how often do you fire off your ccw load?

T

troy_mclure

New member
today i was in a gun shop discussing ccw ammo with the shop owner, he has had the same wad cutters loaded in his s&w 686 for 5yrs. he seems to be under the impression that ammo will last for ever.
i fire off my cary load every 90 days or so, both to keep my ammo "fresh", and keep in mind of how it shoots compared to my practice ammo.


how often do you fire off yours?
 
Every six months. I fire it off during December and then in June. I also have about 5 mags loaded with it though that gets rotated in my carry gun. Also I have a carry gun and that is its only job so I don't have to mess around with set backs and such.
 
Every 6 months is fine unless something happens out of the ordinary (gun gets soaked with water, for example). I wouldn't worry about it over the space of a year though. I doubt ammo will last forever, but it will certainly last your lifetime if you keep it under decent conditions.
 
I replace mine once a year.

To practice with it, I buy bullets from the manufacturer (I use Speer Gold Dot in 9mm and 40S&W) and load up some fairly hot rounds, and I can shoot 100 rounds for what 20 would cost retail.
 
In a revolver you can keep the same ammo for a very long time. Ammo really doesnt go bad unless it is exposed to alot of moisture and the case or primer become corroded. In a semi-auto you have other problems to worry about. If you load and unload your carry ammo often, the bullet can become deformed from being cycled into the chamber several times. Every six months is a good rule of thumb for shooting off your CCW ammo; sooner if you cycle your ammo often.
 
No set regimen, but I try to shoot 500-1000 rounds a year of my carry load, so it gets rotated regularly. It helps to buy in bulk.
 
I agree with TD 1911. Semi auto ammo simply gets dinged up riding around in a magazine and needs to be replaced from time to time. When I unload my pistol, I don't place the same round on top when I reload. I also hand cycle with less than the full force of the slide so as to not ding up the bullet. Of course that's for "administrative loading" only.

For a revolver kept tucked away for emergencies, I don't worry about ammo deteriorating over time, though I may replace the ammo with some more technologically advanced stuff.
 
I shoot mine about every 6 months. I don't worry about set back or bullets getting deformed cause once I load my CCW it doesn't get unloaded till it's fired.
 
I qualify every 6 months, fire my loaded ammo & get issued new ammo. I'm only required to qual yearly but do it semi-annualy. Besides the non-qual shooting I do.
 
What I try to do is hit the range at least twice a month with my CCW and fire off 50 handloads that are really close to my CCW load - and occasionally I will fire the 'resident' rounds in the CCW and replace them. The age of my CCW rounds has never been the limiting factor on my shooting. That has been dependent on how often I practice with #1 (m39 S&W) or #2 (m640 S&W).
 
I try to put at least 100 rounds practice ammo through my Kimber and another 25 through my SP101 once a week. I cycle my carry ammo once a year. I ran 500 rounds of the Federal LE Tactical Bonded 230s through the Kimber before I started carrying it for CCW. Didn't feel the need to run that many Speer Short Barrel 357s through the Ruger but I did shoot 50 to make sure the lighter Wolf springs would set off the primers.
 
all my loaded rounds are the same weight as defense ammo i use, so once a year i cylce out whats in my magazine. we practice like we fight, old motto from the service but it keeps us sharp in accuaracy IMO
we go to the range at least 2x a week, if not more
75-100 rounds in each pistol is why we started reloading
 
I'm a member of the "box a month" club. I try to buy a new box of 20 of my SD load (currently it's the 230 gr. +P .45 ACP from Cor-Bon) every month. Between my wife's and my pistols, we keep 77 rounds in 10 magazines and 2 chambers. That gives us a rough replacement rate of four months, and typically we'll go to the range and shoot up the replaced ammo every six months or so.

I will admit, however, that since the election I have no intention of "shooting up" the replaced ammo any longer and will keep it in reserve, so to speak.
 
I have 50 yr old milsurp ammo, corrosive primers. It's 99.99% viable. The "duds" shoot on the second primer strike -- and it's obvious the packaging has been wet.

We have cases and cases of shotgun ammo at the club which sits in an unheated building for sometimes more than a year. It always shoots.

The military issued us ammo that was nearly a decade old. It worked fine.

What's that tell you?
 
I have 50 yr old milsurp ammo, corrosive primers. It's 99.99% viable. The "duds" shoot on the second primer strike -- and it's obvious the packaging has been wet.

We have cases and cases of shotgun ammo at the club which sits in an unheated building for sometimes more than a year. It always shoots.

The military issued us ammo that was nearly a decade old. It worked fine.

What's that tell you?
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Well, ammunition sitting in boxes isn't quite the same thing as ammunition that is frequently loaded and unloaded, and occasionally cycled through the action of a pistol. I've noticed that cases get dinged and scratched, and can get quite rough if you cycle them enough. I'm not terribly concerned about case setback, but I know that others are.
 
Semi auto ammo simply gets dinged up riding around in a magazine and needs to be replaced from time to time.
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We actually need to expand on that a bit. If a round is chambered multiple times in a semi-auto, the backward pressure on the bullet can override the crimp and set it back into the case. If this happens, the pressures can increase dramatically and even cause a true detonation, rather than the controlled burn that modern smokeless powders were designed to do. If that happens, you get a KA-BOOM! i.e., a wrecked gun, possible injury,... or worse :eek: :(.

Other than that, under cool, dry conditions, ammo will last darned near forever, or, at least, longer than you will ;) :D.
 
ive had some hydrashocks get "compressed" back into the case, they got tossed.

ive got over 18000rds on my ccw gun, but ive only got about 500 personel defence rounds thru it.

of course 1 20rd box gives me 2 loads for my 9rd mag.
 
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