re chambered cartridge

[ruggerio]

i have never been in the military or carried as a "duty weapon" but i was at a range shooting and after the course of conversation drifted toward ammo and chambered rounds. a couple of the old timers in the group stated in the course of the conversation that they " never re-chamber a round that was previously chambered and subsequently ejected"

the response i got when i asked why was something about deformation of the cartridge.

i have a lot of respect for theses guys and the conversation was meandering so i did not press the issue or follow up for a more detailed explanation. collectively ( the four of them) have tens of years in combat and on duty so as a relative rookie i was happy to just listen to the balance of what was being talked about.

does anyone have some input?

[Asmodeus6]

Repeated chamberings can unseat the bullet and push it farther in the case. This can cause an otherwise avoidable over pressure situation which can / could destroy your firearm, and parts of you.

Many people however repeatedly unchamber and rechamber 'carry' ammo when they go to the range to shoot target ammunition. If you aren't careful when you do this, well, see above.

Rounds that hit the ground that are manually ejected can be deformed when striking the ground. If the chamber was hot - it can also cause debris to stick to the cartridge case since the case will be hot when it is ejected. Reinserting that round in the chamber can introduce foreign material into the chamber causing malfunctions.

That being said I think we've all kicked a shell out for one reason or another, and put it in a magazine to be rechambered and fired later. But there's a difference between say, ripping on a charging handle and launching a round to bounce off the ground and tilting the rifle over and drawing the handle back slowly so it drops into your hand, or onto a shooting bag.

The same could be said for pistols. But many straight wall pistol cases are far more likely to jam the bullet into a feed ramp where it will have the weight of a recoil spring behind it. It will then strike the chamber roof and be forced straight. Do this a couple times and measure the OAL of the round. Some varieties are more prone to set back than others but ALL will eventually do it if you chamber them enough.

Setting off a severely set back round as stated above can very well ruin your firearm. And possibly even launch a piece of your weapon into a vital part of your body maiming or killing you.

So half of it is about safety, the other half about weapon malfunctions.

[ruggerio]

awesome info! thanks a ton. rep a commin.

[harold63]

awesome info! thanks a ton. rep a commin.

+ 2 on the info.

[Asmodeus6]

And remember, the military has to write bible for the lowest common denominator. The guys that would kick a shell out on the ground, in the rain... into mud, put it in their pocket - clean the weapon and then put the gritty round back in the weapon. Just because someone is military, doesn't make them a gun person. Trust me.

So the doctrine must be stern to avoid the dimmest of the bunch from getting themselves and their mates killed. It's bad enough OTHER people are actively trying to kill you in a combat zone. So they do what they can to keep their house clean. Guy gets deployed on patrol 5 times without a fire fight. When he gets back to the wire he kicks the round out. Each time he puts it back in the rifle. Eventually (from a floating firing pin repeatedly tapping a primer) it could slam fire. Or on the 6th patrol he takes fire and deploys his rifle. Drops the hammer and on the first round turns his barrel into a grenade. Now he's out of the fight - possibly injured. And the unit is still taking fire.

There are any number of reasons this gets drilled into .mil from the second they are reborn into troops. And all of them are good reasons. People are in fact - genuinely not very intelligent. What seems like common sense to me or you. May not even be a twinkle in someone else's brain stem. These are the ones the policy gets written for.

SO, if you were responsible for trying to explain proper care of ammunition, keeping it clean, keeping an eye out for bullet set back - etc. Or you just say - A round that comes out of the weapon NEVER goes back in. PERIOD. Which would be easier to explain? When the bullets are flying, mortars coming down and you have guys that haven't got an honest nights sleep in months... do you really want them being the judge of whether that round has been chambered twice, three times, or eight...

It seems silly here. But in those situations most of the 'hard fast' rules are there to keep you alive.

[ungawa]

I've measured my carry ammo after many repeated chamberings and found no change. One of the moderators here did the same and posted his results, no problems.

It is a potential issue, it is not a guaranteed problem.

Another potential problem is that residual cleaning solvents or even oil might affect reliability of primers in unsealed ammo carried for long periods of time. Water might even do it in unsealed ammo.

None of this is highly likely in modern, high quality self defense ammo, but all of it is possible. Use high quality ammo designed for self defense or police use, check it, and shoot it off on a regular basis after carrying it.

Another problem can occur with firearms with floating firing pins (such as AR). Ammo with soft primers can have the primer cake break up after repeated chamberings from the light primer strikes of the floating firing pin. Resulting in complete failure to fire when you try to shoot it. I think this is one of the reasons that military ammo has particularly hard primers.

[West Chester]

I carry Corbon DPX copper rounds and chambered rounds tend to get dents in the mouth of the hollow point from hitting the feed ramp.

[Asmodeus6]

I've had Golden Sabre's set back after repeated chamberings. My gun likes them so I just don't chamber the same round more than twice. (once initially, then the second time it ends up in the chamber it's to be fired.) I just cycle them through the mag if and when I load and unload to change ammo.

When I get to the point where they've all been chambered I shoot the mag off. Gotta practice with carry ammo too.

[762xIan]

And remember, the military has to write bible for the lowest common denominator.

That is the main reason, basic safety.

On the rare occasion I am chambering and unchambering for what ever reason, I give them a good once over and will usually do a quick side by side comparison to a "known" good round. If setback is obvious, it goes in the rangebag and I will take the cartridge apart when I get home and save everything for reloading components.

I love free range ammo pickups, they all come home with me.

[Gun]

I shoot the mag, that is in my carry weapon, first, when I go to the range. Obviously, the mag is filled with SD ammo. The reason, there is no practice in an SD situation, and I want to know that it will fire, which of course doesn’t guarantee that it will always fire. I also want the feel of the pronounced recoil in my hand, from that first mag. That recoil differs considerable from the way target ammo feels.

This will add to the expense of the range visit, about nine dollars, but well worth knowing that the gun fires properly, with the carry ammo. No gun is 100%, but I will take 99.9%, and trust that my clearing of a jammed firearm will get me thru the event.


BTW, if I hadn’t shot my carry firearm in a while, it still gets barrel cleaned, periodically, which means unloading the weapon, and redistributing the chambered round.