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How long is too long to carry defense ammo

8K views 66 replies 52 participants last post by  mrwonderful 
#1 ·
Went to the range yesterday with the purpose of cutting a playing card in two, along with some drills. I have hit the edge of a card a few times before but never cut it in two, but I was using round nose FMJ and it would hit it and leave a gray mark on one side, closest I got on the third try was cut a ¼ of the way.

So today I went with my carry ammo Hydro Shock 230, as I felt that I had carried it long enough, it’s been several years can’t say for sure but at least 5 maybe even up to 7 years. Yes I know that is a long time.

I have heard that one shouldn’t carry it for long periods of time, a friend burns it at least once a year. His concern is that oil may get into the case and cause a miss fire. That seemed a bit excessive to me, I am cheap to say the least. I also heard that a cop somewhere got into a gun fight and the first round didn’t fire, don’t recall the details, brand, might have even been practice shot. Anyway it was sent back to the manufacture and they said it was due to racking the same round in when unloading and reloading, causing the primer charge to dislocate from between the cup and the anvil, so it never got crushed, which caused the misfire.

Well my first shot went click, “what the…” am I carrying an empty chamber, no way I rack the slide and out comes an unfired case with a healthy dent in the primer. I am a bit shocked as I have fired rounds that were 20 or more years old and nothing like this happened. Well the next one did go off but it was a hang fire, just under a second or so after the hammer hit. Now I am thinking, boy am I glad this is the place I discovered this news and not in a gun fight. Well this happened 6 times out of 25, 4 didn’t go bang and 2 were hang fires.

Oh yeah I cut the card it’s on the avatar.

It was a painless lesson for me, aside the cost of new ammo 50 bucks for forty rounds. I think I will rotate it like twice a year, say on the 4th and New Year.
 
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#2 ·
I shoot mine up every year or so, but that's mostly due to wanting to shoot what I carry every now and again. I woulda said it would be fine for 5 to 10 years, but your experience may make me rethink that.
 
#3 ·
I shoot mine up every 3 months or so. First to make sure that I am proficient with it. Second to get some new stuff to try and make sure what happened to you doesnt happen to me....
 
#22 ·
You carry reloads as SD ammo? Not me. I'll practice, hunt & compete with reloads. But I WON'T carry reloaded ammo in my EDC.

As for how long is prudent to trust it? I've experienced a half-dozen FTFs that I can honestly attribute to "bad" centerfire bullets in tens of thousands of rounds. None of those were because of age. There's no rhyme or reason to it, but yearly rotation just feels better to me.
 
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#6 ·
Shoot it as often as you like but the round itself may out last you.

Sent from my DROID4 using Tapatalk 2
 
#38 ·
I agree with sgb. It is because my CCL instructor told me the shelf life is one year and he is far more experienced than I. Far more. :smile:
 
#8 ·
I don't have a set time for mine. I'll usually fire a magazine or 2 of my carry ammo when I go to the range, so it gets rotated out.
 
#23 ·
I had that experience, ammo kept dry will last a long time. Too much oil is also a bad thing. Funny, a young man I know,who is a real gun nut, said he likes to shoot all his ammo every month before it 'goes bad', as he told me. I just smiled, if he has the money,go for it.
 
#10 ·
"His concern is that oil may get into the case and cause a miss fire."

Then he's using too much oil.

I use up my SD ammo whenever I decide to change to something else. I've never had an "old" round misfire, only new ones right out of the box and a couple of dud primers in my many reloads. It happens.
 
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#11 ·
I seal all my ammo primers & around the case mouth on all EDC ammo! No matter what you do you will never know until you pull that trigger!
 
#15 ·
I also heard that a cop somewhere got into a gun fight and the first round didn’t fire, don’t recall the details, brand, might have even been practice shot. Anyway it was sent back to the manufacture and they said it was due to racking the same round in when unloading and reloading, causing the primer charge to dislocate from between the cup and the anvil, so it never got crushed, which caused the misfire.
I can't really comment on the life span of carry ammo, but I think I remember the details of the story you brought up. It was a SWAT officer and when conducting a raid, the officer felt like he had to pull the trigger on his AR-15. It did not fire. The issue wasn't really the repeated chambering itself, but it was the repeated chambering in an AR. The free-floating firing pin slams against the primer upon loading the chamber and when the primer gets beaten enough, the explosive charge inside may break or dislodge. It seems like it was a Hornady TAP round. Repeatedly chambering the same round from the magazine isn't a good practice because of the possibility of bullet set-back. For my carry guns, I use a careful loading method of avoid this.

If I lived in the humid south, hot desert or somewhere that got really cold, or I spent a lot of time outside with my ammo, I might rotate my ammo regularly. My ammo and carry guns are stored in ideal conditions whenever they're not being carried so I'm not concerned about rotating my ammo any time soon. Maybe 5 or so years from now I will, but if ammo is stored in ideal conditions, I see no need. 50+ year old mil-surp stored in good conditions works great. Why not all ammo? I do think I'll seal my primers though.
 
#17 ·
Like I said, I have shot ammo that is 20 or so years old with no problems. I sent a note to Federal about it, I will be out of touch for a week (no computer) so next weekend I will see if Federal has anything to say about it. I will post their opinion on it.

I don’t use oil on my guns, they are wiped down after lubing. Just for the record, I have put factory cartridges and my reloads, in water for several days and had no miss haps with them.

The cartages would have been chambered at random many times over the time I was carrying them, as I would go to an IDPA match or practice once a week just about every weekend for several years, before I bought some match/practice magazines.

Told you I was thrifty.
 
#18 ·
Like I said, I have shot ammo that is 20 or so years old with no problems. I sent a note to Federal about it, I will be out of touch for a week (no computer) so next weekend I will see if Federal has anything to say about it. I will post their opinion on it.

I don’t use oil on my guns, they are wiped down after lubing. Just for the record, I have put factory cartridges and my reloads, in water for several days and had no miss haps with them.

The cartages would have been chambered at random many times over the time I was carrying them, as I would go to an IDPA match or practice once a week just about every weekend for several years, before I bought some match/practice magazines.

Told you I was thrifty.
That's might be the issue right there. Way more likely a primer seating issue than the age of the rounds.
 
#20 ·
Primer seating isn’t the problem, because they didn't go off with a second try they all had healthy dents in them. I think if they weren’t rechambered who knows how many times, it wouldn’t have occurred at all.
 
#21 ·
How long is too long to carry defense ammo
Truth be known.....when the brass cases start to get pitted, and when the nickle plated cases start to get dark spots. If a fungus starts growing around the case neck/bullet...greenish or bluish.
 
#26 ·
Some questions.

HydroShok ammo. Can't imagine that time, alone, is what caused the misfires.

You said 5-7yrs since purchase. Any clue on the manufactured date?

If your gun fired plenty of other ammo without trouble, before and after the duds, then I would think it's likely those particular cartridges were to blame. If so, then probably something either got to the primers, or the primers were of a batch/lot that went bad within that time frame.

If you only fired those rounds and nothing else successfully before or since (during that range session), then it's entirely possible your gun's firing pin has some issue, or perhaps crud got in the way. When's the last fully-detailed strip and cleaning you've performed on that gun?

Did you fire the ammo successfully in some other pistol, that day?
 
#29 ·
I ran through over 100 rounds that day on drills. I never meant to blame the ammo, as I stated earlier I think it’s because of rechambering, causing the primer charge to be displaced, so when the firing pin hits the primer cup there is no charge to get crushed and no bang.

I am reasonably certain contamination was not a factor.
 
#27 ·
I just don't like the Hydroshock personally, heard so many bad stories that rise basically from quality. Ever consider HST or PDX1 or GD?

I rotate mine out when I want to practice with it. Every 2-3 months, never had an issue with my HST in the Glock.
 
#31 ·
ntkb, the answer to your original question is that well made ammunition should last many decades before it incurs any noticeable deterioration. And oil should not be a factor, unless the gun is dripping with it. What causes the most problems with carry ammo is bullet setback from being chambered multiple times, which has already been mentioned. This is why I shoot my carry ammo about every six months. I don't want to have to worry about some kind of malfunction due to bullet setback. Anytime I clear my weapon I take the time at the end of the day to empty my mag and rotate the previously chambered round to the bottom of the mag. I know that's a bit anal, but it works for me.
 
#39 ·
Bullet setback in a 45acp I don’t see as much of an issue, it’s a low pressure cartridge, if it was, a 45gap would be too high. However in a 9 or 40 or a 10mm it might be. The case is designed to locate on the rim of the case, so even if the bullet was way down in the case it would not be a factor for ignition.

I have not gotten but very few setbacks in all the years I have had the gun, maybe 3 and I set them aside.

I too agree that ammo should last for many years, I am leaning toward repeated chambering jarring the primer charge loose.
 
#32 ·
In a direct response to the thread title: I don't know.

I run my carry ammo through each weapon at the end of the month. This isn't because of bullet set-back or me not trusting it anymore, it'sjust that I like to keep myself acquainted with the difference in load, however slight it might be when shooting it, compared to the target ammo I regularly shoot.

As some of you can imagine, the end of the month is a pain in the ass for me cuz that's a lot of damn cleaning to do afterwards. Of course I don't stop at just the carry ammo or pistols :cool:

Sent from my palm device
 
#35 ·
If your paying $50 for 40 rounds of SD ammo,you might want to look online and buy the LE boxes of either Speer Gold Dot,Ranger T-series,or Fed HST if you can find it ,depending on caliber it runs around $26 to $32 for 50 rounds,if you buy 4 or 5 boxes then the added shipping is only about $2-3 a box,I usually shoot the Mag in my carry gun at least once a month,then I cycle my mags,first mag in gun second spare mag to front and mag with new ammo in rear slot,I carry a 1911 with 2 spare mags
 
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