Barney Up; Rotating Carry Ammo

The ammo that you use for saving your life is sensitive to abuse, particularly in an autopistol. Overhandling will deactivate it. We had occasion to see that, in this case we see a host of defects on the cartridge, and we are not sure which instance of abuse deactivated it.

This heavily abused round failed to fire

There is some discussion about how many times is optimal for chambering a round. I’ve heard “one and done” meaning one time only. The great Tom Givens advises twice, then it goes into your practice ammo. Others say, when it shows signs of abuse. This is a decision that only the user can make, and only the user suffers the consequences of their decision.

Whatever decision is made, we have a problem; “How do I manage this?”, which is really what I’m writing this for.

For people who come to me for help with their firearms handling, I advise them to “Barney Up”.

Some may remember the Andy Griffith Show, where Deputy Barney Fife carried his one cartridge in his shirt pocket. This is where that name originates. We want to manage our one round, the one that is in the chamber of our autopistol, with a “Barney Mag”. This is a magazine that I “work from”, as opposed to a magazine that is filled to capacity and stays that way.

Let’s look at how this all works;

Remove the magazine, eject the live round

Remove the full to capacity magazine, eject the round in the chamber.

Remove the magazine and eject the round. Let the round hit the floor, you can try to catch it but once every few thousand times it will have an open chamber detonation… your dice to roll, I can only advise you.

OK, what are my options, now?

Now we have the situation that the internet cannot seem to manage, what do I do with the ejected round? I’ve heard it said “remove all 17 rounds from the live mag and put the ejected one at the bottom, then, refill the magazine. Do that every. single. day.” Forgive me but, that sounds insane. I’d like to see a video of someone doing that 30 days in a row.

Some would put the round directly into the chamber and drop the slide on the chambered round, when time to go hot. Pistolsmiths warn us that extractors are not intended to operate this way and damage can occur.

Some will chamber a round from the full magazine then top it back off with the ejected round, sometimes, on a rotation. This would take a level of awareness that I just don’t have enough caffeine in my system for, first thing in the morning.

If none of this is working… what am I supposed to do?

Ejected round in the cup, Barney round in the chamber, full to capacity magazine into the pistol

Barney Up!

What do I do, that seems to be successful? I put the ejected round in my Mickey Mouse coffee cup. Then I insert my Barney Mag, rack a live round into the chamber, and take the Barney Mag out. Then I insert my full to capacity magazine, give it a tug and holster.

Do that every day.

When the coffee cup has 17 rounds in it, and the Barney Mag is empty, you get to decide “Do I put the rounds in the cup back in the Barney Mag, or do I put them in my practice ammo?”

The full to capacity magazine is now the Barney Mag. I either fill the mag from the cup or I whip out a fresh box of Federal 124gr HST hollowpoints to fill the empty mag, which goes into service as the new full to capacity mag.

Another option?

A properly holstered firearm in a properly fitting holster in good condition is SAFE! Period. Otherwise, we could never carry them.

A properly holstered firearm in a properly fitting holster in good condition is SAFE! Who says so? Greg Morrison and Col. Jeff Cooper in the book The Modern Technique Of The Pistol

The industry standard in firearms training, like it or not, is the NRA. One of their 3 safety rules is “ALWAYS Keep The Gun Unloaded Until Ready To Use”, and you will never see me advise against the industry standard.

Now, if my operating procedure is “This firearm remains in a state of being ready to use” and I lock it in a safe fully loaded and holstered, ready to deploy at a moment’s notice, then I can avoid unloading it every time I remove it from my body.

It cannot be stressed enough, YOU WILL BE RESPONSIBLE if someone gets their hands on this loaded firearm and discharges it. I highly advise against this practice for all but the most highly trained of practitioners.