When do you trust your ccw

J

jaytothekizzay

New member
So I got a new pistol, with the intent on making it my primary concealed carry gun. My question is, after how many trouble free practice rounds do you guys shoot , before a gun is deemed trustworthy enough for carry duty? I'm very anxious to carry this gun, I've waited 3 years to find it ( hard gun to get). I put over 200 flawless rounds through her. A couple of boxes of 124 gr. FMJ. A couple boxes of WWB 115 gr. Also 2 mags of defensive JHP. Do you think that's enough?? Or should I do a couple more range trips

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250 trouble free rounds. The number is arbitrary but using some fake statistics I can then argue that the odd of getting a problem are less than .5%.
 
Personally I'd be fine with that amount. Maybe another couple mags with the hollow points. Some will follow and say you need to shoot 100s of rounds of HP 1st. Which is fine but not real affordable.

What kinda want of gun did you get?
 
When you feel comfortable.
Some won't carry under five hundred, some won't carry under a thousand.
You can shoot a couple of thousand rounds flawlessly, then the next shot could be an issue.
For me if a revolver, not too many needed. Does it fire, does it shave lead, how is the accuracy ?
My experience with semi's is if there is a problem, it will show up early. And most of the time its magazine related.
Pistol reviews mean a lot to me. If the reviews are showing good reliability, and I have a couple of hundred flawless rounds....I will carry it.
Case in point, I purchased a Springfield XD mod 2 .45acp a couple of weeks ago.
I have been reading reviews for quit awhile before buying. I took the pistol home, field stripped it, cleaned it, oiled it, and headed to the range.
I ran both magazines, two hundred rounds, with a couple of magazines of +p mixed In.
Ran it a verious distances, ran it with the gangsta lean, and even a couple upside down.
Flawless. I came home, made a OWB holster, and a pocket holster and its been I my pocket since then.
 
I might fire a few more mags of my defensive load and then call it good. Just to make sure the mags are acting right. Only you know when you feel confident to carry it. Some won't fire as many rounds through there CCW and some will fire twice or 3 times what you have run through it.
 
Ever sense I got into IPSC (about 30 years ago) and watched so many guns fail to work in completion, I became a reliability fanatic (in a good way.)

First the P-35, then the Glock. The gun just HAD to work, every time, with good ammunition. Won some matches merely cause my gun worked but nobody else's did.

If the gun was not renowned for its reliability I would no carry it.

I still feel that way. We are talking 500 to 1000 round count no-jam-no-failure reliability.

Hence I pack a Glock or a good S&W or Ruger revolver, and on occasion a 1911A1 of very good make.

Deaf
 
Shooting conditions can be an important part of evaluating a CCW as well. For example, I've got a lot of rounds downrange with a Hi-Power. I also own a Glock 26 and have several thousand flawless rounds through that. However, over the years I've let my grip get a bit sloppy with those two pistols - so one day when I went to shoot a Glock 34 in IDPA, I just had stoppage after stoppage.

Increased slide mass + cheap blasting ammo + sloppy grip = limp wrist stoppage. Took a firmer grip on the pistol and the problem disappeared (also disappeared when I switched to a Glock 35). But it is a good example of how a perfectly reliable, mechanically functional pistol can still give you problems when your adrenaline gets going a bit.
 
1) 100 rounds of practice ammo

2) at least two full magazines of carry ammo

3) at least two full magazines of carry ammo with induced failures (snap caps in place of live ammo in the magazine somewhere) with no issues dealing with those failures when they occur drawn from the carry position with no issues with controls / snagging / etc.

Repeat steps until combat accuracy is achieved before moving to the next one

Repeat steps 2 and 3 until an acceptable ammunition and carry position are found.

I'm less concerned about discovering a mechanical flaw with the firearm compared to an operator error. While either would concern me the "break in" period for me is about learning the controls of the firearm. Step 3 is the most often repeated
 
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Sooner or later, all machinery fails, no question.
Instead of worrying the if and when of it, include how to deal with the various forms of pistol failures to your practice sessions.
 
Even your old faithful jams. My beloved G19 decided to have a seizure in a big match once. It had many rounds and was clean.

Good advice - learn to clear automatically.
 
Every gun I carry I have owned for several years, and the least used one is a 9MM Walther which I bought from a student of mine. She had fired 2 cases of factory ammo through it in my classes and I also loaded 1000 reloads for her which also went through that gun. So I think it's proven it's reliability. Keep in mind, that one is the gun I have fired the least, but I myself have put about 800 round through it too.

No barging is intended. My point is this:
If you are going to carry a gun for fighting, you need to learn how to use it well.
It is your responsibility to KNOW where every round you fire is going. If you are wrong you have to be able to accept the consequences of that mistake.

It has been said that buying a gun no more makes you a fighter than buying a guitar will make you into a rock-star. I could not agree more.

If you carry a gun, shoot it as much as you can. Learn it. Learn it as if it is part of your hand. If it is not reliable, replace it of get it fixed.

Shooting should not be an exercise in mechanical function of the gun, but it should be an exercise in attaining the skills you will need to fight if and when that time comes.

We train for years to prepare for moments.

The reliability of the weapon will become evident in your training, but train.
Do not just test!


Remember....dry-firing is your friend, but do it with redundant safety.

Assume it may supersize you some time and not be "dry" and do your practice on targets that can absorb a bullet when "Murphy and his "law" come to visit.
 
For me at least 250 hardball and 250 of what I carry. ...yes it is expensive. I also try to limp wrist it and I routinely mix in hand loaded dummy rounds (I load my mags without looking, usually dump 10 rounds in a bag of 100 (this is for semi auto)).) Or have a friend mix them in.
 
While I grant the possibility it might happen in the future, I've never had a round fail to fire in any of my revolvers.

But I'm a dinosaur carrying antique iron, not applicable to most modern shooters.
 
I have - I bought a used SW M19. The previous owner lightened the springs so much as to cause about 30% light strikes. If not tested and relied upon, it could have been trouble. So the gun store had a lifetime warranty on used guns and they fixed it.

I've had cylinders freeze on a Taurus.

You can't trust anything - you can get beyond the initial crap gun - that doesn't work from the start but then you need learn out to deal with anything crapping out.
 
I've had a CCL for less than a year, so fairly new to it all. I Googled this subject and the number 300 came up quite a bit, so I ran with it. I now have just over 500 rounds of flawless performance, so I feel extra good about it.
 
Remember that every handgun is a machine and can malfunction at almost any time. When to start carrying depends on you. Do you feel the gun is reliable enough to carry? Are you comfortable with the concept that it may be used to protect and defend you or someone else? If the answer to both are yes you are on your way. Personally if I tested my gun with 250 flawless rounds it would be in the holster on my side as soon as it was cleaned. I have carried guns with far less rounds through them and felt absolutely comfortable and confident with them. The only time it took me a awhile to get used to a gun was when I started carrying my Colt 1911 cocked and locked. I carried it cocked and locked with no round in the chamber for several months before I became comfortable with it. Now there is no hesitation for there to be a round in the chamber.
 
"Also 2 mags of defensive JHP."

If, as I assume, the JHP will be your carry ammo, I would strongly suggest at least a box (50) rounds of the carry ammo. I have known or learned about cases where "low grade practice" ammo worked perfectly, but the user carried a "high price" load that had not been tested because it was too expensive. When tried, it didn't work. Now that could get a bit embarrassing in a bad situation.

Jim
 
For my carry weapons, I normally prove them with the ammo that I intend to use for that purpose. And, to the tune of a couple of hundred rounds plus what I use to "keep in shape".

Also, I never carry anything that I am not willing to part ways with.

If ever you are unfortunate enough to have to use the weapon as intended, you can almost guarantee that it will be gone to the evidence room and quite possibly never be seen again. If you do get it back, it may be years before it runs its course thru the courts.

If it took me three years to find the perfect gun, I would never consider it as a carry weapon.
 
This thread has some good advice on both training and mechanical testing. I'll offer a couple of thoughts just on the mechanical side.

For a semi-auto pistol, I prefer to see a pistol qualified with 200 rounds of carry ammunition. However, this can be an unreasonable expense. So I think that 50 rounds of initial testing with carry ammo is acceptable, and then some carry ammo should be used during training going forward. You might plan to shoot 200 rounds of carry ammo with six months or a year. And you should always continue to shoot some carry ammo occasionally.

If you change your carry ammo, then the new ammo needs to be requalified. And because you need to shoot carry ammo regularly, the cost of it matters. A lot of people spend time choosing the "perfect" carry ammo. But it is important that carry ammo be available and not extremely expensive. Good ammo that you can afford to shoot a few times a year is better than perfect ammo that is too expensive to test.

I recommend keeping a spreadsheet to track your round count and types of ammo used. Over time, it can be hard to remember how many rounds you have really shot.
 
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