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Thread: Reusing Racked Cartridge

  1. #21
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    Quote Originally Posted by Beat Trash View Post
    Pistol rounds, 3-4 and it’s done.

    Rifle rounds, after I’ve cleared the rifle and am setting it back up to stow away, I strip off a few rounds from the magazine, put the chambered round in the mag and then reload the stripped rounds. Once all the rounds in that mag have a dimple on the primer from being chambered, that mag got switched out for one of the spares loaded with virgin rounds. The magazine loaded with once chambered rounds would then be used for training eventually.
    Would not single loading by hand one round into the chamber and then slowly lowering the bolt accomplish chambering the round without dimpling the primer? The forward assist could be used. The AR'e push feed system permits this.

  2. #22
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    Quote Originally Posted by willie View Post
    Would not single loading by hand one round into the chamber and then slowly lowering the bolt accomplish chambering the round without dimpling the primer? The forward assist could be used. The AR'e push feed system permits this.
    When I was doing this, it was with my duty rifle. I’d prefer to chamber a round from the magazine. Especially if time is a factor when needing to deploy a rifle in a hurry.

    If this means I. We’d go replace duty ammunition more often, so be it. In the end, new ammunition is cheaper than my life…

  3. #23
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    Quote Originally Posted by Beat Trash View Post
    When I was doing this, it was with my duty rifle. I’d prefer to chamber a round from the magazine. Especially if time is a factor when needing to deploy a rifle in a hurry.

    If this means I. We’d go replace duty ammunition more often, so be it. In the end, new ammunition is cheaper than my life…
    Good point. The duty aspect escaped me.

  4. #24
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    Quote Originally Posted by WobblyPossum View Post
    I reached out to Speer a few years ago for their recommendation and they recommended not to re-chamber the same cartridge more than twice. I’m comfortable with three or four cycles, personally.
    This is about my comfort level. My unscientific method is that once I'm 3+ chamberings in, if the rim feels notably "rough" to the touch it goes into the range bag.

    In my earlier days of carry I chewed through a lot of defensive ammo that way because I was always dinking around with my gun so it got unloaded a lot. These days once I'm sure it's thoroughly cleaned, oiled, and chambered, it stays in the chamber for a good long while before I mess with anything other than a small quarter-rack to make sure nothing is gummed up each day before carrying.
    State Government Attorney | Beretta, Glock, CZ & S&W Fan

  5. #25
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    Quote Originally Posted by LockedBreech View Post
    These days once I'm sure it's thoroughly cleaned, oiled, and chambered, it stays in the chamber for a good long while before I mess with anything other than a small quarter-rack to make sure nothing is gummed up each day before carrying.
    I used to do that as well, however......

    Back in Nebraska, I mainly toted my G27 IWB from spring into fall....sweated all over it and didn't think a thing of it. I would periodically do chamber checks as well. Then one day, I went to eject the issued Federal Hydra-Shok from the chamber and it didn't want to budge. I finally got it open with the assistance of the edge of a workbench. Apparently my salty sweat had trickled into the chamber and had gotten a little electrolysis going, nearly gluing the mouth of the case in the chamber. First time I'd experienced any rust inside a Glock.

    Moral of the story? Make sure that the chambered cartridge moves freely when you chamber-check.
    "It's surprising how often you start wondering just how featureless a desert some people's inner landscapes must be."
    -Maple Syrup Actual

  6. #26
    I have never paid any attention to this but might start. I understand and watch for setback, but never really considered the primer.
    Usually this is only when I go to shoot and switch between carry and range ammo, and I have been carrying my spare mag down one round, I figure it might be easy to load under a closed slide, but mainly it is so I have a place to put the Barney Bullet. Consequently it gets chambered a lotta times. Maybe I will change the practice and just shoot it out of the chamber every so often.

  7. #27
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    Quote Originally Posted by BehindBlueI's View Post
    You'll get answers all over the board from never to dozens to the oft-cited but never given any scientific basis of 4. Different guns are easier or rougher on cartridges and some cartridges are more tolerant of being battered than others. What's absolutely certain is there is some number that will cause the primer compound to break free of the primer (resulting in a dud cartridge) or bullet setback (which will cause an overpressure event when discharged). Bullet setback is visible. Primer issues aren't. I'm pretty comfy with single digits as long as it passes visual inspection, but start getting a little teeth on edge once I'm out of fingers to count on. This is also based on nothing scientific.
    This is the most common sense answer here. I can't like it again. When I was carrying .40 and .357 Sig setback was a huge and obvious (eventually) issue. I don't usually unload my guns specifically going in the safe, but I do dry fire a lot, so carry guns get rounds rechambered. Like so many other things in these threads, as I frequently point out to my rookies: We live in a world where we are forced to live by adult decisions. I will feel real stupid if I get into a shootout and I have a FTF from rechambering rounds. But I won't likely feel stupid for long. I would feel more stupid if my skills were to the point that I couldn't stop an attacker because dry practice was "too expensive"....

    I am going to start using a sharpie on the case of chambered rounds when I practice. Let the IA/Homicide investigator run down THAT rabbit hole...

    pat

  8. #28
    Vending Machine Operator
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    Nov 2014
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    Quote Originally Posted by Chuck Whitlock View Post
    I used to do that as well, however......

    Back in Nebraska, I mainly toted my G27 IWB from spring into fall....sweated all over it and didn't think a thing of it. I would periodically do chamber checks as well. Then one day, I went to eject the issued Federal Hydra-Shok from the chamber and it didn't want to budge. I finally got it open with the assistance of the edge of a workbench. Apparently my salty sweat had trickled into the chamber and had gotten a little electrolysis going, nearly gluing the mouth of the case in the chamber. First time I'd experienced any rust inside a Glock.

    Moral of the story? Make sure that the chambered cartridge moves freely when you chamber-check.
    Good input, sobering. I'll make sure I'm doing an actual function check and not just a cosmetic one.
    State Government Attorney | Beretta, Glock, CZ & S&W Fan

  9. #29
    I don't keep an accurate count, but usually visually inspect the chambered round before reinserting. I do use the rotate between the chambered round and the first round in the mag routine. And I tend to ease the slide down onto the round going into the chamber. So maybe 4-6 times before I move the round to the range bag.

    Not exactly on topic, but a year or so ago, I found some 1911 ball ammo that was head stamped 1973. Every round fired and "felt" normal. It had been forgotten but "carefully" stored in a box in the garage, so subject to temp variations from around the teens to the 90s, maybe higher in that enclosed garage. Not where I normally keep ammo.

  10. #30
    Site Supporter DocGKR's Avatar
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    Did we all forget the lessons of the past two decades???

    Once a round has been chambered in a weapon, Do NOT re-chamber it for duty use. Do NOT re-chamber it again, except for training. This is CRITICAL for both rifles as well as handguns!!!

    As I have written before, a number of years ago, a large SWAT team in this area had a failure to fire from an M4 with Hornady TAP ammo during an entry--fortunately no officers were hurt and the suspect immediately threw down his weapon when the carbine went click instead of bang. After the incident was concluded, the team went to the range and expended the rest of their carbine ammo and had one additional failure to fire. This same team had 3 Hornady TAP rounds fail to fire in training a couple of years ago. When noted trainer Pat Rogers was teaching a class at a nearby agency, there were 5 failures to fire using Hornady TAP ammo. In all 10 cases, there appeared to be good primer strikes, but no rounds fired. On analysis, the ammunition had powder and checked out otherwise. It would be easy to blame the ammunition for these failures.

    However, despite what appeared to be good primer strikes, two problems were discovered. First, when accurately measured, some of the primer strikes had insufficient firing pin indentations due to faulty weapons. The failed round from the potential OIS incident had a primer strike of only .013"—the minimum firing pin indent for ignition is .017". In addition, the primers on the other rounds were discovered to have been damaged from repeated chambering. When the same cartridge is repeatedly chambered in an AR15, the floating firing pin lightly taps the primer; with repeated taps, the primer compound gets crushed, resulting in inadequate ignition characteristics--despite what appears to be a normal firing pin impression.

    The problems with repeatedly chambering rounds has also been noted in OCONUS combat the past two decades. 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.”
    Facts matter...Feelings Can Lie

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