Enough to fill your mags?
It's carry ammo. Shouldn't really be any reason to be going through it, and it doesn't "go bad" sitting in the mags.
Enough to fill your mags?
It's carry ammo. Shouldn't really be any reason to be going through it, and it doesn't "go bad" sitting in the mags.
"Are you ready? Okay. Let's roll."- Last words of Todd Beamer
None of the stuff I've cycled has ever failed to fire.Originally Posted by TGS
Nevertheless, some people -- among them, Tom Givens and the manufacturers -- still advise cycling the carried ammo every six months or so due to it being exposed to temperature variations, sweat, etc.
Last edited by ssb; 10-27-2018 at 04:26 PM.
You sweat through your gun and magazines onto the ammo?
Damn. Things must be tough down there!
Regardless of season, my gun and ammo generally stays the same temperature since it's carried against my body.
"Are you ready? Okay. Let's roll."- Last words of Todd Beamer
So basically, cloudy, warm and humid with a chance of rain.
Last edited by blues; 10-27-2018 at 04:56 PM.
There's nothing civil about this war.
Ok.
But I guess they might teach things differently at FLETC.
I view rotating carry ammo as a luxury I have fired 20+ year old boxes of 9mm and .45 from my Grandfather's flooded basement without issue. Granted I shot them all with caution in mind.
As to the OP's question, how long do you want to keep it for and why? 1000 rounds properly stored with lets say two 15 round mags loaded every year for carry will last you a few years...
(that assumes you only fired 30 rounds a year or use a similar practice ammo)
Now if you want to hold out against the zombie hoard just go ahead and rent a storage locker and fill it
Last edited by Artemas2; 10-27-2018 at 05:34 PM.
I've started typing responses about a half dozen times to this question. In an attempt to be helpful and not speculative or anecdotal, I deleted them all. But I do think some of my thoughts related to this are of value, so here goes.
Currently, I typically sideline 1 - 2 rounds a month of Gold Dot 124gr +P. Either due to dryfire or live fire. I will chamber a round twice. When it comes out of the chamber after that, it ends up in my range bag or back pocket. Over the years, I have lost count of how many times a round has ended up in the washing machine. Probably several dozen (don't judge, I should know better). Not one has failed to fire after going through the wash cycle. Last year, I was involved in a down and dirty water fight with the kids. Soaked gun and mag thoroughly, mag fired fine a week later. I have soaked GDHP in penetrating oil for several days and ran them over the chrono with no loss in velocity. Certainly a small sample and not scientific but it developed my confidence in the line. In other words, I'm not concearned with perspiration or contamination from lube. When I verify function in a gun, I will shoot SHO, WHO, both from a full mag and a mag with 1-2 rounds in it. This is to verify mag spring tension, in both fully compressed and uncompressed. This can affect slide velocity and therefore reliability. My thinking (please correct me if I'm wrong) is that a very challenging condition for proper cycling would be a dirty gun, worn mag spring, last or second to last round in mag, fired off hand only. This may be why +P is often suggested.
Once I have verified the combo works, I don't see the need to cycle through it outside of regular dryfire and live fire.
Taking a break from social media.
@ssb, I would say that depends on how often you have to cycle out your carry ammo. If I use myself as an example I unfortunately have to cycle my ammo quite frequently. I have a 15 y/o, 6 y/o and 5 month old. Despite everything being in a locked container when it is not on my body everything gets unloaded. So I cycle through a fair amount of ammo because I can't bring myself to leave a loaded gun lying about, (regardless of whether it's in a lock box). So between this and my unwillingness to chamber a round more than 3 times it adds up. The one pro to all of this is that I shoot a decent amount of my carry ammo and know exactly how it shoots in all of my guns obvious con of going through more than I'd like and is kind of a downer.
My .02 would be to look at how frequent you cycle through your ammo and figure out what a year or two would calculate to. It's always nice to be able to avoid market fluctuations with ammo or component costs. To give you an idea I load and unload my gun one time each per day in a designated area with a sold backstop. I chamber a round no more than 3 times. At that rate times the number of days per year I run through about 250-350 rounds per year. Some times a little more/less. I personally keep no less that 500 rounds of defensive ammo in all the calibers I own. Typically its more in the 1-2K range. If I see that I am down to 500 I will usually order a case from Kieslers Police Supply, Bone Frog or the like. If my particular flavor is on sale I will suck it up and snag extra when I can. If you don't want to grab it all at once just swing by the shop and buy 2 boxes at a time once every week or two. One thing to think about is I prefer to have two different lots or types of ammo if possible, just in case one lot turns out to be a shit show. Everyone produces garbage every now and then.
Last edited by Mike C; 10-27-2018 at 07:02 PM.
Which brings its own set of problems such as being tied to the storage locker because you'll never be able to transport all that in the middle of a Zombie ApocalypseNow if you want to hold out against the zombie hoard just go ahead and rent a storage locker and fill it
I usually don't keep more than a half dozen, maybe a dozen, or so boxes of carry ammo around. Rarely use it, other than to sight in a new gun, or verify sights and functioning, and do that periodically primarily with rounds collected after cycling through carry guns a few times. Shelf life does appear to be "a long time". N=1, but I found an ammo can in the back of a storage cabinet in my garage a few months ago. Apparently, I put it there by mistake the last time we moved (30+ years ago). There were several boxes of surplus .45 hardball, head stamped WCC 1972, and a bag of practice reloads in the same brass, so a few years younger. The garage is not insulated, so is subjected to temperature and humidity extremes in the southeast. At over 45 years old, it all ran through a 1911 (itself about 40 years old) without issue. OT, but seems I recall that surplus ammo was about $5.00 a box back then.
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