Pistol storage question

[BFIBri]

First off, since I have children and a dog I dont feel the need or the desire to carry in the house so, when I'm in the house I store my weapon in a safe.
For my S&W M&P 9c my question is.... Is it better to unload the round out of the chamber and dryfire the pistol before storing, relieving the tension off the striker and trigger, or just leave loaded and cocked while stored.


Thanks
Bri

[John_Wayne777]

First off, since I have children and a dog I dont feel the need or the desire to carry in the house so, when I'm in the house I store my weapon in a safe.
For my S&W M&P 9c my question is.... To relieve the tension off the striker and trigger, is it better to unload the round out of the chamber and dryfire the pistol before storing, or just leave loaded and cocked while stored.


Leave it loaded while stored.

The tension of remaining cocked won't hurt the striker springs. What actually wears springs out is constantly having tension put on them and then taken off....like constantly loading and unloading magazines. The M&P is designed to spend most of its life in a ready to fire state. You have nothing to worry about on that front.

Chambering rounds over and over again is also not a good idea as it can lead to bullet setback. Generally you don't want to unload a carry gun unless you have to, (like for cleaning) and you want to cycle the round you took out of the chamber back into the bottom of the magazine so you don't end up chambering it over and over again. Chambering is a rather violent process and it dings up the case pretty good...the less you expose an individual cartridge to that process the better, as all that abuse can cause a round to have function issues.

As to dry firing your M&P I wouldn't make a regular practice of doing so without snap caps. I've personally busted a striker by doing too much dry fire sans snap cap. My personal advice is not to dry fire your M&P unless you have no other choice. Use the little lever in the mag well to disassemble your pistol for cleaning.

[mark5pt56]

As JW77 mentioned, cycle those top rounds to the bottom of the mag. Maybe after so many chamberings, mark them with a sharpie to be sure. Also, when buying carry ammo, get extra so you replace the whole load out at a minimum once per year and to replace those cycled rounds.

For around the house, this safe is a great choice. That's if you can find one

http://www.rapidalarm.com/mosinelfirsa.html