ammunition, defense, reliabilityI have chosen my defensive handgun, ammunition, and magazines, and I’d like to make sure that the whole system is sufficiently reliable, but quality defensive ammunition is expensive. How many rounds do I need to fire to prove that the weapon is reliable enough for defensive use?
Most professional trainers and hard shooters recommend at least 1000 rounds of duty ammo under duty conditions.
In this post on m4carbine.net titled Thoughts on Service Pistols, along with Duty and Self-Defense Ammo Recommendations, Dr. Roberts goes into excruciating detail on current service pistol calibers, serivce pistols, ammunitions available, and finishes up with his recommendation (emphasis his):
Whatever you choose, make sure you fire at least 500 and preferably 1000 failure free shots through your pistol prior to carrying it. If your pistol cannot fire at least 1000 consecutive shots without a malfunction, something is wrong and it is not suitable for duty/self-defense use.
Dr. Roberts has 22 years of Naval service performing combat trauma and wound ballistic research. He is currently employed at a large west coast teaching hospital and Level I trauma center.
If you have chosen something like a Glock 3rd gen or a recent M&P, 500 rounds of your chosen duty ammo may be fine for you. These pistols have been through the ringer with dozens of agencies and many individual shooters.
Still, more attention than this can and certainly should be paid: as my commenter has reminded us, even the most proven weapon systems will have problems. Glock has issued a recall on recoil springs for its 4th generation pistols. No company or model is immune.
If you are using something like a 1911 — any 1911 — it is wise to go through a much more thorough initial evaluation. The tuning and attention these require are for serious shooters if the gun is to be used in a defensive capacity. Small changes to small parts can have dramatic effects on the reliability of a given ammunition.
Most professional trainers and hard shooters recommend at least 1000 rounds of duty ammo under duty conditions (training classes, heavy drills at the range, inclement weather, high heat, and little cleaning but proper lubrication). If 1000 rounds of ammo under hard-use conditions doesn’t find your issues, then nothing but very bad luck is likely to.
At the end of the day, that’s going to get expensive and take some time. And at the end of the day, you’re betting your life on that gun.
I generally demand 500 trouble free rounds of FMJ, followed by 50 rounds of my chosen carry ammo without any problems before I will trust a handgun for self defense purposes. The 500 rounds of FMJ also gives me the opportunity to learn, practice, and ingrain the gun’s operating procedures.
Most recommendations seem to be on the order of 100 - 200 rounds although I’ve seen up to 500. Personally I would only run that many through a brand new handgun, I think 2 boxes of new defensive ammo through a proven firearm should be fine, but it’s your butt and what you feel comfortable with.
You need to fire enough carry ammo through your firearm that you are 100% sure that it will fire every time with out issue. Your life and your families life depends on this. I usually use two boxes when I replace my carry ammo just to be sure everything is still running smoothly.
But there is more you need to think about other than just the number of rounds.
Frequent training is essential, a firearm is a mechanical device and can have malfunctions, regardless of how many rounds of ammo you have fired before. You need to be able to clear a malfunction swiftly, not loose your cool and get back in the fight as fast as possible.
Fumbling with a firearm that has experienced a malfunction in the middle of a gun fight will get you killed. Training is essential in dealing with malfunctions.
Always carry spare ammo for your weapon of choice. For pistol’s the magazine might be damaged and you didn’t know it and that might be cause a malfunction. The floor plate might come off after a round or two (unlikely, but I would rather have a spare just in case) spilling your ammo everywhere. There might be dirt in the magazine and the ammo fails to feed. This is why you always need a second and even a third spare magazine.
Carry ammo should be replaced at least once a year, preferably twice a year to ensure that the ammo is still good. Feeding reliably doesn’t help you if the ammo is no longer reliable because of oil leeching in to the primer.
Which reliability are you testing? Is the gun reliable? I’d go with the 500 rounds, or however often you expect to go between cleaning/maintenance under the conditions you’ll use it. For instance, 500 rounds in a row is different than 50 rounds a week, with it carried all week in between, for 10 weeks. Frankly, the second seems more valid to me. If all you need to know is if this ammo reliably feeds and fires in this gun under these conditions then 3 repetitions are statistically viable (like 3 shot groups) but 5 is better, and more is even better.
Ultimate answer: as much as you can.
Check with your local police department and ask how many rounds they require before an officer is allowed to carry that firearm on duty.
Well, the big problem is that you can never be certain. You could have a weak part that’s waiting to fail on the 501st shot after you chose 500 to “prove” that it’s reliable. Firing some to make sure that you don’t have an ammunition related issue (hollowpoints which are great for defense are notorious for really odd feed problems) is a good idea, but going 1000 rounds to “prove” reliability gets you into the increased chance of failure when you need it area…
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