How often do you need to replace parts on your gun(s)?

G

gundir

Inactive
Hi folks, I've got a general question here.

Assuming that you have owned one or more firearms for at least one year that has seen regular use, how often have you had to replace parts on it? I'd prefer answers to be in the form of: # parts / time interval.

For me personally, so far it's been: 0 / 3 years
 
should never have to replace parts if your taking care of your firearms properly. most of the guns I get in my shop for parts replacement is due to there owners never cleaning them. So as long as you take care of your firearms then parts replacement is slim and few
 
I had to replace the extractor on my hi power after 20 years and thousands of rounds. I sent my Sig P220 in to have all the springs replaced along with a cracked slide at about the 15 year point..I think it was 15 years. No idea how many rounds are through either weapon as I don't count all of them, but it was "thousands". I replaced the gas rings on each of my AR's when one of them started acting a little sluggish. I believe the gas rings had been installed for 9 or 10 years. I replaced magazine springs on a couple of mags when I felt they needed it, no idea on the interval. I am sure I missed some stuff, but that is all I can think of at the moment.

I don't think any of these failures were due to neglect or a lack of cleaning, but maybe I was doing something wrong that caused the AR gas rings to wear out, or the slide to crack on the Sig and the springs to wear out. ;)
 
It depends on how much you fire the gun. A gun is like any other mechanical device, parts wear out or sometimes break and whole gun eventually wears out. Some folks recommend recoil spring replacement on a regular basis. IMHO, if the spring is properly made, that should not be necessary in anything like normal use.

So what is normal use to me? I would say an average of 50 rounds a week would be high normal, 1000 rounds a week would be very high. A shooter who goes through 50k rounds a year would probably need a new gun every 2-3 years.

Jim
 
Are we counting springs too? In general, I change recoil and mag springs on my 1911's every other year or so.
 
Other than an occasional spring, extractors and front sights seem to be the only parts that seem to ever need to be replaced.
Well, not counting modifications for improved performance, that is.
Or losing stuff behind the work bench and water heater, through the portal to a parallel universe.
 
Thanks all for the responses so far. I was looking to gather some perspective on the recent DHS parts order:
Is there any reasonable explanation for these parts orders, first from Sig Sauer, now from H&K? Is this just a way for DHS to buy all the “parts” for guns, and them assemble them into complete guns, without saying that they are buying more guns?
...
On Monday, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) posted details of a no bid contract with weapons manufacturer Sig Sauer, worth $4.5 million over the next five years.

The contract is identical to the one DHS announced last week with Heckler & Koch.

Both contracts are for $900,000 worth of “replacement parts” a year, for weapons used by DHS agents.

While it is hard to imagine how or why a domestic agency could anticipate firing their weapons enough over the next five years to need $1.8 million annually in replacement parts, the DHS documents clearly state their need to “stock sufficient quantities of parts needed to fulfill the quantities of parts anticipated to be ordered.”
...
Click to expand...

http://www.theburningplatform.com/?p=50991
 
Maybe I am naive, but all this blowing up about DHS ordering bullets, parts etc is much to do about nothing.

DHS gets tons of funding right now, no one wants to cut their budget and be blamed for hurting the security of the nation. When a federal agency has lots of funding they spend it, if they do not spend it they do not get it back the next year. One of the better ways to ensure the money will be in the budget is to sign a contract like this which makes it more difficult for them to lose the money when cuts come.

The other part, IMO, is as I said, they have the money. When you give a giant government agency money they will find all kinds of creative ways to spend it. Most of them being things they don't "need".
 
Ammo isn't the only thing the Govt. over-spends on. It isn't uncommon for agencies to have a 10 yr. supply of light bulbs on hand, most of which will be obsolete long before they're used.
 
Most parts I've replaced have been voluntary replacements, not because something broke or wore out.

And, sadly, almost without exception, the few broken/damaged parts I've replaced have been parts I screwed up myself.

Part of the reason I haven't broken many parts is that I have a number of guns, and that means that my shooting gets spread out over all my guns. If I had only a single gun, I would have put a lot more wear on that single gun and likely would had a lot more normal wear parts replacements by now.

Also, I occasionally sell or trade guns, and those guns then become additional firearms that I have fired that I no longer have responsibility for maintaining/replacing parts.

In addition, most of my guns don't get carried much, when they're not being used, they're well protected in the safe.

I guess what I'm saying, is that if I had a single gun that I used for training, carry and practice, I would have likely had to practically rebuild it from scratch by now. As it is, in my current situation, it's unlikely I'll ever have to do extensive parts replacement on any of my firearms unless I simply want to change things around, or unless I have to or choose to sell a number of my firearms.
Thanks all for the responses so far. I was looking to gather some perspective on the recent DHS parts order:
Click to expand...
DHS does training for a lot of different federal LE agencies. I found an article awhile back that indicated they trained something like 70,000 LE agents from 90 different agencies in a single year.

Some of this training is probably a bit hard on the firearms. For example, I just finished a class, and one portion of it involved repetitively clearing double-feed jams for practice. The particular method taught is somewhat hard on the extractor but it is a very fast and simple process so the possible damage is considered worth the risk. The trainer stated that he had spare extractors on hand in case there was a problem.

Also, many times, these contracts are option contracts spread out over a number of years. It's not like they're actually purchasing all those parts, they are taking out an option to purchase UP TO that many parts over X number of years.
 
I buy a lot of broken guns and do not shoot often.
I rebarrel guns.
The parts I buy for parts wearing out on my watch is less than 10% of the parts I buy.
I have been getting parts from Brownells for ~18 years.
My youngest brother has been getting parts from Numrich since the early 70s.
 
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