Something newbs should know about: "Setback" with pistol ammo.

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Kahrmine

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Ok, this is something I stumbled across randomly as I was researching another topic on youtube. It's a very important topic, though, so I felt I should make a thread here for others who may be new to pistol carry.

"Setback" in a bullet is when a round gets chambered it's slammed pretty hard and put under a lot of pressure.The bullet can begin to recede into the casing eventually making the bullet way off specs and possibly inoperable/dangerous when needed most.

I've decided to cycle the top two rounds of my carry ammo when I store my pistol or take it out of storage. Then, when I go to the range, I will fire those two rounds and start with a fresh set of two bullets when I reload for carry to exchange so I won't ever have any single bullet getting chambered and rechambered again and again.

Here is a good video explaining it better:

 
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Good tip....
I haven't yet carried with one in the chamber yet but I will keep this in mind when I do decide too.
 
They discussed this in my Utah class. The instructor regularly cycles the position of the rounds as well as rotating his magazines. Additionally he mentioned something about using his carry ammo at the range and replacing them with fresh rounds.
 
Interesting. I just took out all of the bullets in my carry magazine and measured them with a caliper. None were shorter than the rest. Shame on me, but I haven't cycled out these rounds for at least six months. I dry fire with my carry gun very often so I'm surprised to not find any setback. Regardless, thanks for the post.
 
I carry in condition 2 with my DA/SA Sig P226. However when I am reloading my pistol, I almost always manually feed the first bullet into the chamber, rack the slide, and then feed the magazine. I am guessing that since the bullet isn't hitting the feed ramp every time I load, I should be all set. If this doesn't sound right, please let me have it.
 
I would not keep unloading and reloading the same cartridge, that is really unnecessary. Just chamber it once and be done with it until you shoot it. When I go to the range I shoot what is in my carry gun and reload it before I leave. Using up self-defense ammo for some practice is not that expensive, considering I only make it to the range once a month or less.
 
NHKevin said:
This is a non-issue with modern SD ammo.
Click to expand...

Not true, particularly in .40, and most brands of 357 sig are ****ing horrendous on setback, some are so bad you start getting it after 2 chamberings. 9mm and .45 ACP aren't too bad, though.

-Mike
 
Mflagg73 said:
Have not fully trusted the gun yet and I can chamber a round pretty damn fast! I will be starting to carry my P9 as soon as I get some defence rounds and will carry one chambered in that.
Click to expand...

Find a friend with a shot timer, you'll stop the unchambered fruitloop crap shortly after the timer shows you how flamingly awful it is. Not to mention you typically need two hands for it, which puts you at another serious disadvantage alone.

-Mike
 
Mr. Brownstone said:
I carry in condition 2 with my DA/SA Sig P226. However when I am reloading my pistol, I almost always manually feed the first bullet into the chamber, rack the slide, and then feed the magazine. I am guessing that since the bullet isn't hitting the feed ramp every time I load, I should be all set. If this doesn't sound right, please let me have it.
Click to expand...

So the extractor has to snap over the rim of the chambered cartridge when you close the slide? Not a good practice.
 
Keep in mind that cartridges can also "grow" in a light weight revolver. An easy test is to shot 4 rounds and then take a good looksky at the unfired round compared to one from the box.
 
we had a good thread about setback awhile back posted by EC. i had a setback issue with a WWB hollowpoint, must have chambered and re-chambered that thing a ton. totally blew up in my 1911 at the range one day, got much more careful about how often i chamber and re-chamber the same round now. as mike said--it's very real.
 
Thanks for posting this for more NES members to see. I didn't know about setback until a few months after getting my ltc when I heard it mentioned and did some research. Some serious sh** that everyone should know about
 
hminsky said:
Just chamber it once and be done with it until you shoot it. When I go to the range I shoot what is in my carry gun and reload it before I leave. Using up self-defense ammo for some practice is not that expensive, considering I only make it to the range once a month or less.
Click to expand...

That works until you need to properly store your carry gun in your car for some reason. I try to avoid doing that and basically do what you say above.
 
Hornady makes ammo that has a line on the bullet right above the case, so if you can't see the line, the bullet has been set back too far. I wish more ammo manufacturers would do this.
 
Mark from MA said:
Jesus. Buy a set of calipers.
Click to expand...

I have a set of calipers.
I'm just not willing to take the time to measure every SD round to see if OAL has decreased.
Nor am I willing to keep track of the number of times each round has been used.
With minimal effort I know that all of my SD ammo is fresh.
 

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