Pistol reliability

There's no such thing as a 100% reliable machine.
Even if it's never failed, it will.
When I was shooting every weekend, sometimes twice a week, 100-200 rounds at a time, surrounded by 50-150 other shooters doing the same, I'd say 99.9% reliability was as good as it ever got, for anyone.
There are too many variables for even a gun that's working perfectly to work every time.
 
All of the designs I mentioned are made still today.

The gas operated Desert Eagle is a jam-o-matic.
The turning bolts tend to be jam-o-matic
The Luger toggle is jam-o-matic
The direct blow backs generally are considered jam-o-matic
JM Browning first System in 1911 is considered jam-o-matic

Only JM Browning-Pettersen breech lock (Glock style) and Walther falling block (Beretta 92) has passed the test.

All These tiny, smallish pocket pistols in 380 acp has made the 380 Auto caliber a bad Reputation due to the pistols being unreliable due to the blow back design and on top the blow back design has more recoil (too much for an 380 acp in an pocket pistol).

I used to be heavily involved in police firearms training. The PPK series are generally reliable so long as they are properly maintained. The biggest problem I saw was when folks carried these handguns in ankle holsters and didn't clean them regularly (even if never fired). Malfunction city.

Keep in mind, this is an older weapon design. More modern semi-autos have their rounds travel in a more direct line into their chambers then earlier model handguns. Look closely how a P-38 feeds its rounds in comparision to the PPK as an example.

None the less, if properly maintained, with a good brand of factory ammo, you should have no problem.
Click to expand...
Source: post #9 from http://www.waltherforums.com/forum/pp-tp-series/11593-ppk-reliability.html

There ya go. All blow back pistols act like an 22 LR pistol: once they are a Little dirty, they are jam-o-matics. Seems the Walther P-38 "Schwenkriegelverschluss" pistol was the successor of the Walther PP for a very good reason: way more reliable.
 
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The gas operated Desert Eagle is a jam-o-matic.
The turning bolts tend to be jam-o-matic
The Luger toggle is jam-o-matic
The direct blow backs generally are considered jam-o-matic
JM Browning first System in 1911 is considered jam-o-matic

Only JM Browning-Pettersen breech lock (Glock style) and Walther falling block (Beretta 92) has passed the test.

All These tiny, smallish pocket pistols in 380 acp has made the 380 Auto caliber a bad Reputation due to the pistols being unreliable due to the blow back design and on top the blow back design has more recoil (too much for an 380 acp in an pocket pistol).
Click to expand...

BS

I do agree the small blow back 380s can have some pretty stiff recoil. But every one of them I have owned has been dead nuts reliable.
 
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99% reliability is not good enough. A personal defense gun has to be 100% reliable. If your gun will fail to be usable 1% of the time how can you depend on it to save your life 100% of the time?
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There is no such thing as 100% reliability of anything. There will be a malfunction sooner or later on anything made by man. Even if the weapon doesn't fail, sooner or later a cartridge will malfunction and that will make the function less than 100%. The space shuttle was 100% reliable----until it wasn't.
 
How come no one told me this was a Glock forum! Now I'm pissed! I thought I was joining a reasonably diverse weapons opinion forum, not some fanboy site! CRAP! CRAP! CRAP!
 
I've owned a Beretta 92FS for 15+ years now. I can honestly say I have never had a failure of any kind with it.

Sold a Glock 17 and bought the Beretta. Don't miss the Glock one bit.
 
Mike38,

I did about the same Thing. Just I changed the "poor man's Glock" SD9VE for an "el cheapo" Taurus PT 92 AFS in 9mm Para.

I believe I will agree with you 100% reliable as an revolver.
 
Guns I have no problems with:
Glock 19 (twenty years never a problem)
MP 9MM
MP 9MM COMPACT
MP 45
Ruger 1911
Ruger MK11
Ruger LCP
 
Modern pistols are not anymore the jam-o-matic's from 1900 early pistols.

They are not 100% going bang/reliable but allmost, so that Military and Police will rather have an pistol instead of an Revolver.

Due to the few moving parts an Revolver can be considered 100% reliable but it has to less rounds.

Even some single shot shotguns are not 100% reliable due to break Action sloppyness.
But considered the multiple proyectile (buckshot) nature of an shotgun make it more "reliable" in Terms of (round Count) and if the round goes off then you have 9 pellets going downrange; while a pistol could jam on any of the 9 shots or an Revolver has to be reloaded at least once for the 9 rounds downrange.
Besides that reload your own ammo and so you know if it will go bang or not.

Well we are talking about obvious things. Any Browning-Pettersen/Walther pattern pistol is sufficient reliable for defense.
 
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Revolvers are anything but 100% reliable.
Far and away my least reliable firearm is a S&W DA revolver.
Unless I load Federal primers and individually inspect each round, ignition is only 90%.
Revolver mechanisms are much more delicate than autos, so if you do have a mechanical problem, it's very unlikely you are going to be able to fix it or even clear it yourself.
Major militaries replaced the revolver with auto pistols 100+ years ago with good reason.
Then, they screwed it all up with the retrograde move to DA auto pistols; the worst features of autos and revolvers, combined.
 
In that case something is wrong with the revolver. Mine never has missfired nor did my sd9ve. Unless I managed to contaminate my powder with oil. Then they tend to be a squib.

Your revolver is faulty.

Again I agree. All pistols should have a very ligth trigger like an SAA revolver has.
On the other hand I dont think they switched from revolvers to semiauto due to the revolver unreliability but rather for capacity reasons.
 
All pistols should not have a very light trigger like an SAA. Half the fun of shooting is learning how to be a good DA shooter. To me at least. Also his revolver isn't faulty, just is sensitive to which primers get loaded up. Just like some semis don't like certain brands of anmo.

And yeah I agree, if I was a run of the mill guy (which I am) no way am I taking the side plate off at the range or in the middle of a field to diagnose a problem, a semi is a different story though. Easy enough to pop a slide off.
 
Then you need to be more informed about guns. Just because you think something does not make is so, we've been over this in every thread you respond. Sometimes ammo primers are more/less sensitive, sometimes some ammo isn't hot enough to cycle a gun reliably, sometimes guns aren't designed with certain types of ammo in mind. Take for example the 1911 you were touting earlier, some of them don't reliably feed HP bullets. Sometimes I'm willing to bet ammo manufacturers seat primers to different depths and the firing pin may not get reliable ignition. Anyways I'm over having the same conversations.
 
I have had Glocks fail in front of me more than any other brand, to include broken slide and mag release falling out. I generally consider the Glock to be a well made, durable reliable firearm. I qualify annually Expert or Distinguished Expert with the G19/17 - they do not fit me. i do not hate them, but I do not care for them and do not own one. My CZ SP-01 Phantom and P-09 are extremely reliable durable, militarily accepted firearms, and I trust my live and my families lives with them daily.
 
Last week I finished a 5500-round run through a brand new Ruger American 9.
5000 were BH FMJs.

Did a beginning accuracy test & an ending accuracy test, that FMJ & five other mixed loads.

Lubed once at the beginning, not re-lubed anywhere along the line afterwards.
Never cleaned.
Bone dry after the first 1000 rounds or so.

Exactly one single feedramp failure, at the ending accuracy session, with a light 92-grain all-copper wide-mouthed HP that had such a low recoil impulse it was ejecting brass about 8 inches above the pistol.

Same single mag used throughout.
One VERY reliable pistol.
Denis
 
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