Pukindog12 said:
When I hear or read of gun manufacturers of semi-autos in my mind I automatically lump them (maybe foolishly) into a group quality wise. I don't consider this gun snobbery as all funtioning, reliable, and safe guns is better that a stick. But, OTOH, some guns are better quality wise than others.
Guns were meant to send bullets down range, period. If a gun cannot do that reliably with consistent accuracy, that's like having a brand new car that won't start or dies on occasion at railroad tracks.
For me over the years, my tiers of quality "evolved" to:
Tier 1 - Something I would grab without hesitation to defend my life and my family's lives with which means pistols that will go "bang" without fail (instead of ALMOST bang), even when dirty after 5000+ rounds of extensive testing and consistently produce acceptable level of accuracy.
For me, accuracy is everything and holes on target speak volumes. It does not matter what name is on the slide or how much a pistol costs if it cannot reliably produce those holes on targets!
It MUST FIRE reliably and PRODUCE consistent shot groups as misfires and missed shots will not save my life or my family's lives. Ask many regional/local USPSA shooters who are consistently at the top 10% what pistols they rely on for HD/SD. Most pistols we drool over often stay in the safe but some select few makes/models get the nightstand/inside the hip holster duty.
In many ways, I agree with
Hilton Yam's selection criteria for "Duty Use" but my CCW criteria must also perform almost as well as service size versions at 7-15 yards (Glock 23/27-Taurus MP PT145 vs Sig R1911-M&P40/45-Glock 22).
Hilton Yam said:
You really need to shoot the gun for 1000-1500 rounds, to include about 500 or more rounds with duty ammunition to have a good feel for what the gun is doing.
Do not just put "200 flawless rounds" through the gun and declare that it is "completely reliable." That is not a statistically significant cycle of service. You may as well tell a race car driver that his car is good for that 500 mile race after you drive it around the parking lot once.
Tier 2 - Anything that cannot achieve what Tier 1 pistols can do shot after shot - day after day - regardless who the shooter is who lives in my house (hey, they are my backups!).
My Sig 1911 railed TacPac and a friend's RIA Tactical have well over 5000+ rounds of various factory and reloads shot through them without failures or parts breakage and STILL maintain consistent accuracy. Many of our friends and other shooters who bought "their" dream guns express frustration when they don't perform as well or experience FTF/FTE. When we let them shoot our pistols, they are often surprised at the consistent shot groups they are able to achieve and especially at RIA's price.
< grabbing another bag of popcorn and sitting down >
