How many rounds for PD ammo to verify all is good

[NewlyEnthused]

I was reading on another thread a comment I hear a lot.

Find a good quality defense round, make sure it cycles well through your firearm, and stick with it.

I have a Beretta PX4 Compact, and use Federal HST HP for defense. I have heard fire a few rounds of the more expensive defense rounds to be sure they work in your gun. I have heard fire 50 rounds.

I may be dumb, but if 10 rounds works, won't 50 or even 100 rounds?

 

[BUmmedic]

I say fill up and cycle all of the mags for your firearm, at a minimum. If you plan on using or carrying it, then run ammo through it. That way, you verify not only that the ammunition feeds and ejects reliably, but that all mags will function as well. Case in point, I have several PMags for my AR, and prior to a couple months ago, I only cycled the same few mags at the range. Well, took a different set of mags out with me last time and found one mag where I immediately started experiencing failures to feed, ejection problems, and finally, one of the feed lips broke off. Other mags functioned flawlessly before and after. The defective one was replaced at no cost by Magpul.

 

[rjfleming]

I try to get a couple of magazines full of my defensive carry ammo through each magazine and several hundred rounds of training ammo through the gun before considering it GTG for daily carry.

 

[NewlyEnthused]

I never thought about the transference from the magazine (thanks BUmmedic), but it makes a lot of sense to test out each type of round through the whole system Thee is nothing worse than having to draw and shoot, and nothing but jams.

 

[Eidolon]

Thee is nothing worse than having to draw and shoot, and nothing but jams.

On the bright side it'll probably only happen once.

Shoot your defense ammunition until you are comfortable with it.

 

[Warrior1256]

On the bright side it'll probably only happen once.

Shoot your defense ammunition until you are comfortable with it.

I agree. I usually shoot 30-40 rounds and if all fired flawlessly I'm good.

 

[Pir8fan]

I was reading on another thread a comment I hear a lot.



I have a Beretta PX4 Compact, and use Federal HST HP for defense. I have heard fire a few rounds of the more expensive defense rounds to be sure they work in your gun. I have heard fire 50 rounds.

I may be dumb, but if 10 rounds works, won't 50 or even 100 rounds?

I'll typically run a box or two through. I also try several different brands of ammo.

 

[r1derbike]

I run a magazine of my carry ammo last, before I leave the range. Its POA/POI and "feel" are then fresh in my mind.

 

[wolf_fire]

I also number each of my magazines. This way if I keep getting a problem from the same magazine it's easy to tell. On black polymer mags use a silver sharpie, other wise any color sharpie will do. This will also keep others at the range with similar gear from claiming them as their own.

One other suggestion, use the same weight bullet for your training rounds as your defense rounds to keep things as similar as possible. For example, I use Speer Gold Dot JHP 180 gr, .40 S&W rounds for defensive carry. Therefore, my FMJ rounds are all 180 gr as well.

Cycle through each mag with each type of round you run through your firearm. This will let you determine what is causing a problem if you begin to have a problem at the range.

I also keep a couple of extra mag springs in my case of goodies, in order to swap them out in case they do get defective. Springs are much cheaper than new mags.

 

[kelcarry]

Just based on the title, the answer is "when the BG is not moving anymore".

 

[JCliff]

There is no magic number of rounds that you must shoot before using a firearm and bullet type for PD. What you want is a very high probability of flawless functioning in a PD firearm, or even a competition firearm. I recommend putting at least 200 rds without malfunction through a firearm using all magazines with range rounds that are a reasonable approximation to what you will carry for PD (i.e., at least same bullet weight, maybe same manufacturer). If there are no malfunctions/flaws with the firearm and magazines, then I would shoot at least one magazine full of PD ammo for each magazine you intend to use for PD, as a minimum. You want that to work flawlessly also. I always shoot at least 50 rds of PD ammo before carrying it, but there is no magic in that number either.
.
At least once a year I recommend shooting out your PD carry ammo and replacing it with new (some folks will recommend doing that more often). If you go with a new type or manufacturer, test it out before carrying it. I also strongly recommend that you closely inspect PD rounds that have been chambered/extracted as a result of reloading after training or cleaning. Check the bullet for damage to the nose, check that the seating of the bullet hasn’t changed (i.e., shoved down in the casing), and that there is no damage from extraction on the rim of the casing. If there is, throw that one in with your training rounds or dispose of it properly.