Dedicated Carry Gun with a "Low Round Count"

[revchuck38]

This is a consistent theme on this forum. I subscribe to it myself because it intuitively makes sense. However, I've never seen the phrase "low round count" quantified.

My main carry gun is a full-size PX4 G, and my practice/training gun is a PX4 F converted to decock-only. I've run a couple hundred rounds of my carry load (124-grain HST +P) through each with no problem. I've got about a thousand rounds total through the G and maybe 6-7k through the F. The G gets field stripped, wiped off and re-lubed about once a month just because. The F gets cleaned when/if I think about it. It's been a few months since I've shot the G.

Is there a consensus on how often the carry gun should be shot to confirm it's still good to go?

[JAH 3rd]

I follow your thinking. I have an HK P2000 9mm that is my preferred carry pistol. I put about a thousand rounds through the pistol and it was one hundred percent reliable. I now shoot it occasionally at the range just to make sure it is still 100%. I shoot the mags that I carry with my carry round is the HST 147gr bullet.

Anything mechanical can break at any time. Logic would indicate that the more use, the closer one is to a breakage. Just have to inspect things after shooting ones' carry pistol to make sure things look good.

[jetfire]

My 3 inch LCR gets 25-50 rounds a month of carry ammo fired through it during very focused drilling every month. That's my definition of low round count.

[Clusterfrack]

I always have two of my main carry gun, one for practice and one for carry.

As long as the carry gun isn’t full of dirt, sand, water, or lint I don’t worry about confirmation of function. But since it gets carried, I usually end up firing some drills with it every few weeks.

My carry P-07 has only around 3500 rounds through it.

[WobblyPossum]

I like to fire 2000-2500 trouble free rounds through my carry gun and then I only really shoot it annually when cycling through carry ammo. All other practice is done with the training gun. Now that my on and off duty guns are the same and I qualify quarterly, my carry gun will be shot a little more than I like but I’m not too concerned.

[Hambo]

Is there a consensus on how often the carry gun should be shot to confirm it's still good to go?

Other than no lube, what would go wrong with your carry gun? How could you tell if you were about to have a part fail?

[JohnK]

Right now, the gun I am transitioning to is around 2,000 rounds through it. I'm going to put a few hundred rounds through it this weekend to get acclimated with any nuances. Then it'll get cleaned and holstered and I'll put 50 or so rounds through it at the end of each range session.

[Robinson]

Before I start carrying a gun I shoot at least 500 rounds through it, usually more, to ensure proper function. After that I shoot it a few times a year. Same with my bedside gun. The practice gun is the one I shoot all the time at the range.

Current list:

Carry gun: Colt Special Combat Government
Bedside gun: Colt Rail Gun with TLR1-HL
Practice gun: Colt Special Combat Government
Fun gun: Colt Series 80 Government basic model
9mm gun: Glock 34

The two SCGs are very similar other than the finish, and the carry gun doesn't have the mag well installed. I may have some Harrison sights installed on the carry gun soon (not sure yet).

[blues]

Why not treat it like a service weapon? For example, you could do something like we feds did and shoot it quarterly for a minimum of say, 50 or 60 rounds.

That wouldn't be taxing on the firearm and would give you an idea if anything needed addressing.

[oldtexan]

I have not adopted the idea of keeping carry guns at a relatively low round count compared to more heavily used training guns. But that idea seems to suggest there is a 'trustworthy zone' in which the carry gun is shot enough to establish/confirm proper function yet is not shot so much that the likelihood of mechanical failure begins to increase to a significant level. I would think about 1500-2000 rds (with 0 stoppages) may be the low end of the trustworthy zone, but don't have a good sense of where the top end of the trustworthy zone would be.

In my case, I have four 2015-2017 vintage Gen 4 G17s and a 2014-vintage Gen 4 G19 that fulfill the roles of carry, home defense, and spare guns. Each is factory-stock except for sights, SCDs, and undercutting the trigger guard, and each has had 0 stoppages ( other than a few me-induced failures of the slide stop to engage on an empty mag). Round counts currently range from about 3700 to about 4400. I plan to change all springs at about 5k intervals. I rotate the guns to keep the round counts roughly even among the five, putting an average of about 100 rds through one of the five each week. I do however have a few training-only magazines (2x G17, 2x G19) that I use for my weekly shooting sessions. I acknowledge that each gun will experience a part failure at some point, but don't have a sense of a round count at which that probability may become significant. Is it 10K? 20K? 50K?

[Crazy Dane]

When I was carrying my 1991A1 Commander or the 9mm Commander, I shot my carry ammo once a month. This came to 25 rounds of Gold dot .45 and 30 rounds of 9 HST minimum a month. I use to shoot pin matches with the 1991A1 so I don't know how many rounds are through that one, other than a lot. The 9mm has about 1800 rounds. Now that I carry a lawnmower pistol, P365, I don't get to the range like I did in the past. This is mainly because it feels like a screwdriver you carry on your keychain for just in case. Anyway the Sig has 1680ish rounds through it. As far as having a low count gun to carry, it depends on the maintenance that's done. When I was shooting the pin matches, I tore my pistol down to bare frame, cleaned, inspected every part and replaced the recoil spring after every match. Other parts, pins and springs got replaced as needed. If maintenance is done like most people treat their lawnmowers then yes, I would suspect that a low count gun would have a better chance of not going down unexpectedly but Murphey's law applies to all of us. YMMV

[JRV]

I buy carry ammo in bulk and shoot certain standards periodically with carry ammo in carry guns. Unless I am changing loads and shooting to confirm POA/POI or reliability, those guns get a very limited regimen of ammo.

642 gets a Wizard Drill cold (to me, cold means a week without livefire) once per month with carry load. 5x5 cold once per quarter with carry load. That puts me through a box of carry ammo every quarter. Speedloaders get cleaned out with cotton swabs and alcohol after the 5x5 trip. Yearly detail strip and inspection with cleaning and very light, spare application of lithium grease to friction points.

Commander gets the Gabe White Standards and The Test cold once per month using carry ammo and mags. Again, 5x5 once per quarter. I go through probably two boxes of carry ammo per quarter. I respring or replace carry mags annually. Recoil spring and firing pin spring replaced every six months, full detail strip and inspection annually.

Neither gets a ton of rounds of practice ammo, maybe... 50 per month? The odd Dot Torture or reps of variations of the Test (e.g. D5R5 Test).

Lots of dry fire with snap caps, and a couple matches from their respective carry setups per year with each.

I won't abuse carry guns like my match guns, and I won't let them sit around most of the year like my hunting pistols.

[Rex G]

In the Eighties, I had three N-Frame .41 Mag revolvers, and believe that I did most of my training with the stainless Model 657, while I mostly carried one Model 58 on and off the clock, and kept the prettier Model 58 unfired, or fired it very little. Notably, my first Model 58 had been a San Antonio PD duty gun before I bought it as surplus, and was already very-high-round count, so I wanted to spare it too much further pounding.

In the 1990-1991 time period, I used a Stainless Commander for duty, personal carry, and training. When it started becoming ammo-finicky, a P220 took its place, and was my only handgun for duty, peronal carry, and training.

I think I first established my pair-and-a-spare in the Nineties, with revolvers. The GP100, which had been my sole duty and usual personal-time weapon, 1993-1995, became the normal training weapon, due to its sturdier frame and barrel, while I carried an S&W Model 19 during most personal time, and a stainless Model 66 while in uniform. The GP100 remained an occasional personal-carry weapon, and I still brought it along, in a case or bag, while on duty, so it was not a training-only weapon.

In 1997, I entered my second 1911 phase, for duty and personal carry. One Kimber for duty and personal-time carry, one Kimber for training, and one high-polished blue Colt Government for dressy occasions; made sense to me, 1997 to 2002. The training Kimber would choke about once every 400 to 500 rounds; therefore its training-gun status. All were fired at the annual qual, a requirement for any handgun I carried, on or off the clock. Each had been fired 1500+ times, when new, to prove itself, my standard at that time, for all new 1911 pistols.

About mid-way though that 1911 phase, my Les Baer TRS became the personal-time-carry gun. When I finally decided that the mandated duty holster was just too unsuited to consistently get a consistently good firing grip, I quickly transitioned to two G22 pistols, in 2002, and established one for duty, and one for training. I reverted to revolvers for most personal-time carry, though I worked a G29 into the personal-time carry ensemble. (I eventually decided the larger-framed Glock was just a bit too big for my hand.)

I transitioned to a P229R DAK in 2004, after being frustrated with not shooting Glocks accurately enough, but duty and high-round-count training were with the same weapon, while revolvers remained my usual personal-time carry weapons. In 2006 or 2007, I added a non-railed P229, which gradually became a little-fired personal-time carry gun. High-round-count training eventually became the exclusive job of my K-Frame .22 LR Model 17-4, due to muzzle flip becoming too much for my aging right wrist, whether shooting right-handed, or two-handed lefty.

In 2015, I transitioned to 9mm Glocks for duty and personal carry, as soon as my chief OK’ed 9mm as an alternative duty cartridge. This ended any pattern of keeping one weapon with a low round count, as i tried to spread the love about evenly, among two G17 and two G19 pistols.

By late 2017, high-round count live-fire training became a thing of the past. Dry fire is now my friend, and, of course, there is the .22 LR Model 17-4.

So, yes, I have tended to have separate weapons for duty/carry, and training, at times, but not at other times.

[OlongJohnson]

LSP972 (RIP) made a good point.

He always took care to ensure whatever gun was in his holster had been thoroughly cleaned between the last time it was shot and putting it in the holster. That ensured that if there was ever a question as to whether he had shot it in an incident, it could be immediately resolved by simple inspection of the gun. It saved him significant trouble at least once.

[blues]

LSP972 (RIP) made a good point.

He always took care to ensure whatever gun was in his holster had been thoroughly cleaned between the last time it was shot and putting it in the holster. That ensured that if there was ever a question as to whether he had shot it in an incident, it could be immediately resolved by simple inspection of the gun. It saved him significant trouble at least once.

Not popular around here but I clean my guns after every range session. Period. (Some things are just too deeply ingrained for me to change now.)

[Cypher]

LSP972 (RIP) made a good point.

He always took care to ensure whatever gun was in his holster had been thoroughly cleaned between the last time it was shot and putting it in the holster. That ensured that if there was ever a question as to whether he had shot it in an incident, it could be immediately resolved by simple inspection of the gun. It saved him significant trouble at least once.


Am I not seeing a post? I looked through this whole thread and I don't see the post you're referencing.

[OlongJohnson]

I was talking about another thread. LSP972 passed away awhile ago, but his contributions are still here in his old posts. I'd have to dig to find that one.

[RevolverRob]

When I have a dedicated double gun - I will usually want to shoot at least 4-5 boxes of carry ammo through the gun. And then I'll shoot my carry ammo out of the gun every range trip. In fact it's the first and last thing I do. First drill I shoot is to take the carry gun out and fire a few sets of controlled pairs at 10-yards followed by failure to stop drills to empty the mag.

Then, I set aside the carry gun, until the end and use my spare mag of carry ammo to shoot groups at 25-yards. Once satisfied, I reload my mags, reload the gun, and holster it up.

In this way, I typically shoot ~30 rounds through my carry guns at a range session (unless it's single stack, then I guess it's more 20-25).

[Trooper224]

When I was on the job, my carry gun was shot twice a year during non-issue qualification. That was enough to assure me it was functional. Now, the EDC gets fired once a year during my retirement qual. Granted, anything used for EDC has around 2k rounds fired through it before it moves into that role. During that time, any manufacturing defects should evidence themselves.

[Gio]

My duty/carry 19M sees about 200 rounds / year from quals and another ~500 or so rounds per year on drills on the days I shoot it for quals. I replace all the springs in it every 3 years and keep it clean.

My training 19M gets about 2,000-3,000 per year in drills and quals. I replace all the springs in it on an annual basis along with my competition guns.

My G34 match gun gets about 2000-3000 per year from matches plus a few runs here and there on drills in practice to stay fresh on it.

My G34 practice gun gets about 10,000 per year.

[10mmfanboy]

I've had duplicate guns before and still do. It seemed logical to me to have a fresh gun as a carry gun and a specific gun for practice. Until I realized that even though I have them set up the same way they are still different enough whether it be trigger feel or poi that I abandoned that idea and just use my pistols. I like carrying the gun I sweat on and cut my hands on and whatever else happened while shooting it.

I just do my 1,000 round break in with no cleaning or re-lubing. Springs are changed regularly and I clean my guns every time I shoot them and inspect them for any odd signs of wearing or part breakage. Overall I just feel more confident with the guns I shoot the most.

[revchuck38]

10mmfanboy - FWIW, the biggest difference between my carry gun and my training gun is that the training gun has a nicer trigger due to all the additional rounds. :)

[10mmfanboy]

revchuck38 LOL exactly! Maybe I'm just picky or something idk but everything feels slightly different to me. Even the mag release feels stiffer and I flub it once in a while even though I'm doing everything the same. Most pistols these days will likely outlast me anyways. If it's my day to die because I am using a high round count gun then it's probably just my day to die.

[AKDoug]

revchuck38 LOL exactly! Maybe I'm just picky or something idk but everything feels slightly different to me. Even the mag release feels stiffer and I flub it once in a while even though I'm doing everything the same. Most pistols these days will likely outlast me anyways. If it's my day to die because I am using a high round count gun then it's probably just my day to die.

I've carried, competed, and practiced with the same G19 for five years. Doesn't bother me a bit. I just recently changed the lower to a MR918 lower, but used all the old G-19 parts. I'm now treating it the same. I have a few pistols in my safe, but they are rarely shot. I'm the worst guy ever for gun companies, I rarely buy guns at all. The ammo companies love me, though.

[03RN]

Whatever gun I'm carrying is my most shot gun. I have vetted guns as backup.

[L-2]

I might carry any one (or two) of my handguns at any time or day as I try to stay proficient/familiar with any of them.

I tend to carry my Glocks, however, and in the last few years, sold off some of my inventory and no longer have duplicate models. These weren't completely identical as I had Gen3, Gen4, and Gen5 Glocks of various models.

Here are my most commonly carried Glocks as of today, all are 9mm if you're not familiar with the models:

G26Gen3: 15,900 rounds
G19Gen5: 18,600 rounds
G17Gen5: 14,270 rounds

Right or wrong, today I carried three different handguns (not at the same time) as I went out three times:
Glock 26 Gen3 (9mm)(15,900 as already stated above)
SIG P226R (9mm)(15,400 rounds)
Glock 30SF (.45ACP)(12,200 rounds)

I also had a shotgun or an AR15 pistol in the automobiles depending on what I was driving each time I went out today.
I don't consider myself "paranoid"; I just feel both comfortable and "ready".

[GAP]

Why not treat it like a service weapon? For example, you could do something like we feds did and shoot it quarterly for a minimum of say, 50 or 60 rounds.

That wouldn't be taxing on the firearm and would give you an idea if anything needed addressing.

This is pretty much what I do. My Glocks run steel ammo fine, so i have a practice copy of my carry pistol.

My carry pistol will go through a box of 50 of Federal HST 147gr ~every couple of months.

In fact, I do the same thing with my home defense AR and range AR..

[miller_man]

Competition gun/practice gun - p-0-9 - 15k+ (need another back up comp gun)
Carry gun p-07 - 3,600-3,700. Only shoot at training classes or occasional range day. Will be replacing some springs at 5k.
Pocket carry g43 - 1060~ Have always meant to buy another 43 for back up.

To me, under 5-7k is still low(er) round count but more than vetted.

[Darth_Uno]

Without boring you with the details I have 2 19's and 2 17's, all Gen 3 and in various configurations. They all get shot and carried roughly equally, as the mood hits me. The oldest one, a 19 that's mostly stock, has probably north of 12,000 rounds. Even if they all had that much, that's still not a whole lot so I don't see the need to favor one over the other.

I can see where someone would think that, like a car, every time you use it you get just a smidge closer to wearing something out to the point of failure. But for me, the more I shoot it without failures, the more confident I am in it. Just my 2 pesos.

[JAH 3rd]

I went to the range today with my primary EDC, the HK P2000 9mm pistol. I have vetted this pistol and feel confident in its function and my accuracy with it. I shot a total of 66 rounds of HST 147 grain JHP. I can carry the 13 round magazine here. So it was 5 magazines plus the chambered round. Function was one hundred percent.

Up next was my parkerized Dan Wesson A2. I shot 199 rounds of Winchester 230 grain fmj. Again one hundred percent function. This pistol is new with a total of 549 rounds through it. The Winchester fmj ammo has been used almost exclusively, but 100 rounds of Remington Golden Saber 230 jhp has successfully been sent down range too. I will try some HST 230 grain jhp at some time in the near future.

[pangloss]

I finally got set up with true duplicate Gen5 G19s, so I've been thinking some about this topic. My older pistol has ~5,000 rounds through it. The new one has 550. My plan is to shoot the new one until ~1000 rounds and then twice yearly when I replace my carry ammo. The old pistol will become a dedicated range gun.

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