How Often Do You Replace Carry Ammo?

[BHopkins]

As the thread title says, how often do you shoot and replace the defense ammunition, that you use in your carry and/or home defense firearms? This question is based upon the assumption that you use different ammunition for practice shooting, than you do when your firearms are at the ready, for defense purposes.

I don't carry on my body that frequently, so the ammo in my carry pistol isn't exposed to a lot of sweat. And I live in a fairly dry climate. Even after a couple years, except for a very slight loss of shine on the bullets, there is no sign of corrosion. However, the ammo in my carry pistol is exposed to a lot of temperature change, so the gunpowder is not being kept at ideal conditions.

So how often should one use the defense ammo for practice, and buy new defense ammo?

 

[SubieRubyRoo]

As the thread title says, how often do you shoot and replace the defense ammunition, that you use in your carry and/or home defense firearms? This question is based upon the assumption that you use different ammunition for practice shooting, than you do when your firearms are at the ready, for defense purposes.

I don't carry on my body that frequently, so the ammo in my carry pistol isn't exposed to a lot of sweat. And I live in a fairly dry climate. Even after a couple years, except for a very slight loss of shine on the bullets, there is no sign of corrosion. However, the ammo in my carry pistol is exposed to a lot of temperature change, so the gunpowder is not being kept at ideal conditions.

So how often should one use the defense ammo for practice, and buy new defense ammo?

Every other trip to the range, use the carry ammo for range use. Then replace. No waste!

 

[Astro14]

Depends how you carry, as mentioned, the moisture exposure can vary widely, but I would go no longer than six months.

 

[burbguy82]

I see this being more dependant on climate and bodily fluid stimulus than most anything else, provided you are packing quality ammo made for defensive use.......

A while back, a friend of mine had been carrying a glock 26, full of steel case range ammo. it was the ammo he selected to practice with on a previous range day. When he decided to practice with the same gun the next time, there was a failure to extract on the 2nd or third round........a generous amount of rust had formed on the cases....obviously not good. And this was about a month or so of storage and everyday carry. Sweat i think was the culprit.

Of course he was scolded, and learned a lesson.

Many true high quality rounds are nickel plated, or coated with something to prevent corrosion. Of course this increases longevity.

I have torture tested different ammo, by soaking in WD40 for months, salt water, etc, any dumb thing you can imagine, and the nickel plated rounds are generally flawless, such as HST or Underwood.

All that being said, I carry for a year shoot it, and replenish. Usually in January....after almost 1 year:

 

[TheOilWizard]

I replace carry ammo around 2-3 years. No rush. Stored inside the house? The ammo will outlive me.

 

[Hall]

so the ammo in my carry pistol isn't exposed to a lot of sweat

Is exposure to sweat really a thing ? You've got a holster, then the grip, then the magazine, all in between your body and the ammo.

steel case range ammo

Easy solution: Avoid steel ammo In all seriousness, what's the point of it ? Only thing I can think of is lower cost but at the two places I primarily get mine, it's only $0.50 to $1 cheaper for a 50-round box. Another reason I don't touch it is a friend of mine can't reload (or won't) steel casings.

 

[KJSmith]

I carried a Kimber Ultra .45 for several years.
It was loaded with Federal HST's.

The round in the chamber would go bad/would not fire in under a year.
The rounds in the magazine would still be good.
On that gun, I went 6 months.

On the gun I carry now, I go one year.

 

[wwillson]

The round in the chamber would go bad/would not fire in under a year.

That's surprising to me. What do you attribute the bad round to?

 

[dubber09]

One year sounds right. Afterall, your life is depending on it.
Also, if you carry with loaded chamber and unload often, rotate and inspect top round in magazine that goes into chamber when loading, if you don't you may end up with a bullet set back into case after many load/unload cycles thus risking extreme pressure on firing it that can potentially cause catastrophic gun failure.

 

[TheOilWizard]

That's surprising to me. What do you attribute the bad round to?

Agreed... Seemed odd to me, but suspected something else was going on.

 

[JavierH19]

One year sounds right. Afterall, your life is depending on it.
Also, if you carry with loaded chamber and unload often, rotate and inspect top round in magazine that goes into chamber when loading, if you don't you may end up with a bullet set back into case after many load/unload cycles thus risking extreme pressure on firing it that can potentially cause catastrophic gun failure.

Seems logical in theory but how often does this happen? It'd need to have a quite a lot of wear on the rim for this to happen wouldn't it. Enough to where the eye could see it when handling the round.

 

[mr_boring]

At a minimum, once a year. I don't mind popping it off more often than that. For my carry, I can load it for less than the price of a pizza or even a fast food burger meal. My Ticondas aren't THAT precious.

When ammo is scarce, I use less. It hasn't been scarce in a while. If I go the once a year route, I've got a lifetime supply. A 50 count box of premium ammo can be had for under 40 bucks (at least in 9mm)

 

[dubber09]

Most people chamber a round, carry, unload mag and then chamber and put loose round back in mag.
With many cycles like that when the same top round goes into chamber its bullet hits feed ramp time after another and gets pushed into case. Ammo which is taper crimped is susceptible, so 9mm, .40s&w and 10mm, .45acp and so on. You'll never know it happened until either you unload chamber and see the round or you shoot it and gun blows up.

 

[TheOilWizard]

Most people chamber a round, carry, unload mag and then chamber and put loose round back in mag.
With many cycles like that when the same top round goes into chamber its bullet hits feed ramp time after another and gets pushed into case. Ammo which is taper crimped is susceptible, so 9mm, .40s&w and 10mm, .45acp and so on. You'll never know it happened until either you unload chamber and see the round or you shoot it gun blows up.

Maybe in Canada? I rarely remove a round from the chamber unless I need to clean the pistol. Most people I know would say the same.

 

[dubber09]

Maybe in Canada? I rarely remove a round from the chamber unless I need to clean the pistol. Most people I know would say the same.

In short, Canadians don't carry unless they are cops, some security or criminals. I'm neither, just a sports shooter.
I cannot imagine not loading/unloading a gun at least once a day anyway.

 

[Sumboodie]

I haven't bought ammo since it got expensive around 2008.

 

[KJSmith]

That's surprising to me. What do you attribute the bad round to?

Still have no clue.
It happened at least twice, maybe 3 times.
The first time I considered it a fluke.
I would decide it was time to change the ammo out, try to fire it and nothing
The ejected round would always have a good primer strike.

At the time, I was still working.
The gun would ride to work and get locked in the console vault for the day.
Usually only worn on weekends...IWB.

You would think it would affect all the rounds, not just the chambered round.
I agree, strange.

Now that I'm retired, I carry an EDCX9 OWB everyday with no issues.

 

[KJSmith]

Maybe in Canada? I rarely remove a round from the chamber unless I need to clean the pistol. Most people I know would say the same.

I remove the chambered round once a month at the range.
After range time, I make sure the round that was chambered goes back in the chamber.

Do you not use your edc at the range?

 

[KJSmith]

I haven't bought ammo since it got expensive around 2008.

I built up a good stockpile then also.
Did it again this year.

9mm is up $100.00 a case since 2008.

 

[burbguy82]

Easy solution: Avoid steel ammo In all seriousness, what's the point of it ? Only thing I can think of is lower cost but at the two places I primarily get mine, it's only $0.50 to $1 cheaper for a 50-round box. Another reason I don't touch it is a friend of mine can't reload (or won't) steel casings.

Sure. I do not advise using steel case ammo as an everyday carry, unless you plan on shooting frequently.

Many guns are not capable of shooting steel case, under adverse conditions such as what i noted above such as rust. With one acception to the Springfield XD, which I had ran some nasty stuff through, with no issue. I think it has to do with the recoil spring and mauser type extractor. Much stronger than a Glock style.

What is the point? It used to be obscenely cheap, good practice ammo. Now the price is not as cheap, but still cheaper than brass generally.

Famed rifles such as the Kalashnikov are normally unaffected by some rust on steel cased ammo, but can reliably perform with ammo that would kill most guns. I know this with 100% certainty.