Does any company offer some kind of no-jam guarantee?

[ATLDave]

One major issue is that most jams are not caused by the gun, per se, but by a magazine. If the mag spring gets worn out, it may not have the next round there "in time" for the slide when it comes forward. If the feed lips are bent or a bad fit for the particular cartridge, the round won't be oriented correctly during feeding.

Most guns that have been selected for military use, agency use, and/or for use by very large law enforcement departments have usually been subjected to a mean-rounds-between-stoppages test. As others have noted, variations in technique, ammunition, and care make it impractical to expect a weapon to never, ever, ever jam. But if the ammo and shooter are consistent, and mags are in-spec, it is quite possible to have an extremely reliable autoloader. Not counting issues with one (aftermarket) magazine that had bad geometry, I have shot thousands of rounds through my Browning BDM without a single jam.

 

[Fishslayer]

I was kinda hoping there actually was someplace with some kind of deal like that, you guys would know who it was, and then I could buy their gun.

Usually if a quality bottom feeder is a jamomatic there is a problem with some part like the magazine or extractor.

My Ruger KP90 has a rep for combat brick reliability. Out of the box, mine was not. It went back to Prescott, they fixed it, paid shipping both ways, got it back to me pronto and it is 99.9% reliable now.
That is a good enough guarantee for me. Every maker turns out a clanker from time to time. How they handle it is more important IMO.

Why spend $600 when you can get a Glock for $500?

A proper handgun is made of metal & has a hammer. That's why.

 

[Nushif]

In a way though, isn't a lifetime warranty pretty much the same as a no-Jam warranty?
I mean, if the gun does not function to the manufacturer's speccs, they take it back and fix it. I would assume that using factory ammo the gun was designed for, any company with a lifetime warranty would take their gun back and fix it if it jammed with any kind of pattern.

I guess I am not seeing the difference between a "no-jam" warranty" and a "defective gun" warranty.

 

[Sam1911]

I guess I am not seeing the difference between a "no-jam" warranty" and a "defective gun" warranty.

Really? Call up Glock and tell them your 17 jammed once. Or tell S&W your M&P failed to eject a case last week. They aren't going to offer you a new gun, and probably won't agree to even look at it.

They're going to tell you (very truthfully) that you probably had a bad cartridge, or might need to replace a mag or mag spring. Heck, that's what most of us here would tell you, too.

Now, if you have serious trouble -- your pistol is jamming frequently -- then yes they'll all generally honor the warranty and find/fix the problem or replace the gun. Eventually.

But I wouldn't call that a "no-jam" guarantee.

99.99% of shooters who run their guns hard in competition or training have seen their pistol jam -- probably more than a few times. It does come with the territory. I doubt most of us really even considered sending them back to the factory because of it -- unless it appeared to be a systemic problem that we couldn't diagnose and fix ourselves.

It wouldn't be too much of a stretch to say, if you've never had a jam with a given autopistol, just keep shooting it. It will eventually, for some reason. Bad spring, bad round, bad mag, limp wrist, bad hair day, phase of the moon ... something.

Most of the common modern pistols can be expected to run a very VERY long time before a stoppage (with good mags, and ammo it likes). But none of them are going to come with a "NO JAM" guarantee. The factors that cause most jams are just out of the manufacturer's control.

 

[Nushif]

I maintain:

[...] any company with a lifetime warranty would take their gun back and fix it if it jammed with any kind of pattern.

Pretty much what you just said.

 

[FIVETWOSEVEN]

A proper handgun is made of metal & has a hammer. That's why.

How do you gather that? Or are you one of those people that condemn plastic guns because you just don't like them? They have proven to be just as good if not better than metal guns.

 

[Wapato]

Alright. So if I'm understanding things right.

-Pretty much all of the autoloaders jam eventually for some reason. It's just a matter of how frequently, and that frequency can have a wide variability gun to gun.

-If the gun has a particular pattern to it's jamming or an obvious defect most manufacturers will take it back. If the issue is that the gun is only 99.5% reliabile when you'd expect 99.99% for that model than you're stuck.

-Running cheap ball ammo at the range may not be representative of the loading performance of HD ammo (which tends to be far worse in my experience). So be prepared to poney up during the break in period to build confidence at the least.

-Practice clearing jams. Though I think I'd have it so I know when one is coming so I don't end up on the wrong side of a squib or hangfire.

-It might make one nervous. But LE and military units would know about the jamming issues, and none of them are toting revolvers these days.

I suppose in a way you aren't really out anything if your autoloader jams on the seventh round, and you would have been enjoying the low bore axis, reduced perceived recoil, and better trigger pull for whatever rounds did fire.

I suppose you also might be able to fire three clear one and fire another three in less time than a revolver can accuratly fire it's six if you drill.

 

[marb4]

I love revolvers. I also love autoloaders. I often hear how a revolver is a simpler machine and is thus less likely to malfunction compared to a semiauto. I disagree. In some ways, revolvers are actualy more complex than a typical autoloading pistol. The one advantage a revolver has however is that it is not dependent on ammunition to function properly. One bad round will stop the most reliable, finely tuned semiauto dead in its tracks - temporarily. A little training however gets the semiauto back in action pretty quick. A bad round in a revolver is usually just one trigger pull away from being "fixed". If you ever do have a revolver actually mechanically "jam" then its pretty much done until it can be disassembled and fixed.

Having said all that, there are lots and lots of very reliable autoloaders on the market today in all price ranges and calibers. As someone mentioned earlier, what is "reliable enough" for you? No gun (even beloved revolvers) can give you a zero probability of not malfunctioning on the next squeeze of the trigger.

 

[Sam1911]

-Pretty much all of the autoloaders jam eventually for some reason. It's just a matter of how frequently, and that frequency can have a wide variability gun to gun.

Yes.

-If the gun has a particular pattern to it's jamming or an obvious defect most manufacturers will take it back. If the issue is that the gun is only 99.5% reliabile when you'd expect 99.99% for that model than you're stuck.

I'd say yes. Though it's probably not common to see 5 rounds out of every 1,000 jam. For that bad a problem, I'd be talking to the mfg. You aren't far off, though.

-Running cheap ball ammo at the range may not be representative of the loading performance of HD ammo (which tends to be far worse in my experience). So be prepared to poney up during the break in period to build confidence at the least.

This used to be a big problem. Few quality guns these days won't run JHPs just fine. No common service sidearms are designed around feeding ball ammo anymore. If your gun won't feed hollow points -- that's a DEFECT. Send it back until it works.

-Practice clearing jams. Though I think I'd have it so I know when one is coming so I don't end up on the wrong side of a squib or hangfire.

Yes. Most auto shooters eventually get pretty darned slick with that. I once shot in a PPC league with a bunch of older guys. I once saw a guy in his late 70s have a failure to eject with his Glock. He couldn't hear you shout at him, and his eyes weren't all that great, and he needed help to get up and down the range stairs -- but he "Tap-Rack-Bang"-ed that Glock so fast you almost couldn't hear a break in his shot cadence. Comes with the territory.

-It might make one nervous. But LE and military units would know about the jamming issues, and none of them are toting revolvers these days.

Indeed. Don't know as I can say much for the practices of most law enforcement officers. Most don't really rely on their guns from day to day, and some go an entire career without firing a shot outside of qualifying. But active-duty military types know a thing or two about clearing weapon malfunctions. Now, mostly that's RIFLE and machine gun malfunctions, as they don't use pistols much, but none of them who've used firearms in dire circumstances would ever be surprised that their sidearm hiccupped from time to time.

I suppose you also might be able to fire three clear one and fire another three in less time than a revolver can accuratly fire it's six if you drill.

All depends on who's doing the shooting. There are some blazingly fast revolver shooters who can shoot 6, reload, and shoot 6 faster than most people could empty a 1911. But for the average shooter, equally trained in both platforms, the auto is unquestionably faster to run from shot seven on.