Dedicated Carry Gun with a "Low Round Count"

[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.