Have a handgun ever failed you?

[Hunter2011]

When reading some SD scenarious, I could gather that many times a gun stopped working for some reason. Has this ever happened to anyone here? What caused the malfunction? Limp-wristing, magazine?
What are the biggest reasons for a pistol, or revolver, to fail in SD shootings?

 

[RetiredUSNChief]

My AMT Automag II had a few failure to ejects/feeds once.

Turned out a handgrip screw had fallen out and the grip panel had pivoted ever so slightly and was rubbing on the slide.

I had to order a whole set of screws to replace the one missing one...a whopping $2 or 3 dollars, plus S&H, if I remember correctly.

That was back in the 90s.

 

[Ash]

I had a Springfield with a weak hammer spring that lead to light strikes. I also had, some 20 years ago, an EAA Witness that was not reliable. Once had an RAP-440 that lost the front sight insert (just a white dot). In general, I've had pretty good experiences with my handguns.

 

[MedWheeler]

One case of rimlock in a Kel-Tec P32 stopped me on the range.

Grendel P10, when new, had a rough feed ramp that caused numerous failure-to-feed malfunctions, with the cartridge nose up in the breech.

That's all I can think of right now..

 

[CajunBass]

I've never had a GUN fail me. When someone says the "gun" failed, that to me means that the gun itself broke.

I've a number of instances of ammo, my own reloads, fail me. Never factory ammo. The only factory ammo that didn't work was an occasional 22 rimfire, which is the main reason not to use 22 rimfire for SD.

I had a 12 ga pump gun of all things jam once while shooting at a deer. I short stroked it. The deer, while hit with my first shot, stumbled down the hill and the next stander killed it. That's an operator error, not the guns fault.

 

[bikerdoc]

Not a carry gun no.

I did inherit a 22 Berretta 948 that was my uncles. Terrible trouble with FTF. Had to fiddle with the mags by pinching the lips to get marginal reliabity. Gave it to my cousin who treats it as an heirloom remembrance, nothing more.

 

[ku4hx]

Very close friend of mine had his Glock 23 "jam" raking the slide in a real world home invasion situation. The problem was found to be the two original early '90s magazines. Newer Gen3 magazines (I think Gen3) fixed the problem completely. But it took him several hundred flawless rounds to trust the gun.

Fortunately for him, the door crasher must have recognized the sound and turned tail and ran. Eye opening experience to say the least.

 

[Hokkmike]

Yes, of course.

The worst culprits seem to be the little semi auto .22's.

My Bersa Thunder .380 had a loose magazine that would slip down while shooting resulting in FTF.

I had a Sig P225 that would occasionally FTF for a reason I have still not yet figured out.

And, I had a persnickety 1911 that as very choosy about magazines.

The Walther, Beretta, S&W, and Current Sig that I have have used most recently have been fine.

 

[mgmorden]

Yes. Most of the times it can be traced back to a worn/broken part (extractors in particular), lack of cleaning, or weak/out of spec ammo.

Honest to goodness jams outside of that are rare, but do occasionally happen. The guns I carry for SD have never jammed, but I also haven't shot them as much as some of the guns that HAVE jammed.

 

[jmr40]

I've had more 1911's fail to feed or eject than all others combined.

Revolvers have been 2nd on my list of failures. I've had S&W revolvers where the ejector rod would back out and lock the cylinder in place. Unburned powder and debris under the ejector have prevented the cylinder from closing. Had a Ruger Sp-101 where the cylinder stop did not always engage the slot in the cylinder. And I've had adjustable sights fail.

Modern semi-autos have proven to be very reliable. I've had bad luck with CZ's not feeding correctly, but can't recall ever having an issue with any other brand.

 

[mjones 59]

Thirty years ago I belonged to a combat shooting club and shot a lot.During
A match my S&W mod.19 "broke" the cylinder wouldn't rotate and I was
disqualified. We were shooting behind the LGS so I left it with the gunsmith
To repair. The following week we had our practice night and I was using my
Colt python and the python locked up!! Two quality revolvers in the same
week. There were a lot of rounds shot through both guns but 90% were
light target loads not magnums. I can't remember what actually malfunctioned
but the humanity fixed both with parts on hand. I can remember that it was a
real eye opener or myself and the rest of the shooters.

 

[Drail]

At least 90% of semi auto failures are due to magazines. The remaining 10% is almost always out of spec ammo and/or weak springs, weak/broken extractors and defective firing pin safeties. I have seen revolvers fail several times and it was due to poor cleaning of the extractor and/or out of spec ammo. My main revolver for USPSA (S&W 57) choked on me during a match - out of spec case rim that slipped UNDER the extractor) Failures are NOT as rare as some seem to believe. I always had a small box full of smithing tools at the range and I got to use them quite a bit. After your gun causes you to blow a match you begin to keep a very close eye on every single part and spring in that gun and carefully check every single round.

 

[WestKentucky]

I once responded to a stray mutt in the chicken coop with a ruger 9 shot (before it became the mark 1) and it stovepiped after 3. The dog came after me and I jumped into the bed of the pickup where I cleared the jam and finished the job. It was a great day for the neighborhood as that dog was lurking around causing all of the folks within s mile or so trouble by fighting their critters, treeing people in cars and in houses, stealing chickens and rabbits, etc.

 

[RustyShackelford]

Taurus 82 .38spl 4" ......

In the early 2000s, I owned and carried a used Taurus 82 .38spl revolver. It was nickeled and had a spurless hammer.
It was not DA only and could be fired single action.
The Taurus 82 revolver had minor problems and I was concerned because I needed to carry the firearm on security details, .

The 82's cylinder sometimes would not rotate and the cylinder release would break.
I decided to sell the used Taurus revolver and get another, better .38spl/.357magnum DA revolver. I purchased a used, good condition S&W model 19 4" K frame that worked fine. I only used the S&W model 19 for about 6-10mo but I had no problems or misfires with it.

Rusty

 

[Onmilo]

By Fail do you mean blow up due to my over zealous reloading attempt???

 

[Mitch383]

I've had lemons in several models and brands of firearms. Beretta 92fs stovepipe and failure to feed issues. Glock 19 gen3 same problem. Springfield Armory 1911 stovepipe issues. Note: the lemon Glock and Berette had 10 round mags per sales restrictions in the 90's. I now own a Glock 17 gen 4 with standard capacity 17 rd mags. Never had a single issue. The dual spring eliminates limp wristing problems as well. I have since become a much more serious shooter. Back when I had the failures I was using a very improper and loose grip. That being said I still feel as if ANY gun that will not function in the hand of anyone with any grip, tight loose or gangbanger sideways should function. If not I don't want it and will not endorse or promote it.

 

[TestPilot]

Most guns I own and/or carried either malfunctioned/not work as intended/had defects,etc. to one degree or another. It's not an issue of junk guns. It's more of a "If your favorite gun never malfunctioned, it just means you have not shot it enough" thing.

I carry some of them because I think the problem is fixed, and I'd rather use that than any other gun.

Biggest reason?

In most incident information I have encountered, it is due to contact with an opponent obstructing the operation of the pistol in some way. I am aware of a Glock 22 or 17 feeding malfunction in one incident. The officer was not in contact with the suspect, so I believe it is the Gen 3 Glock weapon mounted light induced malfunction issue.

 

[Spats McGee]

Well, let's see:
1) I've had the occasional fail-to-fire & fail-to-eject in .22s of various makes and models.
2) My Glock 19 has had the following: (a) a failure-to-feed (bullet separated from the case when it hit the feed ramp); (b) a second failure to feed (that might have been cause by a weak mag spring); and (c) a slide stop spring that broke for reasons I never have understood.
3) I've had failures to feed and failures to eject in a 1911.

So my answer to the OP is, "Yes, I've had a handgun fail me." Fortunately, I've never had one fail when I really needed it to not fail, nor have I ever had a catastrophic failure. *knocks on wood*

 

[ATLDave]

I've never been in a gun-for-self-defense situation, so, no, I've not had a failure in that context.

But I've seen pretty much any kind of common service/SD-type weapon have a failure (some ammo-induced, some from the gun itself). There are some extremely reliable guns in the world. There are no failure-proof guns. Keep in mind, over extended trials, the metric is "mean rounds between failures." Not "failures, yes or no." Shoot a gun long enough, and something will go wrong.

But since the likelihood of you really, really needing a gun to go bang is relatively low, if you pick a very reliable gun with a very low failure rate, then the combination of those probabilities gets you below the likelihood of just falling over dead from a heart attack or stroke. Learn to clear malfunctions quickly, and then quit worrying about it.

 

[Glen]

CCI Primers Not Going Off

I handload for the GP-100 I bought about three years ago and use CCI primers. Maybe 1 in a 100 rounds do not go off. There is a somewhat light strike on the primer, almost as if the primer was too hard. I saw some posts on here from 2007 where guys were complaining about CCI primers not always working for them either.

I have never had problems with factory ammo with this revolver, though I haven't shot much of it.

I guess I will blame the primers for now, not the gun (I have not modified it at all) and shoot factory ammo when the gun is going to be loaded for protection against monsters and bad guys.

I wonder if others are having this same problem now.

 

[Ash]

Never had a revolver fail.

 

[Zerodefect]

Kimber.
Ruger P95.

That's all.

 

[Sol]

Had a P220 that was a failure in its entirety.

 

[jhb]

Yep. First version p238hd. Had an improperly heat treated slide and wrong spring and various other beta test failures. Had to go back twice.

First gen walther p22......would fail to feed every shot after the first and get stuck...but i could tap the slide closed and feed the next round. Sent it back and s&w worked it over. Fine now. Have shot many thousands of rounds.

Had a few others like a springfield emp first gen that would jam but i toughed it out and works flawlessly after it broke in.

What ive learned first hand is do not be the beta tester on new products.

 

[Schwing]

The only pistol I have ever owned that suffered a major failure was my Bersa Thunders .380 CC. The trigger spring actually broke on it during a range trip. I replaced it and about 20 round later it broke again.

I still take the gun to the range from time to time but it hasn't been carried since. My experience was almost certainly a statistical anomaly but it is going to have to see a lot more range time before I trust it again.