Just read a thread on a outdoor forum, pistol break in

Guns & Gear
21

You are 100% right, it may very well have been me :smiley:

The 43 was the first (and still only) “slim” grip I own, and it takes extra effort to shoot well.

But I still tell everyone it was the firearm :wink:

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22

Oh, I would too :rofl::rofl::rofl:

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23

Thank you all for sharing. This is what keeps me coming back
People sharing their ideas and experiences so we can all learn from it.

FWIW
my Soeger STR9 worked great out of the box. The mags and the shooter needed a little breaking in though.

I followed the break in procedure in the owners manual for the mags and had no issues.

There is only one set of ammo that really gave me any trouble and now I am wondering if it was just me. If I remember correctly it was 90gr. I do know not a single round out of 20 ejected properly and most were stove pipes. I chalked it upper to the lighter rounds. Now I am wondering if just me.

Hmmmmm
sounds like I need to buy some more ammo and head to the range to test out. :wink:

Thanks again for all the tips, tricks and making all feel welcomed.

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24

Stove pipes ate mostly caused by bad grip or weak hands
but usually with common ammo (115, 124, 147).
With 90 g ammo you may have light loads with less pressure and the slide may not cycle correctly causing failure to eject.
My guess is that lighter recoil spring will fix it, but I don’t know this pistol enough and this may cause other problems with regular loads.

Check your grip, shooting technique and if it doesn’t work, shoot different ammo.

It can also be slide tight fit and it will need break in period, but this is easy to accomplish by dry firing.
Just rack the slide at home 300 times and you will be good.

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25

Or, if a 9mm, break it in with NATO ammo and show that tight slide who’s boss :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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26

Disagree on m&p unfortunately. I recommend thorough cleaning before 1st shot. Even if that 1st range experience was flawless - do NOT trust the gun for carry until you pass 250-300 rounds through it. That is what I found to be the mechanical break in for m&p, but goes for every make and model imho

27

Thanks.

I haven’t shot the 90 gr after that 1 time. I wanted to know what my gun would or would not like.

I have close to 1000 rounds through it now. I have shot various 115 gr up to 147 gr rounds from various manufacturers. It pretty much eats everything brass in those ranges.

I am just over a year into conceal carry / pistol ownership so I tend to stick to name brand ammo as much as possible.

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28

I got to see this happen first hand on a consistent basis. We were doing pistol qualification for the Sheriffs Department with the Glock .40 and we had one woman who would have gone 100 lbs. fully clothed and soaking wet. She consistently had stove pipes and fail to feed on every iteration.
We finally figured out she just didn’t have the hand, wrist and arm strength to hold the pistol against the recoil. :us:

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29

Rumor has it, that is one of the reasons why FBI (and others) moved to 9mm. It is more manageable by more people.

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30

and less expensive, plus used by everyone, so in case of going completely empty they can use ammo from other people involved in the event.

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31

Break in isn’t something I’d consider unless a new pistol was a very tight target gun like an F Bob Chow or similar. Otherwise it should function as it came from the factory or something’s defective, however I would function check it with a generous sampling of a variety of ammo and magazines before trusting it as a fighting tool.

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32

That’s not a physical issue, it’s a training issue. My daughter, at a hair over 5’ tall, doesn’t weight much more that that and I have pictures of her firing a full bore magnums with hardly any muzzle rise. She’s never had a stovepipe in her life and she’s fired many a .40 of mine over the years. My wife handles a 25oz Kimber UltraCarry loaded with 180gr HP +P with no issues.

You control recoil or recoil controls you


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33

That is true of not just the FBI but many police departments. Cheaper to switch equipment than to adequately train your personnel.

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34

Many of the pistols and revolvers I have used over the years likely did not NEED a break-in period, but I do it anyway. Mostly this is about gaining trust in the system in my own hands, and I genuinely enjoy shooting anyway–so, I don’t see a downside. I reload duplicators of my carry ammo, so that saves some money and keeps me out of the bars and casinos.

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35

For me is it does not matter, It’s gonna get a good one anyway. When I get a new pistol I’m going to shoot a few hundred rounds the first trip to the range,

36

I recently bought a Shadow System MR920 which is the first pistol I’ve bought in over a year, so my regular EDC pistol is very broken in at this point. The SS owner’s manual said to shoot 200 rounds, so I shot 250 rounds including my hollow-point rounds that I’ll actually carry and had no malfunctions. However, having a new pistol I noted that it is quite stiff relative to my other pistol and it’s taking a bit to get use to the slide and mag release. I’m not sure what the right round-count is, but shoot until you’re comfortable at a minimum.