Potential Ammo Problems...

[speedsix]

THE FOLLOWING TRAINING ADVISORY WAS FORWARDED FROM GWINETT COUNTY
POLICE DEPARTMENT – LAWRENCEVILLE, GA

In September of this year a GCPD officer was involved in a situation which quickly became a use of deadly force incident. When the officer made the decision to use deadly force, the chambered round in his duty pistol did not fire. Fortunately, the officer used good tactics, remembered his training and cleared the malfunction, successfully ending the encounter.

The misfired round, which had a full firing pin strike, was collected and was later sent to the manufacturer for analysis. Their analysis showed the following: “…the cause of the misfire was determined to be from the primer mix being knocked out of the primer when the round was cycled through the firearm multiple times”. We also sent an additional 2,000 rounds of the Winchester 9mm duty ammunition to the
manufacturer. All 2,000 rounds were successfully fired.

In discussions with the officer, we discovered that since he has small children at home, he unloads his duty weapon daily. His routine is to eject the chambered round to store the weapon. Prior to returning to duty he chambers the top round in his primary magazine, then takes the previously ejected round and puts in back in the magazine. Those two
rounds were repeatedly cycled and had been since duty ammunition was issued in February or March of 2011, resulting in as many as 100 chambering and extracting cycles. This caused an internal failure of the primer, not discernible by external inspection.

This advisory is to inform all sworn personnel that repeated cycling of duty rounds is to be avoided. As a reminder, when loading the weapon, load from the magazine and do not drop the round directly into the chamber. If an officer’s only method of safe home storage is to unload the weapon, the Firearms Training Unit suggests that you unload an entire magazine and rotate those rounds. In addition, you should also rotate through all 3 duty magazines, so that all 52 duty rounds
are cycled, not just a few rounds. A more practical method of home storage is probably to use a trigger lock or a locked storage box.

FURTHER GUIDANCE:

The primer compound separation is a risk of repeatedly chambering the same round. The more common issue is bullet setback, which increases the chamber pressures often resulting in more negative effects.

RECOMMENDATION:

In addition to following the guidance provided above of constantly rotating duty ammunition that is removed during the unloading/reloading of the weapon, training ammunition utilized during firearm sustainment and weapon manipulation drills, should also be discarded if it has been inserted into the chamber more than twice. This practice lessens the
likelihood of a failure to fire or more catastrophic results

[WildBill]

Interesting story. Thanks for the post Speedsix.

[The Annoyed Man]

My solution? Keep 'em loaded. I do occasionally eject an unfired round, like when cleaining a gun for instance. But, A) it certainly doesn't happen hundreds of times (not even close), and B) I always empty the magazine and load the most recently ejected round back into it first, with the others on top of it. That way, the "burden" gets evenly spread. For the most part though, I just keep the guns loaded. That said, I don't have small children running around my house, but I do appreciate the added responsibilities when one does have little ones.

[AEA]

I thought I had seen that before, but not in quite as much detail.....
viewtopic.php?f=83&t=51520&p=627681&hil ... TY#p627681" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[74novaman]

Yep I avoid the issue by leaving it chambered, though I was told to be careful due to bullet set back, not primer failure.

if I had kids things might be different but for now I'm able to leave pistols out without worry.

[speedsix]

...they say the short-term memory's the first to go....

[The Annoyed Man]

...they say the short-term memory's the first to go....

No... it's the second thing to go. I don't remember what the first is.

[AEA]

[speedsix]

...there's a man comin' 'round with a lock...

[74novaman]

...there's a man comin' 'round with a lock...

I thought the man comin round was taking names...

[The Annoyed Man]

...there's a man comin' 'round with a lock...

I thought the man comin round was taking names...

No, that's the second thing he's going to do. I don't remember the first. Something about "kicking?"

[speedsix]

...well, he's got both of y'all taken care of then...

[CEOofEVIL]

Excellent read! Thanks for the info. I had never considered anything other than bullet setback from chambering the same round(s) constantly. While I do keep my G17 loaded at all times, I do frequently clear it so that I can dry fire practice at home (at least three days a week) so I need to make sure I'm running through the chambered rounds more frequently.