NickZac
Ultimate Member
I'm curious how far you guys go for range prep and cartridge management and what you would advise as being sensible but not overkill...
Recently I've read literature and personally spoken to a few people who have advocated that more caution be given to factory loads given case failures with these loads (while rare) isn't unheard of (for example, I know a person who claims they had a Glock KB on factory defense ammo although I did not see it personally and can't verify this). Many have argued that the chance of bullet setback is, while low enough that you may never experience it with factory rounds, still a possibility and the potential damage that it can cause justifies the time in taking a few extra pre and post steps for both plinking and carry.
They advocate a few things, such as...
1) When opening a box of ammo for the range, unbox the cartridges and view them on an angle to ensure none are taller or shorter than the others ... 1A) Also, complete a full visual inspection of the ammo to make sure nothing looks unusual or suggests the ammo may be compromised.
2) Use a caliper to measure the length of a few random rounds.
3) Chambering one or two rounds from a lot 2-3 times after an initial measure with a caliper and then measuring it with the caliper after chambering the rounds to look for bullet setback and cartridge abnormalities (or thumbing it a few times and measuring).
4) Recording how often you chamber a single round and firing it after N(#) amount of chambers (I have to assume that something like a 180gr .40 would presumably be more sensitive to this than say a standard .45 or 9 loading???)
5) Keeping a chart for what acceptable bullet slippage is (minimum overall length acceptable to use vs. discarding without shooting)
6) Keeping a record of shots fired in the gun as well as what product and weight you shot (ex: 75 rounds of Golden Sabre, 124gr +p, shot on 11/25/2012)
7) For storing/carrying chambered, easing a slide forward and then rapping the rear of the slide to avoid the gun from firing out of battery (I believe this is mainly an issue with certain generation Glocks that will fire when slightly out of battery)--oddly, I was always taught the way to avoid this is to manually pull the slide back and releasing it rather than dropping the slide via the slide release as those few extra millimeters when you pull the slide allows the spring to generate more force for the chambering in the fashion as if it were automatically chambering upon being fired.
8) When possible, buying ammo in large quantities from a single lot rather than purchasing from multiple lots given this could potentially amplify the chance of cartridge variation.
9) Not shooting ammo if you are not comfortable that you know its origin (ex: a beat-up and peeling box indicating it may have sat on a dealer's shelf for 30 years in a very humid environment, being sold in bulk at gun shows, packaging or cartridge abnormalities suggesting the ammo may not be what you intended to purchase, etc.)
Any thoughts on this? Do you do any of this? Do you think it is worth it with factory-new ammo? Many of these things sound similar to the things some of my friends who reload do. I've never been this careful with (factory-new) range ammo (and defensive ammo), and while it sounds like a bit of a pain, it also seems like it isn't an unreasonable argument...
Recently I've read literature and personally spoken to a few people who have advocated that more caution be given to factory loads given case failures with these loads (while rare) isn't unheard of (for example, I know a person who claims they had a Glock KB on factory defense ammo although I did not see it personally and can't verify this). Many have argued that the chance of bullet setback is, while low enough that you may never experience it with factory rounds, still a possibility and the potential damage that it can cause justifies the time in taking a few extra pre and post steps for both plinking and carry.
They advocate a few things, such as...
1) When opening a box of ammo for the range, unbox the cartridges and view them on an angle to ensure none are taller or shorter than the others ... 1A) Also, complete a full visual inspection of the ammo to make sure nothing looks unusual or suggests the ammo may be compromised.
2) Use a caliper to measure the length of a few random rounds.
3) Chambering one or two rounds from a lot 2-3 times after an initial measure with a caliper and then measuring it with the caliper after chambering the rounds to look for bullet setback and cartridge abnormalities (or thumbing it a few times and measuring).
4) Recording how often you chamber a single round and firing it after N(#) amount of chambers (I have to assume that something like a 180gr .40 would presumably be more sensitive to this than say a standard .45 or 9 loading???)
5) Keeping a chart for what acceptable bullet slippage is (minimum overall length acceptable to use vs. discarding without shooting)
6) Keeping a record of shots fired in the gun as well as what product and weight you shot (ex: 75 rounds of Golden Sabre, 124gr +p, shot on 11/25/2012)
7) For storing/carrying chambered, easing a slide forward and then rapping the rear of the slide to avoid the gun from firing out of battery (I believe this is mainly an issue with certain generation Glocks that will fire when slightly out of battery)--oddly, I was always taught the way to avoid this is to manually pull the slide back and releasing it rather than dropping the slide via the slide release as those few extra millimeters when you pull the slide allows the spring to generate more force for the chambering in the fashion as if it were automatically chambering upon being fired.
8) When possible, buying ammo in large quantities from a single lot rather than purchasing from multiple lots given this could potentially amplify the chance of cartridge variation.
9) Not shooting ammo if you are not comfortable that you know its origin (ex: a beat-up and peeling box indicating it may have sat on a dealer's shelf for 30 years in a very humid environment, being sold in bulk at gun shows, packaging or cartridge abnormalities suggesting the ammo may not be what you intended to purchase, etc.)
Any thoughts on this? Do you do any of this? Do you think it is worth it with factory-new ammo? Many of these things sound similar to the things some of my friends who reload do. I've never been this careful with (factory-new) range ammo (and defensive ammo), and while it sounds like a bit of a pain, it also seems like it isn't an unreasonable argument...