What do you do if a handgun you want to carry fails your reliability test?

**Andrewsky** · 10-17-14, 19:54

Let's say you buy a handgun and want to carry it. You fire 500 rounds of ammo and have three to five malfunctions that are not easily reproducible. What is your next step? Would you ever trust this gun for carry?

**Sabre675** · 10-17-14, 20:15

Malfunctions are attributed to a myriad of things that are related to the firearm, the shooter and ammunition. Sometimes they are unidentifiable. I would accept that there is no unicorn and become familiar with clearing stoppages and carry extra magazines. Beyond that carry a back up weapons system for Murphy and his stupid law.

**themonk** · 10-17-14, 20:22

Depends on the gun. I would say at this point after 500 rounds you are done with break in. I would thoroughly clean and lube the pistol and try to get at least 1000 rounds out of it without a malfunction. I would not clean it during that time. Guns I carry I do 2000 rounds. If you continue to still have issues I would send it back to the manufacture for a checkup.

**Vandal** · 10-17-14, 22:13

I would need to know a what kind of gun it is, what the malfunctions were, what ammo was used and perhaps mags if they are aftermarket. Myself and the other, smarter, members of this forum could use theta info to maybe help you figure this out.

**dhena81** · 10-18-14, 04:21

I'd post this in the 1911 forum and ask them

Seriously though I'd probably would do further testing to weed out the ammo used and I would number the magazines if you haven't already.

**DBZ220** · 10-18-14, 05:00

Originally Posted by Andrewsky

Let's say you buy a handgun and want to carry it. You fire 500 rounds of ammo and have three to five malfunctions that are not easily reproducible. What is your next step? Would you ever trust this gun for carry?

I ran into this with an issued Glock 23. Tried a a dozen different mags and 5 brands of ammunition. The thing just wouldn't go 100rnds without 2-3 malfunctions. It was clean/lubed and wasn't shooter error.
In that case I turned it in for another one that ran just fine. The problem gun eventually went back to Glock.

I've had a few problematic S&Ws including several M&Ps and an old 3rd gen 4566. They were all fixed by SW, though I got rid of the M&Ps. Still have the 4566 and its running fine after they re-machined the breech face and a new extractor.

In most cases I'd say give the factory a chance to make it right. If they can't, I don't want a weapon I can't trust.

**10mmSpringfield** · 10-18-14, 05:18

There's not much you can do to non-user-serviceable firearms when they start going to hell, unless you can reliably demonstrate the issue is specifically mag or ammo related. You can bubba the feed ramp and maybe fix the problem--or make it worse if you're not that great with a dremel.

I have had several fantastical failures with Sigs, Glocks, and HKs.

I had feed issues with a Sig P220 that also broke its trigger reset spring. Sig replaced the spring and halfassed polished the feed ramp to the point it was uneven. I never trusted the gun again. I sold it to a range gunsmith.

I had a G21 that would bulge cases then get them stuck in the chamber. Glock replaced the barrel, which then resulted in weird failures to return to battery. Tacticool Lone Wolf barrel fixed the problem. I still use it when I need to have a gun I really don't give a damn about destroying in the mud and snow but now the recoil spring assy is buggering up for some reason and locking up the entire gun.

I had a P30L that I called "the stovepipe" because it would stovepipe just about anything but the hottest +P ammo. HK did some tweaks with the recoil spring assy that made it work with regular pressure 124gr, but it wouldn't work with 115gr, HK said something about how it's a combat pistol and wimpy 115gr is "below spec" or some nonsense.

At least with 1911s I can usually isolate and fix the problem myself--not that I've actually had problems with any of my 1911s...