New carry ammo - how often?

Ammo in magazines/cylinders

Some ammo has a tendency to allow oils/solvents/moisture into the cartridge-more than other types. .22 cal slugs, particularly in cheaper brands may be lose-able to be turned in the case. So oil or solvent can slowly seep into a round-particularly the first in the magazine. Also, brass touching steel develops vertigris. I change out my top rounds every couple of months-and try to shoot the carry magazine up when I can-same with revolver rounds.
Ammo in the box isn't affected of course-and even though you might think your pistol is free of any oil etc.-it will sweat out.
I have had a .380 and .22 fire bloopers-luckily I was at the range and I wanted to get rid of the old ammo.
 
I clean & lube guns after every time I fire them. If they get carried but not fired? Revolvers yearly, semi-autos monthly.

Change ammo ? maybe every few yrs. I recently fired some .44SPL. I loaded in 1971 (and lost track of, in the back of a drawer) Went BANG just fine.
 
It looks as if I'm finally starting to win the war. All this preaching over the years is either taking hold, or you other old guys just believe the same things as me.

American made ammo, particularly commercial top shelf stuff, lasts nearly forever. Gun problems are the cause of significantly more misfires than ammo. Sometimes its the gun (springs) that won't fire a specific brand. The worst cases are Wolf springs and Winchester primed ammo. The same guns will fire Federal, usually. The Winchester primed (either Winny factory or reloads using the hard primers) sometimes require a slightly more robust hammer fall.

Its why we test fire ammo in the guns we plan on using it in. All of them. Just because a single gun-ammo combination works doesn't mean that same ammo will go bang in a different gun. Take note that it seems to me frame mounted firing pins account for their fair share of misfires.

If, over time, you try enough different brands you'll eventually encounter a box or brand of bad ammo. With me, it was probably 14 years ago and the ammo was Seller & Beloit in 38 Special. Now I know why the vendor was letting it go for $4 a box of 50. It wasn't worth that. But in handguns that had previously been 100% reliable, about 1/3rd of the rounds just wouldn't go bang. Bad stuff.

22s are notoriously worse. With those its easy to check the cause, which is almost always no priming compound spun into the rim. If center fire primers shared that same lack of dependability, we'd all be screaming.

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).

I have a lot of ammo loaded by my father in the 1950s. Some from the 1940s. More that I loaded in the 1960s to the present. I have utter confidence in its ability to go bang. I have commercial ammo produced from the 1920s to the present. I also feel pretty confident it will do its task if asked. In fact, the only ammo I own that I don't have much confidence in (but I'd try if times were hard enough) are the contents of my ammo collection. Specifically the .45-70s with the inside primed cases and black powder contents. I'd guess the priming compound is mercuric.

Military ammo, and specifically US, is probably more dependable than commercial. I don't trust the foreign stuff as much, and specifically the commie block ammo.
 
.22 LR is dirt cheap, and given the lackluster QC often experienced, best tested from lot to lot. I wouldn't use Quik shoks, but rather a solid, but that's me. (Penetration = good.)

If you'd carried that little gun unfired that long, that's also not the best situation. I'd fire my NAA every week or two when I had it. They're only good if you're particularly good with one.
 
I had some 8mm Mauser made in Germany in 1936 that fired just fine. I have a lot of surplus ammo made in the 50's to 80's. They all have gone bang when I pulled the trigger. This includes 7.62X25, 7.62X54R, .303, .30 Carbine, 30-06 Ammo in Garand Clips. A lot of the surplus ammo that is available today was made then. I also have some .45 ACP that my father bought in the 40's. I used to shoot that but now I keep it because of the source.

I found a Beretta Model 21 that I had boxed up over 20 years ago. I fired recently the mini-mags that I put in it then with no problem.
 
I kinda do a similar routine as the individual mentioned by the OP, cept I actually aim the shots cause part of a gun that works is a gun that hits.
My carry ammo is in nickle plated cases since it does a better job of shunning dirt and corrosion ... I might be able to account for where its been, but no one knows where it'll need to go.
 
"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?
 
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