How many rounds till I should trust a pistol?

No set number for me too.

I can get a sense of what the gun will do as I fire it because I rarely ever change the ammo I use.

Plus,I try to buy handguns that don't have a bad reliability history to them.

Just why I'll never buy a PF-9 or the Ruger LC9 based off it.

And why the almost new Ruger 22/45 that had just bizarre reliabilty issues I just bought got resold.

But I've owned several M85's (as well as the one I own now) just like the one that craxxed on kreyzhorse that I've never had an issue with so go figure.

And it matters HOW it misfeeds too.

If the gun misfires or misfeeds in a way that makes it impossible for me to rack the slide or clear the gun quickly -I'll either fix it or get riud of it.

I had a Mauser HSC that would get just evil misfeeds that would lock the gun up solid.

Got rid of that one too.
 
If new, typically the manufacturer says 500. I have found this to be true. On guns that have obviously been USED, as is the case with most of the guns I own, I usually assume that it runs like a sewing machine. I have also found this to be true.
 
Handgun T&Es, Massad Ayoob, modern semi auto pistols...

I'm a bit confused by the intent of the member post.
A new or high quality firearm should have 0 feeding or cycle problems.
It should by design handle 1,000s of factory made rounds w/o jams or mishaps.
This includes proper care & regular cleaning too, ;) .
A duty or carry sidearm should fire at least 250rds of duty-carry factory made ammunition before you start to tote it around ether & yon.
In the "old days" many top firearm instructors & gun press writers like Massad Ayoob would say to fire at least 500 rounds in a handgun but IMO, new engineering and improved ammunition designs can cut that down to 250-300 rounds.
For a semi auto duty pistol, the big points are for it to feed & cycle the rounds(JHP, +P, FMJ) w/o breaking or failing.
If you clean & inspect the firearm and check it often you can prevent problems.

Clyde
 
As a side note to this, test your guns every so often and definitely after any changes no matter how insignificant. Case in point I put hogue grips on my 92 compact. Didn't think twice about it, good name brand right? The grips interfere with the trigger bar and I had issues with it not resetting all the time. I didn't think for a moment about grips affecting the performance of the gun. Lesson learned.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I believe what the original poster was asking, was at what point can I trust my life to the pistol I have chosen as my every day carry.

I have found fans of every brand out there, and people that have something bad to say about every brand other than their choice.

It's a fact that the shooter can cause a pistol to jam with poor shooting practices, and poor choices of ammo for the same pistol.

You should trust your pistol when you have a firm belief that you can adequately hit your target consistently and your choice of ammunition has not yielded several failure to fire or ejects.

I don't think you can say pistol X is the safe weapon of choice for 99.99% of all users. We just all have too many different habits when we shoot.
 
If it's a revolver, a few dozen rounds will let me know it's good to go. If it's a semi-automatic, it's a .22, so it'll spend its time away from the range in the safe.
 
With a semi-auto I run 100 rounds of range ammo first. If 100% reliable then I will go through several boxes of various SD ammo to find what shoots best in it. Total then is probably between 150 and 200.
With a revolver, it's mostly just finding what it likes the best, so probably less than 100.
In addition to the initial "proofing", they get a run through at the range when ever I go. Weather permitting a couple times a month or more. Not always the same one though. Just change them up to keep me fresh with them, and prove they still work 100%.
 
If it is my carry gun, I will shoot between 50 and 100 rounds a week. Before it is my carry gun I will have shot it enough to know that I can put a box of ammo in a group that I can cover with the palm of my hand at 7 - 8 yards any time I try. For me it is about knowing the gun and how it works in my hand. The round count isn't really that important...
 
The correct answer is X
Click to expand...

Now to find the sum of X. :eek:

You could run 1000 rounds, all run fine, then another 10 and your gun jams out, firing pin breaks, barrel explodes etc.... This is why it's best to have a back up.

Any gun can be 100% after any round count, then another 2 rounds your x breaks....
 
trust yourself.

I can only comment on what I've experienced. A fairly large police department (+6000 at the time) transitioned from revolvers to semi autos. Individual training consisted of 1300 rounds per shooter. This was mostly to train the members in the use of semi-autos, but also to give some degree of confidence for the new weapons. All ammunition remained the same as it was purchased on a very large contract. There were three magazines issued for each pistol. Almost without exception, any malfunction that did occur, occurred during the firing of those first three magazines. It was easy for the weapons staff to determine where the problem was. Either pistol or magazine. That does not mean there were not malfunctions down the line because of ammunition, and on occasion, an actual pistol part failure, i.e. decocking lever disassembly during firing, or some other major mechanical breakdown. These types of failures were extremely rare and pretty much unpredictable.

Bottom line, I did then and now carry an old S&W 469 9m/m. It came with two magazines. I fired the two magazines loaded twice without any malfunctions. I was satisfied and have carried it for 25 years. I carry the same type ammo that I started with, Win silver tips, and I randomly shoot it throughout the year at least 6 times and I have yet to have a malfunction.

If you shoot all of your loaded magazines at least once and you have no problems, you should be good.
 
I had about 350-400 rds thru a gun I carried. Went to shoot it one day, and failed on every shot. Gun was reworked and has been 100%, but it sure reminded me... "what if " I had needed that gun ?

It's taken me another 500 rounds before I began to trust the gun enough to carry it again, and even then..... I don't carry it very often at all.

It can happen with any gun.

The one's I carry most, have probably had 1000 rounds thru them.
 
You could run 1000 rounds, all run fine, then another 10 and your gun jams out, firing pin breaks, barrel explodes etc.... This is why it's best to have a back up.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...

To carry it further, then your BUG also fails. I think the OP meant something more on the order of "break-in" to assure 100% reliability.
 
well i cant truely answer that question, both of my xds have never once hickuped. ive put close to 800 rounds through the xd9 and a couple thousand through the .45
 
Based on your screen moniker, I'd say you've already decided. I can't remember a revolver that failed to fire...can't say the same for my automatics. Rod
 
I suggest about 100 to 200 rounds of practice ammunition and about 20 rounds of duty/carry ammunition. If all is well, I believe you are good to start carrying it. Of course, the more you shoot it over time, the more you can evaluate it.
 
Any gun can fail at any time.

I bought a revolver at an estate auction. One of those with a sterling reputation (the gun, not the auction).

Got it home and had some misfires. Checked it out and found a cracked spring. I fixed it but still have in mind that it did fail.

With a new spring? Yes. I’ve seen too many new parts which had a flaw which was not apparent during inspection but soon failed in use. Sometimes a part will last a long time before failing but upon inspection a flaw will be found which just took longer to break.

How long does it take a bad part to break? How long is a string?

I bought a, NIB, light weight, polymer frame, ultra small automatic. Had every kind of failure a pistol could have short of exploding. Found it could be assembled with a small spring out of place. So I then knew how to put it together, but each knew I could have done it wrong.

I’m one of those persons who cleans a gun after shooting, every time. So what can I do? Shoot it to see if I did it right? Clean it? Then shoot it to see if I did it right? Then clean it?

For SD that’s no good.

There are no free lunches but you can buy one.

When some perp comes at you from a dark alley there’s probably not a gun shop handy.
.
 
For semi-auto pistols with the bottom line FMJ ammo, the gun should function 100% out of the box. "Break-in periods" may be justified in extra tight target pistols, but in normal guns they are the maker's way of getting you to use up the warranty so he doesn't have to fix the gun for free.

That being said, and because the gun is not the only factor, I always recommend at least 200 rounds, no problems, with the carry ammo and EACH carry magazine. Too many folks buy expensive ammo for carry, then don't fire it because of the cost.

I can't forget the man who posted that his gun was totally reliable, having gone a thousand rounds of practice ammo with no problems, but that his carry ammo was too expensive to shoot. I strongly suggested he fire some of the high-priced ammo, since that was what he was betting his life on. He got five failures in the first magazine, and 4-5 in each magazine after that. But he had stated that his gun was totally reliable!

Jim
 
cheap 9mm is about $200 per thousand thats $400 for 2 thousand. that probably equals the cost of most 9mm handguns. it probably approaches the time when springs might need to be replaced and parts start to wear. so basicaly with 2 thousand rounds you have doubled the cost or your firearm and made it into an old half worn out gun. does that make you feel more secure?

the ONLY handguns i have ever owned that had ANY issues out of the box were my springfield 1911's and most of those could probably be classified as "limp wristing" and my fault.they went away after a box or so of ammo and when i learned to properly grip the gun. my other amt, colt, ruger, taurus and smith and wesson handguns have always worked perfectly since day one.

whenever i get a gun i learn to strip, clean and reassemble it properly before i fire it. if it shoots a box of ammo without problems i'm willing to bet my life on it. if you are going to have a problem most of the time it will be a bad magazine. if it's anything other than that it is probably a bad or broken part but i have lever experienced that personaly.
 
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