I will shoot up the old stuff and at least one gun-full of the new stuff each year, just to make sure the new stuff works in my gun.
Now that's one aspect I have overlooked. Joe
I will shoot up the old stuff and at least one gun-full of the new stuff each year, just to make sure the new stuff works in my gun.
"I've witnessed one instance where a policeman left his ammo in a gun so long it couldn't be ejected. Corroded in place. It was easy to remove, but took time. We just soaked his cylinder in Liquid Wrench for a couple of days. Then we drove them out with a mallet and dowel rod.
"No, it wasn't scary. But it did leave a ring or corrosion band inside the cylinder. The copper swore he'd change his ammo after that, and he did up to the point where I lost track of him (it was in the early 1970s)."
That is freeking amazing. And yet, hardly unique! When a rookie, a detective in the department found me in an office taking another deputy's spare revolver apart. The dick said, "Hey, will ya take a look at mine? S'broke." He produced a 2" Airweight M&P that looked like moss was taking over the cylinder! The cylinder wouldn't even open!
I had shot qualifications with him a month earlier. He hadn't used this gun. A lot of our detectives carried 2 inch guns on duty but qualified their issue 4 inch Model 15 in their full Sam Browne rig. (They used to do a lot of stupid stuff then; I guess we do other stupid stuff now.) I asked him how long it had been since he had shot this gun and he thought 5 years or so! Our climate is really dry and I had never seen verdigris like that before!
I guess the mindset is, "It won't happen, and if it does, it won't happen to me, and if it does happen to me, it won't happen to me today."
What is the point of hauling that hunk of metal around all of the time if you aren't sure it is always going to work?