For your EDC or Home Defense firearms, how many rounds does one recommend to ensure reliability? Pre-shortage (pre March 2020) prices for Self-defense ammo usually ran from $.40 to $1.00 per round depending on caliber and other variables. (It is recognized that some people pay more or less for SD ammo.)

Question:
No. of Self-defense you test in a carry/home firearm to ensure ammo reliability and compatibility.

Choices:
10 - 49
50 - 99
100 - 199
200 - 299
300 - 399
More than 400

 

At least 1, but usually 2 full magazines worth for carry mags (in the pistol and the reload). So typically for a G19, thats going to be 30-60 rds per pistol.

In addition to several hundred training rounds through the same mags / pistol.

For me, it depends upon how flawless the pistol has been operating with FMJ ammo.
If it's a Glock... three or four mags of the defensive ammo that I'm testing is fine. That helps me figure out point of impact as well.

For 1911's... I usually make sure to run around 50 or so rounds of the chosen JHP ammo...

https://sigforum.com/eve/forums...0601935/m/7120030844

In this thread you said "I am comfortable after 1,000 rounds".

https://sigforum.com/eve/forums...0601935/m/5540036074

Another good reason to get an EDC and stick with it.

I usually fall somewhere around 100 or 150 only because I tend to run different kinds of ammo if I can.

Purely for a single type of round. I’m happy with a few mags worth.

6 rounds. I carry revolvers + Rem 870P for HD.

150 for me. Provided the break in went well.

I'm confused about this question, (I voted the 10-49) Really for me just a magazine is all, because in thinking about this and both the ammo and pistols I've had (have) I don't think I've ever had a self defense round ever cause a failure... I think with my practice ammo I might have had a problem every 10,000 or so... maybe.

So, I might start a thread asking about these pistols that are having a problem with certain ammo...

EDIT: I just realized I have one 9mm pistol that did have break in problems... in fact not sure it is totally reliable now... FMK (striker fired Glock wanna be) from California that was 'free' for becoming a life member of Front Sight.

A long, long time ago I conducted a poll here asking people about the failures they had had with handguns and what their round counts were when they occurred. I specified that I was asking about problems with the guns themselves, and not ammunition such as failures to fire unless that was clearly the fault of the handgun.

Such a poll conducted here obviously has some weaknesses, but I got enough meaningful responses to conclude to a reasonable certainty that if a new gun was going to suffer a failure, it was almost always within 100 rounds, and usually sooner. As a result of that, my standard is 200 rounds total to ensure nothing is broken or likely to break in the short term, and testing each carry magazine with the defensive ammo.

If someone wants to set some ridiculously high round count test standard as an excuse to shoot a lot, that’s fine, but I really wonder what they believe they’re going to suddenly discover after 1000 or 5000 rounds that they wouldn’t have encountered earlier (assuming they’re not just trolling with such claims). Is it possible? Sure. Is it likely? No. And at what point does the volume of our reliability testing become the source of a problem?

I marked the highest number because I load my own self defense ammo (please no comments on legal issues with this) then I routinely practice with it in my carry guns so I have a high degree of confidence in my loads. Usually problems show up in new loads after 100-200 rounds.

100 is minimum.

I try to run plus p (when I can find it) or something hot for the first 100 rounds to break it in. Clean and check function everything. Run another 300 rounds of various FMJ weights and brands. Then end with 100 rounds of my carry ammo with not cleaning the weapon after the first 100. That puts me at 500 which hopefully is flawless at this point. That gives me a good amount of faith in knowing that the weapon will serve me and do what it should. It also gives me good muscle memory to trigger pull/weight and over all feel of the weapon.

Pre and post "all this shit happened" is the same. I bought 1K of my 147 grain HST standard pressure carry load about 3 months before this, so I've been able to keep on pace.

I've cut way down on my carry weapons too. Mainly due to worry of ammo shortage but also because I have been getting back into long range precision.

When I picked up the P365, reports were rife (many from members on this board) of striker breakages. These continued over time, with people reporting that their weapon went one or two hundred, then others a few hundred, a thousand, two thousand rounds, before the breakage occurred.

Initially I made trips to the range with just the p365 and shot a couple hundred here, a couple hundred there, then just included the P365 on every trip and shot it in addition to whatever else was being fired. After several thousand rounds, I couldn't find an excuse not to carry it. I tried it without ammunition for a couple of weeks in a pocket holster, couldn't find any way to get the trigger to activate unintentionally, and finally carried it with ammunition and have since. Same process used for other firearms, but a bit more careful in this case.

If I'm going to carry a firearm, I'll put several thousand rounds through it; not the expensive carry ammunition, but I want to ensure function first. I don't have any reason not to. I'll make sure it functions on the ammunition I'm going to carry, and then I'll carry it.

Checking that it will feed properly with the carry ammunition is just part of the process of making sure the weapon will function and be safe and reliable. Others may run a magazine through and be happy. I won't.

A lot depends on the gun. There is more testing with a 1911 than with one of my H&K's.

200-250 rounds of FJM / range ammo without any malfunctions and then 50 rounds of Federal HST 147gr standard pressure. At least 2 magazines of the HST at full speed. I'll carry it at that point.

I voted "200-299," but clarification is in order: That's three hundred malfunction-free rounds, and includes a mix of range ammo and each of the SD rounds I plan to carry, in each of the magazines.

I run a couple hundred rounds of range ammo, then start testing with SD ammo.

In testing with SD ammo: To keep the cost down, I load mags with the last two, first two, and one in the middle being SD rounds, padding the remainder with more economical range ammo. That way each mag and the pistol get tested at each mag's extremes, and in the middle, with the SD rounds.

My 10mm Kimber Classic II has yet to have run this entire regimen without a couple hiccups. So I'll tweak the extractor tension just a skosh >< more and do it again.

Tricky...I have to do math. This sucks.

So for my primary EDC G23 I chose two dedicated magazines as my "carry mags". Each will have at least 200 flaw-free rounds of ball ammo through them, then I'll run two or three mags of my preferred carry ammo, typically 180gr HSTs. That puts me at 56 rounds minimum, or 84 if I run 3 magazines worth two times. Which I think I did...it WAS some time ago, after all. All of those HSTs must run stoppage-free, which they did. So I guess I'm at 50 to 99 for the initial trial test, so that's what I chose. Except I didn't just shoot HSTs; those came a few years later. When I first bought the gun I tried ALL sorts of hollow points. Guess I forgot about those. I also don't have a clue as to how many of those rounds in total there were. Oh, darn.

Also: after a few months I will refresh and shoot off those 14 rounds that have been residing in my G23, then use the 'backup' mag + 1 as my new primary load, and reload mag #1 back up. So do these count as well? It's kinda testing as well, in a refresher sort of way. Can't tell you HOW MANY TIMES I've done this. Need a rules check, please.

But alas I also forgot...sometimes I actually DON'T follow my own pattern of mag use. Since I have multiple G23s that I use as backup to my primary, each of those guns and their mags get tested as well. Multiple mags get drawn into the equation. Equations? Eyuuewww, math. So I guess I'm somewhere way north of 200, after all. Certainly someplace beyond 400. Or maybe likely WELL over 800. Yet I chose 50 to 99. So it appears that I got that wrong. Good thing I don't have to take a SAT test anytime soon. Story problems are SO confusing...

Math story problems...I've always hated these foul things.


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When I "tested" my P365s which serve as my secondary carry choice in those scenarios where my G23 just won't work, I probably ran about 120-150 124gr and 150gr HSTs (mixed) with each of those because of how brutally tough their frickin' 10rd mags were to load. In addition to running LOTS of ball ammo, I wanted to make damn sure that those springs were truly "springy". I did roughly the same kind of testing with my earlier G43 and PPS M2.

My P365 is a May 21, 2018 build. Because it was one of the first with the "upgraded" parts, I immediately ran 200 rounds through it, consisting of 150 rounds of Speer Lawman FMJ and 50 rounds of Winchester Ranger HP duty ammo. No problems. Each of the four magazines I bought got equal use.

Over the next year and a half, I put another 1,000 or so rounds through the pistol using all four magazines. Perfect.

With all of my other pistols (such as my current P320C sidearm), my test is 100 FMJ rounds followed by 50 duty rounds.

I’ve loaded guns up out of the box and carried them home before. I’ve shot 1000 rounds as soon as I walked out of the shop before. Never had an issue either way.

I don’t buy new “carry” guns any more, as I only carry a couple of guns these days. But, if I were to, a few rounds would suit me. I think people are a little bit silly about this topic.

Also, what is “compatibility”?

I typically do a box of carry ammo (50) through the gun to confirm poi and make sure it doesn't hiccup. That's normally after a few boxes of fmj and more fmj afterwards when I'm doing my normal shooting over the course of the year.