How often do guns need maintenance?

A

ATN082268

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How often do guns need maintenance? I'm not talking about stuff that most typical gun owners can do, like basic cleaning, but more along the lines of replacing parts that go beyond field cleaning and probably should be professionally done.
 
Its dependent on the caliber, weapon design and quality of material.

Generally about 5-7k rounds is when it is recommended that you replace springs. You will get a million answers on here, but some manufactures actually tell you in their manual how often you should send it back to them for service. Its usually after a certain number of rounds or years. If you are curious about a particular model, call the manufacture.

I will tell you that most gun owners never send their gun in for service unless there is something wrong with it. I will also tell you that most people never shoot enough to actually wear out a gun.


Anytime you have a specific question like this, refer to the manual or talk to the manufacture. Internet forums aren't always the most reputable places for information.
 
Well, this really happened.
At one of the recent SHOT shows in Las Vegas, a Glock factory guy handed over a Gen. 4 G17 to a gun editor, along with an ammo credit card. Instructions to the recipient were to shoot the bejeezuz out of the gun, without cleaning. When you're tired of it, pass it on to the next guy on the list, and so on.
By the next time the SHOT show convened, a year later, the G17 had fired something like 54,000 rounds. No cleaning. No oil. No nothing but more bullets.
The gun was more accurate when it came back than it was at the beginning. Meticulous inspection revealed that there was no measurable wear.
 
How often do guns need maintenance? I'm not talking about stuff that most typical gun owners can do, like basic cleaning, but more along the lines of replacing parts that go beyond field cleaning and probably should be professionally done.
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So you're asking about the things that go beyond routine maintenance. Routine maintenance being changing the recoil spring when needed or on a scheduled basis, cleaning the mags, and gun, etc.

Thinking about that you have two things...the first is having a maintenance schedule, which is more a matter of preventative maintenance. this schedule varies on the weapon. This latter is what the military and police departments do mostly because of the volume of guns involved and the uneven nature of the training and experience of the folks toting the weapons. Parts are replaced on a schedule so as to prevent trouble from developing.

The other is what most regular shooters do which is to keep an eye on their guns and replace parts as needed or at the first signs of trouble.

tipoc
 
I doubt the average individual will shoot sufficient rounds through a weapon to develop a parts replacement program. Shoot it until it fails, which normally would be many thousands of rounds and then repair it. Changing parts before a failure is a waste of funds for the average shooter who will probably never experience a broken part. There are exceptions of course but they are not predictable when purchasing a quality firearm.
 
springs could be about ten yeas with semi regular use, could be much longer, you decide if it's something you want to wait for failure or pre-emptively replace(needed or not will be unknown to you at that time). If your talking about your daily carry piece, I would probably want to replace extractor part/parts every 5000 or so, like the above said, 5-7k would probably be a hapy place for most new pistols. generally an extractor or a broken slide stop will be the quickest failure point on a semi-auto, although I have never replaced either on any firearm. I have replaced the internal ejector once, but that was specific to the firearm's design issue.

It definitely depends on the role of this pistol in question. Most of my guns I will wait for failure, my EDC I am not sure yet.

a big thing to consider is if your gun has widely available parts, if it gets dropped from production, you should buy a couple parts kits soon.
 
I have handguns that are over thirty years old, other than cleaning and oiling the gun that is about all the maintenance your gun should need.
 
It's a lot like car owners in that some routinely follow the manual/factory recs and others their own maintenance methods...It's all relative in that usage varies among owners...Bottom line no categorical answer to be had (though it's hard to argue against what the respective vendor's web site recommends).

Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays!
 
Unless you buy a specialty gun that pushes the very limits of design (most don't,) you should never need to change any springs in your gun.
Oil your gun and maintain it properly, and the odds are you will never need to replace any parts.
 
Somewhere between 1 and ∞. :cool:

Really, it depends on the gun. The more modern and reliable design, the farther along the path to the lemniscate you'll get.

But like anything, you'll need to do maintenance every once and a while. Consult your owner's manual for more complete information.
 
It depends on the gun...( wilson combat's 1911's have been known to run at least 500,000 rds with no barrel issues, extractors 250,000 rds, etc )....but I would not expect the same life out of less well built 1911's.../ but every mfg's guns have issues from time to time...

Springs are a different issue...but not everyone knows how / or wants to change springs in semi-autos...but in recoil springs I usually change them about every 5,000 rds .../ Firing pin springs at about 10,000 rds / and main springs ( hammer strut springs) I change them about every 30,000 rds...( I just ball park my round count ...if I shoot 4 boxes a week - call it 800 rds a month or 9,600 rds a year.../ so I'd change recoil spring twice a year, firing pin once a year and main spring every 3rd year.../ I keep a simple Excel spreadsheet on each gun..and just make notes in it date, spring weight, spring mfg, etc...

But, In general --- if you start getting light primer hits or have cycling issues..if you've ruled out ammo issues...then replace the springs. Again - in general - if the gun starts to have some accuracy issues ...where it is throwing a larger group / outside its norm, then think about finding a gunsmith and having it checked....if something breaks ( extractor, ejector, etc...) probably discuss with a gunsmith but I don't change things like extractors as a routine...but at 250,000 rds, even on a gun with no issues, I'd probably want a decent gunsmith to look it over and do some preventative maintenance..
 
As most of y'all know I'm a revovler man, and Single Actions are my forte. First of all, my protocol is never return a handgun to the factory. For the Single Action, its a simple matter to replace parts as needed. Anything further I entrust to my gunsmith.

In the case of magnum Single Actions the base pin latch will need replacing as it becomes battered, and in some gun, the ejector rod housing screw might need replacing. If work has been done that required removing the barrel, that might need to be straightened up if it cocks to one side.

But for the most part, repairs are often the result of over energetic maintenance. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Bob Wright
 
Agree "If it ain't broke don't fix it", some of my late 1800's,nearly 1900's Colts and Winchesters are still in use without need for parts or repair. Clean, oil, wipe with a Rig rag for protection against rust.....shoot em', clean em' and enjoy your firearms.
 
HAHA

the rifleer said:
Anytime you have a specific question like this, refer to the manual or talk to the manufacture. Internet forums aren't always the most reputable places for information.
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LMAO! So true! With almost anything on these forums, you have to try and sift through all the opinions and find the facts in the responses.
 
Ibmikey said:
Agree "If it ain't broke don't fix it", some of my late 1800's,nearly 1900's Colts and Winchesters are still in use without need for parts or repair. Clean, oil, wipe with a Rig rag for protection against rust.....shoot em', clean em' and enjoy your firearms.
Click to expand...

Good advice. I agree.
 
Yes! If I believed everything on the forums about guns, I would have changed thousands of springs by now!
I have changed one- on a gun that was in a fire.
 
As a buyer of old, worn-out guns, love to change out the springs first thing,
(IF THEY SEEM WEAK or YOU GET A LOT OF MALFUNCTIONS)
as you never know what sort of storage/care its previously had...
after that, generally don't have to do it again until 30-40 years of hard use have passed ;)

The other thing nobody mentioned...where you live.
Climate Change, of the wet kind, as in, do you live near a swamp/ocean/gulf??
That requires at least monthly oil-rag wipe-downs.
The closer you are to salt/swamp water, the more often mold/rust have to be prepped against.
Are you in an arid/desert climate?
Yearly wipedowns are fine...maybe even longer...
and of course, if you go thru a 2 weeks+ of rain, go oil 'em ;)
 
I have a number of firearms that I have owned for 20, 25, and even 30 years. Three of them are 100 years old. I have yet to wear out a gun, break a part, or need to replace a spring.

I take good care of them (cleaning and storage) and don't shoot any particular one of them excessively, but I am starting to suspect that most good quality handguns won't need new springs and/or parts at 5000 rounds. Some of them have certainly been shot over 10,000.
 
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