Critical Duty as first round (chamber) due to crimp preventing bullet setback?

[Tabasco]

In a situation where you have to clear your carry gun frequently and do not wish to go through boxes of premium ammo rotating you chambered rounds into the training box:

Hornady Critical Duty is crimped to prevent bullet setback in autos,is it an OK idea to have the first round be CD with the rest in the mag your preferred defense load? Is this not a good idea? Does the crimp actually work for it's intended purpose? Why don't other premium manufacturers crimp their loads?

[Luke]

I've seen a few critical duty set back after MULTIPLE chambering. It takes a while to get set back though. Have you taken one of your duty rounds and repeatedly chambered it checking along the way for set back?

[JCS]

I'm going to do a test this weekend on a few different carry Amos to see if bullet setback is real or a myth. One is critical duty so I will report back.


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[spinmove_]

Bullet setback is indeed real and I've had it happen with several carry loads that are on "The List". Keep an eye on that first round chambered and don't let it start setting too far back.

[pablo]

The crimp in Hornady's Critical duty is very slight, IMO it's a marketing gimmick. Straight walled pistol cartridges headspace off of the case lip, there's no getting around that and it limits the amount of roll crimp into a cannelure that can be used. A tamper crimp is more effective without the cannelure, this is why no one else a bullet with a cannelure in a straight wall pistol cartridge. 2012-13 Hornady put out a lot of bad 45acp Ciritical Duty that had set back issues, their crimp wasn't good enough to overcome insufficient case neck tension and lousy QA/QC.

Bullet setback isn't a myth, it's not the 999 (or however many) times you get away with rechambering a round, it's the one time you don't that matters. It's more common in some calibers, like .357 Sig, and generally not an issue in 9mm.

[CS Tactical]

My CD has had setback problems after being chambered a few times (not an exact count) and I was actually surprised. My buddy and I have discussed this previously and he measured the OAL of a Ranger-T 124gr +P after being chambered 20 times in his Glock 19 and there was no measurable difference IIRC.

[Josh Runkle]

I just take that round out of rotation and put it in a small ziplock bag that ends up being full of mixed ammo of various types and calibers. When I'm at the range, those rounds get shot as practice ammo.

[RevolverRob]

I just take that round out of rotation and put it in a small ziplock bag that ends up being full of mixed ammo of various types and calibers. When I'm at the range, those rounds get shot as practice ammo.

This has been my MO as well.

I will say, frequent administrative handling is a place where the revolver shines as a carry weapon.

[HCM]

In a situation where you have to clear your carry gun frequently and do not wish to go through boxes of premium ammo rotating you chambered rounds into the training box:

Hornady Critical Duty is crimped to prevent bullet setback in autos,is it an OK idea to have the first round be CD with the rest in the mag your preferred defense load? Is this not a good idea? Does the crimp actually work for it's intended purpose? Why don't other premium manufacturers crimp their loads?

Bullet set back is not the only issue with repeatedly chambering the same round. You can also cause damage to the primer. Repeated impacts can knock the anvil in the primer cup out of place, resulting in a dead primer and failure to fire.

You are better off locking your carry gun up in a lock box as-is or simply buying your carry ammo in bulk, or at least 50 round boxes.

[Tamara]

I'm going to do a test this weekend on a few different carry Amos to see if bullet setback is real or a myth.

Okay, if you insist.

But will you trust us on gravity? You don't have to try jumping off different height roofs to check that one yourself.