As Benjamin Franklin said: "An ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure".
JohnKSa,
You really ought to start thinking in a more proactive manner. That helps you to detect potential problems before they become actual serious problems that could have deadly consequences. If you operate reactively you cannot prevent the problem from happening, and the problem usually happens at the worst possible moment.
If you are only target shooting, gun malfunctions don't matter very much, unless the gun explodes in your face. If you lose a shooting competition because of a malfunction, no big deal.
However, self defense is considerably more serious. If your gun malfunctions you, or whomever you are trying to protect, may end up dead. I'd rather give myself every possible advantage and eliminate any potential problems.
I'm not sure why some people seem to be so bent out of shape that I'm recommending the polishing of internal parts that actually make the P365X pistol operate more smoothly.
Nobody has yet pointed out ANYTHING that I have done that has actually reduced the reliability and/or performance of my P365X. None of the polishing will reduce the performance and/or reliability of the pistol, and most of it will in fact improve performance and/or reliability under real life adverse conditions. The best that you can seem to muster is to claim that I have wasted my time because the polishing and modifications were unnecessary. I beg to differ. I'm trying to squeeze out every last ounce of performance and reliability from my P365X.
By proactively polishing parts that contact other parts, you eliminate potential metal contamination of the lubrication that would inevitably occur from rough metal parts grinding against each other.
While the pistol is disassembled for polishing, it also allows for a thorough cleaning and re-lubrication of the parts with a superior grade of synthetic lubricant that is NOT degraded by cleaning agents as those used in a CLP, and is also rated for lubrication down to -90°F. Here in Minneapolis the temperature has dropped as low as -36°F and we have had subzero weather for more than a month and a half straight. I remember one week where the temperature dropped below -30°F for 4 days straight. I would NOT want to take a chance of using a petroleum lubricant in my pistol that could become thick enough to prevent my pistol from operating correctly. I use synthetic lubricants EVERYWHERE in my automobiles and also in my bicycle, as I both drive and ride in subzero weather.
Polishing parts removes potential stress risers from which stress cracks could occur. Polishing is a WELL recognized TEXTBOOK method of IMPROVING reliability!!!
Polishing also makes it much easier to inspect for stress cracks.
Polishing the contact points of the parts also reduces friction and that reduction in friction allows a pistol to operate more reliably in adverse conditions. A pistol will be able to tolerate more contamination before a malfunction occurs. It also allows for more human error before a pistol malfunctions.
How can you possibly believe that polishing does NOT improve reliability?
You may not like the idea of manually chambering a cartridge. However, if you have a failure to feed and chamber a round, manual chambering may be your only option in a self defense situation. You will need to reload after every shot, but at least you can still shoot.
Polishing the leading edge of the extractor claw substantially reduces the force necessary to manually chamber a cartridge, reduces the stress on the extractor claw while manually chambering a cartridge, reduces the chance of a stress crack from forming that could cause a stress fatigue failure of the extractor claw, makes it easier to inspect for stress cracks, and not just for manual chambering, but also reduces the chance of a stress crack from forming the during normal extraction of a shell case. How does polishing NOT make your firearm more reliable?
...it's another to say that all of these things are NECESSARY even though the gun is no more MEASURABLY reliable now than it was before. ......The bottom line is that repairing a pistol that already works is useless.
The FAA would disagree with you. Preventative maintenance is important and so is eliminating deficiencies that could become serious problems under adverse conditions. Being proactive could help you discover problems that could prevent a P365 from firing.
How many fewer malfunctions are you getting now than you got before?
Right out of the box my P365 would NEVER chamber a round and return to battery when the slide was released slowly. I think that you will find that most new P365s will exhibit this problem right out of the box. That is a 100% malfunction! After polishing parts, no matter how I slowly release the slide it ALWAYS chambers the round and the slide returns to battery.
I reduced the potential of a malfunction caused by human error and/or contamination. You can infer the reliability improvement by the friction reduction. That is a HUGE reliability improvement.
Now I'm sure that you will say that I didn't release the slide properly. But in fact that is just a pathetic EXCUSE for a poorly finished pistol. How is it NOT a good thing for your pistol to be insensitive as to how the slide is released so that it will chamber a round EVERY time, and not just when you release the slide in a particular manner?
For a guy who likes to quote manuals, I'm surprised that you didn't already know this: From the SIG P365 manual: P4 Do not ride the slide forward. P21 Do not ride the slide forward. Failure to properly complete step 6-b may induce a stoppage.
I'm well aware of what Sig has stated in their manual. But this is ultimately a cop out for Sig leaving rough surfaces that may cause a failure to chamber a round and return to battery.
But even NEW Sig P365s have also had problems AFTER firing and failing to return to battery. Excess friction in three areas is one cause of the problem. Polishing these areas greatly reduces the friction and that reduces the chances of an RTB problem from ever happening.
Before I polished the stripper rail it was very difficult to retract the slide over a magazine loaded to capacity. My hand could have easily slipped off of the slide resulting in a malfunction. This also appears to be a common problem and some people cannot even retract the slide over a magazine loaded to capacity.
But I suspect that many people, or perhaps most people, that carry +1 have never even tried to retract the slide over a magazine loaded to capacity and have no idea of how difficult it may be with a new P365. There is rarely a need to do this UNLESS your first round FAILS to fire. Then you have a VERY SERIOUS need to retract the slide to chamber a new round! Your life may depend upon it.
After polishing the stripper rail, AND installing the MagGuts +2 kit in my P365X, it is MUCH easier to retract the slide over a magazine loaded to capacity, thereby reducing the chance of the slide slipping out of my hand. The pistol will also be less susceptible to the effects of accidentally riding the slide with your thumb while it cycles after being fired. My P365X is less susceptible to human error and contamination than a brand new Sig P365 right out of the box. That seems like an important and measurable reliability improvement to me.
The trigger linkage is made from a piece of stamped sheet steel. The stamping leaves a burr on the edge of the steel that Sig never bothers to remove. That burred edge of the trigger linkage is what contacts the sear and creates the gritty feel of the trigger. Polishing the burrs off of the trigger linkage makes the trigger pull VERY smoothly, yet still retains a 7.0 lb trigger pull, which you would want for a conceal carry gun. You would rather have a gritty trigger pull like it comes out of the box? Who cares about a gritty feeling trigger, right? Making the trigger pull smoothly is a waste of my time, right?
Another issue is that while a P365 may fire and appear to be working correctly, when removing the P365 FCU from the grip module, parts can sometimes fall off. Normally there is spring pressure on all of the loose parts in the FCU that prevents those parts from falling off. I can vigorously shake the FCU from my P365X and no parts will fall off.
However, if the sear spring tang is too short, or if the sear spring tang is installed incorrectly, the spring pressure on some parts is missing and parts could fall off of the FCU when it is outside of the grip module. This is not a guess, as people have reported this problem with their P365s when they were changing their grip modules. That is reason enough to remove the FCU from the grip module to make sure that the parts are held together correctly. You don't want parts falling off if you ever need to remove the FCU from the grip module in the field.
Light firing pin strikes on the primer are also a known Sig P365 reliability problem. You need to check your pistol to make sure that you don't have this issue. This light primer strike problem can be fixed by replacing the one piece striker spring retainer with the two piece spring retainer, or you can sand one face of the one piece spring retainer to achieve adequate penetration of the firing pin into the primer.
Another known problem is that the recoil spring can coil over itself and jam the slide. Replacing the round wire recoil spring with a flat wire recoil spring prevents the recoil spring from coiling over upon itself and jamming. The elimination of this possibility of a malfunction seems like an important reliability improvement to me.
The ISMI recoil spring (Used in the Rival Arms RSA) is heat treated and stress relieved AFTER forming the spring, which is the method considered to produce the most reliable springs. The Sig recoil spring has been reputed to NOT being heat treated and stress relieved AFTER forming. The ISMI recoil spring is rated for double the life of a Sig recoil spring. It seems like switching to the ISMI recoil spring improves reliability in two different ways.
Polishing the guide rod of the Rival Arms RSA not only allows it to operate more smoothly and more quietly, but eliminating the lathe turning marks reduces the chance of a stress fatigue crack from forming and makes it easier to inspect for stress cracks. Yet another reliability improvement.
Rival Arms also screwed up because they did NOT use the required primer, the threadlocker did NOT properly set up, and I was able to unscrew it with my fingers! If I was NOT proactive in checking these things I could have had a failure in a self defense situation. Using the correct Loctite cured the problem. This seems like another reliability improvement to me.
Not to mention that Sig MANGLED the coiled spring pin holding the extractor in my P365 so badly that it was NOT able to be driven to the correct depth into the slide at the factory. THAT is a quality problem and potentially a reliability problem. But I'd rather not take any chances, so I removed the mangled coiled spring pin and installed a new coiled spring pin to the correct depth WITHOUT mangling it!
Every bit of friction that I eliminate reduces the possibility of a malfunction under adverse conditions. THAT makes it more reliable and I HAVE MEASURED the reduction in friction that the polishing has achieved. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that friction reduction is measurable and it results in a reliability improvement.
A person doesn't have to have blind faith in a product to realize that If a gun is working, and you do a bunch of mods to it to make it work, that's not especially productive. ............If the gun works, it works. If it's reliable, it's reliable.
Functioning under ideal conditions is NOT the same as functioning in less than ideal real world conditions. 10,000 rounds fired without a malfunction at 72°F at a gun range doesn't mean that it will be reliable at -36°F, or if you drop your pistol in the mud, or if you accidentally ride the slide with your thumb.
Just for fun I searched on modify and the definition that came up started out: "make partial or minor changes..." Yes, polishing a part is making "partial or minor changes".
Doing a bit of polishing that would eventually happen by natural wear is hardly a modification. Just shooting your gun eventually polishes some parts. So are you saying that shooting your gun is a modification to your gun???
I do "finishing" work to make my P365X MORE reliable under ALL conditions! Polishing is hardly what classifies as a modification. Polishing improves the intended function of the gun's parts and greatly reduces the break in period WITHOUT metal debris contaminating the pistol, as well as reducing the chance of stress cracks from forming, and it also make it easier to identify stress cracks when they do occur BEFORE the part fails completely. Part of preventative maintenance is inspection of the parts in your firearm.
As far as ACTUAL modifications are concerned:
Extending magazine the release button allows me to actuate the magazine release WITHOUT needing to rotate the pistol in my hand and THAT greatly reduces the chance of dropping the pistol during a self defense situation. I'd call that a reliability improvement. However, it may not be of benefit to someone with short thumbs, as they may still need to rotate the pistol in order to reach the extended magazine release button. YMMV
Smoothing out the mold seams on the trigger guard, reshaping the bottom of the grip module, and reshaping the leading edge of the magazine floorplates do not affect reliability, but it does help the grip module to better fit into my hand, and that can't hurt. It's no different than having your clothing tailored to fit you perfectly.
The web between my thumb and forefinger would sometimes hang up on the sharp corners of the beavertail during a draw. Other people have reported the same issue. Slightly radiusing the sharp corners of the beavertail greatly reduces the chance of the web between my thumb and forefinger from hanging up on the beavertail during a draw as it now just glides over the beavertail. That is also an IMPORTANT reliability improvement.
Weighting the grip module noticeably improves the balance when the magazine is low on ammo, so there is more consistency from loaded to unloaded, which is more likely to improve my accuracy than not.
Perhaps the only modification that could pose a reliability issue is the tungsten weight that I glued into the grip module. If the glue failed and the weight came loose it might possibly cause the magazine to jam. Not very likely to jam, but still a remote possibility. But my testing of the 2-part urethane glue that I used has indicated that is extremely unlikely to happen, especially considering how difficult it was to remove the lead weight that I had previously glued into my grip module with urethane glue.
Many people prefer NOT to use the tires that came stock on their new car and replace them with higher performance tires. It's no different than a pistol.
Some people are satisfied with "as is" out of the box performance. I'm not. If I can make my P365X perform better than new right out of the box, with a bit of elbow grease, I'm willing to expend the effort. My life depends upon it.