Fyodor,


I understand. I've killed two 10mm Colt Delta Elites thinking that because they were 10mm pistols they were suitable for 10mm ammunition. Battered (peened) the slide and the frame both to the point the pistols were not longer serviceable. But I never blew out a case . . . or a barrel.


Not ALL the ammunition I load is "hot to the max". I load *my* ammunition that way after making the conscious decision that it is OK if the handgun wears out. To mitigate this, I do routine maintenance, and preventative maintenance (such as changing recoil springs on a round count schedule as opposed to a performance degradation observation kind of "schedule&quot.


I wasn't going to 'go there' in this thread but the reason why I load *my* ammo the way I do is now relevant enough to this discussion that I believe the concept has value to put voice to.


So bear with me a second please while I lay the groundwork for why I do what I do . . .


* - most all the "defensive" ammunition I have ever encountered for handguns tends to be on the upper end of the powder charge range - it is "hot".


* - with my own eyeballses I have seen shooters pour "target ammo" into targets in "practice" for defensive encounters, then when they do shoot defensive ammo, both their split times (forgive me if you already know this but that is time between shots) and their accuracy degrade markedly. Then there is the distraction factor. If you just put 50000000 rounds that go "pop" down range then send some that go "boom!" it is going to distract you. Even if it is only fractions of a second, you ARE going to react differently than you did during those 50000000 "pop" rounds.


I'm supremely confident that you and most here, understand that those fractions of a second here and there can and do sometimes add up to the difference between life and death in a defense of life situation.


* - I have personally experienced the other side of this as well. You send 500000000 "boom!" rounds down range, switch to "pop" rounds and what happens? One shoots lower split times with (usually) more accuracy.


My working theory is that if I can find a way to train like I hope to fight, if the need arises to fight, the likelihood is increased that I will fight as I trained. We often say it, it is thrown about with reckless abandon sometimes even. But I am an absolute believer that a gun is a tool. When that tool wears out, I won't have a problem throwing it away and buying a new one. My life, and most especially the lives of my loved ones, is worth far more than the cost of any pistol I will employ to get the job done. Including my totally collectible, rare as hens teeth, original Bill Wilson seventy series Colt 1911 (which by the way is worth a LOT more than the car I drive every day and depend on in the event of an emergency).




Maybe I am looking at all this . . . askew. You all know me to well at this point for me to pretend I am not a little . . . . um, , , , idiosyncratic. But I don't think so.


What I do know for sure is that I genuinely welcome anyone to offer feedback that would allow me to better achieve the goals at least implied in the brain dump above. ;D :-[