Rechambering Rounds

[RandomName]

Another possible issue is damage to the primer, or specifically the little chemical cake on the inside of the primer.

"the cause of the misfire was determined to be from the primer mix being knocked out of the primer when the round was cycled through the firearm multiple times"

This was from an analysis done of a round that failed to fire in a police officer's duty weapon during a shoot out. I don't recall the original place I read that. Googling it leads to links to other forums, and I'm not sure if posting links to other forums is against the rules here so I'll leave it up to your search skills to find.

 

[WebHobbit]

I NEVER rechamber a round. When I unload I take that round and put it in a special 'cup' in my "gun closet"/safe area. When I go shooting those rounds get shot up with my normal range ammo. So technically I do rechamber it ONCE to fire it off.

So this way ALL my expensive SD hollow-point loads get cycled through my gun overtime VERY slowly.

 

[NHT3]

If you are checking the OAL regularly I wouldn't concern myself with it. Some pistols might be more prone to the problem than others. I worked on a 1911 for a guy a while back and I noticed when he unloaded it there was noticeable setback on the round he removed. Setback was approx. .045. He wasn't aware of the issue and started rotating through the rounds in the mag when he reloads. I've checked my 1911s and have never had an issue with any of them but I have them all tuned to the point that they will feed empty cases so the contact between the bullet and the ramp is probably minimal. Best bet if you have any doubt is to lock it up loaded if possible. Second option is to check the OAL often. Just my .02


[FONT=&quot]NRA Life member [/FONT][FONT=&quot]GSSF member[/FONT][FONT=&quot]
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[FONT=&quot] [/FONT][FONT=&quot]1911 Mechanic[/FONT]

 

[cosermann]

I NEVER rechamber a round. When I unload I take that round and put it in a special 'cup' in my "gun closet"/safe area. When I go shooting those rounds get shot up with my normal range ammo. So technically I do rechamber it ONCE to fire it off.

So this way ALL my expensive SD hollow-point loads get cycled through my gun overtime VERY slowly.

Great idea.

 

[cqcn88]

I have 20 rounds of winchester super elites in .40 that I've had for quite a while. I know at least a few of them have been chambered and rechambered over time so I got out the calipers and started measuring. The OAL spread is from 1.126 all the way down to 1.111. The majority fall between 1.119 and 1.123. So, curious to know what it SHOULD be I headed to Gander Mountain with the calipers in my pocket. Found a box and measured the first row of 4. I got 1.122, 1.121, 1.120, and 1.120. I didn't want to stand there measuring all of them but from these 4 it seems nominal is somewhere around 1.121. That been said, the round I measured at home had pushed back approximately .010". What I don't know is how much setback if any is too acceptable. Right now I have removed all my rounds that were below 1.119". I'm going to be keeping track and I'll probably try to shoot of an email to winchester and see if they would like to weigh in.

Interesting read I found on a different forum regarding the 180 gr .40 s&w.
http://greent.com/40Page/ammo/40/180gr.htm

 

[kwood]

i read through this whole thread and unless i missed it no one brought up
what if your unload/reload process is...
rack the slide back to remove chambered round
drop the mag (which is fully loaded)
....then for rechamber...
lock slide back
drop round in chamber by hand
drop the slide
slap mag back in (which is fully loaded)

i only unload and reload, for gun range trips, sometimes in gun stores, and a few other reasons. i do not do this daily sometimes not even weekly but i always drop in the same round every time by hand

any issues with this since its not being loaded up the feed ramp?

 

[jwh20]

>>any issues with this since its not being loaded up the feed ramp?

When you do this, the extractor is forced to snap over the rim of the case when the slide pushes it to the edge of the chamber. When a round is loaded from the magazine, it "slides" up under the extractor and is already in place when the slide is then closed.

Some say that the "snapping" of the extractor is hard on it. Others say this is what it's designed to do. As always, your mileage may vary...

As far bullet movement, I've seen this in reloads but have not ever noticed it with factory ammo which is crimped. The crimp holds the bullet in place quite well.

 

[kwood]

>>any issues with this since its not being loaded up the feed ramp?

When you do this, the extractor is forced to snap over the rim of the case when the slide pushes it to the edge of the chamber. When a round is loaded from the magazine, it "slides" up under the extractor and is already in place when the slide is then closed.

Some say that the "snapping" of the extractor is hard on it. Others say this is what it's designed to do. As always, your mileage may vary...

As far bullet movement, I've seen this in reloads but have not ever noticed it with factory ammo which is crimped. The crimp holds the bullet in place quite well.

i have noticed claw marks around the rim of the single round i always load
i figured that was the case
are there any issues with firing a round with lots of these marks?

 

[seldon14]

Just measured my rounds that I have been carrying for around 3 months, Mind you I carry daily and chamber and rechamber DAILY!! ZERO additional seating, notta, not even .0001. been carrying this way for over 20 yrs. I call BS!! Do what you wish, and i'll keep doing what i've been doin for 20+yrs.

Just because it doesn't happen with your ammo/gun combo, doesn't mean it doesn't happen. When I got my first gun (1911) I generally rechamberd the first 2 rounds repeatedly when switching out SD ammo for range ammo. Didn't know any different. I eventually noticed that one, yes oddly enough only one out of the 2, had significant set back. I didn't have calipers so I didn't measure it, but it was very obvious just from looking at it, that's what caused me to notice. I went online and asked about it and was then informed about bullet set back.

I don't know how common it is, but it DOES happen. I think as long as you keep an eye on them you should be fine. That said, it's a good practice to leave your defensive arm unloaded. It's also a good practice to practice with your defensive load. Unless I'm getting to the range more than once a month I like to fire at least my primary mag of defensive ammo.

i read through this whole thread and unless i missed it no one brought up
what if your unload/reload process is...
rack the slide back to remove chambered round
drop the mag (which is fully loaded)
....then for rechamber...
lock slide back
drop round in chamber by hand
drop the slide
slap mag back in (which is fully loaded)

i only unload and reload, for gun range trips, sometimes in gun stores, and a few other reasons. i do not do this daily sometimes not even weekly but i always drop in the same round every time by hand

any issues with this since its not being loaded up the feed ramp?

AFAIK that should reduce or eliminate set back, but as stated may cause other issues. Depending on the gun it may cause undue wear on the extractor, I've heard of it screwing up the spec on internal extractors, causing FTEs, but I have no first hand experience with this. So pistols are designed to be loaded this way. I believe the Beretta 92, and some others in the Beretta family are, not sure what others are though.

 

[kwood]

AFAIK that should reduce or eliminate set back, but as stated may cause other issues. Depending on the gun it may cause undue wear on the extractor, I've heard of it screwing up the spec on internal extractors, causing FTEs, but I have no first hand experience with this. So pistols are designed to be loaded this way. I believe the Beretta 92, and some others in the Beretta family are, not sure what others are though.

for reference
the two i load like this are an M&P 9
and HK USPc 9

 

[Tombs]

Yes. With our children she would rather have it unchambered and in the safe.

Call me crazy for recommending this...

But I'd say look into a gun that gives you a magazine disconnect safety if the rules aren't negotiable.

It's not worth having a gun blow up in your hand. That bullet may not just set back gradually, when you chamber it up to leave, it may finally jam its self way back in the casing and you'll never know it.

The risk is too great to do this so often. Once that round is in the chamber, it's going down the barrel. Hell, most early semi-automatic handguns didn't have an ejection port large enough for a loaded round, because this is not a safe practice, and is not something the gun was designed to do.

With a magazine disconnect, you can leave a round in the chamber, and just separate the magazine from the gun. You can't rely on any safety device, but some people believe an unloaded gun is safe, and that a lock/safe is good enough of a barrier.

This may be one case where I might actually recommend you carrying with a dry chamber if you absolutely have to do this stuff.
Some guns are much worse about this than others. So far I have yet to find a platform that causes more bullet set back than a 1911. If the feed angle is practically straight into the chamber and the nose of the bullet really doesn't touch anything, then it's not much of an issue. If you notice your feed ramp has a copper line straight down the middle, then you know that bullet is getting hammered. On my USP, it appears from both watching it feed and the wear marks that only the casing ever makes contact with the barrel when chambering a round, so this doesn't concern me. That along with checking OAL regularly with calipers, it just does not cause any set back.

On the 1911, or gun that forces a round up a ramp at a fairly decent angle, you may invest in cheaper ammo for carry and pitch that round if you have to remove it from the chamber.

Out of all the options, a gun with a magazine disconnect would be the most painless and best way to keep the wife happy in your situation. If that isn't possible then learn how to rack the slide while drawing the weapon.

After working on a hellva lot of guns, and seeing bullet set back happening on some with the first chambering, the concept of someone doing this regularly turns me white as a ghost. Should see what a 1911 set up for 45 super or 460 rowland does if the rounds don't have a crimp of death on them, they'll quite literally jam the bullet all the way back into the casing so tight it's almost impossible to get the bullet out even with a bullet puller.

Either way, please do be safe and realize that this is very important and shouldn't continue.

Just measured my rounds that I have been carrying for around 3 months, Mind you I carry daily and chamber and rechamber DAILY!! ZERO additional seating, notta, not even .0001. been carrying this way for over 20 yrs. I call BS!! Do what you wish, and i'll keep doing what i've been doin for 20+yrs.

While your case may be different, some guns and some ammo makes are very hard to get bullet set back with. I won't carry a load in a 1911 that doesn't have an anti-setback crimp on it for example, corbon is the easiest for me to point out. It does seem to work well.

I'd say hornady's critical duty/critical defense ammunition would be less likely to have the problem as well.

But either way, this is better at keeping that ammunition consistent than it is preventing problems resulting from abuse, such as rechambering rounds. Regardless of measurable set-back, you are still loosening up the bullet in the casing.

There's just too many things bad about doing this for it to be a sensible option, once it's in the tube, it needs to leave the tube in 2 pieces, unless it's an unusual/irregular event.

To be clear, lets just understand the physics at play, and not start thinking of satellite issues in regards to this that could make it confusing. We are only concerned with the bullet being forcefully pushed against a surface while it is on its way into the chamber. There's things with lever guns and revolvers but it's actually the opposite issue and only happens while the gun is firing, so it's not really the same topic.