New platform decision, desire ability to stock all parts

Glock or a 1911.

Though not a Glock fan, but the 4 that I did own, I found it easy to replace most parts ( even if when not needed ). The Springfield XD models also have most of its parts available, I carry the XDS, and have on hand, just about any part that might fail, 4 yrs now and no replacements needed.
The 1911, I shoot four in rotation that have high round counts, just about all parts are available, but many are not "drop in" parts so the ability of fitting parts is a must, for the do it your self types. I like having lots of parts on hand for my guns.
Bottom line, I would say Glocks may fit the bill a little better, if parts replacement is the number one issue.

Why not just buy a second gun? Likely to be cheaper overall and you'll have one to shoot while you send the broken one in for repairs. S&W has great customer support and will generally pay the shipping both ways -- my M22A has been back to them three times, once initially because of a recall type defect, and twice from high round count failures (approaching 75K, it'd have been over 100K by now if it weren't for Sandy Hook and the .22lrammo shortage).

Replacing parts on a 1911 is not usually a "drop in" proposition.

During my years as an active IPSC shooter I used the Colt 1911 pistols. I always had a second 1911 for back up. How can you shut down and make a repair during a match? I never could but I am not the sharpest knife in the drawer.

HK. Check out HKPro. Lots of parts.

460Shooter said:

HK. Check out HKPro. Lots of parts.

Click to expand...

The problem with HK, and possibly the 1911, while you may be able to get the parts, you may not be able to install them (properly).

If you've got to do it yourself, it is probably the Glock.

johnandersonoutdoors said:

Unfortunately, with S&W restricting certain parts, it is basically impossible to do that.

Click to expand...

What parts are restricted by S&W?

JTQ said:

The problem with HK, and possibly the 1911, while you may be able to get the parts, you may not be able to install them (properly).

If you've got to do it yourself, it is probably the Glock.

Click to expand...

The only real requirement the OP mentioned was a desire for parts availability, and a desire to avoid shipping the gun to the manufacturer. With the availability of HK parts, and a lot of HK forum members discussing how easy a lot of HK guns are to work on, combined with the fact that a local smith may be able to install any needed parts, HK does offer an alternative.

Glocks may be easier to work on, but given that the OP said " I am not currently a Glock fan really, "It is an alternative that warrants consideration.

1911 parts are not drop-in like a Glock. You will have to understand have competency around fitting the various parts.

460Shooter said:

With the availability of HK parts, and a lot of HK forum members discussing how easy a lot of HK guns are to work on, combined with the fact that a local smith may be able to install any needed parts, HK does offer an alternative.

Click to expand...

I'm not an HK guy, but do casually follow them. I have never seen folks comment that HK's were easy to work on. Most comments I've seen are the complete opposite. I've even read comments from guys that have been to HK armorer school that have said HK doesn't want you to do much beyond field stripping the gun and replacing some springs. When you want to get deep inside the gun, they want you to send it to them.

As I mentioned, I'm not an HK guy, and I could most certainly be wrong. However, that's something I'd definitely look into if I were planning on doing my own maintenance.

Glock also offers glock armorers classes to GSSF members. I don't know any other manufacturer that will train you (as a civilian) to swap out the parts. I also believe glock sells replacement parts to certified armorers at a huge discount. I have only taken the bootleg classes, based on the Patooma book, but I feel confident replacing just about everything.

Glockparts.com is also a source of O.E.M. parts if you decide to go with Glock. I have Glocks and 1911 types, Glock would seem the way to go.

I own Glocks and 1911's. Definitely Glock for ease of install. Literally everything is drop in and cheap/easy to obtain. You can tear the whole pistol down in well under 5min by just popping out 3 (sometimes 2) pins.
For $60ish you can have pretty much every part that will break in your Glock
http://www.glockstore.com/Survival-Parts-Kit-for-Glocks

There's alot of parts avaliable for CZ 75's and most of its descendants and the most common breakages are pretty easily fixed.

Slide stops and roll pins are the most common and are pretty easy to buy cheap and stack deep.

I'm a big fan of fixing things myself and keeping spare parts on hand, but I'm not afraid of fitting parts that need it. I've settled on 1911's, CZ 75's and S&W DA/SA revolvers for all my handgun needs.

For the most part it's going to require being a gunsmith. Very few handguns use drop in parts - they commonly need to be fitted and the 1911 is the most notorious as it has used hand me down blueprints, and was even reverse engineered by the early makers because the prints were simply too vague.

It's not going to be like a AR15 where you can pick from piles of parts in bins and still get a functioning firearm in less than one hour. Not hardly.

There's also another factor, that the average service pistols you might choose have extreme variations in service like. Read the threads on arfcom about the rental range in Vegas shooting guns up to 200,000 rounds a year. Long term durability of a Glock vx the average 1911 is substantially different and the failure modes completely different. A extreme wear Glock manifests one of it's most serious failures by cracking thru the ejection port - which is a catastrophic slide failure. Shoot one enough and you need to keep that spare, too.

Another difficulty is that manufacturers may well be cranking out 1911's for the forseeable future, but the gun you chose quit selling and you are about the only guy in the county with parts. Once you use up the replacement it's toast. This is the issue that S&W 3Gen owner are stuck with right now - the factory rescinded their lifetime warranty support and some parts aren't made any more. At all. Much less magazines getting rarer every day.

Recommendation? The new M17 SIG P320. When the government adopts a pistol it then becomes a long term commodity and parts are especially common as many armorer's and depots keep them in stock just in case. Time goes by and the public buys them too, parts remain available and with millions manufactured there are plenty to go around. That is exactly what happened with the 1911 and what has happened with the M9. There are now even custom high precision competition models out there and the user base has made that happen. Plus, the SIG is modular - a significant stepping stone better than a Glock. It takes a trigger pack, rather than the old school pins in the frame holding the parts. Ruin a Glock lower - split the mag well or fracture it by some happenstance - and it's permanently broken. A SIG would get a new grip unit with the lockworks tossed in, slide attached and back in action. If thats sounds too simple then mentioning you could keep three barrels, slides, and lower grips units for a quick total of nine different configurations in one box of parts might sound ridiculous - but it's been done in the past. I fully expect to see SIG retail that for about for the price of the resulting four guns it would cost.

There's a long term plan. However, consider that even cops who carried their firearms for a career and who were presented with it on retirement are now in possession of a curio and relic, so to speak. Most of the time that gun has been superceded by another model - or two - and the market has moved on. I read about LEO's who moved from revolvers to auto pistols and how that model is no longer sold. I know because that is the one I bought from their department as a trade in.

Don't forget about the Sig P22x pistols (though a bit spendy) your standard wear and tear parts are pretty readily available.

Add the Beretta 92FS and M9.

After 35 years of production there is good parts support. There are also some custom parts made such as trigger, hammer, trigger bar, safeties, etc. It does require more tools and skill to completely disassemble than the Glock but there are excellent videos and advice on the Internet.

You've articulated the primary reason I wanted to become a LE armorer back in the 90's. I wanted to be able to maintain and repair my own guns, before and after my retirement.

Now, I was lucky in that I could attend a lot of different armorer classes and recerts being active, and then retired, LE. Most of the major gun makers who create and support armorer training usually only allow students who are LE/military/Security, though.

However, Glock allows employees of stocking dealers and GSSF members to attend many of their armorer classes.

Last I knew, SIG allowed private owners to attend a basic pistol armorer class (think Classic P-series pistols), but only if they're willing to travel to their headquarters academy. That can become as pricey as a short "vacation".

Glock allows stocking dealer employees and GSSF members to sign up for armorer Field classes (unless exclusively scheduled for a specific agency transitioning to Glocks, or a class held for a special government agency, etc).

Dunno about Beretta and HK, as I've never been interested in becoming an armorer for them (or owning them).

Springfield said they hadn't yet organized an armorer program for their XD's when I inquired about one 10 years ago, but they've got them now.

There are some 1911 classes to be found, including through a CA junior college that specializes in gunsmithing.

Armorer training done by the gun companies includes having direct access to most factory parts, although at least a couple of them have started restricting things like slides, even for armorers, reportedly for reasons having to do with lots of people doing some weird and non-recommended modifications. For the most part, though, any repair/replacement parts are more easily obtained, cost-wise, if you can get to a factory armorer class. Otherwise, factory OEM parts are often making their way through aftermarket vendors. (Not of much practical value if someone doesn't know how to install them and confirm normal fit/operation, though. Lots of kitchen-table enthusiasts have ruined guns, or created very unsafe guns without having the knowledge to realize it.)

9mmepiphany said:

I usually got my Sear Housing Block for my M&P from Speed Shooter Specialties
http://www.speedshooterspecialties.com/store/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=103_90_115

Granted they don't have a trigger bar, but I believe Apex Tactical Specialties is working on one...that is where I get my triggers and sears

Click to expand...

Factory trigger bar

http://www.speedshooterspecialties....product_info&cPath=103_90_115&products_id=990


I'm still interested in which factory parts aren't available for my own knowledge.