Frequent Unloading

[BE Mike]

It has never been a good idea to frequently unload and reload the same round in a semi-auto. A buddy sent this link to me: Officer Safety: Ammunition cycling and failure to fire « The Bolo Report

 

[95wrangler]

huh, never would have thought about that. Interesting. You would think it would come up more often if it wasnt just a faulty primer. If he cycled the top two, why did the second round work but not the first. Just sounds like a bad primer to me.

 

[rugertoter]

Yeah, I usually try not to do that. I just don't like how the cartridge casings get all scratched up.

 

[Dr.Midnight]

Interesting information. I'm kind of anal to begin with, but I never have what I would consider "old" carry ammo. If I have some carry ammo that's over a year old, I usually take it to the range and practice with it. Buying a box or two of premium self defense ammo once a year isn't going to break me, plus I have a little peace of mind knowing that I have limited my potential ammo issues as best I can.

 

[Double T]

I've purposely done this, and both went bang with no indicators of increased pressure or failed primer.

I always have to unload (per my wife) to put it in the safe. I now set the cartridges on the table and rotate them.

You would NOT believe how much the bullet gets set back on factory 230gr JHP in about a month and a half of chambering the top two rounds. It was insane. It was a fun experiment while I was looking at different carry ammo.

 

[griffin]

I've never heard of primer separation from repeated loading and unloading, but just setback alone is reason enough not to use this practice. Why would a LEO, of all people, do this in the first place?

Sheesh. Good info, though.

LOL at the police suggestion of putting a trigger lock on a loaded handgun. Double sheesh.

 

[Scutter01]

Check out this thread where it was discussed in a little more detail:

https://www.indianagunowners.com/fo...an_i_chamber_the_top_round_in_a_semiauto.html

 

[dyerwatcher]

I was aware if the bullet possibly seating further into the case - but not the primer issue - good info - but luckily I shoot to much to be a factor......

 

[kludge]

Good to know. Thanks for the link

A more practical method of home storage is probably to use a trigger lock or a locked storage box.

^ BAD ADVICE!!! ^

I absolutely hate trigger locks, but that advice is about as bad as you can get.

Most trigger lock do no prevent loading an unloaded gun, opening the action, running the slide, etc.

If the trigger lock is not specifially designed for the gun in question, it MAY STILL BE POSSIBLE TO FIRE THE GUN.

And finally...

NEVER put a trigger lock on a loaded gun.

 

[BE Mike]

I don't see why loading the first round directly into the chamber using the digital method wouldn't be better than feeding it through the magazine. It seems like it would be less destructive of the round and as long as the extractor hooks over the rim, it should function as advertised.

I've only had primer problems with rimfire ammo, mostly Remington, but I do believe that this happened.

This is pretty much a non-issue with me. My "go-to" guns are usually revolvers.

 

[BE Mike]

Check out this thread where it was discussed in a little more detail:

https://www.indianagunowners.com/fo...an_i_chamber_the_top_round_in_a_semiauto.html

The thread discusses bullet setback, which can be checked visually using tools, but this primer problem is new to me. I would think that maybe a good precaution for someone who unloads the chamber daily and reloads it would be to keep that old round for practice and put in a fresh round each day. That would be pretty expensive though. When I daily carried a semi-auto pistol, I would leave it loaded, but my children were trained and older. If I had small kids, I would probably leave my pistol loaded and left in a safe of some kind. I leave a few guns loaded in my safe to this day.