Disenchanted with Semi-Autos Lately

C

ColColt

New member
Lately I've been a little disenchanted with semi-auto pistols. I have several Glocks and a few 3rd Generation S&W in 45 and 9mm. The past month I've had two malfunctions with the S&W's (457 and 4566TSW). The one today was with the 457 that only has about 400 rounds through it and two new mags. After around 120 rounds I had a failure to go into battery. I banged the rear of the slide and that didn't help so, I pulled the slide back about 1/2 inch to see what was wrong and noticed the round was already in the chamber but, it had failed to get picked up by the extractor. This never happened before and wasn't an easy jam to clear.

If you plan on trusting your life to an auto of any sort, and even if you've shot 500-1000 rounds through it, this sort of thing can happen. My fear is that it would or could happen at the worse possible time and now I can't put 100% faith in them(speaking of the two above). The magazines are new having only a few hundred rounds though them but a jam such as this seems it was a fault of the magazine in that when the last round popped up it must have been forward enough as to not let the extractor engage the rim...that's all I know of that would cause this sort of jam. All in all, perhaps not the pistols fault but the magazine-nevertheless, they are a team and if one goes awry, they both do. Springs are new and so are the followers.

I would appreciate any suggestions as to the possibility of my opinion on this being wrong. Maybe I need to sell both and get a Ruger GP-101.:(
 
Revolvers.

Yep that'll do it.

Police for years and years carried their Colt and S&W .38's.

Course every once in a while a primer would back out and jam the thing or dirt and crud and other stuff would get in the way and jam the cylinder or someone trying to lighten up the trigger pull would mess up and the hammer wouldn't hit hard enough to set off the primer consistently...

See where I'm headed? We don't have the 'perfect' firearm yet despite what the 1911 and Glock folks claim.

You pays your money and you takes your chances. I happen to like both but either one can and will fail on occassion. That's just the nature of, well, nature. Doing all the things you have done helps eliminate the problems and *lots* of folk have reached the point where they would literally trust their lives with either platform.

Good luck.
 
Let me get this straight, you fired 120 rounds, and then had a malfunction?

Nothing made by man is flawless, nothing will work endlessly without some kind of problem (even revolvers!:eek:).

Engineer types talk about mean time between failures, meaning that they know things are going to go wrong. Its merely a question of how long it takes.

Lets assume you have high quality ammo. Each individual round has been inspected, gauged, checked, everything humanly possible has been done to ensure it will work flawlessly (and how often is that really the case?).

Check your gun (mags included) make sure it is in "perfect condition". and then go play. See how many rounds you get before another failure. AND, be certain that they failure is not caused by human error.

If you get a hundred or a few hundred rounds without trouble, I would consider it quite reliable. Not perfect, but pretty good. After all, if they were all perfect all the time, there would be no need for clearance drills, right?

Revolvers have a better record, when well maintained, but they can choke as well. Parts do sometimes break, a case can slip under the extractor star (under the right conditions) tying up the gun. Other things can go wrong. Take a graded approach to minimize your risks.

Everything can, and at some time, does fail. Even our bodies let us down. Shock, surprise, or something else can cause us to react, or not react in a manner that puts us at risk.
 
It's odd but I have a S&W 4506 that over the 20 years of owning this fine pistol(knock on wood) it's never failed in any way. Feed any and all shaped bullets, never failed to extract, eject, go into battery... nothing.

I must admit and it hurts to do so that this time there's a distinct possibility this malfunction can be traced to the owner. I disassembled the magazine I felt was in fault and discovered I had put a new spring in it not long back upside down!! There's a little crook that should be at the top and right so that it fits under the follower. It did have the proper angle and did fit under the extractor but the crook should have been at the top-not the bottom. so I was the ding bat that put it in and therefore the one that possibly cause the failure.

I don't know if this is sufficient enough to have caused this particular failure but there's a strong possibility. It just seems odd I fired over 100 before it manifested itself on the last round-not the last round I fired today but the last in that magazine. The truth hurts but it may have been me.
 
No problems with the Glocks...nor the 4506. My G19 and G23 run like a Ferrari and the 4506 has never missed a beat. At least that's three so far I've had no problems with. Hmmm...maybe there's a G26 or G30SF in my future.:)
 
Revolvers are, on the whole, more reliable than autos. But, take it from me, when they do malfunction, it's much more of a game-ender (such as the cylinder binding up) than your typical auto hang-up. My Glock 22 has never failed in over ten years. I've had many more issues with my Smith revolvers which, ironically, have been shot less than my Glock
 
I agree with Furminator,,,

On the whole, revolvers have less of a tendency to fail,,,
Whenever they do it's usually a catastrophic failure,,,
One that renders your revolver to club status.

Still, I carry a J-frame revolver and happily quote the mantra,,,
5 for sure - 5 for sure - 5 for sure - 5 for sure.

My revolver preference comes from the observation that larger semi's rarely fail,,,
It's the little guys that seem to have the problems with feed and eject,,,
I want a small gun for carry so I am inviting problems,,,
I choose to stay with a revolver.

Know that my observation is not in any way shape or form scientific,,,
It's full of personal bias and opinions formed over the years,,,
My uncles all carried small semi-auto's,,,
They all had problems with them.

But on the other hand, just for disclosure sake,,,
I don't believe my uncles knew that cleaning kits existed.

.
 
Carry both.

On road trips I carry my semi-auto strong-side IWB, and my Smith 642-1 weak side pocket.

I won't carry a semiauto that I've fiddled with (extractor tension, new mags, trigger job, whatever) until I run it two weeks in a row with no malfs at the local steel matches.
 
This is dredging up an old list, but we put this together a few months ago, a bit tongue-in-cheek, but there's a lot of truth here too:

Why revolvers are "better" -

  • Higher power ammo available
  • No picking up brass
  • Simpler to operate
  • Longer barrels better for hunting
  • No racking the slide, easier for arthritic/weaker hands
  • Pull the trigger and it goes bang. This occurs a higher % of the time with revolvers than semi-automatics.
  • No clearing jams
  • Easier for a novice to load and unload
  • No magazines to bend/have springs go bad/lose, etc.
  • No safeties to have to remember to flip off (some semis)
  • No confusion about whether you are shooting single/double action (some semis)
  • No small pieces to fly away and get lost while cleaning
  • Can be fired repeatedly at point-blank range (pressed against target)
  • Less sensitive to poor ammo
  • Limp-wristing not an issue
  • Highest power-to-size ratio available (.357 snub)
  • Easier to determine loaded/unloaded status and # of rounds available
  • Hammerless or shrouded revolvers fire from pockets without getting snagged
 
You just want to buy a revolver,,, c'mon my friend,,, fess up,,,,,

You've been bitten by the wheelgun bug,,,
Now you have an itch and need to scratch it. ;)

No problem,,,
Get yourself a S&W J-frame,,,
Or maybe a 3" K-frame of some kind.

I have only one piece of advice for you,,,
Stop wavering and Indulge yourself,,,
You know you wanna do it! :D

.
 
I banged the rear of the slide and that didn't help so, I pulled the slide back about 1/2 inch to see what was wrong
Click to expand...
Tap, Rack, Bang.

Tap -- slam the gun, mag down into the palm of your hand to make sure the mag is seated firmly.

Rack -- rack the slide with some authority to clear a misfire

Bang -- hopefully it will then go bang

Not every "jam" can be cleared this way but you need to get used to this being your default method of clearing one.
 
1 failure out of 120 is still a pretty solid reliable gun. I'm certainly not discounting your concerns, but all things, even revolvers, are falliable.

However if you don't trust the gun, you don't trust it but I would certainly think long and hard before I abandoned semi-autos to find a perfect revolver.
 
Magazines are pretty much at the heart of optimal feeding & functioning in semiauto pistols.

Problems with magazines can include dimensional issues (fed lips, bad welds, etc), cleanliness, damaged followers, damaged or weakened springs or springs not installed in the right orientation.

Sometimes it can be the simplest of things which cause situations that can frustrate us when it comes to a particular gun, and which need to be identified an corrected.

I remember when I experienced nose up feeding stoppages with my G27 when I began using a couple of new magazines which came with the #6 followers. While it could have been the dimensions of the feed lips ( meaning the liners in Glock mags), I tried the simplest thing, installing new #8 followers (the #7 followers apparently came and went very quickly), which fixed my particular "problem".

FWIW, I've also seen some brand new 3rd gen .45 magazines come from the factory with the magazine springs installed upside down or backwards (the .45 springs have a small coil/loop which should be up under the front of the follower).
 
This is the one problem with autos...the magazines. Bent lips, old wore out springs and in my case, someone installed the spring upside down-me. My other mags don't have the springs upside down so, perhaps I was distracted when I put that new one in. Well, I'm looking for an out and that's all I could think of. I will be more cognizant of this next time.

This explains why out of 25 of the Flying Ashtray bullets about a month ago, one failed to go into battery and I blamed the round for it believing this particular pistol, although a 3rd Gen model that usually feeds them all, wasn't going to fair as well as the 4506. Now, that thanks to fb, I have rectified the problem and can't wait to try it again...even with the Flying Ashtray's I so love and still have a stash of. Well see next week.
 
I own a 380 Mauser HSC with a terrifying habit of jamming so bad I have to get tools to get it unstuck.

That's why I also own a Model 10 Smith revolver,a Taurus Model 85 Ultralight Revolver and a Ruger P95 semi auto.

All three guns are very reliable.

But the Model 10 is my ironclad house gun always.

It might get joined by a Smith 638 real soon too.

I may never need it but I want those shots there when I need them.

Five or Six right now is better then one and -explecitive deleted- later.
 
Carry both, as azredhawk44 stated, is probably the best method, for me.

Revolver for primary and small 380 or 9 (BUG) with an extra mag or two. Oh and speed strips if you get a chance for that, but we are way down the probability trail.

I am sure this is a known quote, "One gun is none and two guns is one".

If they both go belly up at the same time, at the wrong time, then it must be your time.
 
I can't feel ya on this one. I own 7 semi's and all are solid guns. Yes, sometimes I get a ftf with Russian ammo, or other cheap stuff in one or two of them. BUT when it comes to spitting out the good stuff, ie. PD jhp's, I experience 100% reliability. I'd trust all of my guns when the shtf. (Well except the Hi-point & it is 100% with the good stuff too.)
 
The pistols I trust implicitly are my H&Ks and my S&W revolvers when used with brass cased factory ammo ( I don't reload or I would trust it). Actually, I practiced some today with a revolver and my HK P30. Neither had a malfunction. Both hit the targets where I intended (most of the time).
I know how you feel when you do have a malfunction. I have owned guns that had failures. I would have them repaired if I could discover the problem, but I still never really felt the same about them and often I would end up selling. Revolvers can jam, too. If it does, it can be more difficult to clear. I never did sell a gun that wasn't brought up to snuff however. Why give someone else my problem? Good luck with yours.
 
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