semi-auto reliability

[mmccolli]

I bought a 9mm baby desert eagle/jericho made by IMI several years ago as my first pistol. Its a full size, all metal, 9mm; I bought it used, though it showed almost no size of use/firing. I purchased it after testing several popular semi auto models in 9mm and .40 because it was within my price range and I fired it well, many pistol models dont seem to fit my hand. Since then I have fired it sporadically for a few years and remember having it jam some. I specifically remember in one instance having 2 rounds jam out of a box of 50. Unfortunately, I did not keep track of these instances or the total number of rounds I have put through the weapon. Recently I became curious about its performance and bought 2 boxes (100 rounds) of each of several cheap brands of ammo (winchester, remington UMC, MFS, herters, lellier and bellot, magtech, RWS). I wanted to do some type of performance test to get a better idea of how reliable this weapon is. I used cheap ammo thinking that it would likely be less consistent in quality and make more of a mess. I did not clean the weapon, did not shoot more than a 100 times in a session, and shot 1 box of every brand before starting on the 2nd box. All ammo was FMJ. Of the 700 rounds, I had 1 jam on ejection (MFS 124gr), 1 jam as the round was feeding (Lellier and Bellot 124gr), and 1 stovepipe (magtech 115gr). There were no problems for the first couple hundred rounds. Overall I had 3 problems from the pistol, out of 700 rounds, in fairly poor shooting conditions (the pistol is filthy). I am interested in yall's opinions about how reliable this pistol seems to you. I know that everyone has a favorite pistol and ideally it would never jam, but for every pistol model that has reviews saying it hasnt jammed in 1000's of rounds I can usually find a review saying it has. This pistol is a standard issue for isreali military as I understand and in my opinion is very well built. I dont know enough about it to say if it needed a break in period or not. But, I would like to hear opinions on whether or not you think it should be taken to a gunsmith to try and improve performance, shot more, or sold. I am sorry to make my first post so long, thank you for the help.

 

[GLOOB]

To me, it depends.

I'd be satisfied with those numbers, but only if they cannot be improved! This means I'd have a friend shoot it, and I'd watch the trajectory of the ejected brass. If it's really strong and consistent, I wouldn't worry about the extraction. If the speed and trajectory are inconsistent, or the shells are just limping out (and your friend doesn't have a limp noodle-wrist), then I'd see about the extractor and/or reducing the recoil spring.

As for the single feed problem, those are often magazine related. I'd a made a note as to which mag had that problem. Cleaning and spring change might be in order.

For 1 jam in every 200+ rounds, dirty, the only jams that would really shake my confidence would be complete failures to extract, light strikes, or anything else that can't be fixed with a rack of the slide. But I wouldn't be too happy, either. My bestest most favorite pistol is my G21SF. over 2k rounds, and the only failure I've ever had was when the slide stopped and got stuck partway out of battery due to a deformed round. I jammed the slide closed and extracted the round by pulling the trigger.

 

[MR.G]

I think that is good for a dirty weapon with ok ammo. Some of my guns need cleaned and lubed more often than the others to run 100%. Over the years I have owned several semi-autos that just would not run right. A Colt, S&W, and a NAA were sent in for repair enough times that the factory finally gave up and replaced them. Considering the number of guns that I have owned and fired, I guess that is not bad. Sometimes you just get a lemon.

 

[Roswell_Kid]

"...(the pistol is filthy)."

A clean weapon is a happy weapon.