Posted: 5/22/2011 3:55:59 PM EDT
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Is it bad to keep re-racking the same round?
I always unload my carry pistol at night then, when I wake up, I insert a mag, rack it, eject mag, add another round to the mag. So the same round is being racked every other day. I do this with .380 and 40S&W if that matters. |
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Umm...leave the pistol loaded? Unless there is some serious safety / storage reason to unload your piece every night, just leave it loaded. Otherwise, single-load the round (load it into the chamber by hand then gently let the slide forward until it locks home).
All of my pistols are loaded at all times, carry or otherwise and all of the people in the house know this and safe firearm handlers, so maybe I am just lucky that I don't have to load and unload a lot... An unloaded firearm is a liability in a home defense situation. You may not have time to insert a magazine and rack a round when the SHTF. I know, because I had a home invasion situation that unfolded so fast that I barely even had time to grab my Glock 23 that was only 6 feet away... Repeated feeding from a magazine will over time push the projectile back into the case. This may cause pressure problems, but not likely to actually blow your gun apart. If one of these shorter rounds end up lower in your magazine, you could have feeding issues when you least want them. 1DD |
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There are several potential issues that can be caused by repeatedly chambering the same round, including...as already noted...set-back (which in some loads can increase chamber pressures a LOT), functioning problems, sensitized primers and misfires. Once or twice over several months is usually OK but over and over is not gonna do your round any favors. My personal rule is twice 'in', forever 'out'. I either shoot the round or toss it in the practice box. Of course, I don't feel compelled to download my chamber constantly either. DocGKR has also mentioned the inadvisibility of doing this with both rifles and handguns.
ETA: Yes, it won't harm anything to keep a weapon fully loaded for long periods of time. |
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Otherwise, single-load the round (load it into the chamber by hand then gently let the slide forward until it locks home). 1DD Do NOT follow this suggestion, it is BAD advice. SIngle loading a round directly into the chamber will require the extractor to pivot much higher than it is designed to. This can damage the extractor spring,extractor pin and/or other componets, and can also cause the extractor to break. The extractors on %99 of the pistols out there are designed to load from a magazine, where the round slides under the extractor as the round is chambered. This method places way less stress on the extractor. I suggest you keep your weapon loaded when you go to bed, and quit screwing around with the load/unload bit. If you need your gun in the middle of the night, having an unloaded pistol that you may or may not forget to load, is just another thing toseriously fuck up your gameplan. Leave the gun loaded when you go to bed. I can ussure you it wont just jump up and shoot you or anyone else while your asleep, and the extra time saved may just save your life. |
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Umm...leave the pistol loaded? Unless there is some serious safety / storage reason to unload your piece every night, just leave it loaded. Otherwise, single-load the round (load it into the chamber by hand then gently let the slide forward until it locks home).All of my pistols are loaded at all times, carry or otherwise and all of the people in the house know this and safe firearm handlers, so maybe I am just lucky that I don't have to load and unload a lot... An unloaded firearm is a liability in a home defense situation. You may not have time to insert a magazine and rack a round when the SHTF. I know, because I had a home invasion situation that unfolded so fast that I barely even had time to grab my Glock 23 that was only 6 feet away... Repeated feeding from a magazine will over time push the projectile back into the case. This may cause pressure problems, but not likely to actually blow your gun apart. If one of these shorter rounds end up lower in your magazine, you could have feeding issues when you least want them. 1DD Yeah, that's not correct. 
OP, just leave it loaded if you can store it safely. The only time mine gets unloaded is for its monthly cleaning. |
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The bullet will sit back further and further into the casing over time due to excessive reloading.
Potentially Will depend on your ammo & your gun. My ammo does not set back. I have tested this. However still I will chamber a rd 5 times & then it goes into a range mag. And chamber loading is ok on some guns. Like Beretta's. |
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Umm...leave the pistol loaded? Unless there is some serious safety / storage reason to unload your piece every night, just leave it loaded. Otherwise, single-load the round (load it into the chamber by hand then gently let the slide forward until it locks home). All of my pistols are loaded at all times, carry or otherwise and all of the people in the house know this and safe firearm handlers, so maybe I am just lucky that I don't have to load and unload a lot... An unloaded firearm is a liability in a home defense situation. You may not have time to insert a magazine and rack a round when the SHTF. I know, because I had a home invasion situation that unfolded so fast that I barely even had time to grab my Glock 23 that was only 6 feet away... Repeated feeding from a magazine will over time push the projectile back into the case. This may cause pressure problems, but not likely to actually blow your gun apart. If one of these shorter rounds end up lower in your magazine, you could have feeding issues when you least want them. 1DD I am very interested in your home invasion incident. What was the outcome? If it is hard to talk about I certainly understand. I too was almost a victim 14 years ago while living with my parents before I moved off to college at the end of summer. I had just enough time to run upstairs to my room and grab a loaded BHP. Thanks God for guns. |
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Why in Gods green earth would you UNLOAD (with the exception of cleaning it) a gun? What possible use would the gun be if someone walked in say, uninvited? "Hey wait until I get my magazine in the gun and a round in the chamber, please?" Or perhaps you might have guns that just decide, all by themselves, to go off.
I can see if you have kids around and don't carry a gun around the house, but to UNLOAD IT AT NIGHT? Hmmm...... |
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Otherwise, single-load the round (load it into the chamber by hand then gently let the slide forward until it locks home). 1DD Do NOT follow this suggestion, it is BAD advice. SIngle loading a round directly into the chamber will require the extractor to pivot much higher than it is designed to. This can damage the extractor spring,extractor pin and/or other componets, and can also cause the extractor to break. The extractors on %99 of the pistols out there are designed to load from a magazine, where the round slides under the extractor as the round is chambered. This method places way less stress on the extractor. I suggest you keep your weapon loaded when you go to bed, and quit screwing around with the load/unload bit. If you need your gun in the middle of the night, having an unloaded pistol that you may or may not forget to load, is just another thing toseriously fuck up your gameplan. Leave the gun loaded when you go to bed. I can ussure you it wont just jump up and shoot you or anyone else while your asleep, and the extra time saved may just save your life. oops, i thought it was fine for all external extractors... looks like thats gonna stop. 
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Why in Gods green earth would you UNLOAD (with the exception of cleaning it) a gun? What possible use would the gun be if someone walked in say, uninvited? "Hey wait until I get my magazine in the gun and a round in the chamber, please?" Or perhaps you might have guns that just decide, all by themselves, to go off. I can see if you have kids around and don't carry a gun around the house, but to UNLOAD IT AT NIGHT? Hmmm...... Because I have a 12G for home defense. It's more ideal than my G27 or LCP (the weapons I unload at night) if an uninvited person comes in the night. |
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Why in Gods green earth would you UNLOAD (with the exception of cleaning it) a gun? What possible use would the gun be if someone walked in say, uninvited? "Hey wait until I get my magazine in the gun and a round in the chamber, please?" Or perhaps you might have guns that just decide, all by themselves, to go off. I can see if you have kids around and don't carry a gun around the house, but to UNLOAD IT AT NIGHT? Hmmm...... Because I have a 12G for home defense. It's more ideal than my G27 or LCP (the weapons I unload at night) if an uninvited person comes in the night. Well, I have an M-forgery for home defense, but I still keep my handguns loaded. My handguns are for fighting my way to the long gun. The thing of it is this, the guns won't go off by themselves. Someone has to pull the trigger. Set a loaded gun in a room for 1000 years and it won't kill anyone. Let one idiot into the room and all bets are off. |
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I have to respectfully disagree that single loading a pistol puts too much stress on an extractor. I've only heard of this being an issue with Mauser type rifles. There my be some pistols out there that this is not good for, but my 1911 and Glock seemed to actually be designed for the extractor to have enough room to pivot around the cartridge rim. Of course I don't drop the slide on a single loaded round with full force or all of the time either... If there are documented incidents of this practice being bad for my particular pistols, I'd love to read about it. Even stubborn old guys like me who have been shooting pistols for a long time can learn a thing or two.
As for the poster interested in my home invasion incident, one night a few years ago a coke-head mistook my house for a similar looking one down the street. He came running up my sidewalk yelling and totally ignored my two barking and growling dogs. He busted through my front screen door and made it halfway up the stairs before he saw and heard me at the top. He realized he was in the wrong house when he saw the Glock and heard me telling him to "get the F***K out!". Had he not frozen in place and said that he was in the wrong house, he might very well have died after the next step he took towards my family. The moral of the story is this: Even in "safe" neighborhoods, "stuff" can happen and you have to be prepared to react INSTANTLY. I had less than 10 seconds to realize what was happening, assess the situation, get my pistol (6 feet away) and get to the top of the stairs (15 feet away) to meet the threat. I did not have the luxury of even enough time to load my pistol, so it was fortunate that it is always loaded. 1DD |
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Solutions anyone? Leave gun loaded at night (like the others have said) or Rotate the round being loaded through the mag; eject the round and unload mag put ejected round in first then reload mag. For this to work you'd have to take note of the round position in the mag; 1st, 2nd, 3rd... Cycle each round through then toss in range bag to shoot. That way you're not rechambering the same round. Hope that makes sense. or Leave gun condition 3 all the time and hope you have enough time to rack the slide when a threat presents itself. I'd go with leave gun loaded. Back ups are nice to have. |
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I have to respectfully disagree that single loading a pistol puts too much stress on an extractor. I've only heard of this being an issue with Mauser type rifles. There my be some pistols out there that this is not good for, but my 1911 and Glock seemed to actually be designed for the extractor to have enough room to pivot around the cartridge rim. Of course I don't drop the slide on a single loaded round with full force or all of the time either... If there are documented incidents of this practice being bad for my particular pistols, I'd love to read about it. Even stubborn old guys like me who have been shooting pistols for a long time can learn a thing or two. As for the poster interested in my home invasion incident, one night a few years ago a coke-head mistook my house for a similar looking one down the street. He came running up my sidewalk yelling and totally ignored my two barking and growling dogs. He busted through my front screen door and made it halfway up the stairs before he saw and heard me at the top. He realized he was in the wrong house when he saw the Glock and heard me telling him to "get the F***K out!". Had he not frozen in place and said that he was in the wrong house, he might very well have died after the next step he took towards my family. The moral of the story is this: Even in "safe" neighborhoods, "stuff" can happen and you have to be prepared to react INSTANTLY. I had less than 10 seconds to realize what was happening, assess the situation, get my pistol (6 feet away) and get to the top of the stairs (15 feet away) to meet the threat. I did not have the luxury of even enough time to load my pistol, so it was fortunate that it is always loaded. 1DD Well, this quote is taken directly from a Springfield 1911 manual: TO PREVENT
DAMAGE AND FOR SAFETY REASONS ALWAYS LOAD SHELLS FROM THE MAGAZINE. If you want to carry your gun with a shell in the chamber and a full magazine follow this procedure: Load a shell into the chamber from the magazine. Then remove the magazine, fully load it and insert it properly into the gun. |
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Otherwise, single-load the round (load it into the chamber by hand then gently let the slide forward until it locks home). 1DD Do NOT follow this suggestion, it is BAD advice. SIngle loading a round directly into the chamber will require the extractor to pivot much higher than it is designed to. This can damage the extractor spring,extractor pin and/or other componets, and can also cause the extractor to break. The extractors on %99 of the pistols out there are designed to load from a magazine, where the round slides under the extractor as the round is chambered. This method places way less stress on the extractor. I suggest you keep your weapon loaded when you go to bed, and quit screwing around with the load/unload bit. If you need your gun in the middle of the night, having an unloaded pistol that you may or may not forget to load, is just another thing toseriously fuck up your gameplan. Leave the gun loaded when you go to bed. I can ussure you it wont just jump up and shoot you or anyone else while your asleep, and the extra time saved may just save your life. What about loading the pistol from the mag but gently helping the slide closed so it does not push the bullet back into the case over time? |
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Otherwise, single-load the round (load it into the chamber by hand then gently let the slide forward until it locks home). 1DD Do NOT follow this suggestion, it is BAD advice. SIngle loading a round directly into the chamber will require the extractor to pivot much higher than it is designed to. This can damage the extractor spring,extractor pin and/or other componets, and can also cause the extractor to break. The extractors on %99 of the pistols out there are designed to load from a magazine, where the round slides under the extractor as the round is chambered. This method places way less stress on the extractor. I suggest you keep your weapon loaded when you go to bed, and quit screwing around with the load/unload bit. If you need your gun in the middle of the night, having an unloaded pistol that you may or may not forget to load, is just another thing toseriously fuck up your gameplan. Leave the gun loaded when you go to bed. I can ussure you it wont just jump up and shoot you or anyone else while your asleep, and the extra time saved may just save your life. What about loading the pistol from the mag but gently helping the slide closed so it does not push the bullet back into the case over time? Then it may not fully go into battery and the extractor still might not grip the rim properly. |
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If it isn't bad for the weapon to be loaded 24/7 for a long period of time, I have no problems leaving them loaded. your fine,.I had a 9mm ccw I kept loaded for 4 months before I shot it, lord you should of saw the lint and dust come off that thing on the first shot. |
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Well, after much looking around it seems as if this is is one of those topics that will never be settled. Good arguements on both sides, so it is really up to the individual to determine if the practice of single loading is bad for thier firearm or not. I've been doing it "wrong" for 30 odd years and if it were not for this thread, I would still be doing it "wrong"... Of course, I don't make it a habit to single load. I don't load and unload my handguns that frequently either...
I will pay closer attention to the Glocks in this regard, although as tough and "bulletproof" as they are, this seems like an uncharachteristic design flaw on Glock's part. 1DD |