100-400 rounds per session depending on what drills I’m doing that day. I don’t keep track of rounds per gun. I run them for a few years, pass them down and upgrade to new ones. Glocks are just useful tools.
Seems rather normal firing regimen to me, not more than most fire in a year or at least the people in my area. When i was still sponsored and competing i religiously ran 2,000 rds a week.
Still have a Glock 21, Glock 19 and my Caspian Custom 1911 each with 100,000 rds on them individually and they still run fine.
I stayed clear of alot of the aftermarket parts unless they were very well known.
Being sponsored, and competing, are both highly influenced how many rounds a year you were putting thru the pipe(s). I have no doubt you enjoyed that time and also no doubt you are better in every aspect of firearms than myself
However, based on disposible income available, combined with average enjoyment/interest in shooting, my observation is @Enzo_T is probably safe saying the “average” gun owner does not shoot 100-400 rounds per year. The extremes I have personally seen range from a guy I used to shoot with that went shooting 7 days a week until he had to trottle back because he got lead poisioning from it, to the folks that are proud they have a Glock they have owned for 10 years that they have never fired - yet 100% trust it to work if they need it because it came with a fired cartridge in the box. The number of people in the second category far outnumber the 1 person I’ve ever personally known that shoots every day.
After decades of training everything from CC classes, newbies and fairly advanced shooters I can honestly say that you are absolutely correct. Most gun owners fall for the “sense” of safety of just owning a firearm and believe if they ever need to use it they will somehow rise to the occasion because they own a tool. They never learned the old adage that owning a gun does not make you a shooter any more than owning a guitar makes you a musician. You don’t rise to the level of your expectations, you fall to the level of your training.
I’ve spent a lot of time at gun stores with owners and you’d be shocked at how many guns are brought to trade in or sell for many reasons and how many come with the original ancient box of ammo that was purchased with it.
It’s a funny thing. More training is better. Better marksmanship (accuracy on the clock) is better.
Most out there are untrained and would not fare well on popular drills or metrics, and would do very poorly in even a entry level club competition.
And yet, the vast majority of defensive gun uses are successful.
We can reason that the vast majority of defensive gun uses must necessarily be people who are untrained, out of practice, etc, and we’d tell them friend to friend that hey man you should get more training do more drills get more practice.
But, they succeed when faced with that imminent threat of serious bodily harm or death, at a very high rate/%.
I think this is likely though unprovable based on current data. I also think the vast majority of defensive firearm uses merely require the defender to show their firearm, or perhaps fire one round (hits not required), to get the criminal to retreat. Against more determined attackers I strongly suspect that training starts to play a much larger role in successful defensive outcomes.
True, but the failures go well under reported too…. How many die within feet of a weapon they could have used to save their lives, and not just their gun. Chairs, kitchen knives, bottles, fire poker, umbrella. Those just get reported as homicides, there is no note that says he missed 3 times, or he could have successfully defended himself with a lamp that was well within his reach.
A little training and awareness goers a long way. My intent is to make sure I and the people I love are not part of one of those statistics.
My intent is for myself and my family, NOT to be one of those…
Oh and one last point. While I respect someone with a gun with 100,000 rounds through it I would never count on one for my protection for the same reason I won’t drive a car with 100,000 miles on a cross country trip. Old guns are great, but I want my SD and HD guns freshly broken in like my cars. That’s why every few years I rotate the old ones out. Same as cars.
I think this is an important point. How many crime victims may have been firearm owners but aren’t counted under the success or failure columns because they didn’t have the ability to get to their firearm or some other defensive tool?
It is also untrained people who are more likely to do stupid things like open their doors to strangers at 11PM, or scroll through their phones in parking lots with their car doors unlocked, etc., etc……
I have had to use my study and training on multiple occasions to avoid threats. I’ve been fortunate to never have to reach for my firearm. If I had to choose between owning a firearm without any training or being trained but not being able to have a firearm I would choose the later. There are far more situations where having training and situational awareness are all that is needed to keep people out of trouble than there are situations that can only be solved with a firearm. Especially if all you have is the firearm without the training needed to use it effectively.
No possible way of knowing that, but, the training we typically refer to and recommend probably won’t do that much about it. I’ve taken quite a bit of self defense firearms training and it’s all that, firearms training…nobody has in any of those gone into the use of knives, bottles, other tools/weapons of opportunity, etc.
I agree with this statement and while I do not begrudge anyone who buys a gun and forgoes training I merely wish them luck. On the other hand, I admire and applaud those that do not stop there because they recognize that survival is a lifestyle choice and it’s dependent on way more than a feeling or hope it works out for you. Plenty of fat/unhealthy folks buy and own a bunch of diet books and exercise equipment. No reason to admire that behavior.
It is dependent on way more than feeling or hope…the first way more thing being, often anyway, access to a firearm. I applaud those that recognize the importance of firearm access and go through the steps to have that access.
More training after that is of course great, but, the biggest hurdle is definitely the access to the firearm and having that is far more helpful than feelings and hopes.
I would say that having a firearm is likely the most significant odds improvement factor for those that suddenly find themselves in or allow themselves to be placed in an imminent threat situation. But I would argue that having the situational awareness, as well as the common sense, instincts and skills needed to recognize and avoid those situations in the first place is a far more important self defense capability.
“Those who win every battle are not really skilled — those who render others’ armies helpless without fighting are best of all.” - Sun Tzu
While simply having a firearm handy may be enough to stop many threats I have come across more than a few cases where untrained people had accidents, unnecessarily escalated situations because they were armed or allowed their firearms to be taken and used against them, etc. etc….
I think it is irresponsible for people to not get proper training when they choose to operate potentially dangerous tools. It unnecessarily increases the odds of serious accidents and other unintended consequences even if the vast majority of people are lucky enough to get away with taking their new item from the store and using it without ever reading the instruction manual let alone getting training from a qualified instructor.
I would disagree to that statement. My pistols with 100,000 rds on them have been extremely well maintained and proper care on them. I have a Gen5 Glock 19 i personally put a hair over 40,000 rds on and replaced necessary parts and maintenance every 10,000 rds and my son carries it daily and he can still shoot a reduced size ipsc steel target 90% at 50 yards easily.
My 1911 with that amount i would carry and trust over most other peoples carry guns any day.
As for vehicles, my 19yr old Nissan pickup has 260,000 original miles and i took it cross country not long ago. If you know your equipment inside and out you should know what it can and can not still do. Just me i guess.
Everyone has their own comfort zone! Materials stress failures are real and you don’t know they are happening until they do. That’s why PDs and elite military units swap out their guns every few years for new. They just wear out. One of my mentors, a SF guy “broke” his first HK at only 15,000 rounds. That was a rude awakening to me.
I DO know my equipment inside and out and knowing that a gun has been subjected to 100,000 cycles already would make me very nervous. And since I don’t have to keep running old guns, I don’t. Guns and cars are easy to replace. Me? Not so much. But that’s me I guess.
I understand what your saying, i could rotate to a different carry gun pretty much every day of the week, or month if needed. I dont daily carry my high round count guns but i absolutely would if needed. Most of my EDC’s have a minimum of 5-10,000 on them.
Breaking a gun at 15,000 as you stated should not overly concern you. Ive had enough access to different models and such ive had Glocks, Sigs, and others fail in well under 5,000 or less. Bad parts, crap quality control etc.
I rotate Glocks the Sig 320( the appendix nightmare lol) i trust and enjoy all of them.
My edc as of late my Sig 365 X Macro is coming up on 5k and running strong.
The breakdown didn’t concern me as much as it opened my eyes to the possibility of failures caused by hard use an how I’d look to minimize the potential for myself. My current EDCs are in the thousands of rounds already too, I consider that a good break-in.
I don’t really rotate as much as “dress for the occasion”. But I also like trying new technology as it comes out and I never know what I’ll fall in love with. Today it’s Glock 48 and Sig P365X. At times it’s old school with one of my 1911s.