How Often Do You Change Your Carry Ammo?

[nachogrande]

JUST ME, BUT

STOREBOUGHT/HIGH QUALITY/EXPENSIVE: pretty much NEVER, after initial testing, unless repeated chambering has set back the bullets & shortened the OAL. HANDLOADS: get shot up as I can always make more easy enough. I'm coming around to using a large meplat/ hard/ cast boolit for SD. The only exception MIGHT be for improved (???) uniformity/feeding reliability/ legal liabilities???

 

[Mike SC Hunter]

After every time I shoot a bad guy.................

 

[badge 851]

I use 110 gr. Hornady Critical Defense .38 in my BG38. Each month I'll shoot up the 25 round box, then buy another.

 

[InsideWaist]

After every time I shoot a bad guy.................

So, you're saying you've never changed your carry ammo (and probably never will).

 

[ContinentalOp]

I try to change out every year or so. I once carried the same ammo for 2 years and tested it; it worked fine. However, I like to err on the side of caution.

 

[HughD1]

The 27-3 that stays on the nightstand has 125 grain Hornadys that are close to two years old. The 158 grain BB LSWCHP ammo in my 67-5 that goes everywhere me on my days off gets changed more often. That soft lead carried in speed loaders tend to take a beating.

 

[InsideWaist]

I had the chambered round go click in the face of a buck ten yards away. It was my carry gun and I had something in my hand so I couldn't​ malfunction drill.

With semis I change out about annually or so. Mainly I focus on the chambered round. With rimfires I shoot the cylinder out frequently.

I rotate my chambered carry round fairly often—a couple of times a month, maybe three. I usually empty my two carry mags and reload them (and my other spare mags) with range rounds when I train at the range. When done at the range, I reload my carry rounds (Hornady Crit. Duty) in the magazines and the originally chambered round gets mixed in there somewhere.

Maybe twice a year, I'll live-fire those two carry mags and reload them.

 

[TomkinsSP]

After every time I shoot a bad guy.................

Best answer yet...

 

[TomkinsSP]

So, you're saying you've never changed your carry ammo (and probably never will).

If you use a good-ole-reliable wheel gun you won't need to unless you fall overboard or get caught in a monsoon.

 

[forrestinmathews]

I rotate my chambered carry round fairly often—a couple of times a month, maybe three. I usually empty my two carry mags and reload them (and my other spare mags) with range rounds when I train at the range. When done at the range, I reload my carry rounds (Hornady Crit. Duty) in the magazines and the originally chambered round gets mixed in there somewhere.

Maybe twice a year, I'll live-fire those two carry mags and reload them.

Do you ever clean your magazines or change magazine springs? That sounds like a lot of cycles on the magazine spring.

 

[forrestinmathews]

If you use a good-ole-reliable wheel gun you won't need to unless you fall overboard or get caught in a monsoon.

Because humidity doesn't promote corrosion or rust. Air conditioning inside going out into hot humid conditions...cold gun...moist air...great combination.

Shells also get worn rattling around in a cylinder with dust and grit.
I carry a revolver so I have lots of experience with this.

I enjoy the way your sentiments portray the revolver in a favorable light​, however you and Bill Hickok up there fail to tell the full truth.

 

[InsideWaist]

Do you ever clean your magazines or change magazine springs? That sounds like a lot of cycles on the magazine spring.

I clean the mags maybe every third or fourth regular gun cleaning (which I do almost every time I shoot it).

I haven't changed my mag springs on my current EDC yet (which is only a few months old). On a firearm that I sometimes carry, but have had for many years, I changed it about a year ago. Before that, it had been a few years.

 

[M1A]

Wild Bill reloaded his pistols every morning. For cap and ball a wise practice.
That was then.
I have factory defense ammo for carry that I do not cycle after testing.
I reload practice ammo to spec, so no recoil surprises.
I have fired milsurp rifle ammo from the 40's and 60's, after inspection, without issue.

 

[31FordA]

I replace the cartridges in the SP-101 and 340 that I carry for work about every four months. Same for the rounds in my P32. The rounds in the speed loaders and speed strips get replaced once a year when I requal.

 

[TomkinsSP]

Because humidity doesn't promote corrosion or rust. Air conditioning inside going out into hot humid conditions...cold gun...moist air...great combination.

Shells also get worn rattling around in a cylinder with dust and grit.
I carry a revolver so I have lots of experience with this.

I enjoy the way your sentiments portray the revolver in a favorable light​, however you and Bill Hickok up there fail to tell the full truth.

Well, IIRC the question was changing the ammo.. Because I prefer deeply blued steel, I do clean them a lot, (especially after falling overboard trying to get that big one into the boat, it was that big I tell you!) But I just wipe down the cartridges and put the same ones back in the gun.

Even back east in the summer I never changed a cartridge in a wheel-gun (I do not miss those asphalt jungle summers, I might run the a/c 30 days a year here, and it rains or it doesn't, none of that walking through a cloud BS.)

Now if I lived in Houston or New Orleans, wait, I don't think I'd live there 100 degrees and 98 percent humidity, no thank you. My high today was 73 and about 43 percent humidity.

 

[Jack Flash]

If you use a good-ole-reliable wheel gun you won't need to unless you fall overboard or get caught in a monsoon.

Massad Ayoob had an interesting story along the lines of never changing your wheel gun ammo. He told of a plain clothes detective whose routine was to put his loaded revolver in his holster in the morning and take it out at night, never unloading it. Of course it was carried close to his body and subject to humidity, perspiration, etc.

This went on for years and years. Then one day, he got involved in a shooting. Two rounds from his revolver settled the matter. Afterwards, he went to reload and couldn't eject the empty cases (or live rounds either) so he took it to the department armorer. The rounds had become so corroded that they were stuck solid in the chambers. IIRC, he had to fire the live rounds then remove the cylinder and pound out the empty cases.

No one in his right mind would recommend this practice, but the point is that the ammo still functioned.

 

[gwpercle]

Annually or the best if used by date on the box!

I do clean and check both the gun and ammo every 3-4 months, you don't want anything getting corroded , stuck , gummed up or in a non functioning way.
If any ammo looks suspect for any reason it gets fresh ammo but usually mine only needs the annual change.

Gary

 

[TomkinsSP]

Massad Ayoob had an interesting story along the lines of never changing your wheel gun ammo. He told of a plain clothes detective whose routine was to put his loaded revolver in his holster in the morning and take it out at night, never unloading it. Of course it was carried close to his body and subject to humidity, perspiration, etc.

This went on for years and years. Then one day, he got involved in a shooting. Two rounds from his revolver settled the matter. Afterwards, he went to reload and couldn't eject the empty cases (or live rounds either) so he took it to the department armorer. The rounds had become so corroded that they were stuck solid in the chambers. IIRC, he had to fire the live rounds then remove the cylinder and pound out the empty cases.

No one in his right mind would recommend this practice, but the point is that the ammo still functioned.

Back to the days of the cap and ball .44 Army Colt, just pop in a new cylinder... ;-)

 

[trbomax]

Since my range is right outside my shop door,I cant resist the urge to have to change mine every couple days.Since I only carry the shield 9 when I have a road trip or going into Traverse City,it ony gets changed evey month or so.JHP isnt that expensive.TheM&P22 compact though is my EDC and farm/shop gun.The round nose 22lr is cheap (I buy 1k at a time),the wife and I will go thru 1k in a months time.

 

[Whitwabit]

an add to my previous comment is that the three mags I use for carry are just that .. other mags are used for range time ..

I always shoot the carry ammo once a month and it is always the last mag shot be for leaving the range !!