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Old March 11, 2006, 06:15 AM   #1
threegun
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Is this true????

A friend told me that ammo carried in your handgun (daily carry gun)should be replaced every 6 months. He claims that the constant vibration of carrying causes the powder pellets in each cartridge to grind down making it possible to have ammo much hotter than desired. Is this true? Corbon is so expensive that I don't want to replace it that often if not required.
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Old March 11, 2006, 07:08 AM   #2
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It's more true than not, but not for the reason he gave you.
I have yet to see proof that abrasion/vibration affects the burning rate of powders, there have been tests where ammo has been in a vibratory tumbler for weeks, with no measureable deviation from control ammo that was stored properly.

The problem is that ammo that gets cycled into and out of your chamber changes OAL when racked, and over time the top round in your mag is either shorter or longer than the rest by a significant amount.
This is measureable, and only affects the round that gets chambered daily.

That being said, it's a good idea to rotate your carry ammo. After all, reliability is the most important thing in a life saving tool.
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Old March 11, 2006, 07:28 AM   #3
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Caz223, Thanks. I do change the top cartridge regularly. I thought if what he said was true then warnings would be posted. I rotate ammo once a year. I also change the mag spring during this once a year service.
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Old March 11, 2006, 09:14 AM   #4
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I agree with caz223 - the jury is still out as to whether vibration causes any appreciable change in powder burning characteristics. I've never seen any published stats on it.

IMO, your once-a-year routine is fine. However, I would question the expense of changing the mag springs every year. You should be practicing with your carry pistol every so often (also just an opinion, not a rule), the schedule is up to you as is what practice ammo is used. You should be able to detect any change in mag spring effectiveness during those sessions. Mag springs of good quality that aren't stressed should last considerably longer than one year.
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Old March 11, 2006, 10:37 AM   #5
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Mal H, They aren't bad (so far none have been bad) but I change them as a means of keeping track of things. Cost....about 2 bucks a piece and I change 2 per year. Not to bad for the peice of mind.

BTW I keep the old springs as emergency springs. I had one mag that was fully loaded for 4 years straight. I found it in the back of my safe loaded with alpha delayed expansion rounds that I stopped carrying 4 years earlier. The mag fed the rounds perfectly....go figure. Still better safe than sorry.
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Old March 11, 2006, 11:51 AM   #6
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Quote:
The problem is that ammo that gets cycled into and out of your chamber changes OAL when racked, and over time the top round in your mag is either shorter or longer than the rest by a significant amount.
This is measureable, and only affects the round that gets chambered daily.

That being said, it's a good idea to rotate your carry ammo. After all, reliability is the most important thing in a life saving tool.
Why are you chambering a round daily? Is there some reason for not letting the round in the chamber remain?

Why is it a good idea to rotate your carry ammo? Reliability is important, no doubt, but what is it about carrying ammo that makes it no longer reliable as not being reliable is what seems to be implied by saying it needs to be rotated.

For me, there is no conscious effort to occasionally load up with fresh defensive ammo. On occasion I manage to shoot the loaded mag of carry ammo at the range unintentionally. Also, the chambered round of defensive ammo does not get recycled. It is fired at the range, ideally after the mag of carry ammo has been removed and a mag of range ammo inserted.
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Old March 11, 2006, 12:22 PM   #7
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I commonly read about all this on the Internet, but over the last fifty years I just haven't run into any of these problems. I never had springs go bad in mags or pistols in IPSC days. Never had mags fail to feed after sitting loaded for forty or more years. Never had failure to fire with ammo that was over 30 years old.

I dunno. Maybe I just live right or something...

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Old March 11, 2006, 12:46 PM   #8
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Quote:
Why are you chambering a round daily? Is there some reason for not letting the round in the chamber remain?
Some of us will practice dry firing our carry weapons - if not daily - several times per week. This is recommended by knowledgeable experts on personal defense or pistol shooting. Thus, the round in the chamber and the top round in the magazine (the rounds that are repeatedly re-chambered) get rotated with each session.

I handle this by, on my weekly trips to the range (I'm retired and this is one of my "hobbies"), I fire the chambered round and the top mag round is now in the chamber. At that point, I replace the mag with one filled with my Blazer practice ammo and, after practicing, replace the mag with the carry ammo and add two new carry ammo rounds to the mag.

I believe the problems of shortening the OAL due to re-chambering is more serious in some calibers than others. The 40 S&W 180 gr round has little empty space when filled with the necessary amount of powder and, thus is more sensitive to the bullet being driven into that space than, for instance, the lower SAMMI pressure round of .45 ACP with its 230 gr bullet which is somewhere around half the SAMMI pressure of the 40 S&W round.

I might be wrong (have before) but it's my impression this is more of a problem with reloads than with factory new loads where QA is usually strictly monitored - though some reloaders are more experienced than others.

As for the mag springs, I have yet to have had a need to change any and some of my mags are quite old. Lest what I said above be misunderstood, I do shoot all the carry ammo in its carry mag several times per year and, as long as the bottom round in the mag feeds reliably, I trust that mag spring.

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Old March 11, 2006, 05:48 PM   #9
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OJ, You beat me to it. Dry fire and other non firing drills are the main reason I have to chamber so often. Anyway the question was wether or not powder ground down while carrying, causing higher then normal pressures. It seems that it does but not enough to cause concern. Thanks guys.
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Old March 11, 2006, 05:51 PM   #10
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I think it is a good idea if only to get in some practice with your carry ammo
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Old March 11, 2006, 06:20 PM   #11
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Obiwan, Thats how I use my bad carry ammo to re-test the reliability.
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Old March 12, 2006, 07:33 AM   #12
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Another potential problem is oil fumes. Oil fumes can deaden the primers usually it takes a lot longer than than 6 months, though.

Some years ago I was working in a gunshop when a lady brought in her husband's Browning Challenger. He had died about 10-15 years before. The gun was wrapped in an oily rag and put in a box with 2 boxes of what would then have been new Winchester .22 ammo.

She wanted to make sure the gun was OK, and didn't want the ammo, which I snarfed.

Only 7 of 100 rounds fired correctly. The rest were either complete duds or very weak.
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Old March 12, 2006, 10:40 AM   #13
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You can find a number of posts dealing with magazine springs wearing out. The engineering consensus seems to be that a quality magazine spring that is stored compressed should still function perfectly after 50 or more years. It isn't the compression that stresses springs, it's use. If you shoot through your magazines every day, you ought to have a regular spring replacement program. If you're like most of us who just load up a mag and carry it, your springs should last for decades.
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