Bullet setback: What it is, why it's bad, and how to prevent it.

I use Hornady Critical Duty as my carry ammo. Here's a picture of two cartridges from my magazine.http://ift.tt/2gvrZ7z ammo is different than ammo you use to practice at the range because you hang on to it a lot longer and handle it more often. Some people unload their carry weapon only occasionally while others unload and re-chamber it multiple times a day for various reasons. But the thing about re-chambering carry ammo is that since you keep it around longer than range ammo, individual cartridges might be re-chambered many times. This can cause bullet setback.Bullet setback is when the bullet is forced backwards into the casing after repeated re-chambering (you can see this with bullet on the right). This can lead to increased pressures when the bullet is fired, which some believe could lead to structural damage to your firearm or even an explosion. It can also cause a misfire when the cartridge is too short and the hammer/striker can't reach the primer or hit it with enough force.Setback can't really be prevented. Any time you chamber a round the bullet will be setback, if only a tiny amount. But there are things you can do to minimize the setback so that it is never extensive enough to cause a problem. Here are some examples:Change your carry ammo regularly. (maybe buy some new carry ammo once a month and shoot your old carry ammo to make sure it still works as intended)Change the order of rounds in your magazine so that wear and tear is distributed across every cartridge instead of just the first one. (maybe empty your magazine once a week and move the top round to the bottom of the mag)Be gentle when chambering your rounds. (Believe it or not, the round on the left has been chambered into my G19 more than the round on the right. The difference is that I eased the slide down by hand with the cartridge on the left and with the cartridge on the right I simply used the slide release to slam it into the chamber.)My recommendation would be to use some combination of all 3 methods.PS: I'm no expert on this subject, I'm just doing a PSA based on my own research to save other newbies some time. Comments, corrections, and constructive criticism from more experienced members are welcome as always. via /r/CCW http://ift.tt/2fonz6j