Do you clear your weapon daily?

[Colonel D]

Got it. Keep one in the chamber and dont mess with things unless you do a wipe down or get some range time in. Sounds easy enough.

That's what I've done since '72. Every handgun I own is loaded, chambered and ready to go. Takes the guesswork out of it.

 

[jstwrit]

I clear daily...

I clear daily...I wouldn't do this but I have three small boys and a wife who isn't fond of my obsession. If I didn't have kids I wouldn't clear it but even though it's locked up I won't take the chance, so I do the same thing as you but every few months I shoot my top two rounds so that they don't become nicked up from the constant chambering. It's worked for more than a year, why stop now? Good luck.

 

[Titanium_Frost]

I don't clear daily but it seems everyone always wants to see my Kimber 1911 Ultra in stainless and I never give anyone a loaded gun so the ammo has been cycled several times. It is a little shorter but not by much so I'm not worried.

 

[Comp]

I am by no means a professional gun fighter and this is just my opinion:

I do not clear my weapon. I will do a check to make sure it is in the condition it should be in right before I leave. If I move a gun it is always loaded and treated as such. If I want to dry fire, I will clear it and put live ammo a cross the room out of reach. Other then dry fire once every few days and cleaning it after a range trip or after 3-4 weeks, I don't really clear it that much.

As for the boolits. I have seen my lcp shove the boo-lit deeper in the brass. Not often but I normally throw them away if they get to short.

If you maybe live with a child invest in a night stand safe. I would hate to have someone be able to sneak at the foot of my bed and me still have to rack the slide and fight them off to defend myself if identified as hostile. That is a bit extreme but there was a home invasion case not to long ago posted on here that was almost exactly that.

 

[Captain Bligh]

I have a few control issues. The only loaded gun in my house is the one on my my person or otherwise under my direct control. When I leave the house, I take every precaution against theft, accident through unauthorized access, or coming home to find one of my guns used against me by an armed intruder. Guns unloaded, check. Trigger lock on every gun, check. Guns in locked storage, check. Ammunition locked separately, check.

That means I do unload frequently. I have had problems with bullet set back only once on a Glock 19. Because of that, I am more often using a revolver to load and unload without risking set back.

 

[littletommy]

I only "clear" my weapon by firing it, other than that, it stays ready. Maybe two times per year the occasion comes up to clear it without firing. and I do that into a sand barrel in the garage. I try to fire my EDC at least every other week, sometimes more often. Personally, I feel that the more often you load and unload a round, the more risk you run of something bad happening. I carried a revolver for several years when my kids were little, however, and I did clear the weapon on a daily basis.

 

[ATM]

no.

 

[Drail]

Considering that the factory ammunition available today has shown itself to have serious quality control problems and the manufacturers are pretty much unanimous when asked "How many times can I chamber a round before it sets back?" they will tell you they are not responsible if rounds are rechambered repeatedly, i.e. more than once - I would advise giving serious thought to not clearing and reloading your gun multiple times every day. Some calibers and loads will not tolerate very much setback before the pressures will get into a dangerous range for some guns. If your situation absolutely requires you to do this you should possibly think about switching to a revolver for daily carry or leaving your gun loaded and using some type of lock on it. It is possible to load ammunition that will not setback after being chambered many times (any good hadloader can do it) but you should not trust the ammo companies to build ammo to that level - they simply don't care. They have more lawyers than you do and they're producing quantity not quality.

 

[cranduit]

Same bullet cleared and chambered several times (between 2 and probably 20, it seems to be random when I feel like changing) then it gets tossed in the range ammo box so it can have a proper burial (in a backstop behind a silhouette).

 

[2cool9031]

A little different issue there when the bullet gets to moving... At least I have never seen set back on a revolver. Everytime I have seen bullets move in a wheelgun, they have always "walked " forward. It's when they get into the forcing cone and locks up the cylinder that it becomes more a pain than anything. The range I frequent doesn't let shooters clear that condition on site... They have to leave and clear it.

I do experience the bullets walking forward some times when I shoot my S&W 329PD with hard cast lead bullets. I put what I consider to be a pretty heavy crimp on them....but combined with the fact that the pistol is light weight and has a sharp recoil...they will walk out sometimes. I never had a problem with jacketed bullets.

 

[bstewrat3]

I feel honored to have witnessed a very good test of the damage that can occur to ammunition that is not only chambered repeatedly but loaded in magazines repeatedly. The ammo used by a local law enforcement agency is passed on from shift to shift 3 times per day and is unloaded into ammo blocks to account for every round then loaded into the next shifts magazines and chambered. It was supposed to be rotated every 6 months and the carry ammo used for training but due to some issues it was carried for 12 months once. At the end of that period there were several rounds that the bullets could be pulled out of the cases with your fingers and many more that had a visible setback. The cases were brown from being handled so much and heavily scored on the outside.

 

[ATM]

^ Wow... bet they went through some magazine springs as well.

 

[ThrottleJockey]

I rarely unload mine any way other than squeezing the trigger. When I do, it still isn't a problem. I never chamber from the magazine, but drop the round in the chamber by hand, close the slide, insert the mag. This way I don't have to worry about the seating problem and I get my mags full capacity+1.

 

[ATM]

I rarely unload mine any way other than squeezing the trigger. When I do, it still isn't a problem. I never chamber from the magazine, but drop the round in the chamber by hand, close the slide, insert the mag. This way I don't have to worry about the seating problem and I get my mags full capacity+1.

That method is generally considered to be harder on the extractor.

+1 capacity is achievable either way.

 

[Indy_Guy_77]

I rarely unload mine any way other than squeezing the trigger. When I do, it still isn't a problem. I never chamber from the magazine, but drop the round in the chamber by hand, close the slide, insert the mag. This way I don't have to worry about the seating problem and I get my mags full capacity+1.

That method is generally considered to be harder on the extractor.

+1 capacity is achievable either way.

TJ's method above is generally much more frowned upon for 1911 pistols than any other. And older 1911's at that.

But it CAN cause extractor breakage. Or fatigue that can lead to breakage. Almost all modern pistols are designed so that the ammo casing slips in underneath the extractor rather than having the extractor slammed over the rim (like an AR rifle...I think?)

Here is what I do when I re-chamber a round:

Load mag so that re-chambered round is on top. Insert magazine. While gripping the slide to prevent it from slamming home, I hit the slide release. I then lower the slide manually. I then press it into place to be sure that it's "home". Remove mag, top it off, and re-insert. Viola. No set-back issues with the ammunition.

-J-

 

[VERT]

I feel honored to have witnessed a very good test of the damage that can occur to ammunition that is not only chambered repeatedly but loaded in magazines repeatedly. The ammo used by a local law enforcement agency is passed on from shift to shift 3 times per day and is unloaded into ammo blocks to account for every round then loaded into the next shifts magazines and chambered. It was supposed to be rotated every 6 months and the carry ammo used for training but due to some issues it was carried for 12 months once. At the end of that period there were several rounds that the bullets could be pulled out of the cases with your fingers and many more that had a visible setback. The cases were brown from being handled so much and heavily scored on the outside.

I'm sorry but that is the one of the craziest things I have ever heard of. Unless the weapon is fired, why would the officer not have every round? I could understand if the department issued a certain amount of duty ammo every six months or so. I could even understand them wanting it back. But unloading duty weapons every shift? What do the officers carry home? If it is not that gun why not just have them turn it in after every shift and then sign it out to the next guy.

 

[Cemetery-man]

I never chamber from the magazine, but drop the round in the chamber by hand, close the slide, insert the mag.

Wow. Never thought I would hear that one come from this forum.

For years and from just about every gun forum, gunsmith and store I have visited, they have always emphasized not to do this for the very reasons mentioned above.

 

[mrfsm1]

Im of the load it and leave it school myself.

 

[gcoop]

load the gun,carry the gun,shoot the gun,reload the gun. buy more ammo to reload the gun.

 

[JoshuaW]

Factory crimp should keep the bullet in the same place on clambering one as clambering 500.

No. As mentioned, there have been several experiments showing this is not the case. I dont think any crimp can guarantee that it wont get set back if you chamber it enough. I would love to see someone do an experiment with an EXTREMELY heavy crimp (but still safe to fire) to see how long it would be before significant setback. My guess, less than 50.

Or just leave the gun in the holster. In holster = no finger on the trigger and no kaboom.

Agreed. Pocket holsters and IWB holsters make great nightstand/glove box holsters. They are normally not bulky and are easy to stick someplace. I like my Remora holsters for the car, as they dont really add any extra bulk to the gun, and I can stick it under one leg while driving.

Aside from the bullet-seating issue, I wonder how much of an issue there is with case damage from the extractor. I have noticed that, with some pistols, an ejected case bears some visible marking on the rim. Does this ever cause feeding or ejection problems later?

And, for those of you who reload--is part of your reloading process to try to smooth out or otherwise remove ejector markings? Or does it really not matter?

I dont. If it has heavy extractor marks, I pitch the case. Light ones are simply cosmetic. If it is enough to have a burr, it gets pitched. If a case has burrs on it, it has the potential to jam.