For those that carry chambered...

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nanney1

New member
For what length of time do you leave a chambered round in your carry weapon: days, weeks, months, or do you clear the round every day, and then re-chamber. Pros and cons of those options.
 
I leave my pistol chambered, always. I only remove the cartridge when I go to the range to shoot some practice rounds.

If I don't have the pistol on me, then I put it in my safe loaded with it chambered. Unless I am going to sleep, then it goes on the night stand next to my bed.
 
I just leave the thing hot all the time. It goes in the safe in its holster every night. Then back on my belt the next morning. I fire it dry about once a month, clean it, lube it, and load it with fresh ammo. The only break in this cycle is somewhere through the course of a month. I unload it for a range session. But that same carry ammo goes back in it.

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There is a round in the chamber in my EDC and my Hd gun (sometimes they're different guns) 24/7/365. Not always the same round though. I shoot the mag empty about once every six months to ensure function with that ammo.

I do a chamber check every morning and every evening to be sure that a round is in the chamber.
 
Daily. Because my cary gun may vary from day to day and because it is not the same as the one I keep for home defense, I will unchamber each eve - rechamber each morning. Obviously, things would be different if your pistol for HD and daily carry were the same. If then, like Rangerrich99 mentioned, a daily chamber check or two would be appropriate.
 
I carry a 1911, cocked & locked, in 9mm ... and my carry gun goes to range 2 or 3 times a week for training / so Densive Ammo comes out of gun inside range ...and chambered round comes out .../ ..and carry mags get put in range bag ../ training ammo ( FMJ ) goes into 12 mags I use for training...

When I get home..gun is cleaned ...and carry ammo goes back into gun & round chambered ...and gun goes in safe.( comes out tomorrow when I put it on ).

I check the rounds in the gun once a month for bullet setback...but I have rarely seen a problem ...I carry Remington Golden Sabre 124gr JHP.
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My night stand gun ...is not my carry gun.
 
I have several guns that I carry at different times and a dedicated house gun, they all stay loaded, even in the safe.
 
SD/HD firearms have a round chambered 99% of the time - whether in the safes, in lock boxes, in a vehicle, or on my person.

The only exceptions:
1. Changing ammo, or checking function.
2. Actively being shot at the range.
3. Cleaning.

Time? Sometimes days. Other times months.
One of my HD firearms has had the same cartridge chambered for four years, with the exception of one trip to the 'range'. I occasionally drop the mag, eject the round, cycle the action a few times, function check the piece, and then reload it exactly as before (ease the slide down and push it so the extractor locks over that round without bullet set-back). But it has been in pretty much the same condition for quite some time.


Leaving a round chambered risks corrosion from contamination.
Constantly re-chambering a round risks bullet set-back or crimp-jump.

Pick your poison.
 
I have 3 different pistols for carry. They all stay loaded. Into the holster in the morning, back into the safe in the evening. Unload for range trips and cleaning, occasionally shoot off the carry ammo and rotate.
 
Every gun in my house is in a safe or holster. There are three pistols in quick access safes that I know are chambered and ready to go. I assume every gun in the house is loaded

The only way I would trust that a gun is not loaded is if it was in non functional condition or some other visual identifier. When I come in from hunting and need to set a rifle down the bolt goes in my pocket. In the rare time I have to leave an auto pistol outside of a safe or holster I partially field strip it so the slide is visibly seperate from the rest

This idea of an empty chamber being a safety bonus strikes me as just the opposite because it allows you to disregard a cardinal rule of gun safety in no longer assuming “ever” gun is loaded. “Knowing” a chambe is empty does not cut it for me. If I cannot see the gun is empty it is loaded in my mind even if I just checked it ten seconds ago.
 
It's a bad idea to rechamber the same round over and over again. The act of clearing is one more chance for a A.D. and the wear and tear on the bullet may cause problems. IMHO, one should leave a carry gun alone and stored safely when not being carried. I try to shoot regularly, (once a week or so), but I've gone months between using my gun. There is a occasional reason to clear a gun but constantly doing so is not necessary.
 
Chamber it and leave it alone until I shoot it, or months go by and I have to clean it.

You should not be unchambering the same rounds daily or even weekly. Bullet setback is a terrible thing.
 
PSP said:
It's a bad idea to rechamber the same round over and over again. The act of clearing is one more chance for a A.D. and the wear and tear on the bullet may cause problems. IMHO, one should leave a carry gun alone and stored safely when not being carried. I try to shoot regularly, (once a week or so), but I've gone months between using my gun. There is a occasional reason to clear a gun but constantly doing so is not necessary.
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Even if I were willing to sacrifice a round of carry ammo each time I go to the range, most ranges I know of (barring private ranges) do not allow loaded firearms when you walk in. How are you going to get your carry ammo out? I don’t really believe it is that big a deal to unload a gun and I’ve never had an AD while doing it. I have heard of slam fire discharges when loading, but only on defective weapons. If it is pointed in a safe direction, that reduces risk. Regardless, in my 20 plus years of shooting and thousands of time loading a gun, I’ve never had that happen. It doesn’t mean it can’t happen, but we have to load our carry guns regardless at some point. I’ll assume we all have spare mags and leave our carry ammo loaded up.

I understand the idea of bullet set back, and it is fine to toss that round or shoot it every range session if you so choose, but I think a visual inspection is usually sufficient when using quality ammo.m

Regarding not using the carry gun, I would have to disagree. Always shoot what you carry since you revert to muscle memory in a poop hits the fan situation. Small things that are negligible on the range such as trigger or grip angle could mean a hit or miss in a life or death situation. If you are very familiar with your carry gun, you are more likely to effective with it.
 
I cycle my carry ammo out about every 6 months, but in the meantime I do mag change and FTF drills about once a week. Because I carry factory ammo, I've never really had a problem with bullet setback, the bullets get nicked up a bit, but, again, I've never had a problem after all that when I fire it all off. I think it's a non-issue.

I have 3 pistols of the same family (Kahr C-series 9mm) that take the same ammo, so at any one time I have 50 rounds loaded up between 7 different mags.
 
loaded

Browning Hi-Power is kept fully loaded mag + one in chamber, cocked ^& locked.

Empty carry to the range to shoot and returned to pre-shoot condition after cleaning.
 
I keep mine chambered until time to go the range, which for me is once a month or so.
When I go to the range, I rotate the previously chambered round to the bottom of the magazine when I reload the carry ammo. (I mark it by simply turning it upside down in the box or reloading tray where I leave the carry ammo.) If you do that and shoot out your carry ammo once in a while (I generally do it once a year) the chance of a problem is pretty puny.
 
I carry with a round chambered, consider it naive not to.
Pistol remains loaded until I shoot it, could be a week or a couple months.
If I eject the chambered round, it will not be rechambered for self defense, culled for practice.
 
Like many here, I just leave it chambered. If I want to practice with that gun, I just shoot what’s in it first. After I shoot it and clean it, I reload it, holster it, and put it away.
 
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