Check Your Carry Ammo

[Kanye Wyoming]

How often does everyone here shoot through their carry ammo?

ETA: If this is some how unclear. Is it once a year? Once every two years? What’s considered the best practice?

I’m probably at the other extreme - 2 or 3 months on average.

[Amp]

How often does everyone here shoot through their carry ammo?

ETA: If this is some how unclear. Is it once a year? Once every two years? What’s considered the best practice?

Twice a year, usually on January 1 and July 4.

[1Rangemaster]

How often does everyone here shoot through their carry ammo?

ETA: If this is some how unclear. Is it once a year? Once every two years? What’s considered the best practice?

I mentioned earlier that my carry loads are shot every 6 months. I’ll be a bit more specific, and this not set in stone. The loaded magazine that has been in the gun is shot, usually in a qual or evaluation. Mid year this year, for example, I shot the Bakersfield Qual with my 19MOS, ACRO and Hornady 135 +P “Duty”. I can see going to an annual schedule when retired.
After shooting the actual carry magazine, I’ll recharge the next carry mag from my reload mag. I run two mags for 6 months, then switch to a second set. So ammo is completely rotated every year, and mags twice through the year. If there were any issues-and there haven’t been- I’d isolate and fix.
Decades ago, I was carrying Speer 9mm carry loads and kept chambering the same round over and over. That eventually loosened the projectile- no bueno!
I’m not quite as detailed as say, Claude Werner, who marks his cases with a marker. 4 marks and the round is rotated out. I do look carefully when charging the mag, inspect the rounds every couple of months and try to rotate the top one.
Edit to add: no set date. My last qual this year was 12/9 with the Hornady load.
LE in my experience will go anywhere from quarterly to annual to “indefinite”…

[ST911]

Pi Sr doing other things, Pi Jr = Defiant Munitions. Corbon as anyone knew it is no more. A few old-Corbon employees were/are members here. Hard primers and no-gos in strikers guns was not uncommon for a period of time as they struggled with components towards the end.

Tragic, but normal. Mixed calibers on range tables results in all kinds of stoppage clearance drills. Loose training rounds always go home or hit the street on duty and troop doesn't know or care about the difference. Give some troops 50 rounds for their 46 round gun, the other four will reappear somewhere 10 years and some caliber or manufacturer switches later. Troops will help each other out with a spare round, whether its the right one or not. People are people, but some is mitigated in training, range management, and supervision.

[Elwin]

I burn through my three carry mags every November, which is also when I replace batteries and check on trauma medical supplies (except this year because I’m in the middle of a transition to new carry guns anyway). But I also replace the chambered and rechambered rounds as needed - as soon as there’s noticeable wear on them, the go in a separate box for range use and two fresh bullets replace them. How often this happens depends on how often I’m having to unload and load the carry gun instead of doing practice with a dedicated trainer.

I have mags that are stored empty and some that are stored loaded in a “go bag” ish thing. Every year, the carry mags get run through the gun and once emptied go into empty storage. Stored loaded mags from bag become new carry spare mags (the mag in the gun is always fresh from empty storage). Mags that were in empty storage get loaded and go in the bag.

Probably more complicated than necessary but it works for me and provides a gradual increase in the number of HSTs through the carry gun without (in my view) unnecessarily depleting stock. It also lets mags “rest” empty which may or may not matter.

[FNFAN]

Decades ago, I was carrying Speer 9mm carry loads and kept chambering the same round over and over. That eventually loosened the projectile- no bueno!
I’m not quite as detailed as say, Claude Werner, who marks his cases with a marker. 4 marks and the round is rotated out. I do look carefully when charging the mag, inspect the rounds every couple of months and try to rotate the top one.

I used a Sharpie on the case head of the round that had been chambered with the .40's we were issued. Once chambered twice they would be relegated to magazine #3. I also did the "plunk" test on all new issued duty ammo and never found an issue with the Gold Dot we used. I replaced all ammo if I had been working out in the rain multiple times or for extended periods. In retirement I'll replace carry loads on each New Year.

[fatdog]

Empty all carry mags spring and fall, no specific date, shoot the ammo out. Then clean the carry gun since the identical practice gun has seen all rounds that went down range in the interim.

[Caballoflaco]

This is not the first time I have heard of such issues. Perhaps I need to accelerate my switch to something else. I recently bought a bunch of Speer Gold Dot 124 gr. +P.

Are those the corbon solid copper projectiles or regular 115gr jhps? Because iirc the 115 jhps were not-bonded, driven too fast and tended to explode and under-penetrate. I stopped using them in the early 2000’s after I had a bullet come completely apart after traveling through a not large rabbit.

[spence]

How often does everyone here shoot through their carry ammo?

ETA: If this is some how unclear. Is it once a year? Once every two years? What’s considered the best practice?

I adopted Claude Werner’s approach. Each time the chambered round comes out, it gets a Sharpie mark. Four marks and it goes to the bottom of the mag. When the whole mag has been chambered four times, it’s time for fresh ammo. For me? That would mean every six to twelve months. I don’t carry a reload on me, so that’s not an issue, though I do have one in my travel bag, but that’s more if I happen to shoot or manage to damage a round or two while out of town to bring the gun back to capacity.

[BillSWPA]

Are those the corbon solid copper projectiles or regular 115gr jhps? Because iirc the 115 jhps were not-bonded, driven too fast and tended to explode and under-penetrate. I stopped using them in the early 2000’s after I had a bullet come completely apart after traveling through a not large rabbit.

Regular 115 gr. JHP. I already replaced the ammo in the gun that is being carried today, and will replace the ammo in most other guns loaded with Cor-Bon today.