Can it fail?

[Big Boy]

Anyone heard of any problems with keeping one in the chamber? Not because of operator error or because of drop, but because of the sear eventually just failing?

I keep one in the chamber when I carry, and put one in the chamber right before bed, take it out when I wake up in the morning. I guess, what I'm worried about is that generally, most of us are never going to have to use our firearm in self defense, but it's there, just in case. So say I leave it chambered 100% of the time. Do you believe that eventually this could mess with the function of the gun, or possibly even just go off? That's a lot of spring tension for it to be under for 50+ years.

I own a Springfield XD and a 1911.

 

[7X57chilmau]

The chances of that happening, assuming the gun is properly fitted and adjusted and in good condition, are vanishingly small. Steel doesn't simply fail under loads below its plastic limit. The sear load is FAR below its plastic limit.

More likely that one of the action springs would fail.... But still quite unlikely.

J

 

[mljdeckard]

I THINK, the odds are you are FAR more likely to cause an accident by regularly loading and unloading than by just leaving it chambered.

 

[Trebor]

The chances of the sear spontaneously failing and the gun firing are about the same as the chances of your car's tranmission spontaneously failing and it going from "Park" to "Drive" while the engine is running and the car moving without you applying your foot to the accelerator.

 

[Riss]

Sure it COULD fail. Anything mechanical COULD fail. The brake pedal on you car COULD fall off the next time you step on it and you could crash and burn into a loaded dump truck. Not very likely though. Most firearms have multiple safeties to keep things like that from happening. Drop safeties, firing pin safeties, trigger blocks all counteract being dropped shook, hit with a hammer. All are made to require the trigger being pulled all the way, and be held to the rear in order for the hammer to fall to make the gun go bang. You are fine as long as you remember Cardinal Rule #2: Never let your muzzle cover anything that you are not willing to kill or destroy.

 

[redactor]

If the sear on your XD did fail, the stiker would slam forward, but the firing pin block would keep the round from firing. Unless the sear "failed" with yout finger on the trigger.

 

[David E]

Constantly chambering the same round will cause more problems than leaving the chamber loaded ever could.

Rounds are intended to be chambered no more than TWICE

 

[rbohm]

The chances of the sear spontaneously failing and the gun firing are about the same as the chances of your car's tranmission spontaneously failing and it going from "Park" to "Drive" while the engine is running and the car moving without you applying your foot to the accelerator.

you might want to consider using a different analogy. there have been a number of instances where people failed to get the shift lever fully into the park position, and the trans did in fact slip into gear with the engine running. not drive though, but reverse.

but i agree that a 1911 style pistol firing due to the seer failing is remote indeed.

 

[Davek1977]

Rounds are intended to be chambered no more than TWICE

Proveable fact, or merely your opinion? Source?

 

[cluttonfred]

Hmm, that may be a poor examples...I think some Audis were known to go Christine from time to time. ;-p