Ever wear out an aluminum frame handgun?

C

Conan

New member
With all the debate on this board (and others) about how aluminum frame handguns are not as durable as steel or polymer, I've got to know. Has anyone ever worn out an aluminum frame? "I heard about this guy" need not apply. I would like to hear first hand accounts of what happened to your gun. If you wore it out (the frame), how many rounds did it take?
 
heard of them cracking if you are using hot loads, and that was all we ever used, really strong stuff. Need steal for that, my friend, steal.
 
LOL Who is this elusive "We" again PB?

And Perhaps you mean "Steel"?

Ive never actually seen a comepletly worn out alloy framed handgun. I have fired a P228 in 9x19 than had in excess of 25k rounds through it..
The weapon had a replacement hammer, decocking lever, and recoil spring.
The barrel was an aftermarket affair and the weapon had been K-Koted.
It looked great, shot spectacular groups and ran like a top.
 
OK, it's SEMI first hand.

I was working in the gunshop when a man came in with an EARLY aluminum-framed 92.

Said he picked it up in Europe when he was in the military in the late 1970s, and had fired, to the best of his record keeping, over 600,000 rounds through it.

I'd say that his count was accurate, because he was a heavy-duty regular in the range, and was always shooting the Beretta.

The total number I can't vouch for, but the gun certainly looked like it had been fired that much. Virtually ALL the finish was gone from the grip frame, and the slide wasn't in much better shape.

He took the gun apart to show me what was going on...

The very front part of the frame (looks like a trough) had a 1/2" split in it.

There was another crack in the frame on the right side extending about 1/4" of an inch back from the slide lock hole.

The locking block itself was no longer smooth faced. It had a distinctive half-moon shape from where the barrel lock stem had been hitting it.

I don't know what they're called, but the slide rail lugs were pretty badly battered.

There was some other stuff also going wrong with it.

The end result was that the base frame was pretty much trashed.

He eventually ended up buying ANOTHER Beretta 92.
 
As far as I can tell from personal experience, alloy frames hold up as well as steel frames. My service pistol was a 9mm Walther P1 from the early 1960s, and it held up just as well as any of the other P1s I've handled, even after decades of recruit abuse and thousands of rounds.

All SIG P-series pistols are made with alloy frames (except for the P230 and the P210), and their longevity and durability is beyond doubt. The Beretta seems to do ok in the durability department as well, and it is a widely-issued handgun. All Beretta failures I've even heard of were with locking blocks and slides, which are steel parts.

I've owned quite a few alloy-framed handguns, and I find nothing lacking about them when it comes to durability. The only issue with alloy is that it scratches easier than steel since it is a mite softer.
 
Nope. I intentionally put less rounds in my alluminum alloy framed guns. I think they are meant to be carried a lot and shot little. My steel framed and polymer framed handguns are shot a lot!
 
I don't think stolen guns would hold up any better, PrettyBoy, but then I don't have your experience. I didn't steal either of mine, anyway. My aluminum-framed SIG 220 seems to be holding up well, although I don't shoot +P loads through it. I'd say use the gun with ammunition for which it is rated and you'll be fine.

(We're not all gun experts here. Some of us are English teachers.)
 
I wore out a Para Alloy frame:)

I bought a Para frame when they first came out in the early '80s. Used it mostly for gun shows to show my custom work and the assys I sold for them. I started really shooting it in '95. It started out 45 but I changed it over to 9mm in 99 to shoot steel with. I don't know how many rounds I fired though it but less than 100,000. Last summer I noticed a crack along both sides of the grip frame in line with the cut out for the trigger bows. I welded it up and refit the trigger but when I tried to sight it in, the cracks reappeared.
This is not ment to degrade the Para frames, as I have 4 others that I use. They are steel but am looking for another alloy gun to rebuild as a steel shooters.
I retired the old girl and don't feel any remorse doing it. She served me well and never let me down.:)
 
I had a Ruger P89 that had metal chipping away where the guide rod seats in the frame. Probably had close to 5000 round through it. Ruger replaced it with a new gun at no charge.
 
I've only heard of them getting warped out by seels who shoot the super extreme melting bullets. The melting bullets weaken the frame and when you shoot the +p loads the alumminum frame weakens and breaks or warps.
 
The older S&W model 39 & 59 frames would wear out with holster wear and shooting. They would leave particals or aluminum, when I cleanined the guns. I think this was a softer metal than found on the newer gun of today.
 
I also experienced some frame battering on my original S&W 39-2. The bottom of the chamber would mash into the frame and was peening over the small portion of the frame that it contacted.

I often asked what I could do to alleviate this situation, but no one could come up with a good answer. New recoil spring? The gun wasn't used all that much (probably under 5,000 rounds), but since it was probably well over 15 years old, maybe the spring had weakened a bit.
 
As I recall, about two years ago some Baltimore Police Sigs developed cracks. I am not sure of model, caliber or if hot (+P, +P+) ammunition was the culprit. Sig will replace firearms with frame cracks at no cost. In addition, the Baltimore Sigs were accurate and operable with the cracks. However, I would assume this qualifies as "wearing out" an aluminum frame/receiver.
 
For those folks who're really interested to realize the difference between steel and aluminum, just take Machinist
Handbook and compare mechanical characteristics of steel
and aluminum, including yield and fatigue strength. In simple terms, average steel is approx. 4-5 times stronger than good alum. alloy.
 
My Kimber Ultra Elite's frame cracked just forward of the slide stop holes. I had carried the gun for about 9 months and shot it regularly at the range using full power ball ammo. The cracks occurred around 9000-9600 rounds.
 
I have seen alloy Colts crack ahead of the slide stop pin hole and also at the rail where the slide stop goes into the mag well. In a couple of cases, the guns had been shot a lot (over 5k), but one had only about 2k through it. The owner had replaced the recoil spring with a heavier one "to keep the frame from being battered" on recoil. He forgot that a spring that reduces battering on recoil adds to it on return to battery. Still no such thing as a free lunch.

Jim
 
Mike Irwin: What kind of a piece of junk falls apart with a miesly 600,000 rounds ?
My hat is off to that guy and his gun.
 
The frame cracked on my Star PD. It was used when I got it, so I don't know how many rounds (Gee, it could have been cracked when I bought it). The disconnector is an external design, running in a dovetail on the right side of the frame. The frame is only 1/8" (or less) thick in that area, along the sides of the magwell, and Star chose to cut a dovetail there. A second one hadn't cracked before I decided to get out of the obsolete Spanish pistol club.
 
I was sort of dubious about this guy's claim, but then I realized that I saw him at the range EVERY week, and he normally had 10 to 20 boxes of new and handloaded ammo with him.

I don't think he was married, and he absolutely LOVED to shoot.

In addition to what he was doing at our range, he was apparently also shooting with NRA's Metropolitan Pistol League, and was also shooting pick-up matches at both our range and another range in Northern Virginia.

The guy was a mad dog.
 
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