it had been carried in various conditions over that time.

My personal ammo I switch out when I notice that it appears to be getting worn. No real set schedule but it is usually within a year. Sometimes it depends on availability to replace it.

As far as having a detailed stripping of my gun done, I had my last Glock for duty for several years and never really had a gunsmith strip it down to maintain it. I have had the armorer strip it down on occasion to do a detailed cleaning, which I did not him, but for the most part field strip it and clean it.
Has kept on ticking without a hitch.

Hello,

I believe that the best answer to this question is determined by what conditions your sidearm is carried under.

Is the ammo sealed at the primer and case mouth? Is it regularly exposed to high heat and/or humidity?

Revolver or automatic? Is bullet setback an issue from repeated re-chamberings?

All these questions need to be asked to determine what works "best" for the individual.

FWIW, I rotate my carry ammo every 6 months or so. It used to be more frequent than that, but that got somewhat cost prohibitive.

Just to give you some context, I carry a revolver that gets exposed to heat and cold extremes and occasional sweat, but my carry ammo has sealed primers and case mouths (Speer GDSB). Bullet setback is, of course, a non issue. I also haven't experienced any cosmetic discoloration of the copper jackets.

Ultimately, I think it's a decision best left to the individual.

The funny thing was, I didn't know there was a decision to make. Since I had a spare mag for range duty, I thought the untouched carry mag contained more-or-less pristine ammo. If I had not seen that the ring of green copper-oxide from the jacket had leached onto the shiny silver cases, I'd still be unaware of the impact of IWB carry on ammo.

It's not a subject I have seen mentioned anywhere. I assumed a longer shelf-life for these higher-priced, purpose-built, tactical rounds.

Available funds? I carry FMJs. They WILL feed, and they WILL penetrate.

No worries, and it's a valid concern.

I'm not sure if Federal uses primer and case mouth sealant on their HST line, but the verdigris on the bullet jackets sounds like it's just cosmetic. I'm not sure how you carry your mags (pocket/belt carrier/etc.), but have you determined the source of the moisture ingress or humidity that caused the tarnishing?

I think the only way to know for sure if the rounds were adversely affected is to chrono test them vs. "fresh" rounds stored in a climate and humidity controlled enviornment and see if there's any drastic change in velocity between the two.

In any case, relegating the tarnished rounds to the "practice" box is an understandable decision. As far as magazine maintenance goes, I usually did a spot check followed by occasional disassembly and dry wipe-down if necessary. If you carry close to your body and sweat is an issue, more frequent maintenance may not be a bad idea.

I am definitely the source of the moisture, trying to stay active through a South Carolina summer. The mag that is in the Shield, IWB, is the only one affected. The back-up carry-mag is OWB, in a ballistic nylon pouch, and is clean. I also had the mag-release button rust, on the Shield.
The green wiped right off the cases, but was an indicator of how much moisture found its way inside the holstered gun.

My woods gun is a 686 with hardcast rounds that show no sign of oxidation because their lead. But the 686 is used in more strenuous activities and is often slightly wet. Now I know to cycle those rounds out regularly also.

FMJ for SD carry is not for me. No expansion and too much penetration.

My 147gr HST reliably expands to half an inch, and penetrates over a foot in testing.

Unfortunately, it is marketed as a law-enforcement round, which makes it harder to get for civilians, and priced higher than MSRP.

Shelf-life is irrelevant. In the early '80's we were shooting our M2HBs with .50 Cal API/API-T (4/1) headstamped in the 1944-1945 range. That ammo was stored in controlled conditions and inspected at regular intervals. The ammo you were carrying was not on the shelf, it was in a corrosive environment - on or next to a human body. If you can't shoot up and replace your high dollar ammo regularly, you can inspect it and wipe it down before reloading.

I don't carry IWB, and I notice the bullet jackets on my duty ammo tarnishing over time.

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CPT, Armor (Ret)
Luke 22:36

I see your point, that taken out of context, the term shelf-life was poorly chosen. I tried to be clear that my revelation was concerning carried, not stored, ammo.

The regular inspection and wipe down of the S/D ammo is now part of my routine. While probably obvious to you more experienced folk, it was a surprise to this self-taught novice.

It was not tarnish on the jacket that got my attention. There was an eighth inch wide green ring on the silver colored case, at the mouth of the case. I believe this came from moisture built up on the jacket and running down on the case.