Product Safety & Ammunition Handling

This page sets out how to select, store, use and dispose of the ammunition and accessories TAS sells, and what TAS is and is not responsible for when a product turns out to be defective.

Phase 1 note: this document is a structurally complete template. It has not yet been reviewed by counsel and must be before any real sale is made.

1. Who this page is for

Everyone who buys from us. If you have been shooting for thirty years, most of this will be familiar and section 3 is still worth two minutes, because the mistakes that hurt experienced shooters are almost always the ones about matching a cartridge to a chamber rather than the ones about muzzle discipline.

This is general safety information about the products we sell. It is not firearms instruction, it does not replace the manual that came with your firearm, and where it disagrees with that manual, the manufacturer’s manual wins. If you are new to shooting, take a course with a certified instructor before you take ammunition to a range.

2. The four universal rules

These four rules are redundant on purpose. Every serious firearms accident is a chain of them being broken in sequence, and holding any one of them breaks the chain.

1. Treat every firearm as if it is loaded. Not “assume until checked” — treat. You check the chamber yourself, visually and physically, every time the firearm changes hands or leaves your control, and you behave as though it is loaded anyway.
2. Never point the muzzle at anything you are not willing to destroy. Including your own hand while loading, the person in the next lane, and the wall your family is behind.
3. Keep your finger off the trigger and outside the trigger guard until your sights are on the target and you have decided to fire. Most unintentional discharges are a finger on a trigger during holstering, handing over, or startling.
4. Be sure of your target and what is beyond it. A rifle round that misses keeps travelling for a long way. Backstops, ricochets and the far side of a hill are your responsibility before you fire, not after.

Two more that belong with them: unload before cleaning, transporting or storing, and never handle firearms or ammunition while impaired by alcohol, drugs, or any medication that affects judgement or coordination.

3. Match the cartridge to the stamp

Before you load a single round, read the caliber marking stamped on your barrel, slide or receiver, and read the caliber printed on the ammunition box. They must match. Not “be close”, not “be the one the guy at the counter said”, not “be what you bought last time”. Match. A cartridge that chambers is not the same thing as a cartridge that is safe.

Every TAS product page prints the caliber, grain weight, bullet type and round count on the variant you are actually buying, and your order confirmation repeats them. Check the listing against the stamp before you order, and check the box against the stamp again before you load.

The 5.56 and .223 case, specifically

This is the single most common dangerous substitution in American shooting, and it is asymmetric, which is why people get it wrong.

• 5.56 NATO must not be fired in a firearm chambered for .223 Remington only. 5.56 NATO is loaded to a higher pressure and the .223 chamber has a shorter leade, which raises chamber pressure further. The combination can exceed what the action is designed to contain.
• .223 Remington is safe in a 5.56 NATO chamber. The longer leade drops pressure rather than raising it. Accuracy may be slightly different; safety is not the issue in this direction.
• If the barrel is stamped .223 Wylde, both are safe — that chamber exists precisely to resolve this.
• If you cannot read the stamp, or there is no stamp, do not guess. Contact the firearm’s manufacturer with the serial number, or have a gunsmith identify the chamber.

Two habits that prevent almost all of this: keep one caliber on the bench at a time, and never decant ammunition into an unlabelled container. Loose rounds in a coat pocket or a coffee can are how the wrong cartridge ends up in the wrong chamber.

4. +P, +P+ and pressure ratings

+P marks a cartridge loaded above standard pressure for its caliber but to a published, standardised limit. +P+ marks a cartridge loaded above even that, to no published standard at all. Both produce more recoil, more muzzle blast, and more stress on your firearm than a standard load of the same caliber.

• Check the manual before firing +P. Many modern firearms are rated for it; many older ones, alloy-framed revolvers and some compact pistols are not. Firing +P in a firearm not rated for it accelerates wear at best and damages the firearm at worst.
• Treat +P+ as expert-only. Because there is no published pressure standard behind the marking, the only reliable authority is the firearm manufacturer telling you in writing that your specific model can take it. If you do not have that, do not shoot it.
• +P is not a magic upgrade. It gives up service life and control for velocity. For most shooters, most of the time, a standard-pressure load you can shoot accurately is the better round.
• Steel-case and steel-core loads are prohibited on some ranges and can damage steel targets and backstops. Check the range’s rules before you arrive with a case of it.

Every TAS listing that carries a +P or +P+ designation says so in the product title and the specification table. If a listing is ambiguous about pressure, tell us and we will fix it.

5. Why we sell new factory ammunition only

TAS sells new, factory-manufactured ammunition in unopened original packaging with readable lot markings. We do not sell reloaded, remanufactured, reprocessed or pulled-down ammunition, and we do not buy ammunition back from customers to resell.

That is a deliberate limit on what we will list, for reasons that are about your safety rather than our margin:

• Reloaded ammunition has no verifiable production record. A factory round is made on instrumented equipment against a pressure standard, with lot traceability that allows a recall. A reloaded round is as good as the person who assembled it, and you usually cannot know who that was.
• Brass has a finite life. Remanufactured ammunition is built on fired cases of unknown age and unknown loading history. Case head separation and split necks are the failure modes, and they happen in your chamber.
• Double charges and squibs are loading errors, and the rate of them in hand-loaded ammunition is not zero. A double charge is a catastrophic failure. A missed charge is a bullet in the barrel.
• Most firearm warranties exclude reloaded ammunition. If a reload damages your firearm, you are typically on your own with both the repair and the injury.

If you reload for yourself, that is your call and plenty of excellent shooters do — but shoot your own reloads in your own firearm, and do not shoot anyone else’s. TAS sells components for reloading; we do not sell the output of anyone else’s press.

6. Storing ammunition

Ammunition stored properly stays reliable for decades. Ammunition stored badly degrades quietly, and you do not find out until a round behaves differently from the one before it.

• Cool, dry and dark. A stable indoor temperature is the target. Avoid attics, uninsulated garages, vehicle trunks and anywhere that swings from freezing to over 100°F across a year.
• Locked, and separate from firearms. Store ammunition in a locked container, out of reach and out of sight of children and of anyone prohibited from possessing it. Storing ammunition separately from firearms is good practice and is required by law in some states.
• In the original packaging. Manufacturer boxes keep rounds separated, keep primers from being struck, and keep the caliber and lot number readable. If you use ammunition cans, keep the original box inside the can rather than pouring rounds in loose.
• Humidity controlled. A sealed ammunition can with a fresh desiccant pack is the cheapest insurance there is. Corroded cases and green primer pockets are moisture damage.
• Away from solvents, oils and cleaners. Penetrating oil, bore solvent and gun oil migrate into a primer pocket and kill the primer, and can soak into the propellant. A round that has sat in an oily rag drawer or been over-lubricated is a misfire waiting to happen. Never spray a lubricant into a loaded firearm’s chamber or magazine.
• Rotate your stock. Shoot the oldest first. Label the purchase date on the box when you put it away.

Heat is the quiet killer here. Smokeless propellant and primer compounds decompose faster at elevated temperature, and the decomposition is cumulative and irreversible — a summer in a hot trunk is not undone by a cool winter. Degraded propellant can produce erratic velocity, weak loads, and in the worst case pressure excursions.

Inspect before you shoot. Discard any round with a corroded or green case, a cracked or split neck, a bullet you can push or twist by hand, a dented or perforated case, or a primer that is missing, sideways, backed out or visibly pierced.

7. Squibs, hangfires and misfires

Three failures matter, they feel similar in the first half-second, and the correct response to each is different. Learn to tell them apart before you need to.

Misfire — nothing happens

You press the trigger and the round does not fire. Keep the muzzle pointed downrange and wait at least 30 seconds before doing anything else, because a misfire and a hangfire are indistinguishable at the moment they occur. After 30 seconds, unload carefully with the muzzle downrange, and set the round aside for disposal under section 10.

Hangfire — a delay, then it fires

The primer ignites but the propellant is slow to light, and the round goes off after a perceptible delay. This is why the 30-second rule exists. A shooter who opens the action two seconds after a misfire has their face over a round that may still fire. Muzzle downrange, wait, then act.

Squib — a weak sound and no recoil

The primer fires but the propellant does not fully ignite, and the bullet lodges in the barrel. The signs are a quiet or unusual report, little or no recoil, no impact on target, and often light smoke from the ejection port or cylinder gap.

If anything about a shot sounds or feels wrong, stop immediately. Do not fire another round. A second round fired into a barrel obstruction is the classic burst barrel, and it takes hands and eyes with it. Unload the firearm, remove the magazine, lock the action open, and inspect the bore from the breech end with a rod or a light. If there is an obstruction, do not attempt to shoot it out — have it removed, and if you are not confident doing that yourself, take it to a gunsmith.

If a squib, hangfire or misfire comes from ammunition you bought from TAS, keep the box, the remaining rounds and the lot number and contact us under section 11. We take lot-level reports seriously and we would rather hear about one round than a hundred.

8. Eye and ear protection

• Eye protection, every time, for everyone on the line, including spectators. Use eyewear rated to ANSI Z87.1 or better. Ordinary prescription lenses are not impact-rated. The hazards are ejected brass, unburnt powder, primer fragments, ricochet and solvent splash during cleaning.
• Hearing protection, every time. Gunfire runs roughly 140 to 175 decibels at the shooter. Hearing damage at those levels is instant and permanent, and a single unprotected shot can do it. There is no such thing as one quick shot without plugs.
• Double up indoors and with muzzle brakes. Plugs under muffs. Indoor ranges reflect sound, and a braked rifle punishes everyone standing near it.
• Electronic muffs are worth the money if you shoot with others — they let you hear range commands and conversation while still cutting the impulse.
• Protect children the same way. Child-sized muffs exist; adult muffs seal badly on a small head.

9. Lead hygiene and ventilation

Shooting exposes you to lead from primer residue and from bullet material, and it is absorbed by ingestion and inhalation rather than through intact skin. The risk is highest for children and for pregnant women. Handled sensibly it is manageable; ignored, it accumulates.

• Do not eat, drink, smoke or vape on the firing line, and do not touch your face with range hands.
• Wash with cold water and soap before you eat, and wash hands, forearms and face before leaving the range. Cold water — hot water opens pores. Lead-removing wipes are a reasonable substitute in the field, but not a replacement for washing.
• Change and launder range clothing separately from the household wash, and leave range shoes at the door. Do not carry range dust into a car seat or a living room.
• Shoot outdoors or in a properly ventilated range. An indoor range should have downrange airflow that moves smoke away from the line. If the air is visibly hazy on the line, leave.
• Ventilate when cleaning and reloading. Primer residue in a bore brush and tumbler dust from case cleaning are both airborne lead sources. Wet-tumble or work outside, and never dry-sweep lead dust — wet-wipe it.
• If you shoot frequently, competitively, or professionally, ask your physician about a blood lead level test as part of a routine physical.

California residents: products we sell carry Proposition 65 exposure warnings for lead and lead compounds. See the Compliance & Restrictions page.

10. Disposing of ammunition

Never put ammunition in household trash, recycling, a fire, or water, and never bury it. Rounds in a waste stream endanger sanitation workers and can detonate in a compactor or an incinerator. Rounds in landfill leach lead. Attempting to disassemble unknown ammunition with hand tools is a bad idea, and attempting to destroy it by firing it in a firearm is worse.

Dispose of ammunition you no longer trust through one of these routes:

• Your local law enforcement agency. Most police departments and sheriff’s offices accept unwanted ammunition or will direct you to who does. Call first, ask their procedure, and follow it exactly — do not turn up unannounced with a box of rounds.
• A range or gun club. Many will take deteriorated ammunition for proper disposal, and some run collection days.
• A household hazardous waste facility, where your county operates one that accepts ammunition. Confirm by phone before travelling.
• A licensed disposal contractor for large quantities or for anything you cannot identify.

If you find ammunition you cannot identify, military ordnance, a projectile that is not a small-arms cartridge, or anything that looks like a grenade, a flare, or a shell — do not move it or handle it. Call your local law enforcement non-emergency line and let a bomb squad handle it. This applies to inherited collections and to things found on land more often than people expect.

Transport ammunition for disposal in its original packaging or a closed container, in the trunk or cargo area, and tell whoever receives it what you believe it is and why you are getting rid of it.

11. Warranties and defects

TAS is a retailer. We are the merchant of record on your order, and we source the goods from independent suppliers — but we do not manufacture ammunition, and product warranties are given by the manufacturer, not by TAS. We make no warranty as to a product’s fitness for a particular firearm, a particular use, or a particular level of performance, and nothing on this page is a warranty. Your rights against us as your seller are set out in the Terms of Service and the Returns & Refunds Policy, and nothing here limits any right you have under applicable law that cannot be limited.

We are still the people you should call first. If you suspect a defect in something you bought from us:

1. Stop using the product immediately. Do not fire any more of the lot, and do not attempt to disassemble the rounds.
2. Make the firearm and the remaining ammunition safe. Unload, lock the action open, and separate the suspect ammunition from everything else you shoot.
3. Keep everything. The remaining rounds, the box, the lot number printed on it, any recovered case or projectile, and your order number. The lot number is what lets a manufacturer trace a production run.
4. Photograph it — the box, the lot marking, the affected rounds, and any damage to the firearm.
5. Email safety@topammosupply.com with all of the above. Put the order number in the subject line. We acknowledge safety reports within one business day, we take the lot out of sale while we investigate if the report warrants it, and we raise it with the manufacturer and the supplying warehouse.

Ammunition that is defective or that we shipped in error is returnable at our cost, including return shipping, under the Returns & Refunds Policy. Ammunition is not returnable for change of mind once it has left our control, because we cannot verify how it was stored or handled after that — which is the same reason this page asks you to store yours carefully.

If someone is injured, call emergency services first. Report it to us afterwards.

12. How to contact us

• Safety reports and suspected defects: safety@topammosupply.com
• General support: support@topammosupply.com
• Support hours: Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm Eastern.
• Every route, and what to have ready: the Contact page.

We answer questions about what a load will do in a given firearm, and we would much rather answer one before you order than process a return afterwards. What we cannot do is tell you that a specific cartridge is safe in a specific firearm sight unseen — that answer comes from the stamp on the barrel and the manual in the box.