Carry rounds

[wingriderz]

So my E D C has stayed the same since retired a few years ago. Still a life long Florida Boy. With it still being a struggle to find ammo I almost didn't rotate my carry ammo out . My rule is to change it out every six months. Thought about and ended up changing it out as usual

 

[Echo40]

As someone who has seen a large number of videos on YouTube of folks shooting ammunition that was a century or more old, stored in condition which weren't always verified to be ideal, not to mention having had a few magazines of ammo go through the washer/dryer yet still functioned perfectly at the range, I no longer worry too much about rotating my carry ammo.

Obviously, I'll still rotate my carry ammo out whenever possible, but thanks to COVID-19-induced panic-buying, I haven't been able to buy any new carry ammo for some of my guns in over a year.

 

[sousana]

I rotate my carry ammo ever 30 days. I know, I could go more, but this is the way I've done it since I got my CCW back in the mid 80s.

 

[JJEH]

I wouldn't worry too much about rotating ammo... if they didn't get wet (soaking wet that is) and if there's no visible corrosion I leave them alone.

My distributors are slowly filling their shelves again, so that's a good sign. Many ammo manufacturers are consumer direct and you'll just have to keep looking around and buy as soon as you see it.

 

[retrieverhunter]

Do y'all ever use handloads for carry ammo?

 

[ISCS Yoda]

Do y'all ever use handloads for carry ammo?

I know that handloaders do this but I would never consider it. Factory ammunition is as close to 100% reliable as it gets. Nothing is perfect but they make a lot of ammunition that doesn't fail. No handloader can match that.

That said, I never rotate my carry ammunition. I consider it a waste of time. When I take a carry gun to the range then, yes, I'll shoot what I have been carrying long term, plus whatever else I brought to shoot, and then replace the carry ammunition with newer rounds.

If the ammunition has not been soaked in water, OR OIL, I expect it to work every time. That's the idea with quality ammunition.

I added "OR OIL" because some people over oil their guns. If you put too much oil on a gun such that it seeps onto your ammunition you are cruising for a negative surprise.

Side note: Many of us have thousands of rounds of ammunition, with a good percentage of it designated for defensive use. So what difference does it make if your ammunition is rotated when you are using old stock that you hoarded for years?

I say hoarded as a joke but, in reality, if we're not literally collecting ammunition as "collectors", which we generally are not, then why, pray tell, do folks have the ability to write that they have "thousands of rounds" available at home? The current ammunition shortage isn't stopping some folks from shooting some of those thousands of rounds.

 

[JJEH]

That said, I never rotate my carry ammunition. I consider it a waste of time. When I take a carry gun to the range then, yes, I'll shoot what I have been carrying long term, plus whatever else I brought to shoot, and then replace the carry ammunition with newer rounds.

That's exactly what I do. And I agree with the oil, good catch

 

[Pef]

Uh....the carry rounds in my 637 have been in there for about five years. I unload them and shoot other rounds at the range. I guess it's time to shoot them, but I know they will be fine (they have been before).

For my semi autos, I just place the carried round at the bottom of the mag after a few loads/unloads. Avoid the mythical setback. Eventually I'll shoot the mag, probably once every two years.

Never had a problem.

 

[TXBryan]

Do y'all ever use handloads for carry ammo?

Exclusively. I don't buy ammo but rather build it for everything in the inventory. I stopped worrying about it when I heard a Law Shield attorney tell his audience he was not aware of a single case of handloads used in an "incident" ever being discussed in court. Two other Law Shield attorneys present concurred they had never heard of it either and suggested plaintiff's counsel alleging "incrimination of a defendant because he used extra-lethal handloads" was likely an urban myth.

As far as reliability goes I've experienced a half dozen target shooting failures attributable to factory centerfire ammo (mostly dented primers that didn't go bang) over the years and zero with my own. To each his own but I have more confidence in my handloads than in any factory fodder.

 

[double-dipper]

I don't rotate my CCW ammo. They have been loaded in the same magazines for well over 7-8 years.

I'm very confident it will still go BANG, BOOM!!!

 

[pharmer]

As others have said, I shoot the 12 rds of Federal HST in my 6906 once or twice a year( I shoot ball for practice). I don't cycle it through the action except to load the 1st rd. I have about 500 rds on hand, should be enough until past dead, one way or the other. Joe

 

[retrieverhunter]

Exclusively. I don't buy ammo but rather build it for everything in the inventory. I stopped worrying about it when I heard a Law Shield attorney tell his audience he was not aware of a single case of handloads used in an "incident" ever being discussed in court. Two other Law Shield attorneys present concurred they had never heard of it either and suggested plaintiff's counsel alleging "incrimination of a defendant because he used extra-lethal handloads" was likely an urban myth.

As far as reliability goes I've experienced a half dozen target shooting failures attributable to factory centerfire ammo (mostly dented primers that didn't go bang) over the years and zero with my own. To each his own but I have more confidence in my handloads than in any factory fodder.

That's good info from Law Shield. Thanks for sharing it.
I've got quite a bit of factory ammo and normally carry it in my CCW, but I carry my reloads when I'm out and about on my farms. Sometimes I forget to put factory PD ammo back in my gun and end up carrying my handloads for a day or two which is why I asked the question.
In the THOUSANDS of rounds I've put through a handgun, I can count on one hand the number of ammo failures that have occurred, and I've never had an ammo failure with my handloads. I can almost guarantee I'm more careful loading ammo than a "factory" cranking out thousands of rounds a day, but I still carry factory PD ammo and rotate it regularly.

 

[jcs266]

I don't worry about it. Every few years maybe if it's starting to look battered? In a revolver especially there is no battering (like seen in a semi-auto due to magazine and feeding, etc). Never had a problem since 1985.

 

[9mmPatriot]

I used to rotate annually, not any more. I haven't seen a box of Federal HST 124g since......um....I can't even remember the last time I saw any available anywhere.

 

[hyena]

I don't rotate my carry or home defense ammo. I'm willing to stake my life on them because I've never had an old centerfire cartridge fail to go bang.

 

[TX-Dennis]

I have several hundred rounds of carry ammo on hand for two different calibers. Also a 150 or so for .380 that I almost never shoot and never carry these days. I just shoot the chambered round when I go to the range and leave the rounds in the magazine alone. When I get home I unload the magazine and place a new round on the bottom.

 

[sigp220.45]

I think the "rotate your carry ammo" refrain came from some gunwriter who needed a column that month.

My usual carry gun is a Colt Cobra, loaded from this old box of actual FBI loads. The Bu used to require agents to keep a 50 round box of handgun ammo in the glove box of their assigned G-ride. Every inspection some poor sap would have to round up every set of keys on the squad and check for ammo and first aid kit and fire extinguisher and glow-in-the-dark dashboard figure of a dancing J Edgar. One year I said - hey I'll do it. I went to the gun vault and said I was supposed to replace all the car ammo for the inspection. I took all that new ammo, swapped it out, and piled all the old boxes in the back seat of my G-ride. Some of it had been in cars for ten years.

Its still works great.

 

[bill1917]

Ammo life span

FWIW, a few months ago I fired six rounds of 45 ACP from 1918 in half moon clips in my S&W 1917 revolver also manufactured in 1918. Two of the rounds required a second strike, but all six fired and recoil felt normal.

 

[stansdds]

I rotate the ammo that is in the chamber and in the magazine of my carry pistol when I take it to the range. I fire this ammo for familiarization and to make sure the rounds are impacting the target where I expect them to make impact. As ammo is hard to find, I fear the day when I am down to the last of my supply of factory carry ammo. At that point, I may have to switch to my reloads.

 

[smithra_66]

I know that handloaders do this but I would never consider it. Factory ammunition is as close to 100% reliable as it gets. Nothing is perfect but they make a lot of ammunition that doesn't fail. No handloader can match that.

That said, I never rotate my carry ammunition. I consider it a waste of time. When I take a carry gun to the range then, yes, I'll shoot what I have been carrying long term, plus whatever else I brought to shoot, and then replace the carry ammunition with newer rounds.

If the ammunition has not been soaked in water, OR OIL, I expect it to work every time. That's the idea with quality ammunition.

I added "OR OIL" because some people over oil their guns. If you put too much oil on a gun such that it seeps onto your ammunition you are cruising for a negative surprise.

Side note: Many of us have thousands of rounds of ammunition, with a good percentage of it designated for defensive use. So what difference does it make if your ammunition is rotated when you are using old stock that you hoarded for years?

I say hoarded as a joke but, in reality, if we're not literally collecting ammunition as "collectors", which we generally are not, then why, pray tell, do folks have the ability to write that they have "thousands of rounds" available at home? The current ammunition shortage isn't stopping some folks from shooting some of those thousands of rounds.

I'd say 20 hand crafted rounds made by a skilled reloader are definitely better than what factories can mass produce.

I just had 2 Federal shotshells with no powder out of a single box. I've seen a lot of other defects too with factory ammo.

There may be reasons to use factory ammo over handloaded ammo in SD situations, but reliability isn't one of them, in my opinion.