Don't Let Your Carry Ammo Get Old

[NVcurmudgeon]

I am currently forcing myself to shoot at least 50 rounds from a pistol every week. I have a habit of neglecting the pistols in favor of the rifles. Today's pistol was my old reliable Series 80 Gold Cup. Started off with 55 handloaded H&G 68 target loads at 25 yd. Reliability 100 %, shooting terrible, it HAS been a long time. Next, the target was moved in to 7 yd. and the recoil spring changed. First I shot up 14 rounds of mixed factory ammo, mostly 230 gr. hardball. More like it, 100 % reliability, all in the ten ring. Finally I ran two magazines of Federal 200 gr. HP through, actually walked them through, because of numerous stoppages. Not good, these are what this pistol is loaded with for social purposes. Looking at the box, I saw "1-2-05" in my own handwriting. Oops, two years old, they used to work, but now they are like Buckshot's famous Lesters ammunition. Next week, the .45 gets tested with new Hornady 200 gr. HP, and while I'm at it, the Springfield 9 will get updated and tested, too. How can I be so fussy abut rifle play ammo, and overlook the important stuff?

[mtngunr]

Good advice.....but have to admit I shoot my handguns so often the main challenge is to make sure there IS carry ammo when I stop shooting......having old ammo in a gun is so......so........foreign an idea, I still cannot wrap my pea brain around the idea......ditto on rifle, lest anyone think I'm being preferential.....I think the only ammo I have in the house that is more than a year old is my stash of Norma 7.65mm for my Argy CavCarb, where I lucked into a bunch of it cheap at an auction....I test it yearly, FYI......and it all shoots to the same spot except one blasted lot that still shoots high and right no matter how long I let it cure....

[9.3X62AL]

Bill--

Were these rounds the ammo in the magazines--or ammo in boxes--or both? 2-year-old ammo SHOULD NOT have ANY sort of failure rate, esp. if from boxed supplies. What sorts of failures were occurring? FWIW, our agency's issue ammo was replaced yearly--and VERY SELDOM was any ammo-related problem observed. Even the green fur-infested stuff carried by the less diligent sidearm maintainers usually fed and went off--surprisingly enough.

I generally shoot out my carry ammo every 6 months or so, and let the magazine follower springs "relax" for a few days after cleaning before refilling the sidearm.

[44man]

I would say that is strange! I still have a bunch of loaded .44's from when I shot IHMSA, maybe 20 yr's old and they still shoot as accurate as they did.
My friends buy surplus military stuff for their old military guns and I am surprised at how great they shoot.
Unless stored under very poor conditions, I don't know what is going on.

[mtngunr]

Well, lube contamination is out with that bullet......bad lot of primers?.....old powder to begin with?....corrosion in the flash hole?....it is a meestory, for sure.....I'd be tempted to pull them and see what was up....

[woody1]

[QUOTE=NVcurmudgeon;149542] Finally I ran two magazines of Federal 200 gr. HP through, actually walked them through, because of numerous stoppages. Not good, these are what this pistol is loaded with for social purposes. Looking at the box, I saw "1-2-05" in my own handwriting. Oops, two years old, they used to work, QUOTE]

FEDERAL! I dunno what it is, but I have NO faith in Federal centerfire handgun or rifle ammo. Is it just me? I won't buy it and get rid of the brass as soon as I find it. I've tried reloading once fired federal's and the primer pockets blow out in a couple medium loads. end or rant......Regards, Woody

[NVcurmudgeon]

Sorry to be so non-specific about "stoppages." These were failures to extract. The slide would stop about half open (did not observe if it was after or instead of going all the way back.) I would drop the magazine, lock the slide back, point the muzzle up, gently slap the pistol and the fired case would fall out. Cases looked normal. Function had been 100% with my SWC handloads and a conglomeration of mixed factory loads. Extractor somewhat worn? Marginal rim dimensions? Both? Magazines feed OK manually, but that doesn't really duplicate shooting.
First step will be different ammuntion, and if that doesn't fix it, a new extractor.

In answer to Deputy Al, this occured with ammuntion from previously loaded magazines, not from the box.

[SharpsShooter]

NV
I like the Remington 185gr JHP for a social load in my 1911. It has been reliable and accurate in two different 1911's I've owned. Recoil is a bit less, if it matters at all. The only time I have seen a slide stop halfway to the rear was with lightly loaded target ammo and I was riding the slide with my thumb on the safety. Unless you have a five pound thumb, full power loads should push the slide back regardless. Did you notice any difference in report or recoil with the offending rounds?

SS

[9.3X62AL]

Sounds like a weak pressure sitch to me--wouldn't the critter "double-feed" if the slide came back fully?

[NVcurmudgeon]

A little more evidence about my apparently too old to cut the mustard Federal defense loads. The cartridges that gave me trouble were in magazines that had been loaded for up to two years. I tried the 13 rounds I had left in a box in the same two magazines and they went off without a hitch. However, recoil and sound were maybe a little wimpy. I tried some Hornady 200 HP (same weight as the Federals) and they bucked and roared more like a .45 should. All this is based on admittedly too small a sample and subjective impressions, but I think the Federals just got too old. I'll never know for sure, but carry loads will be tested and replaced more often around here.

[georgeld]

That's a VERY good idea.

[Lloyd Smale]

only time ive ran into a problem like that is with some .38 special ammo. I loaded 5 coffee cans full of 105 lees that i tumble lubed and found 2 of them id forgot about for about 2 years. About one in three were squibs or missfires. Figured with the hot and cold cyling in the barn the tumble lube on the base did them in. So i started pulling some of them and found that to be the case. Some had powder clumped up right on the bullet.

[BruceB]

Like Deputy Al, I usually try for a 6-month rotation of my carry ammunition. This is almost laughably short for modern rounds, EXCEPT that the ammo in carry guns may get exposed to moisture or corrosives (such as sweat etc.) which ammo stored in a comfy room temperature won't see. If any round should get even slightly dinged-up from reloading the gun or magazines, it is taken out of service immediately. I avoid repeatedly re-chambering the same round over and over again in the course of the six-month period.

In addition, the scheduled change of ammunition gives a function-check of the guns in question with their service load, because when it's switch-out time, I unload the guns "through the muzzle" as the old Navy term goes. The next batch for carry comes from NEW boxes of ammo.

I carry Federal 129 JHP in the M642 2" .38 revolver, and it works well. The 9mms use 115 Cor-Bon, which trips my chrono at 1270 fps from the 3.5" barrel! The .45 ACP 'duty' load is Gold Dot 230HP, replacing Remington 230 Golden Sabres which ran just around 750 fps from our guns' 5-inch barrels. The Speers are pushing close to 900 fps, which is a considerable improvement over the Remingtons.

Semi-autos are my in-town carry artillery. Outside town, it's revolvers with cast-bullet handloads, and I have no worries about their reliability or performance.

Sometime ago, maybe a year or more, I wrote here of firing a whole mess of cast-bullet ammo which had been either in my shed out back or riding around in Der Schuetzenwagen for several years of HOT Nevada weather...and hotter inside the shed and van than the outside temps, of course. I suspect that 120 degrees or more would not be a wild estimate. I was very pleased to find ZERO failures to fire, and that the chrono reported the loads to be still operating in the original speed range. Some of the stuff was four years old.