Reliability

Any of the common pistols are "reliable."

Stop worrying about it.

We are fortunate these days in that there are a wide variety of high quality, reliable autoloading pistols in many configurations. I would look at reputable brands (Glock, Ruger, Smith, HK, Beretta, Springfield, etc.) And go from there, selecting the model that felt best to me and that I was most comfortable with.

Have you considered the springfield XDm?
Many find these more comfortable than Glocks (including me)

On most modern handguns reliability has gotten down to a science. You'll find more variations between individual examples of certain brands than between different brands themselves.

The guns you listed will ALL function reliably. As will a CZ-75, Ruger SR series, Glock, S&W M&P, Springfield XD, Beretta PX4 and countless others.

What you need to ask yourself at this point comes down to other factors. If the gun smoothly cycles through a whole magazine and you hit nothing but air, than all the mechanical reliability in the world did you no good. Pick you that fits you well, and that you can fire quickly and accurately.

Given your screen name, have you considered the SR9 or SR40?

In military tests conducted in 2009 the Beretta 92FS was found to experience not more than one stoppage every 17,000rds.

So, buy one of those and rest easy.

The Beretta is a great pistol, but the military uses ball ammo so their tests might not extrapolate to civilian usage, where JHPs will be the choice for defense use. Just sayin'....

The Beretta is a great pistol, but the military uses ball ammo so their tests might not extrapolate to civilian usage, where JHPs will be the choice for defense use. Just sayin'....

Click to expand...

It works just as fine with JHPs as it does ball, this is the case with pretty much all handguns made today.

West German* SIG-SAUER's [classic P-series] are known as some of the worlds finest dependable pistols on the planet~!

*FootNote: not the same weapons, as those that come out of Exeter, New Hampshire~!

+1 on trying out an XDm. Match grade barrel for accuracy and they're accurate. Interchangeable backstraps to fit the pistol to your hand. Mine is in .45 ACP and if you think your $1500 1911 will outshoot it, bring it on!

Fivetwoseven: my comment was not specifically about the Beretta pistol, but about the fact that military testing with ball might not necessarily be a good measure of reliability with JHPs. The Beretta is indeed a proven, reliable pistol with both hardball and hollowpoints.

Ala Dan,

At one time I would have argued with you on the merits of a West German or an Exeter Sig.

Not anymore: I agree with you 100%. I just bought a WG P-220 and what a fine pistol compared to my particular Exeter P-220.

D_mn shame too.

The U.S. Border Patrol carries the HK P2000 in .40S&W. They love them, and the BP gets into more gunfights per year than all other LE agencies combined. Just a thought.

NMT 1 failure per 340x50 rounds of ammo? Does anyone really believe this stat?

Between the 3 that you picked, you'll be the weakest link, not the guns.

As with most of the newer pistols and higher end 1911's, if you "do your time", learn the in and outs of the weapon. What it likes and dislikes, what failures are common for that piece, and how often you should replace parts/springs....

then you'll be fine.

Ever notice that at the range or in competition that there are allways a few guys who are reliable with any gun they bring, and there are some with perfectly good weapons that allways run poorly?

SpecOps has been carrying HK pistols for a long time. No gun will stand up better to harsh environments or be more reliable. My primary CC gun is an HKP2000 in .357 sig. Its seen thousands of .357 sig and .40 rounds without a single stoppage. I'm not sure if it was the P99 but the last newer model walther i fired had a terrible trigger.

In my experience ammo reliability will be a bigger factor than the reliability of any of the major gun brands. All of the half-dozen or so failures to fire (with stock guns) that I have seen in the last few years have left a primer with a heavy firing pin strike that did not go off. Most of the guns carried by my department are Glocks and Sigs, but I've seen it happen to about every brand at least once in many different training classes. If you're going to carry a gun, first thing you need to do is practice till the malfunction drill appropriate to your weapon is automatic.

I spend about 99% of my training time with a semi-auto, and I cut the heck out of my hand on the rear sight of a S&W 686 revolver once when it had a misfire and I automatically slapped the grip and tried to rip the top strap off it. Typical semi-auto malfunction drill is to slap the mag to make make sure it's seated, then rack the slide to chamber a new round, but that didn't work very well on the revolver (correct malfunction drill would have been to just pull the trigger again)!

I've seen a bunch of modified guns of every brand experience about every kind of feed failure and broken part you can imagine.

Nearly 4k rounds through my Glock; hundreds of those were in a fast paced setting where the gun was being used heavily in a short amount of time, and it hasn't even thought about malfunctioning

but the military uses ball ammo so their tests might not extrapolate to civilian usage, where JHPs will be the choice for defense use. Just sayin'....

Click to expand...

OK, well then in 1998 the FBI tested the Glock models 22 and 23 and they had a failure rate of 1 in 18,000rds. using JHP.

So, buy one of those and rest easy.

The USP is also German military standard issue and was tested heavily.

But they most likely used NATO spec ball, so...