Look, I’m not some hotshot competitive shooter — never was — but I have to tell you, this has never happened to me:
I’m not nearly so particular about my magazines and ammunition after an event as I am during it. Checking the magazines on my 9mm competition pistol was proof of that.
I keep the guns immaculately clean and assiduously oiled. When I unloaded the magazines, I realized another problem waiting to happen. Instead of being filled with match-grade competition ammunition, I found it loaded with rounds from three different manufacturers in two different bullet weights. That’s NOT a recipe for consistency.
Really? I shoot quite a bit, and I also shoot several types of ammo — of whatever caliber except my carry .45 ACP, which has been pretty much unchanged for about two years. But all the other stuff? I’m all over the place when it comes to ammo choices; but I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve stepped up to the line with disparate ammo in my magazines. In fact, the only time I’ve ever loaded different types of ammo into a mag (or cylinder, for that matter) is when I’m doing a literal comparison between two different weights or brands, and that’s a conscious action. And when I’m done with comparing, you’d better believe that the magazine is empty.
When it’s time to reload to prepare for the next session (after spraying Ballistol then compressed air into the mag to clean out the gunk), it’s one bullet type/weight and one only. This kinda shit?
Not gonna happen. That’s just sloppy.
Gawd knows I’m no paragon of virtue when it comes to shooting. But when it comes to my ammo, my discipline is ironclad. I might not know exactly what ammo I’m shooting (especially when shooting ,22 LR), but you can bet money that the ammo will be consistent within the magazine. Even if I’m just plinking at cans and such.
I can’t say I never do it, but it only happens once every few years, and it’s deliberate. The circumstance? Disposal of stray rounds – rounds that I’ve picked up from the trunk or floorboards of my car, ammo and pistol cases, the dryer, etc. All ammo that was purchased by me at some point, I just don’t know anymore exactly what it is.
Stuff it all in a mag and dispose of it in the direction of a big blue sillouette target.
No range pickups, though, ever. Not chancing it that they’re Bubba’s homebrew hand grenades, I mean handloads.
I don’t think I have ever loaded different boolits into one mag or gun. Why would anyone do that?
While I do own lots of different ammo brands I only have 1 box at a time open when I am loading up. I can’t imagine this different boolits in 1 mag or gun is very common.
There is actually a pretty good reason to do that, just NOT when you’re carrying it. I do it every time I’ve bought a new pistol. The last new one I got I put 700 rounds of every kind of .45 ACP through it that I had on hand. They ranged from 185-grain, 200-grain, and 230-grain HP’s, 230-grain ball, some Plus-P stuff, and I even found part of a left-over box of some ultra-cheap Blazer aluminum-cased stuff I’d tried once.
The reason is to see if everything actually works and functions in the new pistol. I found one weak magazine out of more than 2 dozen (it didn’t live beyond the range trash barrel after being flattened under a boot heel); I had only 3 failures-to-feed in those 700 rounds, all from that one magazine. But when loading 3 different types of rounds into a single magazine doesn’t result in any kind of malfunction it gives you a warm fuzzy feeling that this particular firearm is pretty reliable in feeding different kinds of ammo.
That being said, it’s the ONLY time that I mix different kinds of ammo into a magazine. My carry stuff (230-grain HP) is in 3 magazines (one in the pistol and 2 spares) and they all come from quite literally the same box. This assures consistency in the carry pistol, and may well make a self-defense claim in court minutely more solid (if my good luck of never having to even draw my carry gun should ever fail).
If I’m trying different ammunition out, I put five in a magazine then shoot the group. then I load Brand B into a magazine and try that out.
From what I understand, when a gun is found around a crime scene or removed from an unsavory character, usually the magazine is a mish mash of cartridges.
I got distracted by what’s hanging off the slide. It doesnt look like any red dot I’ve seen. What is it?
My hunting rifle is .30-06 which I use for game as light as American antelope and as heavy as Canadian moose. There really are substantial differences in the feel of the shot between 110 and 220 grain bullets, but I’ve never detected any between different brands.
There are the range magazines and the carry magazines. Except for the larger capacity magazines everything is usually loaded to capacity. The range mags usually have coated or jacketed bullets’ except for about 200 rounds of 9mm lead SWC that I have been loading a only one round into my range bullets as my last in the mag and first out. The carry magazines all have Hydra-shok or HST in them. That said, I carry a S&W 65 in 357 most of the time with Hydra-shok in warmer weather and SWC when jackets are required. When I carry a semi-auto it is a full size Glock 10mm and HST.
Back when my carry pistol was a .380 ACP, I alternated hollowpoints and hardball in the magazine. My assumption was that if the hollowpoint didn’t penetrate far enough to stop an attack (due to heavy winter clothing, etc.) then the hardball might have enough oomph to do it.
Now that I no longer carry in that caliber, my carry magazines are all loaded with a good hollowpoint round.
I’m amazed that there are still men brave enough to admit they carry a .380 pistol.
When I was stationed with the 101st, back in the mid-‘90s, one of the junior enlisted soldiers in my battalion decided to pull a .380 on one of his fellow soldiers over some sort of slight during the weekly Friday evening barracks beer bash. The soldier doing the shooting got his ass handed to him by the soldier he shot. Your mileage may vary.
I once carried a 380 when in non-permissive environments and a 9mm the rest of the time. When I switched, I would empty one gun and load the other. One day, when unloading the 9mm, I realized I had been carrying it with a 380 in the magazine. Kinda sobering to realize I was carrying a single shot. More careful these days.