Do you break in your carry pistol with 500 rounds?

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A box or two should be fine, unless you're dealing with a close tolerance custom target job, then I'd follow the directions on the box.
Also, a couple of magazines full just to function test each new magazine is a good idea.
 
azrocks said:
You have guns 50 years old with thousands of dry-fire 'rounds' through them?

By the time I've had a gun for a couple of months I've dry-fired the thing a thousand times or more.

There's no way I'd get anywhere close to 50 years without replacing parts, and everything I've ever owned has been top-notch quality.

And yes, I've had springs in trigger groups fail prematurely (according to live-round counts), obviously due to dry-fire practice.

Preventative maintenance and regular service intervals apply to all machines. Especially those used with regularity.

As far as waiting till something breaks, yes... you can do that. But it's not the best solution. For one - if it's your carry gun - the consequences of unexpected parts failure are obviously unpleasant. Two... minor parts failures have the potential to cause major damage, depending on what fails, and how. Just one example: I had a neglected recoil-guide-rod assembly give out, scarring the alloy frame where it seated. For the cost of a <$15.00 part, the entire handgun was trashed.
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I've been a firearms instructor for over 40 years. I was overseeing several hundred firearms at the agency I worked for when I retired. We did more than the amnual qual course (quals were quarterly). You fired at least 1000 rounds a year in the guns you carried. Considering the amount of guns and the amount of shooting repairs were the exception not the norm. My experience is a bit more than Joe and Charlie down in the gravel pit.

Many issues with guns are not catastrophic failures. Revolvers go out of time bit they usually don't do it all at once. Fix it when it starts. I can easily remember the number of parts I needed for the Glocks my agency used the last 10 years. One. A recoil spring assembly that broke not because it failed but because it was being assembled incorrectly. That's with at least a couple of million rounds spread over a couple of hundred guns.

I've a Series 70 Commander that ran fine until the hammer started falling to half cock after over 20k rounds. Had the gun rebuilt. New parts required? A sear. I did have new springs installed. It was running fine but figured I might as well being it was apart.

I can go on with experiences with long lived guns with no parts replacement.

Yes, PM is important. Everything has a service life. Was that guide rod failure catastrophic? Or did you not notice the scarring earlier and shoot it anyway.

If you're really concerned about your carry gun failing, carry two.

As I said before, if changing parts on a regular basis floats your boat have at it.
 
I'm not an expert, so I've just done what was suggested by several folks I know and respect.

For the two carry guns I have I've done the following:

1. field strip it and clean it really well. This is to remove all of the coatings and crap put on it by the maker so it'll stay nice and pretty until it's sold. Lube, per manufactures instructions. Check everything and then take to the range

2. At the range shoot a box or two until I'm comfortable with it. Then clean again

3. load carry ammo, holster and carry

4. take to range practice, repeat steps 2 & 3
 
that's about it with me; just like hokie_ phd, I will clean gun, go to range and shot a couple of boxes and call it a day.
 
Two or three range sessions of 50-100 rounds apiece, with field stripping and cleaning in between and I am good... if it never malfunctioned the entire time.
 
at least that to break in the shooter, not the gun. while i'm breaking in the shooter (me) i can tell if the weapon is good enough for carry.

murf
 
Old Dog said:
Well, I'll run a couple hundred FMJs and then a couple hundred JHPs through any pistol I'm planning on carrying -- if no malfunctions, I'll call it good. But then, I don't ever carry "budget" handguns and I'm pretty confident in my pistol/revolver choices.
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Re: the OP :
Five hun'erd ? I'm not sure of the # of rds. I've fired for each of my goones.
The following, I have fired sufficient rds. in, to be completely confident (for me) for SD:
1. 1980 Series Colt .45 ACP
2. TT-33 Russian (1941) & Norinco 54 (don't like the saftey, but can cope) (both the same Browning System as the above)
3. CZ-82 (Vz-82)

Also, due to reliability issues, I mostly trust S&W and Colt revolvers (i.e., Model 10, Police Positive, et al).

That's why I usually carry a S&W model 638 (mainly due to my laziness).
 
Break in? If a gun is not good to go right out of the box, then you did not buy a good gun.
Number of rounds? There is no magic number. A gun is a mechanical device. Mechanical devices can fail. Any mechanical device can fail at any time.
You can shoot 1000, 5000, 10000 trouble free rounds but there is NO guarantee that the gun will not fail on the next pull of the trigger
Statistically, the more rounds that you fire trouble free the closer you are to an ftf. The best anyone can realistically say about a reliable gun is thatnit hasn't failed yet.
I fire enough rounds from a new gun to know how and where it shoots and what ammo it likes.
 
How many of you have fired 500 rounds thru your carry gun? Did that process iron out which ammo was more reliable for you?
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No. Why would you want to unnecessarily make your gun eat 500 rounds?

Combat practice, targets are one thing.

It's "broke in" when in comes from the factory.

Every round you fire takes life off the gun.

Absolutely no need for a break in.
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How is shooting 500 rounds unnecessary?

How significant of taking “life off the gun” is shooting 500 rounds in a gun with a lifespan of 50,000 rounds?

My attitude about 500 round break-in is somewhat different than the rest of the forum. I view shooting 500 rounds on a new to me gun as “breaking-in” both the gun and the shooter.

I do not go to the range and blast through 500 rounds. I usually shoot 100 – 150 rounds a range session. The purpose for several range session is teaching myself what the controls are on the gun, learning the trigger pull, how to grip the gun most comfortably, where the p.o.i. is on it, etc. Shorter range sessions lets me work on the fundamentals and focusing on learning about the gun.

Another reason is gremlins. They are out there. Just waiting for the chance to cause problems.

Another reason is humans are not perfect when it comes to making things. We goof. We miss things. I brought a Makarov a while back. Field stripped it and had a devil of time getting the slide back on. Finally got the slide back on the frame and a large metal shaving came out of the back of the gun when I racked the slide.

Another important reason that has already been mentioned is testing the magazines on a semi-auto. I have a couple of dozen of used magazines I have brought over the last few months. Testing has shown some of them to be unreliable so I have replaced the springs with new extra power Wolff Springs. I want at least a couple of range sessions with these mags before I feel confident with using them.

Since I reload my own ammunition 500 rounds does not represent a significant financial burden.

When it comes to revolvers I remember a interview I read once. A gun writer asked a Smith & Wesson Representative what was the best way to improve the action on their revolvers. The S&W Reps reply was...

"Shot it. Shoot it a lot."

After several range sessions I have a pretty strong opinion about the gun. Speaking for myself 50 rounds is not a long enough training session with a gun that I am going to use for self-defense.
 
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I've carried the same gun for eleven years ( S&W Tactical .45acp, dao). When I first got it I shot it maybe 100 rounds over 3 or 4 range trips while I continued carrying my Colt Diamondback .38 special. So far, I've only had malfunctions with one brand (4 boxes) of ammo. I used them for mal-drills until all used up (so I could reload them). Everything else has run just fine. I don't change much and when I change my carry ammo brand I shoot 25 rounds...but I haven't changed brand in several years. As said, I don't change much and I've never had to shoot in self defense.
 
I did put a few thousand through a Keltec P11. Not for any reason, it was just a challenging gun to shoot. Not to shoot well, but a challenge just to shoot :).
 
Tirod said:
I was reading thoughts in a thread elsewhere on the "life and death" reliability of a particular gun and one comment kept coming up - the owners suffered stoppages that were well under the the 500 rounds recommended by professionals for a carry gun.

Of course that made the gun complete junk and they hated on it from then on. No mention of WHAT ammo they were using, either.

How many of you have fired 500 rounds thru your carry gun? Did that process iron out which ammo was more reliable for you?

Over the last 15 years on the net, I haven't read of any Brand that doesn't have a few guns with FTF or FTE issues when new. Every brand you could think of seems to be capable of it and the more expensive the more likely. Yet owners of the high priced guns shrug it off and wait for the brown trunk to return it. And others continue to (perhaps rightly) think they can jam in any round possible and should get 100% success every shot.

Is that your experience?
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What I bought didn't need breaking in. I'm not going to subsidize gun manufacturers in which certain individuals own parts of ammo companies. If I was really concerned about reliability I would buy light short barreled revolver from reputable maker like S&W. They're actually quite nice when one realizes that pistols with pile of plastic in them cost as much or more.
 
200 rounds for any pistol, that is not a Glock, before I trust it.

100 for a Glock, 50 for a revolver. May seem low but if a revolver or a Glock can do that, they will keep going and going. For me, so far.
 
Tirod said:
Very few go thru a decent analysis of what the problems might be - and then we get a post with no information describing a malfunction of the pistol, no idea what ammo, did they try full power defensive loads, a different magazine, etc. We do get some who are now detailing all this, but unfortunately too few, as it seems the public's interest in firearms keeps growing we have newer less experienced shooters more often. We go thru the drill again and again. Patiently for the most part here.
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I dont think it matters much... If I listened to the internet none of my glocks would have ever had a malfunction (they all have). All my 1911's would be outdated junk and some of my most reliable guns were hand grenades, etc. etc.
All we get is data points for their individual gun. Even then you have to take it with a grain of salt as people are invested in the product, so they will cry the loudest or proclaim it to be the best thing ever.

Tirod said:
If you have never had a gun that malfunctioned, count your blessings, odds are you simply haven't bought it - yet.
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or they are not being honest or have not shot it a whole lot..



As for the original question..

I dont really have a set number. I am not one to change my carry gun too much. The last time was my shorts/tshirt gun where I went from a PPK to a XDs and put well over 500rds through it to become proficient. So I know exactly what its capable of. So its really a matter of getting to know a new gun, even if its a type that I already own.
 
Pete D. said:
Break in? If a gun is not good to go right out of the box, then you did not buy a good gun.
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This depends on the gun. Many 1911's, especially the tighter, high end ones require a break in period. I just picked up a 9mm Dan Wesson Guardian that I'm going to have to break in, but I knew that when I bought it. I also have a FNS 9C and a CZ 75 Compact that had a few FTF out of the box. Their customer service departments instructed me to put a couple of hundred rounds through them, and if the problem persisted to call them back. After the break in periods I've had no problems. Ideally, guns would come already broken in, but that's not always the case and I'm not sure that's criteria for whether a gun is good or not.
 
500 rounds, not hardly, a couple of boxes of ball and then two magazines of any exotic ammo that you intend to carry and you are good to go. I have shot well over 600 rounds in my R51 but that was to please me and provide self proof that the pistol works and all of its detractors are full of hooey! I do not intend to carry this pistol so it is a moot issue anyway.
 
Break in? What break in? You bought a gun so go to the range and fire it. You want to call the first range visit a break in, fine.
 
Pete D. said:
Break in? If a gun is not good to go right out of the box, then you did not buy a good gun.
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But yet I've got a couple Les Baers, and they recommended a 500 rd "break-in".

Could have sworn they were considered to be at least "good guns".

Chuck
 
JohnBlitz writes:

I find this appalling. Your carrying around a weapon you can't even bother to acquire proficiency with.
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How do you know he's not "proficient" with it? Are we going to start another thread-war in which you lay out a specific number of rounds required to achieve "proficiency"? On whom should we call to even define "proficiency"? What level of "proficiency" is required for the armed citizen, and by whom? Do you support the same government mandates so many of us oppose?

Or, imagine that his carry gun is actually a duplicate of one with which he already has extensive experience, such as an agency-issued sidearm, or one he had previously owned, then later replaced, or that he routinely practices with another similar weapon, perhaps in a different, more-affordable caliber.

We really don't have all the facts, do we?
 
Chuck R. said:
But yet I've got a couple Les Baers, and they recommended a 500 rd "break-in".

Could have sworn they were considered to be at least "good guns".

Chuck
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It needs at least 500 rounds for that insanely-tight barrel bushing to wear a circle in the barrel.
 
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