Advice to all people who carry for personal defense

[cfn0922]

A buddy of mine e-mailed me this link so I thought I'd share

http://smith-wessonforum.com/smith-w...37-danger.html

THE FOLLOWING TRAINING ADVISORY WAS FORWARDED FROM GWINETT COUNTY
POLICE DEPARTMENT – LAWRENCEVILLE, GA

In September of this year a GCPD officer was involved in a situation which quickly became a use of deadly force incident. When the officer made the decision to use deadly force, the chambered round in his duty pistol did not fire. Fortunately, the officer used good tactics, remembered his training and cleared the malfunction, successfully ending the encounter.

The misfired round, which had a full firing pin strike, was collected and was later sent to the manufacturer for analysis. Their analysis showed the following: “…the cause of the misfire was determined to be from the primer mix being knocked out of the primer when the round was cycled through the firearm multiple times”. We also sent an additional 2,000 rounds of the Winchester 9mm duty ammunition to the
manufacturer. All 2,000 rounds were successfully fired.

In discussions with the officer, we discovered that since he has small children at home, he unloads his duty weapon daily. His routine is to eject the chambered round to store the weapon. Prior to returning to duty he chambers the top round in his primary magazine, then takes the previously ejected round and puts in back in the magazine. Those two
rounds were repeatedly cycled and had been since duty ammunition was issued in February or March of 2011, resulting in as many as 100 chambering and extracting cycles. This caused an internal failure of the primer, not discernible by external inspection.

This advisory is to inform all sworn personnel that repeated cycling of duty rounds is to be avoided. As a reminder, when loading the weapon, load from the magazine and do not drop the round directly into the chamber. If an officer’s only method of safe home storage is to unload the weapon, the Firearms Training Unit suggests that you unload an entire magazine and rotate those rounds. In addition, you should also rotate through all 3 duty magazines, so that all 52 duty rounds
are cycled, not just a few rounds. A more practical method of home storage is probably to use a trigger lock or a locked storage box.

FURTHER GUIDANCE:

The primer compound separation is a risk of repeatedly chambering the same round. The more common issue is bullet setback, which increases the chamber pressures often resulting in more negative effects.

RECOMMENDATION:

In addition to following the guidance provided above of constantly rotating duty ammunition that is removed during the unloading/reloading of the weapon, training ammunition utilized during firearm sustainment and weapon manipulation drills, should also be discarded if it has been inserted into the chamber more than twice. This practice lessens the
likelihood of a failure to fire or more catastrophic results.

I do drop the same round in but never with the same frequency as the officer described (I live alone so there is no need to make my weapon safe every day).

I will be changing rounds up from now on though.

[Python73]

I always thought that it was a good idea to shoot your SD rounds every 6 months or so and get new ones. Not from any science mind you, just that I figured it can't hurt to run some SD rounds through your chosen gun to verify feed and function and refresh the ammo pool.

[cfn0922]

I always thought that it was a good idea to shoot your SD rounds every 6 months or so and get new ones. Not from any science mind you, just that I figured it can't hurt to run some SD rounds through your chosen gun to verify feed and function and refresh the ammo pool.

That's a given. But the LEO made his weapon safe everyday when he came home. Assuming 5 shifts a week, over 6 months that's 120 times he places the same round in the chamber. That's what caused his problem.

[mpan72]

I always thought that it was a good idea to shoot your SD rounds every 6 months or so and get new ones. Not from any science mind you, just that I figured it can't hurt to run some SD rounds through your chosen gun to verify feed and function and refresh the ammo pool.

Not to mention you should pratice with your sd ammo so you know what to expect from it.

[Chip W]

Had heard that chambering a round repeatedly could cause bullets to setback deeper into the cases thus possibly causing overpressure conditions, but I hadn't heard of primer charges being knocked out.
I learn something new everyday.

[Manxdriver]

Somebody said he "makes his weapon safe everyday". Really? I make mine safe everyday, and it is NEVER unloaded except to clean it. I make it safe by keeping it in the holster or one of the several safes in the house. See? There are ways to 'safe' a weapon from children that doesn't require compromising your own safety.

[RandomTask]

I always rotated my ammo in the gun, not because I was worried about the primer being knocked out, but because I didn't want the extractor to totally chew up the rim of the same round.

[FNG19]

I don't usually cycle a defense round more than twice. When I get to the range, I pull out my carry mag and replace it with a range mag full of FMJ. The first shot I take out of the gun, from a cold, clean barrel is the defense round in the pipe. That tells me how the round is holding up to being carried and how accurately I'm shooting it without any warm-up shots. When I leave, I reinsert the defense mag, cycle a round into the chamber, and go about my day (cycle #1). This gives me one in the pipe and nine in the mag.

When I get home and clean my pistol, I obviously unload it. When I'm done cleaning the pistol, I top off the mag with the round I ejected. Then I cycle it into the chamber (cycle #2), pull the mag, top it off with a fresh round, then reinsert the mag and go about my day.

Does this "waste" ammo? Depending on your perspective, possibly, but even if you go to the range once a week and shoot your defense pistol on each trip, that's still only a box of ammo a year -- not exactly a big investment.

[ChamberedRound]

Interesting that the act of repeatedly cycling a live round can cause a primer failure. It's not something I do often, but it's definitely something to be aware of.

Thanks to the OP for the information.

[ByblosHex]

Revolver: problem solved.

It's good information and I appreciate it being shared. I will be sure to pass it along.