when to replace EDC ammo

[Moonshot]

I shoot up and replace the ammo in my BUG revolver cylinder and the ammo in my two carry mags (one in gun and one on belt) yearly and replace with new ammo.

I also have some loose ammo I keep in a carry kit as well as a 3rd loaded magazine. This kit is somewhere between an EDC bag and a GHB - it's really too big and cumbersome for a true EDC, and therefore I don't religiously carry it every day, and it's too small and under equipped for a GHB - not enough water, calories, extra clothes or shelter. I carry this kit when I am traveling out of town for the day on business, perhaps spending one or two nights out of town. It's designed to help me cope with a myriad of contingencies, from minor irritants to major emergencies.

When carrying the kit, it does not stay in the car overnight (if goes where I go), but it can be exposed to heat or cold while I am parked at a customer site and inside with customers.

Does this ammo need to be replaced annually, just as I do with the ammo I am wearing? I know it wouldn't hurt to replace it. I'm wondering if it needs to be replaced.

[psalms144.1]

I don't think it NEEDS to be replaced, but, realistically, the cost of one magazine worth of quality ammunition is CERTAINLY worth your peace of mind, isn't it? I try to rotate my carry ammo every 6 months.

However, at our last range session, I was handed a bag of OLD, poorly stored 130 gr FMJ ammunition in .38 Special. Like, loaded in the early 80s old; and showing lots of corrosion on the brass and copper jacketing of bullets from exposure to water (our old office building flooded, and the ammo got wet, very very wet). Before the flood, it was stored for DECADES in a non-climate-controlled outdoor bunker in an area with high humidity darn near all the time, and large temperature swings through all four seasons. I culled out the rounds that were so bad I didn't want to shoot them for safety reasons, and was left with about 50 "useable" rounds. Of those 50, 47 fired without issue. I would say that's a worst-case extreme of ammo that was flat abused before firing.

[Moonshot]

Yeah, I’m not trying to be cheap. My carry ammo gets rotated at least yearly, sometimes more often. I clean and lube my carry gun every four months, shooting up the ammo at the range every twelve months, and while I don’t swap out my mag ammo during my periodic clean and lube, I do load a fresh round into the chamber. No round gets chambered more than twice, and the second time is at the range. I was just trying to understand things a little better.

My on-body ammo (in gun and on belt) is exposed to temperature and humiditiy swings daily and gets swapped out at least yearly with fresh ammo (newly purchased from store or taken from my reserves). On the other hand, my rifle goto mags never leave the house and therefore do not get rotated.

The ammo in my travel kit (loose ammo to top of my carry mags and another loaded mag) falls somewhere in between - exposed to some temperature and humidity swings, not not much and not every day. I wanted to know if I needed to be as anal about it as I am with my carry ammo.

[Hambo]

Ammo is easily available now so I would just switch it out. If we were still in the ammo drought I'd be more stingy about shooting it.

[Chuck Haggard]

Several years ago about half my SWAT team failed to listen up when I told them to keep their ammo fresh. Several had not swapped out their carbine duty ammo in three years. We had a training event so I ordered them to clean out their take-home cars and we would shoot up the old ammo and get fresh stuff issued.

15 shooters, first course of fire was at the 50 yard line, five round string of fire, we had more than a dozen dead rounds. My "I told you so" bit after that was loud and angry.

[Gadfly]

We qual quarterly, and everyone gets 100 rounds primary and 50 for back up to qual with. Then they get 100 extra practice rounds issued when they leave the range. Come in next quarter, shoot up what’s in your gun and mags, and we give you new ammo to lad fresh when you leave.

We are VERY fortunate to have a huge ammo budget. The locals in Houston PD have to buy their own duty ammo.


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[JAH 3rd]

I change my ammo once a year just for peace of mind. The irony here is that the "fresh" rounds come from that box of ammo that's a year old, if one uses the same box of ammo from a year ago. But that box of ammo has been in the house in a climate controlled environment. I have a box of Winchester Silvertips from the 1970s. I shot 5 rounds through my S&W 340PD just for fun. All rounds shot perfectly.

One caveat here is one's ccw is exposed to rain or other situations where primer function may be affected.

[vcdgrips]

I try to change my carry ammo and batteries in various lights & sights 1x a yr during the week of my birthday.

[Beat Trash]

Ammunition is cheap. Life is not.

My carry ammo that is actually carried gets changed out at least once a year. Rounds that are chambered more than twice get rotated to the bottom of a magazine. In theory, you may not need to change out carry ammunition annually unless it has been exposed to some extreme conditions. But why risk your life just to save a few pennies?

Do not rechamber the same pistol or rifle round over and over. Bullet setback, case rims getting chewed up and potential dead primers are all possibilities.

Carry ammunition that has been changed out must be destroyed. One round at a time...

[HeavyDuty]

Come here to Chicago, and your EDC ammunition will never get a chance to get old. /snark

I’m of the shoot it up and replace every six months crowd.

[RevolverRob]

Since I don't get to the range as much as I should, my carry ammo gets changed every time I go to the range (~quarterly). I start range trips, by going cold right out of the holster to running a Bill Drill or FAST a few times. Once the ammo in my gun and the ammo in my spare magazine(s) is depleted. I switch over to other drills and practice ammo.

At the end, I load fresh carry ammo from my same lot numbered stash - or if I have to switch to a new lot number (same ammo type, e.g., 147-grain HST) I'll fire a random selection of 5-rounds from each box in the new lot number to confirm nothing seems odd and load the remaining ammo in my gun and spare mag(s). I, honestly, think that this last step is overkill, but it makes my OCD happy, so I do it. I try to buy five boxes of carry ammo at a time from the same lot number.

[FNFAN]

We get new duty ammo issued every two years. The head firearms guy was interested in why I was so interested in what grain weight Gold Dot he was giving me....

[Cypher]

I change out my ammunition every year on January 1st. I'm considering storing the old ammunition for a JIC

[Coyotesfan97]

We qual with the duty ammo in our mags in the fourth quarter and get new rounds issued afterwards.

[Nephrology]

1x a year on my birthday.

[Peally]

Rifle ammo whenever the primers get dented. Pistol ammo for me is "before the rounds turn green or the rims get chewed up"

[ST911]

I replace mine every 6-12 months, mostly due to impromptu range sessions. Contingency gear gets rotated less often. Keeping it in perspective, pistol carry ammo costs less than the magazine its carried in, a decent pizza, or a case of beer. There's no excuse to run the same rounds for extended periods.


We get new duty ammo issued every two years. The head firearms guy was interested in why I was so interested in what grain weight Gold Dot he was giving me....

For issued or approved loads, I send out skus, vendor, and price info for folks that want more of their own.

Life hack: When in doubt about what your employer or local LE agency is fielding, go to the meeting records of the controlling government council/board and look at the claims list. Look for an ammo related line item, and request the associated invoice.

[fatdog]

it does not stay in the car overnight (if goes where I go), but it can be exposed to heat or cold while I am parked

Good question, for ammo that is mostly maintained in a temperature controlled environment in loaded magazines, I am not so concerned about age, I don't see how the loaded magazine in my bedside table or the safe, or that follows me around in temperature controlled environments is that much harder on the ammo than staying in the original box that is nearby on the shelf. I have looked for the brass shaving or cutting phenomenon that some report magazines causing in magazines that are jostled around, and never found any. For that ammo, I only concern myself with the rounds that have been chambered because of potential setback and primer related stress, and those rounds that have been chambered go into the practice jar after being chambered once, out of an abundance of caution.

I do store loaded spare mags in the vehicle, and I try to change that ammo twice a year and push it into the practice bin because of the temperature variations. However after about 20 years of doing that, I have never had a single round of the factory carry ammo from that practice bin generate a problem when used.

My best "old ammo" story, a friend I used to shoot NRA High Power with, once picked up two full and one partial boxes of genuine Frankford Arsenal cupro nickel GI .45 ACP ball dated 1918. It came from an estate sale and appeared to have been stored in a closet or some similar environment because the cardboard boxes were still in very good shape, no corrosion on the cases. However you can guarantee it was exposed to heat and humidity extremes for many decades since air conditioning did not arrive in Alabama in any meaningful way until the late 50's and the 60's. Just because we had to know, we loaded up 7 rounds from the partial box and fired them out of a government model. The chrono said 750 fps average as I recall and all 7 rounds grouped nicely.

[blues]

I replaced mine today at my annual LEOSA qualification. Makes it pretty pretty easy to remember.

[deputyG23]

I replace all ammo that is actually carried 1x/year. Have a small stash of properly stored .38 Winchester service 158 grain LHP left over from our revolver days in the '80s that I still carry in my older .38 guns. Intend to order the Remington version as soon as it is available again.

[Clusterfrack]

So, I've been running an informal experiment. When I pick up brass at the range after a practice session, I often have a bay that was used for LEO training. If I find live ammo, I throw it in my brass bag (dog poo bag). Since it's Oregon, the live ammo has typically been sitting in rainwater for days to weeks.

The brass and any live rounds have the following treatment:

Frankford wet tumbler 1 hr (hot water, 1tsp buffered disodium EDTA, 1tsp Lemishine, 2 oz Meguiers carwash)
Sit in wet tumbler for 12-36 hrs until I have time to deal with it
Wash in cold water 3x
Dry in case drier for 3 hrs
Spray with Hornady 1-shot case lube

Then at this point, I pick out the live rounds. When I feel like it, I try to fire them.

Now, here's the cool part: every single round has fired. The sample size is well over 100 rounds.

[Bucky]

So, I've been running an informal experiment. When I pick up brass at the range after a practice session, I often have a bay that was used for LEO training. If I find live ammo, I throw it in my brass bag (dog poo bag). Since it's Oregon, the live ammo has typically been sitting in rainwater for days to weeks.

The brass and any live rounds have the following treatment:

Frankford wet tumbler 1 hr (water, 1tsp buffered disodium EDTA, 1tsp Lemishine, 2 oz Meguiers carwash)
Sit in wet tumbler for 12-36 hrs until I have time to deal with it
Wash in cold water 3x
Dry in case drier for 3 hrs
Spray with Hornady 1-shot case lube

Then at this point, I pick out the live rounds. When I feel like it, I try to fire them.

Now, here's the cool part: every single round has fired. The sample size is well over 100 rounds.

Do you weed out reloads? I have 9mm major and .40s that I’d not want to fire out of anything other than a 2011.

[Clusterfrack]

Do you weed out reloads? I have 9mm major and .40s that I’d not want to fire out of anything other than a 2011.

Yep. If it isn't an obvious factory round, I don't take it. These are all hollow point factory rounds. Usually HST or similar. I don't shoot .40, so it's all 9mm.

[2xAGM114]

I have read about "bullet setback" where the repeated chambering of a round can eventually cause the bullet to get pushed farther inside the casing causing reliability and cycling issues, and thus developed the following method:

I have a plastic container on the shelf in the gun safe. Every time I unload the chambered round in my carry gun to do some dry-fire, the round in the chamber goes into this container. After a couple weeks of this, the container of once-chambered rounds goes to the range and then gets fired.

[Clusterfrack]

With 9mm HST rounds chambered at least 20 times, I could not measure any setback. When the case or bullet starts looking visibly worn, I swap it out.

[psalms144.1]

I've mentioned this before, but our issued .45 FMJ ammo was loaded in 1986 - that's right - 32 years ago. The cases look GNARLY, I'm probably pulling out 1 out of every 20 that's so corroded that I won't shoot it through one of MY pistols. However, every single round has fired, every time.

Our issued 9mm JHP that we're working through now was loaded in 1992 - and functions just fine...

[RevolverRob]

I have read about "bullet setback" where the repeated chambering of a round can eventually cause the bullet to get pushed farther inside the casing causing reliability and cycling issues, and thus developed the following method:

I have a plastic container on the shelf in the gun safe. Every time I unload the chambered round in my carry gun to do some dry-fire, the round in the chamber goes into this container. After a couple weeks of this, the container of once-chambered rounds goes to the range and then gets fired.

In my experience, bullet setback with pistols seems to happen most with .45 ball ammo. I'm not sure if that's because there isn't a good crimp on a lot of ball ammo or what, but the only time I've measurably seen setback is with .45 ball that has been chambered and rechambered in a 1911. I've never had a problem with high quality JHPs in any caliber, including .45, by that I mean HST/Ranger/Gold Dot.

Now, with PCCs? Chambering the same round as few as three times, I've seen measurable setback. I ASSume that is because of the mass of the AR9 bolt and the way everything slams together in there. That includes FMJ and JHP rounds. So, I do like you and dump the chambered round into a bag, at the range, I just load them into pistol mags and fire them off. This is one reason why I strictly run "cheap" JHP through my AR9 for defensive purposes (e.g., Fed 9BPLE), because when I do dryfire drills with the carbine, I'm losing a round or two a week just to that.

[psalms144.1]

In my experience, bullet setback with pistols seems to happen most with .45 ball ammo. I'm not sure if that's because there isn't a good crimp on a lot of ball ammo or what, but the only time I've measurably seen setback is with .45 ball that has been chambered and rechambered in a 1911. I've never had a problem with high quality JHPs in any caliber, including .45, by that I mean HST/Ranger/Gold Dot.
I've seen SIGINIFICANT set back with our issued .40 S&W JHP - which is a major concern since the load we're running is already on the ragged edge of safe pressures, IMHO.

[BehindBlueI's]

I quit worrying about how ammo is stored long term when I saw how the military stored it long term. Quality ammo is pretty robust and withstands age, temperature swings, moisture, etc. pretty well. My only concern is repeated battering of the primer leading to the primer compound moving. I've seen some folks here recommend never rechambering a round. I think that's overkill, but each to their own. I also suspect it's different firearm to firearm. Revolvers don't have anything hit the primer when you "chamber" each cartridge. ARs will lightly dent the primer upon chambering.

[DocGKR]

I have seen multiple 5.56 mm rounds fail to fire after being re-chambered and having the primer compound damaged....

[KeithH]

I have seen multiple 5.56 mm rounds fail to fire after being re-chambered and having the primer compound damaged....

Thank you for that post DocGKR. Just came from the range and had my first ever HST failure to fire. Dead primer. I snapped on it 3 times. Its been in carry rotation between number one in the chamber and/or number one in the magazine for 3 years. The thread had spooked me enough to shoot up some older carry ammo just to see what would happen. I expected everything to be fine. It was not. The only thing unusual about the first two rounds in my carry rotation is that they have been rechambered at least 50 or more times. You can see the impact area on the high spot on the brass from where its been chambered so many times. Now I'm a believer.


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[DocGKR]

Yup...glad you did not find out the stupidity of re-chambering the hard way.

Not sure why folks are so against following the sound advice of NOT re-chambering defensive ammo. Even if someone cleared their pistol once a week for a year, and reloaded with a fresh, unused cartridge, that would only be one box of ammo in extra cost per year.....

More realistically, load your carry/duty pistol, put it in the holster. At the end of each day, leave the pistol in the holster, take the still holstered pistol and lock it up. Put it on the next day and repeat. There is virtually no reason to be clearing pistols each day....

[BehindBlueI's]

Yup...glad you did not find out the stupidity of re-chambering the hard way.

Not sure why folks are so against following the sound advice of NOT re-chambering defensive ammo. Even if someone cleared their pistol once a week for a year, and reloaded with a fresh, unused cartridge, that would only be one box of ammo in extra cost per year.....

More realistically, load your carry/duty pistol, put it in the holster. At the end of each day, leave the pistol in the holster, take the still holstered pistol and lock it up. Put it on the next day and repeat. There is virtually no reason to be clearing pistols each day....

You're issued ammunition and have to use issued ammunition, and don't have a second copy for dry fire practice yet.

Armory guns.

"Car carry condition" long guns.

[23JAZ]

More realistically, load your carry/duty pistol, put it in the holster. At the end of each day, leave the pistol in the holster, take the still holstered pistol and lock it up. Put it on the next day and repeat. There is virtually no reason to be clearing pistols each day....
^^^This^^^ I rarely unload my guns. Round goes in and stays in until it’s shot. When the pistol isn’t on me it’s locked up. When I go to the range I drop the mag and shoot the chambered round.

[VT1032]

Yup...glad you did not find out the stupidity of re-chambering the hard way.

Not sure why folks are so against following the sound advice of NOT re-chambering defensive ammo. Even if someone cleared their pistol once a week for a year, and reloaded with a fresh, unused cartridge, that would only be one box of ammo in extra cost per year.....

More realistically, load your carry/duty pistol, put it in the holster. At the end of each day, leave the pistol in the holster, take the still holstered pistol and lock it up. Put it on the next day and repeat. There is virtually no reason to be clearing pistols each day....What about ammunition that was purchased some time ago but has not been used? I bought a case of hst in 2015 that I've been slowly working through. I would think that would still be fine, right? I switch out the ammo in my carry guns every 6 months or so.

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[tanner]

I have seen multiple 5.56 mm rounds fail to fire after being re-chambered and having the primer compound damaged....

Back in the day, we used to hand out rifles and magazines at the beginning of the shift and return them at the end (thankfully we had a purchase-your-own rifle policy put in to place later).

I bought my own magazines due to this exact issue. Once I went through and inspected all of the top rounds in the issued magazines. All had visibly dented primers. I was able to spin the bullet in the cartridge in all of them, and a with a few of them I was able to pull out with my fingers using minimal effort.

Of course I told everyone who would listen, and the responses were mostly yawns.

[11B10]

Yup...glad you did not find out the stupidity of re-chambering the hard way.

Not sure why folks are so against following the sound advice of NOT re-chambering defensive ammo. Even if someone cleared their pistol once a week for a year, and reloaded with a fresh, unused cartridge, that would only be one box of ammo in extra cost per year.....

More realistically, load your carry/duty pistol, put it in the holster. At the end of each day, leave the pistol in the holster, take the still holstered pistol and lock it up. Put it on the next day and repeat. There is virtually no reason to be clearing pistols each day....


Doc, thanks for bringing some needed experience and confirmation of this ^^^ to the thread. What you recommend here is exactly what I've been doing since....forever. Not because I'm brilliant, more likely because I'm lazy. Very much appreciated!

[DocGKR]

VT1032--as long as the ammo was stored in reasonable conditions, you should be fine. I've seen folks in the USG issued duty ammo for post 9/11 combat takss which was made 20-30 years earlier and it works just fine. We have tested a lot of historical ammo over the years; it is rare that it does not go bang, even when 100+ years old, such as a lot of the pre-WWI .30-06 and .45 Auto ammo we tested....

[TGS]

You're issued ammunition and have to use issued ammunition, and don't have a second copy for dry fire practice yet.

Armory guns.

"Car carry condition" long guns.

One of the ways we get around this with pool weapons is simply to keep them loaded 24/7/365. When not in use, they simply get bagged up and stacked in a safe, both rifles and pistols. This is also done to prevent NDs during administrative handling.

[deputyG23]

Thank you for that post DocGKR. Just came from the range and had my first ever HST failure to fire. Dead primer. I snapped on it 3 times. Its been in carry rotation between number one in the chamber and/or number one in the magazine for 3 years. The thread had spooked me enough to shoot up some older carry ammo just to see what would happen. I expected everything to be fine. It was not. The only thing unusual about the first two rounds in my carry rotation is that they have been rechambered at least 50 or more times. You can see the impact area on the high spot on the brass from where its been chambered so many times. Now I'm a believer.


[ATTACH=CONFIG]3259

I had an old leftover .40 Ranger SXT round fail to ignite after three strikes two weeks ago. First time I have experienced this with duty ammo. That entire batch will be shot up in the coming months. Glad I have fresh Ranger T for carry.