Ever shot a gun to it's death?

My father had an old Smith that had really bad forcing cone erosion, but that was fixed by Smith and. now, all is right with the world .

El Tejon shot a Colt 1911 to death. IIRC, it died at over 60K rounds. After that, he had it rebuilt and it shoots great to this day. I'm sure he'll be along and can tell you more details though.

I broke a 1960s Browning Hi-Power like that. Slide cracked. The locking shoulder fractured and fell out (repaired). New slide cracked too. Bought a new one in the end. Barrel lug broke on that one too.

Two M-9's and a handful of Colt .22's

I personally have been the demise of two M-9 pistols. But, they deserved it. Clunky hunk o junk with a eurotrash round. Actually, the barrel cracked on both, just foreward of the chamber. And now barrels are consumeable items.

The Colt revolvers were worn out over many years by a veterinarian who spent his leisure hours in the swamp around his house shooting dragon flies.

Define "gun"

-RG .38spl. Didn't take very long, (time or round count-wise). Interesting revolver- sometimes the lead bullets actually exited from the barrel...

Yeah, it was a Colt 1911 stainless that I purchased as a birthday gift to myself at 21. Poor thing just broke down after many rounds.

Had it rebuilt by Cylinder & Slide. Traded the gun off in 2004.

Just recently, I discovered a crack in the frame of my IDPA 1911. It's a custom Bruce Gray mutt of a thing, but it shoots like a house a fire.

Anyway, I estimate 70k in the last two and a half years.

I don't plan on destroying the pistol. It's a small hairline crack for the time being. I've removed it from normal use but I do shoot it occasionally.

Ed

I managed to take the lug off of the barrel on my series 70 Colt Commander.
My father bought it used from a LEO and both carried and IPSC'ed it for years before I inherited it. Cylinder and Slide rebarreled it and once again it works beautifully.

p.s. My dad used to shoot against Bill @ C&S back when his mustache was smaller and a trick gun didn't take batteries...

I have beaten some nearly to death, but short of blowing one up or hammering a gun you can't get parts for I don't see how you can really kill one stone dead. Usually the repair bill is less than the cost of a replacement by several times.

It is a good thing to 'wear a gun out'. Fix it, hope and pray you will be fortunate enough to have the time, money and desire to do it again.

I have 2 Jennings 22s that I bought as a kid. Not sure how many rounds went through them (a bunch) but neither will feed, fire, or extract properly. Pretty much everything wore out, springs, extractor, action, etc. No point in getting them repaired. I'm waiting for the next police buy back to get rid of them.

I shot the barrel out on a K22 once. Though the gunsmith could't agree I really thought I might have shot a squibb cb cap and then chased it out with another. No tell tale ring or bulge was evident, and I had not noticed the sound difference since I was shooting fast. What was apparent though was accuracy had went from less than an inch at 25 yds to 12 inches. New barrel now. How many rounds I don't know.
Jim

With some of those cheap "SNS" revolvers and autos, "shoot to death" only took one round.

Jim

Mr. Keenan,

The RG .38spl was part of an Estate I bought.

Seriously I used that gun to make a point. Point being some folks were turning their noses and snubbing the very idea of buying a Used Police trade-in when they could get a "brand new, in the box and everything" Firearm for less monies.

The Model 10s , "used" and <oh my goodness> even "Police Trade-In" Model 10s , may not of had the box, may indeed had holster wear, even some pitting here and there...they work...continue to work.

The RG still provided education after its "demise". De-activated (firing pin removed, cylinder filled with orange substance, then frozen so would not open at all...) , Used for folks to train with, how to draw from holster, how to conceal a gun...etc. Painted of course to distinguish it...

It really shined as a training tool...especially as a paper weight to keep training materials from scattering...

Most Memorable: Eddie Eagle for kids. Two Twin girls went to use the bathroom during break.

One twin stands "guard" at the bathroom door, the other one comes in to us adults.
I had taken that RG painted blue and put in the bathroom while other adults gave the lecture and all...

<blows tuft of hair from face>

Excuse me! I need an adult in the bathroom, someone left a gun on the back of the toliet, and Sister is guarding the door and I really have to pee! Hurry!



Steve

A search for GLOCK in this thread turned up nothing. A search for 1911 on the other hand......













I keed, I keed

No but I've put a couple on sick beds

No but I've put a couple on sick beds. Hot loads in a Charter Arms in the 60's and similar in an aluminum framed Star semi-auto in the 70's.

yeah, I had a Taurus Millinium series pistol I put about 200 rounds through. That was all she had.

Iver Johnson TP 22

I killed an Iver Johnson TP 22 several years ago, simply by shooting it a lot.
The frame broke ( ! ) between 5,000 and 6,000 rounds. Loved that little gun. Fit in my pocket and even had a decocker.

Dead guns

IPSC shooters wreck 'em all the time. Most common breakdowns are barrel lugs sheared off, cracked slides and frames and just simply wearing the rifling down to insignificance. Slides and frames can be welded up and reused but my experience is they always crack again. Slides and barrels you throw away but one of my frames had a custom serial number so I made a deal to send it to the manufacturer and buy a new replacement with my serial on it.

Revolvers are a whole different deal. Forcing cones are discussed in this thread. The other wear problem is stretching the yoke and just plain shooting the cylinder loose including timing. Lots of heavy loads will also occasionally break internal parts. Neat thing about revolvers is you can replace everything but the frame.

Finally, if it's really junk, cut it in half and sell it for scrap.

I shot a Model 29 S&W to death. Over the years it had the barrel set back 3 times and the forcing cone recut, 4 stars, 3 hands and 3 bolts. What finally killed it was the top strap was cut about 2/3 of the way through. It may have been safe to keep shooting but not by me. It had over 80K rounds of 44 Mag through it. I'll never have the time or money to do that again, it sure was fun though.

2400's fun

did you get tendinitis in your wrists and elbows? That's how you know how much fun

Bob.

Killed a LLAMA .380 after 40 years and I don't know how many thousands of rounds.

AFS

GA,
In 1988, I met this salty old retired Marine NCO who had a .45 ACP Colt Gov't Model 70 Series that had almost no bluing left on it (he said it had been reblued 4 times, too) and he swore that gun had at least 150,000 rounds through it and was only on its 3rd barrel. Needless to say, it rattled a bit. But it still shot alright.

SRM

The old Sterling .22 we had when I was a kid got so bad it needed to be
cleaned after every clip. This thing would just about lock solid but felt like
a rubber band slinging back and forth when it was shot. My father traded it
and threw in some extra money for a Ruger Mk II.

- Cobra 380 - didn't take too long either... ha!
- 7 rounds
- sear spring shot out after the first three rounds, I bought a new one, two rounds, jam, two rounds and then no more sear spring
- gave it to a friend who wanted to fix it

Worst $43 I ever spent!

-Colin