Well, that is the simple method, and you are right, sounds like it might get a little tedious after awhile.
I am thinking of much more elaborate contraptions.
Lets see.... get 30 colts, 30 rugers, 30 S&W.
Remove the cylinder, place a pressure plate to detect impact from the firing pin to measure the force that the pin is delivering. Plate should simulate striking a primer in terms of hardness.
Build 45 actuating devices to cock and fire the revolver in single action.
Build 45 actuating devices to fire each revolver in double action.
Hit "GO" and let the robots pull triggers 24/7 until something fails.
A variation in the impact force at the pressure plate would indicate a failure and the actuators would pause, allowing for evaluation of what failed.
Maybe X-ray the parts every 100,000 strikes.
Go until something breaks and see which guns make it through more trigger pulls before failing. Then you can say which design/gun has teh best durability.
The one element missing from that experiement would be the influence of recoil and the actual bullet going bang, which is not insignificant, obviously. You COULD, I suppose, design an autoloading robot to put millions of rounds through the gun automatically in a short amount of time, but I think the non-explosive route would probably put consistent stress on the parts in the action to yield good results.
I imagine gun manufacturers actually do something like this, running their actions and parts through millions of automated test-fires to test the durability of the manufactured product. I know they do for push buttons, tools, and basically everything else, including water faucets!
http://www.kuka-robotics.com/en/sol...R166_Durability_testing_of_water_fittings.htm
And then you'd have to repeat it (multiple times), because ONE test doesn't gather proper data for a serious conclusion.
