[Glenn Bartley]

Everyday, I load up whatever pistol I will carry that day, usually a Glock 19 (for work) and I head out the door feeling fairly sure my sidearm will function properly when and if needed. Having had collateral duties as a firearms instructor for about 14 years, I know enough to check the condition and function of my firearm before I load it. I check it to make sure it is clean, lubed, free of barrel obstructions, and I check that the mags are fully loaded. Then I load it. Then I top of the magazine. Topping off the mag is a regulation of my job, the mag must be filled to capacity.


Despite having lots of experience I learned something new to me about a year ago that deals with rotating ammo; you may already know this, but if not it is good to know. There is a potential problem for anyone who does not shoot their carry ammo frequently (and I do mean frequently like on at least a weekly basis to every few days). The potential problem arises as you load and unload using the same two bullets day after day. I'll explain what I mean:
Let's say you are carying a loaded 9mm (whatever caliber its the same principal) pistol on a daily basis and you carry one in the chamber and a fully loaded magazine. When you get home you unload that weapon and store it safely. This means a full complement of amo in the mag and one loose round from the chamber have been unloaded. The following day, you reload that firearm with the same mag with which it had been loaded the day before. This means the top round in the mag goes into the chamber. Now you grab the bullet you extracted from the chamber and use it to top off your mag. The follwoing day you do the same thing, and the following day, and so on. What you are doing is rotating the same two rounds over and over again from chamber to the one at the top of the mag. This constant reloading of the same rounds has a marked effect on those rounds. What happens is the bullet in each of those rounds will likely start to get pushed ack into the shell casing, and the overall round will be markedly shorter than as originally manufactured. This has the potential to cause failure to feed.

Always a good idea to exchange those rounds with fresh after a few days (or a few loadings) to a week if you load and unload on a daily basis using the same rounds. The same thing goes for rifle ammo, like ammo used on hunting trips that you load and unload each time in and out of the house or camp on a hunting trip.

Of course I realize that some of you probably do not unload your weapons in your homes preferring to always be on the ready, but I do with my carry sidearm. Then I strip it down and lock it up. Locking it up is required by my job, stripping it down is my way of making sure I check it well when I put it back together.

Best regards,
Glenn B

 

[Aslan]

Thanks Glenn, good advice!

:devil:

 

[andy]

far better to just leave it loaded,either in your rig, or in the vault. If you want to dryfire, do so with the "practice" gun. Presto, no problem. You can also just not use the same round over and over. Nobody is checking your mags to see if they are "fully loaded", so why be scared of such a thing, hmm? Sheesh, man, so your mag "only" has 13-14 rds,instead of 15, that's a heinous offense, right?

Many practice weekly, and NEVER get very good at all. Mostly because they practice the wrong things,or practice incorrectly. Others once got so good that they don't have to practice much at all, and are still better than 99% of the rest of the pistol packers.

For instance, how many have the sort of speed and accuracy it takes to toss up a pair of soda cans, make a ccw belt draw, and hit both cans in midair, 3 out of 4 tries? Doing so only took me a very few hours of practice, after 7 years of not touching a gun.

 

[andy]

u canpractice slowfire until you turn blue, and you will NEVER have a truly fast draw,for instance. Practicing bowling doesn't make you an ace at shooting pool, either. You have to identify the most likely challenges, and practice THOSE. Themost likely challenge will be a SUPER fast ccw draw,and NOT firing, at 10ftor less. The sudden "appearance" of your (ready to fire) gun, will suffice to make 90+% of attackers stop in their tracks. NO accuracy at all, because NO SHOT HAS TO BE FIRED AT ALL. (90+% of the remainder of challenges, for the civilian at least) will be superfast firing at 10 ft or less, the issue to be OVER with in less than one second after your gun first "appears' in your hand (or LUCK,not your skill with your pistol) will be what determines the outcome. You will subdue the guy(s) in that second flat (those 2-5 shots)or you will survive mostly by LUCK.

 

[RIKA]

Good idea. Thanks Glenn.

RIKA

 

[Glenn Bartley]

Andy,

Nobody is checking your mags to see if they are "fully loaded", so why be scared of such a thing, hmm? Sheesh, man, so your mag "only" has 13-14 rds,instead of 15, that's a heinous offense, right?

This is, in my opinion, the voice of blatant inexperience speaking. Now don't get all out of control and pissed off already, read on. Your inexperience in any such practical matters is evident, at least to me, when you say things like that. Here are some reasons why I say so:

You see when an LEO or anyone is involved in a shooting to which the authorities respond, then yes someone is counting bullets in your magazine. If it is my agency's policy to carry fully loaded, then by counting how many rounds are missing they can figure how many I fired. You see, as often is the case, people in shootings have no idea how many rounds they have fired, and shell casings and bullets are not always found. As a matter of fact, the perp's gun is not always found. So if you have, lets say: 10 witnesses saying they heard (but none saw) a distinct 7 shots, and you say you fired 4 shots, and you say that the bad guy fired three at you, what do the authorities have to go by besides the witnesses and your words. The authorities may have the following evidence: The dead perp who you shot with 4 of your bullets in him; your pistol; 4 empty shell casings from your gun; a live round that was in the chamber of your gun, and a magazine from your gun that could hold 15 rounds but only has 8 rounds in it. Do the math, the authorities will: 8 + 1 from the gun is 9; 9 + 4 in the perp is 13; 13 + 3 more that very well could have come from your gun (had it been fully loaded) is a total of 16; 16 = a fully loaded pistol 15 in mag and 1 in chamber.

What does this look like? They found no gun that you said the perp was holding and firing at you, and found no spent casings or bullets from the bad guy's gun. (The revolver he was firing at you could easily have been removed from many such scenarios by street punks or an accomplice). Shell casings would not be evident from a revolver, and while your semi auto would spit them out, they could get lost in the shuffle and not found especially dependent upon the geography of the location of the shooting. It now looks as if you may have fired all 7 shots. What will they now tend to believe; likely that you fired all 7 shots, and this may effect how they investigate. It would be much in your favor to have been found with one in the chamber and 11 in the magazine which totasls 12 so the 4 in theperp would make 16; remembering that 16 = a fully loaded gun for this scenario. Now how would that make you look, maybe a tad more believable, maybe a bit more incentive for the investigating authorities to look for the perp's gun? Maybe the difference between your going to jail for life or your being hailed as the hero because it could be the evidence that tipped the scales either way. (I hope I got all the math right, but regardless you should be able to get the idea.)

This all can be evidence for or against you in any criminal or civil proceedings. In addition, in any shooting in which there is a questionable scenario or statement on the good guy's part, any evidence that backs up the good guy as a regulation follower is a good thing. So if you follow regulations or just good sense when loading, you are less likely to have problems later - that is if you did everything else by the book in the shooting. To do otherwise is only to invite legal and civil headaches that could wind up with you in jail or in debt or both. I don't need the hassle so I do follow those regulations.

Of course, there is another thing that could happen because you under- loaded your pistol, and therefor another reason why at least I load fully to capacity. You, or I, could wind up dead due to an underloaded gun. Most, and this is the great majority, of shooting scenarios involve more than one bad guy. Three is a pretty frequent number. It could be two, or five, or ten, or even just one. Any of these could require a number of shots at each assailant. Of course we all know there are some people out there who claim extremely accurate marksmanship and tactical shooting skills each and every time under the most adverse of scenarios - you know: the one shot = one kill wonders. For them, just as for Deputy Barney Fife, an under-loaded gun may be fine. However, for the person grounded by the life or death reality of any such situation, having a gun loaded to its full capacity is the tactically sound thing to do. You see mere mortals, even those of us who are darned good combat shots, may actually miss on some shots or need to hit the guy more than once to put him down due to the pucker factor (which takes over as we subconsciously try not to dirty our own pants in a fire fight). Having the gun loaded to capacity is the way to go for those of us who are not bonafide 'each and every time one shot = one kill wonders', and for those of us who really want to be ready when the SHTF.

By the way, you see despite an earlier thread I started I am not ignoring your posts when they are, so far, like those in this thread. That is because while in disagreement with mine, at least they were civil in tone and content. I only disregard the arrogantly nasty, insulting, ones.

Best regards,
Glenn B

 

[andy]

if u stupid enough to LET that crime scene be altered by ANYONE, when YOU have both a loaded gun AND commissioned powers of arrest,then you DESERVE what happens to you.

 

[Hard Ball]

That's good advice. Thanks Glenn.

 

[Aslan]

if u stupid enough to LET that crime scene be altered by ANYONE, when YOU have both a loaded gun AND commissioned powers of arrest,then you DESERVE what happens to you.

I was on the scene of a shooting, as the ambulance and the fire truck rolled on scene (first non-police responders), two .45 shell casings became embedded in the tires of the firetruck. Had I not noticed this, chances are very good, thet when the fire truck left, the evidence would have been gone too.

You are stupid to assume that every aspect of a crime scene can be controlled. You cannot understand that things will NOT go exactly as you would like them to go.

You like to be insulting and show "superiority", only to fall short because you haven't thought things through.

Too bad, that as a felon, you cannot even do a ride along with a forensics unit (which I recommend that everyone who can legally do so, try at least once). You'd learn a lot.

:devil:

 

[DJetAce]

Aslan, I sure would NOT want <font color=red>*</font><font color=red>*</font><font color=red>*</font><font color=red>*</font><font color=red>*</font>kid with a forensics unit. I perfer he keep on posting the very bad advice he gives on how to hid things. One day, he will take his own advice and back to the slammer.

As for his 'thoughts' on what Glenn wrote, they are the same wothless advice of someone who has no clue.