Will your pistol operate under worst case conditions without malfunction?

[21H40]

I think the concept of testing equipment in adverse conditions is valid. I think some ridiculous "testing" can be fun (think the HiPoint videos with bolts hammered into the barrel) though not empirically useful.

I expect any CCW eligible weapon to not be fragile, but I also know my needs - including the almost worst cases I may encounter. By the time I'm covered in mud, switching to a knife or running away are probably better options than searching for the lost and buried pistol. That is not the least of the reasons I avoid situations were I may become submerged in mud, but I guess it is one of them.

I have tires on my car to match the ways I use my car. I don't have baja off-road wheels on my daily commuter. This doesn't mean that this car has no chance of going off-road - Iowa in winter can make driving a little slippery - but it means that I use other means to mitigate the risks. Planning, situational awareness, and tow trucks are all part of my EDC plan (every day commute)

 

[Slamfire]

Nothing made by man cannot be unmade by man.

Every extreme tester has his opinion on what constituents a valid test. They however, don't have to pay for the development of the firearm, nor warranty the item under test. If they did, they would have different ideas about what is achievable and what are appropriate stress levels.

 

[rubberduck]

my glock 23 will hold up.just fine

 

[Alllen Bundy]

So how many times have YOU thrown those P365s in the mud, dragged through sand to find out if they operate?

Zero. I prefer to learn through the efforts and mistakes of others. But I have performed a considerable amount of testing on my P365. Bullet setback testing, manual chambering testing to prove that the extractor could handle it, and I've measured nearly every resistance that could impair the function of my P365. I've then polished the internals to eliminate resistance that could pose reliability issues, or give me a greater margin of safety, and then remeasured the resistance to prove that the polishing was beneficial. I cut off the right side manual trigger safety because it would better fit my pocket holster and reduce printing and better fit inside my pocket. I weighted the handgrip to give my pistol better balance when it was low on ammunition so it's performance would be more consistent and uniform. I modified the grip module and magazine floorplates to better fit my hand. I increased the magazine capacity which coincidentally made it easier to rack the slide. I extended the magazine release button so I didn't need to rotate the pistol in my hand to swap magazines which could make me vulnerable in a self defense situation. I radiused the beavertail to reduce the possibility of hanging up on my hand during a draw.

I've done whatever I could to give me every possible advantage in a self defense situation. Sometimes the improvements were big and sometimes they were small. But my P365 and P365XL both work better than they did right out of the box.

 

[shoobe01]

I am sure my pistol works when (partly) covered in mud and snow, because I've gone to pull it out, found it that way, shot it. Works fine.

If you want a real showstopper, try pocket lint. Used to carry spares much looser, one came out at a range day with lots of lint on the top so tried it like that. Three rounds before it was not just stopped, but /jammed/, took some effort to get the slide to cycle and clear it.

 

[Bazoo]

I went 3-4 months carrying, but without cleaning or firing my springfield 1911 mil spec. It was dry and full of lint and sawdust. It fired through the magazine without issue however. No prep, no changing ammo. Nothing. I did that several times.

Course I felt it wasn’t good to carry a gun I didn’t particularly like practicing with. So I switched to a gun for which I like better... a revolver.

I once did a mud test with a Glock 22 and a smith 4006. The smith did function whereas the glock only fired one round. I put the gun in a bucket with some sand and dirt and small gravel and water and swished it around 30 seconds. I removed the gun and cleaned the bore from major debris so it wouldn’t bulge and then fired them both. Then I rinsed in water and repeated.

I messed with it a while then I had that awful gut feeling that comes before you have to detail strip 2 guns. Didn’t get a video of it unfortunately.

 

[GNP]

A friend of mine found a Glock in a ditch one time years ago, no idea how long it had been there. It did not survive that torture test.

 

[DeepSouth]

I’m much more concerned about what pocket/holster lint, and body sweat do to a gun…. Interestingly I’ve seen that included in a torture test.

 

[Mosin77]

Entirely plausible that a soldier, hunter, or just a guy enjoying the outdoors might carry his pistol in a swamp and either slip, drop his weapon, or have to wade through muck and mud. Equally plausible that a hunter or farmer might find themselves carrying when the weather was absolutely atrocious, freezing rain and 31 degrees, etc. Therefore, serious points if a gun can work after being exposed to these conditions as a worst case scenario. Is it mandatory? Not necessarily. A flap holster and some luck can go very far and many of these tests are probably more luck than anything. If you repeat the test under identical conditions on each gun 25 times we might see some meaningful trends emerge.

 

[Zaydok Allen]

I actively avoid worst case conditions

 

[tarosean]

Entirely plausible that a soldier, hunter, or just a guy enjoying the outdoors might carry his pistol in a swamp and either slip, drop his weapon, or have to wade through muck and mud. Equally plausible that a hunter or farmer might find themselves carrying when the weather was absolutely atrocious, freezing rain and 31 degrees, etc.

Agreed. Over the decades I've slid down scree fields, arroyos, and taken unwanted dunks in frozen lakes and streams. **it happens.

advert your eyes @Riomouse911.

 

[JeeperCreeper]

All the nice handguns that were tortured are reading this, being unappreciated for their sacrifices, and asking:

 

[JohnKSa]

Any value in such testing (and I believe there are lessons to be learned from torture tests) is destroyed by not carefully controlling the test. The test media needs to be consistent for each pistol and the application process used to get it onto the pistols needs to be identical, to the extent possible. The Military Arms Channel on Youtube did some of this kind of testing, some years ago, in a much more controlled manner which provided results that had a better chance of being comparable from one tested pistol to the next.

 

[JR24]

Spoiler alert: clickbait videos with totally unrealistic "tests" prove nothing other than some people have too much time on their hands.

It’s almost like they are mostly trying to be entertaining (Oh, and make money).

I like to watch most anything pertaining to firearms. I guess some of you guys would rather watch golf or soccer.

Hey, I like soccer. And nothing is better for getting me to fall asleep on the couch for a nice nap than golf on the Tv.

 

[tazbigdog]

I know that every gun I have, whether a pistol or rifle, it will work every time. I’m confident in their function in extreme conditions.

 

[Nature Boy]

I guess you could find yourself covered in mud and needing to defend yourself…..

 

[JR24]

I’ve had some rifles out in some pretty cold weather on the Alaskan tundra, like -50 or worse in the wind and they worked fine.

Had one break my strap and take a tumble in the snow, and of course the barrel got clogged and froze. Warming it enough to clear the obstruction was kind of an adventure.

 

[Choctaw]

Yep, there are a few out there who actually do well -- and they (like the guys on DR) -- are the one's making the more creative and interesting videos. The guys whose videos are basically one theme, showing them "testing and evaluating" (usually just pouring rounds downrange ) are boring. Frankly (and it's not solely because I'm an old curmudgeon), I'm not interested in watching twenty-something bearded dudes (especially the guys who have nowhere near my hard-earned fifty+ years of experience with firearms) playing with guns, no matter how awesome, with no real point to the production. It's no surprise that the folks actually earning money with internet videos are those with the highest production values, the best writing and actual humor that appeals to the firearms community. I do recall one DR video made a couple years ago with one of the most egregiously incorrect remarks -- made as a statement of fact by Matt -- that lost total credibility for me. I think one reason I always liked Best's videos (later BRCC) is that those guys are so good at spoofing the gun community, finding humor in all our traits and characteristics, spoofing the military, spoofing politicians, spoofing the anti-gun faction's idiocy, and all the while being entertaining with being only about the actual guns.
Yeah, but there are some folks out there making videos (that inexplicably to me actually garner a lot of views) whose videos, even though they might include a cool gun or two, are almost as boring a watching televised golf or soccer. By the way, you forgot bowling. Pro bowling is strangely still broadcast on sports television.

Oh dang, I sure did forget bowling. lol