Learned a valuable lesson with my CCW ammo.

Never would have thought that would happen! Glad you found out during practice.

How much do you sweat? I think you would need to be repairing swimming pools while underwater to get that much moisture in the powder.

If you still have the box I would contact Federal. Federal will want the lot number on the box to handle your complaint.

Do you use a pocket holster, JONWILL? I've kept ammo in my truck box in the humid Texas heat for over a year and it always goes bang. Fed HST is good ammo, and so what you observed is unusual.

Almost sounds like gun oil got in your ammo.

Labguy47 said:

Almost sounds like gun oil got in your ammo.

Click to expand...

That's what I was thinking

Could be settling of the powder. It's a good practice to rotate/shake up the load occasionally. Even change position of stored ammo occasionally.

^ That's a new one for me...
I've been trying to settle as much powder as I can into cases. To the point of compression...

Glad you discovered them in practice, @JONWILL. Instead of some other more unfortunate circumstance.

skeeterfogger said:

Could be settling of the powder. It's a good practice to rotate/shake up the load occasionally. Even change position of stored ammo occasionally.

Click to expand...

No.

Sounds like maybe there is something else going on. I've never heard of that happening before. I pocket carry, live in hot ,humid Florida and have had rounds in my gun for more than a year. When I decide to put new ammo in. I always shoot the old stuff. Never had anything unusual happen.

A lot would depend on your physical activity.
Could it be that the powder was shaken about enough to actually physically breakdown?

Years ago I read where the LAPD would swap out ammo that they carried on their person and in there vehicles every couple of months due to propellant breakdown from vibration as well as possible moisture ingress.

I did an experiment with a box of .45 ACP and a box of .38 Special. Both were Winchester white box ammo. I tossed them in my truck tool box and left them there for 6 months then I took them to the range.
The .45 ACP functioned just like the ammo from a sister box purchased at the same time.
The .38 Special did not function as well. I had many loads where the power was less and a couple that actually seemed hotter as compared to a sister box purchased at the same time.

When it comes to carry ammo and truck ammo I swap them out every 3 months.

Jack B. said:

Sounds like maybe there is something else going on. I've never heard of that happening before. I pocket carry, live in hot ,humid Florida and have had rounds in my gun for more than a year. When I decide to put new ammo in. I always shoot the old stuff. Never had anything unusual happen.

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At a previous job here in FL it wasn't possible or practical to carry while working, so my gun stayed in a car lock box everyday. Even with the constant heat and humidity after a year the Federal EFMJ ammo ( which was old to begin with) fired normally.

So it does sound like something else is going on.

I change out ammo at least once every 6 months. The other ammo becomes range fodder.

A friend whipped out his Beretta one day when I had a chronograph set up. The chambered round did about 450 fps and did not cycle the slide. The rest of the magazine shot normally. I think he changed brands and flushed more often after that.

Reminds me I am about due for a new box.

I had the very same thing happen to me last weekend. I'd been carrying the same Hornady Critical Defense ammo in my LCP for just under a year. During practice I shot through the magazine and had one round that was just over a squib load. Just a quiet pop, I heard the projectile hit the steel with little force (at 5 yards), and it didn't cycle the action of my LCP.

I do pocket carry this gun, but it's pretty much only when I'm indoors in air conditioning while I'm basically sitting around all day. I used to cycle the ammo out of my carry guns every 6 months, but things have prevented me from shooting as much as I used to this past year and I never got around to it swapping out fresh ammo. Lesson learned though, I just bought several boxes of carry ammo to make sure I cycle through the carried ammo every 6 months again.

A mis-load is always a possibility with any ammo, be it hand loads or factory loads. Sadly there isn’t really any way to check the interiors of the cartridges, so we are at the mercy of our skill and diligence when loading our own ammo and we play the (rather long) odds when a premium-self defense ammo factory made turkey is loaded and sold.

There are ways for us to reduce contamination or misfires; keep ammo dry and stored in a climate-controlled environment, don’t subject your ammo to oils or penetrating solvents when loaded in the chamber or magazine, rotate carry ammo out on a consistent basis, etc... but even with such diligence bad loads may still happen.

That’s where practicing stoppage clearance-reload drills and keeping a spare Mag/speed loader on your person when EDC are so important.

Hopefully this is a rare occurrence!

Stay safe.

If it was an issue with moisture or oil getting in, couldn't you use some clear nail polish to seal where the bullet goes into the casing and around the primer, similar to military cartridges?

That’s disturbing. It’s not easy to keep lubricant away from a chambered cartridge, unless you use gun grease instead of liquid lube

JONWILL: Was the magazine holding that ammo stored in the car for months at a time, by chance? I always keep a spare, loaded CZ and Sig mag in mine.

Plenty of people claim that there is no negative result to the ammo.
But always seeing each brass case (on plinking ammo) show many spots of tarnish after 2-4 months Inside my car always makes me wonder whether some moisture could seep in via osmosis.

skeeterfogger said:

Could be settling of the powder. It's a good practice to rotate/shake up the load occasionally. Even change position of stored ammo occasionally.

Click to expand...

Pat Riot said:

A lot would depend on your physical activity.
Could it be that the powder was shaken about enough to actually physically breakdown?

Years ago I read where the LAPD would swap out ammo that they carried on their person and in there vehicles every couple of months due to propellant breakdown from vibration as well as possible moisture ingress.

I did an experiment with a box of .45 ACP and a box of .38 Special. Both were Winchester white box ammo. I tossed them in my truck tool box and left them there for 6 months then I took them to the range.
The .45 ACP functioned just like the ammo from a sister box purchased at the same time.
The .38 Special did not function as well. I had many loads where the power was less and a couple that actually seemed hotter as compared to a sister box purchased at the same time.

Click to expand...

I will be interested to learn more in this thread, but I am finding it hard to believe that ammunition is noticeably sensitive to being moved or not. When I think about military history, there has been plenty of ammunition that was stored in place for decades, and then unpacked and used. And there has also been lots of ammo that has been trucked back and forth over rough terrain for extended periods before finally being used. In either case, results have been acceptable.

Also, since the first development of firearms, one of the great goals has been to make them more reliable and less sensitive to all environmental factors. In the last 100 years, as cartridges have gotten to be quite well refined, the great human endeavor to produce reliable firearms has been pretty successful, and the stability of ammunition has gotten very good.

With regard to oil affecting cartridges, there was an article in the last few years by a guy to tried his best to damage cartridges and primers with gun oils. Despite the widespread understanding that oil can destroy powder and primers, he was pretty much unsuccessful. That does not prove to me that cartridges are always immune to solvents, but it argues convincingly that cartridges are not as easily damaged by oil as we sometimes hear. I am sure google can provide links to the article.

With all of that said, I cannot offer any better explanation for the problems experienced by the OP, and I am subscribed to this thread in the hopes of learning more.

I found out that cycling the top round into the chamber, unloading at end of shift, and repeating every day with my LCP, resulted in a markedly shortened oal.

straightshooterjake said:

I will be interested to learn more in this thread, but I am finding it hard to believe that ammunition is noticeably sensitive to being moved or not. When I think about military history, there has been plenty of ammunition that was stored in place for decades, and then unpacked and used. And there has also been lots of ammo that has been trucked back and forth over rough terrain for extended periods before finally being used. In either case, results have been acceptable.

Also, since the first development of firearms, one of the great goals has been to make them more reliable and less sensitive to all environmental factors. In the last 100 years, as cartridges have gotten to be quite well refined, the great human endeavor to produce reliable firearms has been pretty successful, and the stability of ammunition has gotten very good.

With regard to oil affecting cartridges, there was an article in the last few years by a guy to tried his best to damage cartridges and primers with gun oils. Despite the widespread understanding that oil can destroy powder and primers, he was pretty much unsuccessful. That does not prove to me that cartridges are always immune to solvents, but it argues convincingly that cartridges are not as easily damaged by oil as we sometimes hear. I am sure google can provide links to the article.

With all of that said, I cannot offer any better explanation for the problems experienced by the OP, and I am subscribed to this thread in the hopes of

Click to expand...

PapaG said:

I found out that cycling the top round into the chamber, unloading at end of shift, and repeating every day with my LCP, resulted in a markedly shortened oal.

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Yes, in some cases leaving a round chambered particularly non flanged rim, can put sufficient pressure over time to push the projectile further into the case. It is especially bad if using aluminum cases. I've often wondered why a bolt pressure relief feature is not incorporated into the safety selector.

skeeterfogger said:

Could be settling of the powder. It's a good practice to rotate/shake up the load occasionally. Even change position of stored ammo occasionally.

Click to expand...

I have fired ammo over a decade old that has sat in not so ideal conditions. As long as the ammo hasn't gotten excessively wet or hot enough to explode, I have never seen any noticeable degradation in stored ammo.

PapaG said:

I found out that cycling the top round into the chamber, unloading at end of shift, and repeating every day with my LCP, resulted in a markedly shortened oal.

Click to expand...

Bullet setback is a very real, and sometimes dangerous condition for semi-autos. I make a habit of not chambering the same round more than a few times. I rotate the first round somewhere farther down in the magazine. Whenever I clean my EDC firearm and relube it, I line up all the rounds side by side. I look to see if any are noticeably shorter. If any of them even look shorter, I break out the calipers. If the setback is enough to make me sweat, I will toss the round. Some rounds are more susceptible to setback such as cheap FMJ 45ACP rounds, rounds without cannelures, some types of plugged HP rounds (ie Critical Duty, Corbon Pow R Ball etc).

JONWILL said:

I have been carrying a Smith and Wesson Bodyguard in 380 with the warm weather.
I have had the same ammo in it for about 3-4 months. I do shoot it with my handloads in the same magazine I use when I carry it, to see if there are any feed problems

Well I decided to shoot the ammo in the magazine. Federal HST. Interesting results. I had one that was way under powered and barely cycled the action. The other would function but were under powered. I also had burning powder coming out of the ejection port with every round.
Then I shot the rest of the ammo from the same box. No problems. Full power and no burning particles out of the ejection port

The only explanation I could think of was moisture from my body ( I pocket carry) might have been able to get to the powder and keep it from burning as it should.

From now on it is going to be a complete box a month regardless

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I had put myself in the habit of shooting what's in my EDC when I go to the range...but must admit I have been negligent over the last few months. It goes out first on the next trip! Thanks for the heads up!

Interesting read. Maybe you should do a bit of an experiment; try to pocket carry the ammo again. Maybe different brands and in different clothing to see if they don’t fire right as well.