Regularly inspect your ammunition

Firearm safety is of utmost importance to me. Properly maintained firearms and safe practices are the best way to avoid accidents. One thing that I used to give little thought to was my ammunition. I rarely purchase low quality ammo, and I don't reload my own. So what could go wrong with factory loaded ammunition? Lots apparently.

A few years back I got my full carry license, carried nearly every day since. My first choice for carry ammunition was Hornady TAP. Being that they are expensive, I rarely used them at the range. I ran a box through it with no issues, so I loaded them up and carried them in my gun for about a year. Then Hornady comes out with "TAP, Critical defense." So I picked up a couple boxes and brought them to the range to see how they would run. I decided to blow through the old carry stuff since I would be switching over anyway. To my dismay, my gun jammed up after every shot. So I load some target rounds, with no oiling or cleaning the gun runs fine, the ammo is the culprit. Upon closer inspection I notice that every round that had been in a magazine for over a year, was slightly egg shaped. The pressure from the magazine spring, pressing in one spot, for months and months, had deformed them all. So lesson learned, cycle through your ammo, unload and reload magazines regularly to prevent this. I haven't had this problem since.

Fast forward about two years, I have now purchased a Springfield 1911 in .45 caliber. My first choice again was Hornady TAP, Critical Defence in .45 +P. I had issues immediately, I was unable to unload the gun after a round was chambered. Very scary situation. Finally, I was able to force the slide backwards ejecting the round. So after some Googling, and some show and tell at the gun shop, we determined that Springfield handguns with "match" barrels don't have the headspace needed for these specific rounds. So back to regular old TAPs in this gun.

For those that don't know, 1911 is a big, heavy gun. The .45 is also a very powerful cartridge. This means that the recoil spring in the gun is comparably heavy, making the slide mechanism have quite a bit of oomph when loading the next round. Too bad that this can mean major damage to shells when they don't eject properly while unloading a live round. I have had a multitude of damaged bullets from this. The damages include bent cases, dented cases, and probably the scariest one, pressing the bullet further into the case. I have never seen anything like this before, but there it is. (pictured left) The reason this is so bad is because the bullet being pressed further into the case will increase the pressure when it is fired. This slightly shorter bullet could have resulted in a blown up gun. (worst case scenario) So when unloading a gun, point down and away from anything, eject the magazine and pull back firmly on the slide. The live round should eject normally, if it doesn't, lock the slide back and remove the jammed round.



My practice now is pretty simple to avoid these issues. I clean all my guns once a month, (a good practice to be in anyway) while doing so I empty all magazines and inspect every round. I lightly oil them as well with Rem oil from a spray can, I find this helps prevent corrosion and reduces jamming. In addition to that I inspect any live round that I eject when unloading my carry gun.