How many times can a .45ACP round be chambered safely?

[BerksCountyDave]

Quick question here. My bedstand gun (.45 ACP 1911) gets a round chambered every night, and then the gun is unloaded every morning before getting locked in the safe for the day. The question is this: How many times can you safely chamber a round before running the risk of the bullet getting seated further into the case and pressures therefore rising to an unsafe level?

[PisnNapalm]

I was told not more than 3 times. That's what I follow.

[Frenchy]

Although I use 9mm, I believe as many times as it is not fired.
I eject the bullet when I check my gun, return it in the barrel manually, then insert the full mag.
The bullet never has any hard hits or jams as it is inserted manually and ejected manually. There is absolutely no reason for it to malfunction the first time or the 1000th time.

If you load from the mag, you might see wear and tear to the bullet, but then each gun would cause this very differently.

[BerksCountyDave]

Although I use 9mm, I believe as many times as it is not fired.
I eject the bullet when I check my gun, return it in the barrel manually, then insert the full mag.
The bullet never has any hard hits or jams as it is inserted manually and ejected manually. There is absolutely no reason for it to malfunction the first time or the 1000th time.

If you load from the mag, you might see wear and tear to the bullet, but then each gun would cause this very differently.

Isn't that hard on the extractor? Don't know . . . thought I heard that somewhere.

[Exbiker]

It`s hard on the cartridge and could result in the problem you described. Just put it in your safe cocked and locked and there is no harm.

[Frenchy]

Isn't that hard on the extractor? Don't know . . . thought I heard that somewhere.

How would opening and closing the pistol manually be hard on the extractor? This happens thousands of times at speeds your eye can barely see under normal operating conditions.

It`s hard on the cartridge and could result in the problem you described. Just put it in your safe cocked and locked and there is no harm.

How would manually extracting the bullet and manually inserting the bullet be hard on the casing? (cartridge)
The main concern here is the bullet having multiple hits on the ramp and possibly making it lose and pushing it down the cartridge. If you put it in manually, the bullet simply slips into the tube, you then release the slide, the extractor goes around the rim of the casing and seats in battery where it is ready to fire.

If as above you place a gun in a safe loaded, make sure you have it in a holster that covers the trigger, there are too many times people have shoved a pistol into a boxlike area where they do not see what could strike the trigger and had a discharge they later blamed on a "Faulty" Firearm.

Shooting a rond into a metal box where your hand is could be really messy!

[jtkratzer]

I think the concern for the extractor is that when the pistol loads from the magazine, the rim of the casing slides in behind the extractor. When you drop a round in the pipe and let the slide go forward, the extractor is forced to hop over the rim to get a bite on it. I've also heard doing it that was is hard on the extractor.

[BerksCountyDave]

I think the concern for the extractor is that when the pistol loads from the magazine, the rim of the casing slides in behind the extractor. When you drop a round in the pipe and let the slide go forward, the extractor is forced to hop over the rim to get a bite on it. I've also heard doing it that was is hard on the extractor.

Bingo. That was my point.

[BearTitan]

BCDave is right. Dropping the slide on a round burried in the chamber forces the extractor to move to the right until it clears the rim. This action puts alot of stress on the extractor and also increases the chances of contact with the firing pin and an AD. I would recommend against this practice. The gun was designed to strip rounds from the magazine.

To the OP. You can shorten a round the first time you chamber it, or you might be OK chambering it 100 times. I would recommend that you check your over all length against another cartridge each time you unload. If it looks good, then don't sweat it.

Like Exbiker, I store my carry gun cocked and locked. Guns only AD when you mess with them. I believe that storing the gun cocked and locked is much safer than your current practice.

Since we all treat all firearms as though they are loaded at all times, you should have no problem removing the loaded gun from the safe, right?

[XD45]

only once for me, you can change the pressures by chambering the same round a few times. As for manually operating the slide as long as that doesnt mean putting a round in the barrel then closing the slide, then inserting the CLIP(morning em) i see no issue being put on the gun over and above shooting it.