I took my Ruger LCP and CZ P-07 out for a bit of "group therapy." A suggestion was made a while back, that I'd never really thought about but makes a lot of sense, to shoot a carry gun with the initial load, as it would be used "for real," instead of unloading the carry ammo first and substituting practice ammo. Imagine my surprise when the first (the one in the chamber) Winchester PDX-1 Defender .380 out of the LCP had a hang-fire and a weak little "pop" report. It failed to cycle the action and at first I could see no hole in the target. (I found it later, at the very bottom of the paper, a good foot and a half below where I aimed.) Afraid I had a bullet stuck in the barrel, I locked the action open and probed it with a pen. With the barrel confirmed clear, I tried again. The next round fired and cycled, but the following round was a complete dud. It had a good primer strike mark, so I gave up on the Winchester and shot the practice ammo I brought. No more failures to fire. I also confirmed what I suspected from the last outing, that one particular magazine was causing the failures to feed I'd been experiencing. With good ammo and magazines, the gun ran perfectly. As my "little gun to fight my way to the big gun," this is the one I would likely have gone to first. Good thing I didn't actually have to.

The P-07 had no problems shooting the initial load of Federal Hi-Shoks, but did have one failure to eject with a Federal Champion. This is the first stoppage of any kind that gun has ever had. The recoil felt lighter with that particular round and all the rest were perfect, so I'll chalk this up to ammo. I also tried out a newly introduced 16-round flush-fit factory magazine (normal is 15). No functioning problems, but even with an Uplula loader it was noticeably more difficult to fully load and lock in against a closed slide.

You don't carry a gun without testing it first. Same principle goes for your carry ammo.

Federal HST is my carry ammo, but I test all guns with 3 different types, just so I know if there are any that don't play nice. Minimum of 3 magazines for each type. Expensive as hell, but then I know.

As I don't get to the range as much as I like, I always shoot the 'carry mag' as the first rounds out of each gun, every time. Can get a little pricey but worth every penny IMO.

quote:

Originally posted by 12131:
You don't carry a gun without testing it first. Same principle goes for your carry ammo.

Absolutely. You get to shoot more too.
Just purchased a new pistol yesterday and 200 rounds of ball through it. No issues. Next round will be with some SD rounds. Probably another 100-150 and then I'll call her good. Depending on if I run into problems which I don't think I will.

It's also a good thing to clean your carry piece. I was at a CCW renewal class (yes every three years we in the State of Maryland must take an eight hour class and qual for our permit). After about 75 rounds and the temp dropping I got a "not quite to battery" FTF. We figured that the combo of temp, dust and grease was slowing down the return to battery. I quickly ran some liquid lube into the gun and off the races we went. Chris

quote:

Originally posted by Chris Anchor:
...(yes every three years we in the State of Maryland must take an eight hour class and qual for our permit). After about 75 rounds and the temp dropping I got a "not quite to battery" FTF. ...

Slight thread drift: How many rounds do you have to fire for requal???

quote:

Originally posted by Chris Anchor:
It's also a good thing to clean your carry piece. I was at a CCW renewal class (yes every three years we in the State of Maryland must take an eight hour class and qual for our permit). After about 75 rounds and the temp dropping I got a "not quite to battery" FTF. We figured that the combo of temp, dust and grease was slowing down the return to battery. I quickly ran some liquid lube into the gun and off the races we went. Chris

I had the exact same thing happen. I thought firing the gun would keep things warm but the last mag. on a box of 100 failed to go the last little bit into battery.
All the time action-open on the bench while sharing an outdoor lane in winter temps. caught up to it. It was slide glide Med. so I shouldn't have been surprised, but it still bothered me.

quote:

Originally posted by Sigmund:

quote:

Originally posted by Chris Anchor:
...(yes every three years we in the State of Maryland must take an eight hour class and qual for our permit). After about 75 rounds and the temp dropping I got a "not quite to battery" FTF. ...

Slight thread drift: How many rounds do you have to fire for requal???

50 rounds for record then we blew up another 100 or so just for fun. Everybody in the class had passed so we started doing concealment draws/hammer drills/magic triangle head shots. Some of us, like myself started with FMJ 115 gr then last couple of magazines went to our carry ammo. I carry CorBon 90gr JHP very fast with a lot of knock down power for a 9mm and super low recoil, easy round to work with. Chris

quote:

Originally posted by Chris Anchor:
50 rounds for record then we blew up another 100 or so just for fun. Everybody in the class had passed so we started doing concealment draws/hammer drills/magic triangle head shots. Some of us, like myself started with FMJ 115 gr then last couple of magazines went to our carry ammo. I carry CorBon 90gr JHP very fast with a lot of knock down power for a 9mm and super low recoil, easy round to work with. Chris

I am shocked you can even get a CCW permit in MD.
 

Several years ago had the same issue with pdx ammo. Exact same as yours, first round in carry rotation. Went to federal hudroshocks no problem since

I have always tried any new carry ammo in my gun/s beforei carry it. 1 to see how it runs and 2 to see if it is accurate.

I have settled on Gold dots for the last 15 years. Any time I buy a new batch (Any change in lot #'s)I always shoot at least a mag just to test the ammo. Every 6 months I shoot my carry ammo that has been in my mags and put fresh back in.

quote:

Originally posted by jcat:
As I don't get to the range as much as I like, I always shoot the 'carry mag' as the first rounds out of each gun, every time. Can get a little pricey but worth every penny IMO.

Same for me Jcat. Good system to use...

quote:

Originally posted by am94pm:
I have always tried any new carry ammo in my gun/s beforei carry it. 1 to see how it runs and 2 to see if it is accurate.

I have settled on Gold dots for the last 15 years. Any time I buy a new batch (Any change in lot #'s)I always shoot at least a mag just to test the ammo. Every 6 months I shoot my carry ammo that has been in my mags and put fresh back in.

I do the same with my loaded SD rounds, I do not sample new lots. Every 6mo-year. Anyone else do this too, or am I'm just being paranoid and wasteful?

That's why I just carry ball ammo....kidding

I'd never carry a greased gun. I might grease a gun for a long range session, but afterwards, I'd clean it, thoroughly removing the grease. I'd give the contact spots a light coating of oil or dry lube, and carry like that.

quote:

Originally posted by dsiets:

quote:

Originally posted by Chris Anchor:
It's also a good thing to clean your carry piece. I was at a CCW renewal class (yes every three years we in the State of Maryland must take an eight hour class and qual for our permit). After about 75 rounds and the temp dropping I got a "not quite to battery" FTF. We figured that the combo of temp, dust and grease was slowing down the return to battery. I quickly ran some liquid lube into the gun and off the races we went. Chris

I had the exact same thing happen. I thought firing the gun would keep things warm but the last mag. on a box of 100 failed to go the last little bit into battery.
All the time action-open on the bench while sharing an outdoor lane in winter temps. caught up to it. It was slide glide Med. so I shouldn't have been surprised, but it still bothered me.

quote:

Originally posted by henryaz:

quote:

Originally posted by Chris Anchor:
50 rounds for record then we blew up another 100 or so just for fun. Everybody in the class had passed so we started doing concealment draws/hammer drills/magic triangle head shots. Some of us, like myself started with FMJ 115 gr then last couple of magazines went to our carry ammo. I carry CorBon 90gr JHP very fast with a lot of knock down power for a 9mm and super low recoil, easy round to work with. Chris

I am shocked you can even get a CCW permit in MD.
 

You just have to know how to word your reason on the application. It also helps that I'm a Pawnbroker/Gold, Silver and Diamond buyers in the greatest/safest part of Baltimore the city that bleeds. Chris

quote:

Originally posted by Chris Anchor:

quote:

Originally posted by henryaz:

quote:

Originally posted by Chris Anchor:
50 rounds for record then we blew up another 100 or so just for fun. Everybody in the class had passed so we started doing concealment draws/hammer drills/magic triangle head shots. Some of us, like myself started with FMJ 115 gr then last couple of magazines went to our carry ammo. I carry CorBon 90gr JHP very fast with a lot of knock down power for a 9mm and super low recoil, easy round to work with. Chris

I am shocked you can even get a CCW permit in MD.
 

You just have to know how to word your reason on the application. It also helps that I'm a Pawnbroker/Gold, Silver and Diamond buyers in the greatest/safest part of Baltimore the city that bleeds. Chris

I would suggest that Chris is oversimplifying something here, but he's right on both counts - he has a permit b/c of his business, but if he didn't know the magic language to use on the application and at the interview, he'd still likely be denied like the rest of us serfs.

When you're testing ammo, don't forget to torture test the mags you may carry as well!

-Rob

I will usually run 50 defensive loads through a new piece and try to do more when $ is right. Never had a problem until recently when a new sig stx wouldn't feed any hst rounds. Glad I tested first.

I recommend that one keeps 200 rounds of defensive ammo on hand and shoots-then-replaces about 50 of those rounds per year. I've seen some guns absolutely choke on what should have been premium defensive ammo. In my personal experience, the SIG P220 (45) is the quirkiest (although many others have not had this experience).

I also recommend shooting those defensive round when the gun is dirtiest etc to ensure reliability.

There's no way to predict bad ammo, but of all the brands, I've only experienced factory squibs with Winchester frangible.

Ran my agency qual. this weekend. Used ammo with PMC "green" (lead-free) primers. Had around 20% fail to ignite with stock fully sprung and mostly newer Glocks (9mm). Same ammo in a 9MM "open" 1911 (with reduced power hammer spring) and got 100% ignition. It was very cold and snowing. Another shooter with CCI primers had several ignition failures of primers in a G21 with stock springs. Bottom line; OP is dead on about testing your ammo in your gun.

-mb