Chambering Live Ammo at Home?

[stevelyn]

Handloaders cycle rounds to check fit and feed all the time. Like any other time you handle a firearm, use your brain.

 

[Bartholomew Roberts]

You can always use an old-fashioned picture tube television as a backstop. I have seen a 21" TV stop multiple rounds of 7.62x39 steel core ammo from a MAK-90. This lets you chamber a round for self-defense purposes or testing in the home and on the off chance something is wrong and the weapon fires, you didn't lose anything important

 

[.38 Special]

I have cycled rounds through bolt rifles at home, especially dangerous game and "hunt of a lifetime" rounds. I don't want to discover chambering difficulties 3000 miles from home, or with an angry and sharp beast headed my way.

The sand bucket idea is a sound one. So is the "use your head" advice. I wouldn't make a habit of cycling rounds through a gun for kicks or to test safety function or something, but when done for a solid purpose, it can be done safely.

 

[BryanP]

If I felt the need to cycle live rounds I'd do it in the garage, not the house proper. In case of an ND I'd rather have to patch a divot in the concrete floor than explain to my wife why I just blew a hole through the living room floor and (with my luck) perforated the electrical, plumbing or HVAC lines under the house.

Snap caps are your friend. If you don't want buy them, load (or get a friend to load) some dummy reloads that you will paint a bright color yourself.

 

[rbernie]

I load/unload weapons at home all the time. If it's a pistol, this is usually done to rotate ammo/mags - I do this with the pistol pointed down over a mattress with a bunch of timber below that and a concrete slab as the backstop. Before a hunt, I'll cycle rifle ammo in the backyard, pointing the muzzle down with the dirt as a backstop.

 

[quatin]

If you accidentally set it off and your neighbor decides to call the cops...what do you say? Do you get ticketed for discharging a firearm with no justifiable purpose (if this is in the city)?

 

[rockstar.esq]

Just a tag on to the suggestion about dummy rounds is that you can use some RTV sealant in the primer hole (once deprimed of course) which will cushion your firing pin as you test. The RTV is easliy replaced and an indent will tell you if you've got a working gun. I would determine if the gun was operationally safe using a dummy/snap cap before I'd consider test fitting live ammo at home.

 

[rbernie]

If you accidentally set it off and your neighbor decides to call the cops...what do you say?

"Must have been somebody else, ossifer."

Keep your booger hook off the bang switch when it doesn't belong there, and all will be right with the world.

 

[51Cards]

If you accidentally set it off and your neighbor decides to call the cops...what do you say?

"Just using my .22 stud driver to put up some paneling!"

Seriously, though --- I have an old wooden barrel, stuffed with 2x4 cut-offs, and a piece of carpet on the floor. The barrel used to be upstate, used it to test-fire. Nothing --- nothing --- ever got through it ... .22, .30, .45, .223, .348.

You just need to put your mind on "high alert," and if anyone else is around, tell them it's a no-interruptions no-chitchat period.

The stuff under the kitchen sink is probably more dangerous --- but easier to explain.

 

[RockyMtnTactical]

Follow the rules of gun safety at all times and you wont have problems.

 

[TimboKhan]

Not safe as a general practice, but I do keep a .45 with one up the pipe by my bed at all times, and my carry revolver is always loaded. Outside of those two weapons, I make it a practice to never chamber rounds in the house. Incidentally, I keep my safety on and the hammer down on my .45. Its a Ruger P90, so in that condition, I would have to take it off safe and then go through a long DA pull to accidentally discharge it, which seems very unlikely to happen. I view every gun I have as loaded, of course, but I KNOW that gun is loaded.

Also, you guys might be interested to know that in the newest issue of GUNS, there was a christmas list that included a handy-dandy little bag that you can buy that is specifically designed to be a chamber-clearance bag...

 

[WayneConrad]

Handloaders cycle rounds to check fit and feed all the time.

A bit of thread drift; checking the rounds is a separate topic from checking the action of the gun. That said...

Handloaders may do it all the time, but that doesn't make it a good idea. There may be a better way.

If you are shooting standard loads in a standard chamber (that is, you're not making rounds custom sized to a specific chamber), you can check llive rounds with a Max Cartridge Gage. It's safer, and more convenient than chambering them in a firearm. And you'll be sure that the round will work in any SAAMI spec. chamber.

 

[Andrew S]

You just built the rifle and you do not know if it functions correctly. That isn't a reason to run live rounds through it. That is a reason not to.


Wait until you are in a safe and legal spot to discharge the firearm before you put any live ammunition in it.


This isn't rocket science.