re-chambering carry ammo after dry fire

[WobblyPossum]

I also use the Claude Werner method of marking the cartridges with a sharpie. I have separate carry and training guns and carry two spare magazines so I've never actually come close to rechambering the same carry rounds four times before I shoot them off and cycle the ammo once a year. By the time I'm ready to shoot off the ammo I've carried for the past year, I have maybe a mag and a half of rounds that have one mark on them.

[Nephrology]

Do you still carry HST? If not, is there a reason why you switched? The only issue I have with it, is its super hard to find on the shelves. Seems to always be out of stock.

sgammo.com and bonefroggunclub.com routinely stock HST for very reasonable prices.

[TiroFijo]

Lots of good advise.

I would like to add that (for pistols, where primer is not an issue) depends on:

- Feeding profile/caliber. Some guns in some calibers are "hit" the ogive harder against the ramp than others while loading.
- Crimp. Normally quality defensive ammo has more than adecuate crimp for several loads from the mag, but it can vary from lot to lot. Trust but verify.

[voodoo_man]

Do you still carry HST? If not, is there a reason why you switched? The only issue I have with it, is its super hard to find on the shelves. Seems to always be out of stock.

In my off duty mag I carry various rounds, one of which is an HST.

My dept switched from HST to a winchester LE-specific round (though you can buy it anywhere), probably because of $$.

[Kyle Reese]

sgammo.com and bonefroggunclub.com routinely stock HST for very reasonable prices.

Yup. 50 round boxes of HST in 9x19 are $17.75. Cheap enough to shoot a box on a regular basis.

Sent from my VS995 using Tapatalk

[critter]

Instituted something similar back in the 90's when I had a Corbon .40 set waaaaay back. Possibly back far enough to have a severe mishap had I actually fired the weapon. It didn't happen gradually (noticeably anyway). Just looked fine one day, and was driven back into the casing the next. Freaked me right on out. I had reloaded that same cartridge many times. I guess it just loosened up and gave up the ghost. I haven't been marking them, but have swapped them out regularly.

I hadn't heard of screwing up the primers until reading this thread. I may have to be a little more deliberately diligent with my methodology moving forward, you know, Murphy and all.

[JustOneGun]

I have not seen a problem with my GD's in Glock's. But some platforms do cause problems and it's a, "Thing"

[DocGKR]

The problems with repeatedly chambering rounds has also been noted in OCONUS combat the past decade and a half. Below is a comment written by a highly skilled combat veteran regarding his experience fighting OCONUS with ammo that had been re-chambered:

“My first shooting in Iraq I threw my M4A1 on semi and ATTEMPTED to fire a controlled pair (first round functioned striking the threat and the second round did not function). I then transitioned to my secondary (Glock 19 shooting ball) and had a failure to fire on my first round....I was Waaaaaay behind the power curve at this point. At this point I was contemplating all of my various bad life decisions which had lead me to that point in my life and grabbed an M240B and solved the problem. I AM VERY LUCKY TO STILL BE UPRIGHT AND BREATHING TODAY....the cause of these malfunctions you ask? Repeated chamberings of the same ammo. I made a decision that day that my life was more important than following archaic rules written by those who sit behind desks and started shitcanning rounds after I was forced to clear weapons on U.S. Military installations. The .gov can fuckin bill me.”

[GyroF-16]

The problems with repeatedly chambering rounds has also been noted in OCONUS combat the past decade and a half. Below is a comment written by a highly skilled combat veteran regarding his experience fighting OCONUS with ammo that had been re-chambered:

Okay- I was about to comment about measuring rounds with a caliper and not seeing any measurable setback, so no worries...
Then I read this and... wow. A situation I never want to be in, especially since my secondary weapon is a SF pen. Guess I’ll be tracking chambered rounds now.

[HCM]

In 2011, a Gwinnett county Georgia LEO had a round fail to fire during a use of force incident as a result of repeatedly cycling and loading the same round over and over. An LE teletype was sent out regarding the incident.

You can read the teletype here: http://www.bluesheepdog.com/2012/03/...ilure-warning/

Gwinnett County Sheriff’s Department
Training Bulletin
January 1, 2012

In September of 2011, a GCPD officer was involved in a situation which quickly became a use of deadly force incident. When the officer made the decision to use deadly force, the chambered round in his duty pistol did not fire. Fortunately, the officer used good tactics, remembered his training and cleared the malfunction, successfully ending the encounter.

The misfired round, which had a full firing pin strike, was collected and was later sent to the manufacturer for analysis. Their analysis showed the following:

“…..the cause of the misfire was determined to be from the primer mix being knocked out of the primer when the round was cycled through the firearm multiple times.”

GCPD also sent an additional 2000 rounds of the Winchester 9mm duty ammunition to the manufacturer. All 2000 rounds were successfully fired.

In discussions with the officer, we discovered that since he has small children at home, he unloads his duty weapon daily. His routine is to eject the chambered round to store the weapon. Prior to returning to duty he chambers the top round in his primary magazine, then takes the previously ejected round and puts it back in the magazine. Those two rounds were repeatedly cycled and had been since duty ammunition was issued in February or March of 2011, resulting in as many as 100 chambering and extracting cycles. This caused an internal failure of the primer, not discernable by external inspection.

This advisory is to inform all sworn personnel that repeated cycling of duty rounds is to be avoided. As a reminder, when loading the weapon, load from the magazine and do not drop the round directly into the chamber. If an officer’s only method of safe home storage is to unload the weapon, the Firearms Training Unit suggests that you unload an entire magazine and rotate those rounds. In addition, you should also rotate through all three duty magazines, so that all 46 duty rounds are cycles, not just a few rounds. A more practical method of home storage is probably to use a trigger lock or a locked storage box.