How Many Rounds Prove Firearm Reliability?

Firearm Training
21

Exactly. The gun does not need to be faulty for it to be unreliable in your use of it. And an unreliable gun might not remain unreliable if you can identify and correct a flaw. Anyone throwing away perfectly good firearms can feel free to toss them toward me. :grin:

My main points were that
• nothing can prove a firearm will function when needed
• any failure you are unable to correct proves unreliability.

The best we can do is seek a personal confidence level where we start worrying more about other things.

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22

Did the slide break in half and the rear of the slide remained on the frame?

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23

The next round!

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24

Great post!

For me, it was not well into my second year of being a firearm guardian, that I finally felt I had found my best reliability brand, within my budget. Perhaps it’s subjective/relative, different for each person, depending on the firearm and the ammunition they prefer. Some guns are more reliable than others.

One might even prefer accuracy over reliability or the other way around. I met one fella who told me he follow a montra “One is none, two is one”, as he was purchasing a second EDC, so that he carries two arms at a time.

Personally, I find revolvers more reliable but less accurate. A relative of mine who happens to be a LEO, happens to also have very good accuracy skills with all arms.

I may be lucky in that I found one handgun that to me is reliable, has had very few jams. I have also tested a lot of different ammo, so that I have found the ammo which is the least likely to jam.

However, if I ever felt the need for even more reliability, I’d carry a second arm or have my back up be a revolver.

For me, it was not how many number of rounds, but did I test enough guns, and did I test enough of the different ammunition. That journey was enjoyable and helped me build it as a hobby, as amateur as I am.

Perhaps, always looking for even more reliability as a never ending search can be a project in and of itself (lifetime), until or unless, one has reached a plateau, and accepts “it aint gonna get any better”. After that, I’d need to find the next “fun”.

For me too, accuracy is another important factor I seek. Happy with where I’m at, what I have found, but always on the look out, hmmm, is there something better?

Could also depend on the elements, environment, being out in severe weather.

In my small collection, I ranked them on reliability, and to your point, yep, I tend to carry the most reliable of the bunch, but each has its place and time.

Lives depend on it, including in the rare even of innocent bystanders in the area. Guess I went off topic with accuracy. Apologies.

Keeping it very clean, with light occasional oil. If I treated my body as I do my firearm, I’d have a perfectly healthy body mass index (BMI).

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25

Actually the slide stayed on the rails. The front face surrounding the barrel snapped off. To give you a better idea, on a 1911 you have a barrel bushing, this is part of the slide on the high power. While I was shooting I saw the part fly downrange. The slide stuck back slightly and out of battery. I was shooting 115 grain ball ammo, not +p.

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26

Ah-ha! Now I understand :+1:

Thank you for the explanation

27

Scary part is i have learned more about guns because of failures than those that have shot well. I used to buy used, recommend new to novice shooters. Other failures that needed fixing have been a colt commercial 1911, a colt officer’s model double eagle, a remington 870 wingmaster, an ithaca semi auto 12 guage, a remington 740 in 30-06 and ruger mini 14. All fixed inexpensively. Shoot new to you or new weapons. Don’t count on them to go bang when needed.

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28

I have been fortunate not to have very many failures to learn from, which I did learn from several of them, but I have also learned a lot about the different designs just by disassembling and cleaning them. These are a few I took apart recently, a Series 70 1911, a Series 80 1911, and a swing trigger subcompact 1911:

EMP4_Receiver_Disassembly
EMP4_Receiver_Disassembly2016×980 199 KB

Colt_Series_80_Receiver_Disassembly
Colt_Series_80_Receiver_Disassembly2016×980 292 KB

P938_Receiver_Disassembly
P938_Receiver_Disassembly2016×980 272 KB

Getting the trigger and trigger bar out of the P938 was the biggest PITA I’ve encountered so far … it was days later and I did not take a new group photo :grinning:

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29

Back on topic, I feel comfortable my firearm is reliable for a specific ammo selection when I have confirmed it shoots a full magazine +1 in the chamber with every magazine I own for that firearm. If I choose to change to a different ammo, then it has to be tested to that criterion before I consider it reliable with both ammo brand/types.

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30

Kudos to you. The best lesson taken if we learned from mistakes and failures.

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31

Worst pistol to completely disassemble, Ruger .22 … ugh!

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32

That’s why I love 1911/2011. No matter what caliber - always the same procedure of disassembly.
:wink:

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33

Round count to failure minus one.
Failures have taught me what to be aware of, which is why I often run just one mag through a pistol just to make sure it’s running.
Failures so far. Broken guide rod G43, trigger spring “fell over” on my G19, preventing firing, 1911 was just an initial pita one day, trigger seemed stuck iirc. Racked slide a few times and 2 cleanings and 500 rounds later, as well as the 2k previous, it’s been fine.
Rifles, M1a as new wouldn’t fire, grease in firing pin channel. Since then…the gun rocks.
Been other issues, bad mag, ammo issue…
Guns that have been flawless…M9, M&P 45c 2.0
Little silly things, rifle…screw tension on trigger housing. Too tight, no pew Mossberg MVP.

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34

I usually fire 200 rounds of target ammo if it’s a name brand firearm ie. Smith&Wesson, Glock, Sig Sauer, Ruger, FN and others not named to deem it reliable and 50 self defense rounds with no malfunctions.

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35

A revolver to me is as fail safe as possible from a functionality stand point and, has always been my first choice but not my only choice for a self defense handgun. My EDC has five rounds but there is no ( no ) doubt in my mind that it will perform (with any amo)

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36

If it’s the mark 1v yep. The newer ones are changed.

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37

Thank you for posting, perhaps I may get one now! Love the SR22.

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38

Forgot about that! Had a smith and wesson airweight body guard fail after 35 rounds, firing pin failure, used gun!

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39

S&W 442 is my first choice. I don’t shoot it much because its a little snappy I have complete Confidence in it for my edc. ( works for me ).

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40

For me, it’s a couple hundred rounds of my carry ammo. If it functions without fail, I’m good. Though no firearm is 100% reliable. That’s why you always take a knife to a gun fight, but I take a gun too.

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