Sigh. Always check your ammo.

[TicTacticalTimmy]

This sounds like a particular issue with that ammo to me. I havent had any visually obvious shortening from twice that many re-chamberings with HST or gold dots in a few 9mm flavors.

Heres the protocol I recently adopted:

I have a box of 147hst(my carry load) on my dryfire table. After roughly 6 re-chamberings, I take that round and put it in the box face up. I take a new round from the box and load it into the mag. Now that new round will be chambered when I re-load the gun. Once I have 15 face up rounds, ill load them up and take them to the range.

[feudist]

This sounds like a particular issue with that ammo to me. I havent had any visually obvious shortening from twice that many re-chamberings with HST or gold dots in a few 9mm flavors.

Heres the protocol I recently adopted:

I have a box of 147hst(my carry load) on my dryfire table. After roughly 6 re-chamberings, I take that round and put it in the box face up. I take a new round from the box and load it into the mag. Now that new round will be chambered when I re-load the gun. Once I have 15 face up rounds, ill load them up and take them to the range.

I'm willing to bet that it's a simple QC error in that sample, at worst in that lot number.

Still, a disconcerting find and very cautionary experience that it only took(in one case) two chamberings to begin setback.

[revchuck38]

If I'm going to use my carry gun at the range, I'll just leave the chambered round in there, drop the magazine with carry ammo, and insert the magazine with practice ammo. The chambered round goes downrange with the first shot. I'll either bring a box of carry ammo with me to replace that fired round or load the top round from the reload mag and replace it later. Since I usually have a "practice" gun that resembles my carry gun, shooting my carry gun doesn't happen that often.

[Robinson]

This is relevant to me, so I appreciate the reminder.

My carry gun is a lightweight full-size 1911, whereas my training/dry-fire gun is an all-steel gun. So I do shoot my carry gun several times per year because of the weight difference. Sometimes I just shoot the ammo that's in the gun, but if I do put the same ammo back in the gun I try to always check the last round to come out of the chamber before loading. If I have any doubt, the round goes into the range ammo box or gets thrown away.

I like revchuck38's method too; in fact I might start doing that.

[JonInWA]

Because of the somewhat circuitous route that a 1911 round has to go through in its path from magazine to seating in the chamber, I've found .45 ACP rounds in a 1911 to be more susceptible to bullet reset than most other platforms. In addition to more vigorous checking, when reloading the first round from the magazine, I'll more carefully and deliberately hand manipulate the slide when chambering that first round. Bur Revchuck's method is probably the best.

Best, Jon

[TCinVA]

I've heard SMEs saying that by doing that enough times you can get in trouble with the priming compound getting dislodged from the primer cup.

The priming compound goes into the primer in a little ball that gets compressed into a shape that resembles a disc. Think of it like a Ritz cracker.

Then think of subjecting that Ritz cracker to impact forces over and over and over and over and over and over again.

Pretty soon what you have is Ritz cracker dust, and you can't put a slice of cheese on a pile of dust.

Similar concept with the primer compound.

[TCinVA]

If I'm going to use my carry gun at the range, I'll just leave the chambered round in there, drop the magazine with carry ammo, and insert the magazine with practice ammo. The chambered round goes downrange with the first shot. I'll either bring a box of carry ammo with me to replace that fired round or load the top round from the reload mag and replace it later. Since I usually have a "practice" gun that resembles my carry gun, shooting my carry gun doesn't happen that often.

This is my protocol.

I also order carry ammunition by the case so I usually always have plenty on hand. My carry gun has become my teaching/training gun on more than one occasion. I just treat that as cycling carry ammo. If I unload the gun to clean or lubricate it, that chambered round just goes into my training ammo pile.

The chambered round and the first round in the magazine are the most abused. The chambered round gets slammed. The first round in the magazine sits up against the bottom of the slide and moves against it ever so slightly all the time as you move around. It's enough movement to wear the nickel plating right off of nickel plated cases. I usually look at the first round in the magazine and if I see any obvious scarring or marring on the case I'll put that in the practice ammo pile, too.

[camsdaddy]

I have a Gen 4 19 that I have carried and shot for years. Over the past few months I have acquired another Gen 4 and a Gen 5. I am thinking of making my current my range gun and carrying one of the newer low round guns. If I choose one of the newer guns I dont know if I remove the finger grooves of the four so it will be identical to my original, carry the gen 4 with the grooves or carry the 5. I dont dry fire enough to matter but I should.