How often do you change your carry ammo?

Status
Not open for further replies.
H

horsemen61

Member
Joined
Oct 20, 2011
Messages
6,770
I have a friend who has a glock 17 and 18 rounds of Winchester black talon 9mm ammo he has had it for years and will not change it for anything. My question to you guys is how often do you change your carry ammo.
 
When I carried (currently not due to work reasons) I would swap rounds about every 6 months. After the year was up I took that box to the range and shot it all out and started a new box.
 
Years also

I carry my "carry ammo" for years and have fired ammo that was carried [ not by me ] for a decade and it all went BANG.

I was R.O. for my agency and got to shoot up all the turned in ammo from retirees.

It all was in some 'interesting' condition,but it fired.

Hope this helps.
 
Once in a while (no set interval) I shoot a mag or cylinder of ammo I have been carrying and reload after the range visit.

If I trust the ammo for SD, I have no reason to think it'll get stale or something.
 
I always fire the one in the pipe when I pratice, I carry two mags; empty both for practice reload them after rotate from pocket to gun. By always shooting the loaded cartridge I end up shooting all my carry ammo one at a time.
 
I don't change mine out, and I don't feel the need to. One time a few years ago, I zipped through some ammo that had been zipping in my carry mags for about 4 years, and no problems.
 
Like others have said, I keep my SD rounds in there for a few months then when I'm at the range I'll empty that magazine before switching to target rounds. I don't stick with any one brand loyally, I just go with whatever store I happen to be at has.

Currently, I'm on Remington Golden Saber 147gr for my 9mm, Golden Saber 125gr 38spl+P in my Dan Wesson.

Before that, it was Winchester PDX 125gr 9mm, 125gr 38+P
 
horsemen61 said:
I have a friend who has a glock 17 and 18 rounds of Winchester black talon 9mm ammo he has had it for years and will not change it for anything. My question to you guys is how often do you change your carry ammo.
Click to expand...
Once or twice per year when I go to the range I will switch to new batch. Being conservative fellaw in semi-auto I limit # of feeds to ten per any round.
 
At least once a month for me. I try to get to the range at least once a week during about 10 months of the year. I also make sure I practice with my carry gun at least once a month so I shoot off the current carry ammo in practice during that practice session.

No, i do not shoot a lot of the carry ammo because it's very expensive so the "old" carry ammo is shot just before I leave the range so that the last thing I shoot is my carry ammo. (positive mussel memory you know)
 
ArchAngelCD said:
At least once a month for me. I try to get to the range at least once a week during about 10 months of the year. I also make sure I practice with my carry gun at least once a month so I shoot off the current carry ammo in practice during that practice session.

No, i do not shoot a lot of the carry ammo because it's very expensive so the "old" carry ammo is shot just before I leave the range so that the last thing I shoot is my carry ammo. (positive mussel memory you know)
Click to expand...
I found shooting handgun is like riding a bicycle. The improvement in marksmanship is not proportional to amount of time and expense spent in practice. While in long range rifle marksmanship more practice pays off when it comes to handguns at defensive ranges it's worth two farts.
 
PabloJ said:
I found shooting handgun is like riding a bicycle. The improvement in marksmanship is not proportional to amount of time and expense spent in practice. While in long range rifle marksmanship more practice pays off when it comes to handguns at defensive ranges it's worth two farts.
Click to expand...
I have to disagree. First off, I shoot often because I like to shoot, not only for defensive practice. Secondly, I like to shoot long distances because it's fun. Third, trying to shoot long distances with a handgun will expose weaknesses in your shooting form. Holding steady on the target and trigger control must be at it's best to hit targets @50 yards with a J frame. I would hardly call that "worth two farts" but you can think what you want even if you are wrong. (and a little condescending)
 
I have to disagree. First off, I shoot often because I like to shoot, not only for defensive practice. Secondly, I like to shoot long distances because it's fun. Third, trying to shoot long distances with a handgun will expose weaknesses in your shooting form. Holding steady on the target and trigger control must be at it's best to hit targets @50 yards with a J frame. I would hardly call that "worth two farts" but you can think what you want even if you are wrong. (and a little condescending)
Click to expand...
I would have to agree to this as well. While most of what my practice recently is on draw and aim with no shot (only due to an ammunition scarcity) I do find that shooting at extended ranges makes closer targets much easier to acquire and hit.
When talking about rifles my favorite way to practice shooting at long ranges is with a .22 from 100-150 yards, reason being is everything has to be perfectly accounted for to hit a soda can at 150 yards semi-consistently.
 
ArchAngelCD said:
I have to disagree. First off, I shoot often because I like to shoot, not only for defensive practice. Secondly, I like to shoot long distances because it's fun. Third, trying to shoot long distances with a handgun will expose weaknesses in your shooting form. Holding steady on the target and trigger control must be at it's best to hit targets @50 yards with a J frame. I would hardly call that "worth two farts" but you can think what you want even if you are wrong. (and a little condescending)
Click to expand...
Fifty paces is absurd range for a J-frame. Good candidate would be something from Cabot Smith of Pennsylvania. The one I seen was above $5000, but it looked bench made with hand-fitted components. The gun is far above Colt, Remington, Ruger, Sig,...... where they just pick parts out of the bin to assemble components together.
 
I shoot up my Carry rounds whenever I find a fresh box of the ones I like. Not so much of an issue in my .40 as I can find Ranger-Ts (or could before the panic buying)

I feel physical pain when I shoot my "dress" rounds for the Blackhawk. Silvertip .45 colt was already hard to find at times, Not a chance now.

I could carry my heavier hard cast loads (Handload vs Factory argument aside) but when I'm wearing my shoulder rig semi-publically, I prefer to have those Shiny rounds to hand to the inquisitive from the loops, rather than the dull, hard-edged "working" loads.

Gotta appeal to the short attention spans and folks who watch too much TV....

"Look... Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiny... Shiny good... Gun good...Man with gun and shiny bullets not scary... See? "
 
Dnaltrop said:
I shoot up my Carry rounds whenever I find a fresh box of the ones I like. Not so much of an issue in my .40 as I can find Ranger-Ts (or could before the panic buying)

I feel physical pain when I shoot my "dress" rounds for the Blackhawk. Silvertip .45 colt was already hard to find at times, Not a chance now.

I could carry my heavier hard cast loads (Handload vs Factory argument aside) but when I'm wearing my shoulder rig semi-publically, I prefer to have those Shiny rounds to hand to the inquisitive from the loops, rather than the dull, hard-edged "working" loads.

Gotta appeal to the short attention spans and folks who watch too much TV....

"Look... Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiny... Shiny good... Gun good...Man with gun and shiny bullets not scary... See? "
Click to expand...
Well, you could always paint the rounds silver! A hobby shop ought to have small bottles of glossy metallic silver paint. :D


One year is my somewhat arbitrary limit on defense ammo. When it's about a year old I by more and shoot the old stuff. I had some .45 Golden Sabers that were in the mags for my M&P for about a year (unloaded the mags occasionally to shoot other ammo). I fired both mags at the range the other week with no problems.
 
I've only changed it once. I started out carrying whatever FMJ I happened to have at home. Now I carry Gold Dots, and have no plans to change again.
 
No set time. My carry ammunition is from months old to maybe ten years old or older.
I shot some carry 9mm Gold Dots yesterday that were probably 12 yeas old. Functioned fine.

Swapping old ammo for new ammo may not always be the best thing.

A few years ago I bought a new box of defense ammo to replace the years old JHP I had in the gun.
Just for the heck of it I fired the first round of new ammo. It was a squib load that just barely made it out of the gun.
The old ammo fired like it was loaded yesterday.

Last year a local fellow loaded up his 45 compact with a name brand JHP defense load. He thought he would try out a few rounds of the new ammo.
The first shot was a squib that stuck in the barrel.
The shooter didn't recognize what happened (many shooters don't). He chambered and fired a fresh round and lucky the only damage was a swelled barrel.

So, you can always wonder if you are replacing good ammo with bad.:)
 
I clearly misunderstood the question the first time I answered lol.

What I do is mark my rounds clearly with a sharpie. Every time I drop the slide on a round (like when I remove all my rounds at the range to shoot FMJ, then reload the Gold Dots and rechamber on the way out), it gets a mark with a sharpie. When a round has two marks on it, it gets placed at the bottom of the magazine. Once all the rounds have two marks, I'll shoot them all and replace em. Because of the frequency I hit the range, I've had my current set of carry ammo for around three months, and only two rounds have two marks already. A third round has one. I expect the 40 rounds total to last roughly two years before I need to replace it.

ETA:

TL;DR Version: As often or seldom as required. Don't drop the slide on your rounds more than a couple times, as it can cause the bullet to seat more deeply, creating potentially dangerous pressure. I read that advice on the intarwebz (here on THR, actually).
 
Last edited:
Change out ammo does not even make sence. What going to happen to it after its changed. Just hangout?? I shoot what I carry once a month. Reload with new cary ammo before leaveing the range. Practice with fmj in between.
 
Every time I go to the range. Could be once every two weeks or as long as three months. But I take my normal carry gun with me and shoot the rounds from the magazine and the chambered round (that I cleared prior to going to the range). Then I'll usually shoot anywhere from 3-5 magazines through it in practice before moving on to any other guns. When I get home I clean and reload.
 
"Carry" ammo does not go bad unless you keep your gun dripping with oil or you fall in the river or you rechamber the same rounds over and over. Don't do this. I have never understood the "logic" of rechambering rounds repeatedly until they set back and then placing them in the bottom of the magazine. Is it better somehow if your gun blows up on the last round than the first? If you can see any set back at all then DON"T SHOOT THAT ROUND!
 
Last edited:
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

M
  • Locked
Why do people say to rotate carry ammo?
2
Replies
30
Views
2K
only1asterisk
O
M
  • Locked
how often rotate carry ammo.
Replies
17
Views
1K
sm
S
P
  • Locked
  • Poll
Poll: Do you carry reloads
2
Replies
47
Views
2K
The Lone Haranguer
T
WisBorn
  • Locked
  • Poll
Do You Carry Different Loads In your CCW?
2 3
Replies
50
Views
2K
DR505
DR505
T
  • Locked
How often should I change cartridges with CCW?
Replies
14
Views
1K
Zach S
Z
Back
Top