How many rounds to test reliability?

[rellascout]

Hundreds ~ thousand(s) rounds??? I guess if that makes you comfortable, go for it. I usually shoot 2-3 mags of what ammo I'm carrying. Some of this seems a little obsessive-compulsive. Got to have X number without a failure or I start over.

I shoot a lot and have guns that have never malfunctioned ~ but as with anything mechanical, I figure at some point they will. I'll just clear it, check to make sure nothing is broken and carry on.

Really? Calling people obessive - complusive for properly testing their carry weapon does not seem like THR to me. You can do what you feel is proper. If you are comfortable with a few mags that's great but why the need to attack others?

Yes every mechanical device as a chance to malfuction and if you have to use a pistol as a defensive weapon checking to make sure nothing is broken might not be an option.

 

[speaksoftly]

Really? Calling people obessive - complusive for properly testing their carry weapon does not seem like THR to me. You can do what you feel is proper. If you are comfortable with a few mags that's great but why the need to attack others?

Don't even drink the "THR Kool Aid" and I'm on board with this statement. I have very close family who's lives have been shattered by OCD and this is offensive to me. Thanks Rellascout.

In answer to the question, I shoot 500 rounds of the nastiest, dingiest, cheapest ammo I can find. If the gun doesn't function with the worst ammo then I'm not interested in having it. If it functions well with the cheap stuff I will then put 100 rounds of my carry ammo through it. After good performances with the best and worst in ammo, only then does the pistol make it safely into my "keep" drawer.

 

[buckhorn_cortez]

Most all auto will have at least one jam in the first 100 rounds because of faulty ammo, bad shooting form, or just because you are working some of the kinks out of the gun.

Where did you get this data? Or, is this just your opinion? It doesn't match my experience with the last three automatics I've purchased.

All were run 500 rounds for break in, and then cleaned and sent to a gunsmith for reliabililty tuning with three different type of ammunition. The guns have never had a fail to feed or fail to eject with any of the three types of loads I use - including magazines with mixed loads.

If you shoot an automatic, and want to use it for self-defense purposes you owe it to yourself to make sure it runs 100%. Each gun is now in the low 2K round count without a malfunction. The guns get cleaned and PM'd regularly (springs) to maintain function.

The single worst jam I've ever had was with a S&W Model 25 long Colt revolver. Took me nearly 3 hours to get it functioning after the jam - and only proved to me one more time that no matter what the action, you owe it to yourself to shoot a lot of ammunition of the type you're going to use in order to "proof" the weapon for consistent function.

 

[Nushif]

I'm not sure it's the number of test rounds. When I test a new gun I shoot it in every position I can. i limp wrist it. I try to break it.

Some guns after 50 rounds you know it's a shooter.
Others, not so much.

That's kinda what I do. I'll grab 100 rounds or so and do the most ridiculous stuff to the poor gun. If it works, then I'll carry it.
This includes sideways, upside down, tucked against the body as fast as I can physically pull the trigger, one round at a time with holstering, what have you.

Finally I run a little course that challenges me more than the gun, with a bit od rapid fire and point shooting to see if *I* can work the gun which at this point is proven reliable. Shooting out of breath and while moving adds a totally new dimension to a previously functional gun.

 

[PRM]

rellascout and speaksoftly, hate you guys were offended. Let me assure you I did not mean anything I said as a personal attack on anyone specific. I just don't understand the rational of having to fire a certain number of rounds before I trust a gun. Especially, if 2/3 of the way through that number the gun has a hiccup, to start over just so one can say it shot X number of rounds.

I don't feel the need to dump a half of case of ammo through a gun because of a malfunction on the range before I carry it again.

 

[earlthegoat2]

All the better reason to carry the same gun and never switch unless you really want to. Too much reliability testing makes me sick to my stomach.

 

[PPS43]

PPS43, I believe your calculations assume flawless ammunition, and while it's pretty good, it isn't that.

Valid point. I'm interested in all stoppages, gun or ammo related.

But generally the quality of premium factory ammo is very high. I don't have numbers in front of me, but I think they are at least an order of magnitude better than 0.2%-0.5% I started with.

 

[VA27]

Clean and lube the gun. Load all the mags you'll carry (usually 1 in the gun and 2 spares) with the ammo you want to check. Inspect each round for dents, dings, primers and loose bullets as you load the mags. Fire all mags. If you can get through all the mags you'll carry with no problems, clean, lube, load and carry.

A pocket gun test that I use is after the above, I load it up and carry it for 6 months or so. Go to the range, pull it out and shoot it dry without even blowing the pocket lint off it. If it doesn't choke on that it's good to go.

 

[Old Shooter]

Of all the automatics I've had, and it's been a bunch, only two were unreliable for carry and they showed themselves to be problems within the first 50 rounds. I put mayby another 100 rounds thru them trying to make them acceptable but I couldn't warm up to them enough, wound up getting rid of them both. All the others, perhaps a dozen or so, have been good to go right ot of the box, mayby a FTF or FTE in the first 50 rounds but after that they settled down and got boring reliable. I only use Winchester amnmo, either the hardball for practice or the hollow points for practice/carry. If it runs good with 100 rounds of those two I consider it good to go. And once a month I go to the range and burn up 50-100 rounds thru the carry and HD guns, biggest problem so far is picking up all the brass.

 

[LoadandShoot]

The ability to shoot any one bullet type and loading configuration does NOT guarantee that it will shoot anything. I used to think that my pistols that loved 200gn SWC cast bullets would shoot anything myself. I ran into a number of HP loads that immediately proved this wrong and a possibly fatal assumption. Particularly Nosler 200 gn competition hollow points would jam frequently with the flat, conical portion of the bullet coming to rest on the flat in the chamber and stubbornly refusing to load. I eventually adjusted the extractor and polished a few things in the 1927 Argentine Colt Sistema pisols (other pistols had similar FTF) to get the Nosler Comp. bullets to load, but they were never very reliable and I still would not rely on them for self defense whatsoever. Conical, flat ogive style hollow point bullets can give a lot of grief in pistols that otherwise run great with round nose hard ball or round nose hollow point bullets. Unless I have thoroughly tested the conical bullets, even Hornady XTPs, I don't automatically trust them in guns that shoot SWC or any other bullet all day long. Minute changes in geometry and shape in the ammunition can cause unforseen problems. I've seen it many, many times. Long story short, never make assumptions about reliability, do actual function checks of at least 200 to 300 rounds. That will at least give you some idea of real world reliability.

 

[LoadandShoot]

Shooting tons of hardball is pointless to establish reliability if you are carrying HP. Reliability with the actual ammo is the only relevant thing. Besides that, if there is a reliability problem with hardball, that needs to be corrected first as there is something wrong with a gun that has any kind of failure rate with hardball. A gun that has something wrong with it should not be relied on for defense at all.

I should have mentioned too that reliability problems with a lot of autoloaders as most probably have found out by now can be magazine caused. 1911s with different types of ammo are very susceptible to magazine differences as are others. Few if any standard Colt style 1911 mags will shoot all types of ammo in any one gun. Some bullet types need earlier release than others etc. Reliability issues can be a mag problem, a gun problem, or both.