How many rounds till I should trust a pistol?

WheelGunRealGun · February 17, 2012, 11:25 PM

How many rounds should I be able to shoot between stoppages or jams of any kind in order to consider it reliable enough to stake my life on? I've heard some say 2,000 and I've also heard as low as 500 or 250.

AndersonG22 · February 17, 2012, 11:35 PM

10, if it fires 10 times then its a 100% success rate.

This is really subjective, when I got my first gun/handgun/self defense weapon I wanted at least 1,000 rounds with no failures. I only have about 500 through it now and I trust it 100%. It had 2 FTE's during the first 100 rounds, after that its been flawless and I'm very happy with it.

9mm · February 17, 2012, 11:47 PM

200~300 using the same magazines. Make sure they work.

triumph666 · February 18, 2012, 12:06 AM

a high quality barrel is good for 50,000 rounds before significant loss of accuracy....

average spring life is 5000 to 15,000 rounds according to varying manufacturer.......

so you be the judge on your gun......people have 100 year old guns that are 100% reliable with the original parts so that goes to say most modern higher quality manufacturing should be as reliable also

LockedBreech · February 18, 2012, 01:13 AM

I trust mine fully after 200 flawless or near-flawless rounds using least two brands of FMJ / plinker ammo, followed by a flawless box of carry ammo.

Some need 50 rounds, some 1,000. When you feel good, you're good to go. What is NOT debatable is that you must test at least 1 full magazine of your chosen carry ammo.

arentol · February 18, 2012, 03:03 AM

The answer is simple.... As many rounds as it takes you to trust that pistol.

For instance, you might purchase a cheap pistol and find it FTE's about 1 time in 100, causing you to never trust that pistol for defensive use. Then you might buy a new Glock and be confident after just 100 rounds. Or you might get a gun from a friend that you know has a great history, and trust it immediately.

In my case I have a fair number of handguns. Each gun has required a different number of rounds to earn my trust in its reliability, but none of them has required a particularly large number (100 for the least, 400 for the most). Even the two 60-year-old beretta's my dad has loaned me gained my confidence with a fairly small number of rounds.

What is more important is how many rounds it takes me to trust myself with a particular gun for defensive carry or home defense use. This number is almost always much higher than the number of rounds needed to trust the gun itself. The only exception would be when the guns are essentially the same, such as when I already owned a .45 XD and then picked up a 9mm XD. In that case I trusted myself at the same time I trusted the gun.

Kreyzhorse · February 18, 2012, 06:57 AM

There really isn't an answer to the question. Personally, if I run 100 rounds or so through gun without issue I tend to trust it. With that said, my NIB Taurus M85 froze up solid at 250 rounds. That of course was the last time I'd ever trust Taurus as a carry gun.

Shoot your guns and see when you are comfortable with their function. I would suggest shooting various ammo to ensure it all feeds correctly and go from their.

Sparks1957 · February 18, 2012, 07:13 AM

If I've fired 200 rounds without a problem, I think it's trustworthy. One never knows, guns are mechanical devices and something can always go wrong. But 200 with a variety of ammo will usually highlight any potential issues.

pjp74 · February 18, 2012, 08:01 AM

Unfortunately this question is completely subjective to each individual user, you ask 10 different people this same question, you are likely to get 10 different answers. Personally for me, I allow up to 2 malfunctions in the first 50 rounds, using the supplied magazine(s), and up to 1 malfunction in the second 50 rounds, after that I have to have at least 250 malfunction free rounds.

hoytinak · February 18, 2012, 08:10 AM

Like everyone's said, it really depends on the firearm and you. The average for me is 200-500 trouble free rounds.

I've got just about 70K rounds through my HK USP Compact 9mm now and I just had my FIRST malfunction (double feed) in it 2 days ago at the range. Thinking it was a weak mag spring so it's been replaced but won't be able to hit the range again for about a week to find out.

Dave Chuppa · February 18, 2012, 08:31 AM

That's the question, when will something mechanical malfunction. Only God knows and he's not sure. That's why I carry Two Guns at all time's.

Walklightly · February 18, 2012, 08:55 AM

299, less than 300.

mavracer · February 18, 2012, 10:16 AM

The correct answer is X

bossman · February 18, 2012, 10:36 AM

No set round count for me. I do shoot the gun a lot and I will soon have an ideal if it's a keeper or not.

A lot has to do with if I like the gun or not. If I really like the way a gun shoots and feels in my grip I may try and get it running right. If it's some dime a dozen ( common easy to find) gun I won't waste much time trying to make it right, just move on to something else.

PawPaw · February 18, 2012, 10:38 AM

Six. Or five, if it's a j-frame.

Couzin · February 18, 2012, 10:39 AM

As above - different folks, different levels of trust in their weapon. BUT - the real bottom line is this - learn how to clear a malfunction under stress. Range time is fine if you are just burning ammo to see when a FTF etc will occur. But that is ideal conditions - a stress situation just may create a hurried grip, a weak hand use, bad ammunition, whatever - and the weapon then has the potential to fail. Also consider what to do when the weapon is unusable and a hands on defense is what is left.

Flaman · February 18, 2012, 11:32 AM

I normally shoot 300 rounds of range ammo, then 100 rounds of what my carry ammo will be

RC20 · February 18, 2012, 12:06 PM

I shot 20 rounds out of my Sig and it was, this thing is solid. Put the laser on it and it was my HD gun (I can clear a malfunction, but if I can't see to shoot....)

I chose a good ammunition and I am still using that is as my home D load (I prefer factory SD ammo to my hand loads thought those are available in an extended Katrina situation at which point I would have more than one pistol and the carbine would be the primary.

I have continued to shoot it as much as time and weather permits at the range and it continues to be rock solid.

Normally a couple hundred rounds will tell you, I have 500 or so through it and it continues to be solid, but this was so solid that it was trust at first firing as it were.

Peter M. Eick · February 18, 2012, 12:40 PM

I want to get 1000 rounds down it before I carry it. My logic is that I usually put 200 to 300 rounds down a gun per session so this gives me 4 to 5 trips to the range to get comfortable with it and make sure I feel good about it shooting.

Neal_G. · February 18, 2012, 12:54 PM

5 for my Ruger SP101.

The other rounds I've put through it after just confirm my initial trust!

B.N.Real · February 18, 2012, 01:27 PM

No set number for me too.

I can get a sense of what the gun will do as I fire it because I rarely ever change the ammo I use.

Plus,I try to buy handguns that don't have a bad reliability history to them.

Just why I'll never buy a PF-9 or the Ruger LC9 based off it.

And why the almost new Ruger 22/45 that had just bizarre reliabilty issues I just bought got resold.

But I've owned several M85's (as well as the one I own now) just like the one that craxxed on kreyzhorse that I've never had an issue with so go figure.

And it matters HOW it misfeeds too.

If the gun misfires or misfeeds in a way that makes it impossible for me to rack the slide or clear the gun quickly -I'll either fix it or get riud of it.

I had a Mauser HSC that would get just evil misfeeds that would lock the gun up solid.

Got rid of that one too.

shaunpain · February 18, 2012, 04:07 PM

If new, typically the manufacturer says 500. I have found this to be true. On guns that have obviously been USED, as is the case with most of the guns I own, I usually assume that it runs like a sewing machine. I have also found this to be true.

ClydeFrog · February 18, 2012, 05:18 PM

I'm a bit confused by the intent of the member post.
A new or high quality firearm should have 0 feeding or cycle problems.
It should by design handle 1,000s of factory made rounds w/o jams or mishaps.
This includes proper care & regular cleaning too,

.
A duty or carry sidearm should fire at least 250rds of duty-carry factory made ammunition before you start to tote it around ether & yon.
In the "old days" many top firearm instructors & gun press writers like Massad Ayoob would say to fire at least 500 rounds in a handgun but IMO, new engineering and improved ammunition designs can cut that down to 250-300 rounds.
For a semi auto duty pistol, the big points are for it to feed & cycle the rounds(JHP, +P, FMJ) w/o breaking or failing.
If you clean & inspect the firearm and check it often you can prevent problems.

Clyde

Coach Z · February 18, 2012, 06:18 PM

As a side note to this, test your guns every so often and definitely after any changes no matter how insignificant. Case in point I put hogue grips on my 92 compact. Didn't think twice about it, good name brand right? The grips interfere with the trigger bar and I had issues with it not resetting all the time. I didn't think for a moment about grips affecting the performance of the gun. Lesson learned.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

dave9969 · February 18, 2012, 07:55 PM

I believe what the original poster was asking, was at what point can I trust my life to the pistol I have chosen as my every day carry.

I have found fans of every brand out there, and people that have something bad to say about every brand other than their choice.

It's a fact that the shooter can cause a pistol to jam with poor shooting practices, and poor choices of ammo for the same pistol.

You should trust your pistol when you have a firm belief that you can adequately hit your target consistently and your choice of ammunition has not yielded several failure to fire or ejects.

I don't think you can say pistol X is the safe weapon of choice for 99.99% of all users. We just all have too many different habits when we shoot.

February 17, 2012, 11:25 PM	#1
WheelGunRealGun Senior Member Join Date: January 5, 2012 Posts: 126	How many rounds till I should trust a pistol? How many rounds should I be able to shoot between stoppages or jams of any kind in order to consider it reliable enough to stake my life on? I've heard some say 2,000 and I've also heard as low as 500 or 250.

February 18, 2012, 06:57 AM	#7
Kreyzhorse Senior Member Join Date: April 12, 2006 Location: NKY Posts: 12,463	There really isn't an answer to the question. Personally, if I run 100 rounds or so through gun without issue I tend to trust it. With that said, my NIB Taurus M85 froze up solid at 250 rounds. That of course was the last time I'd ever trust Taurus as a carry gun. Shoot your guns and see when you are comfortable with their function. I would suggest shooting various ammo to ensure it all feeds correctly and go from their. __________________ "He who laughs last, laughs dead." Homer Simpson

February 18, 2012, 10:36 AM	#14
bossman Senior Member Join Date: November 16, 2010 Location: Arkansas Posts: 996	No set round count for me. I do shoot the gun a lot and I will soon have an ideal if it's a keeper or not. A lot has to do with if I like the gun or not. If I really like the way a gun shoots and feels in my grip I may try and get it running right. If it's some dime a dozen ( common easy to find) gun I won't waste much time trying to make it right, just move on to something else. __________________ NRA life member When the going gets tough, I just open another beer.

February 18, 2012, 10:38 AM	#15
PawPaw Senior Member Join Date: December 24, 2010 Location: Central Louisiana Posts: 3,137	Six. Or five, if it's a j-frame. __________________ Dennis Dezendorf http://pawpawshouse.blogspot.com

February 18, 2012, 12:40 PM	#19
Peter M. Eick Senior Member Join Date: August 3, 1999 Location: Houston, Texas Posts: 2,991	I want to get 1000 rounds down it before I carry it. My logic is that I usually put 200 to 300 rounds down a gun per session so this gives me 4 to 5 trips to the range to get comfortable with it and make sure I feel good about it shooting. __________________ 10mm and 357sig, the best things to come along since the 38 super!

February 17, 2012, 11:35 PM	#2
AndersonG22 Member Join Date: January 12, 2012 Posts: 82	10, if it fires 10 times then its a 100% success rate. This is really subjective, when I got my first gun/handgun/self defense weapon I wanted at least 1,000 rounds with no failures. I only have about 500 through it now and I trust it 100%. It had 2 FTE's during the first 100 rounds, after that its been flawless and I'm very happy with it.

February 17, 2012, 11:47 PM	#3
9mm Senior Member Join Date: January 9, 2011 Location: Land of the Free Posts: 2,834	200~300 using the same magazines. Make sure they work.

February 18, 2012, 12:06 AM	#4
triumph666 Senior Member Join Date: January 11, 2011 Posts: 374	a high quality barrel is good for 50,000 rounds before significant loss of accuracy.... average spring life is 5000 to 15,000 rounds according to varying manufacturer....... so you be the judge on your gun......people have 100 year old guns that are 100% reliable with the original parts so that goes to say most modern higher quality manufacturing should be as reliable also

February 18, 2012, 01:13 AM	#5
LockedBreech Senior Member Join Date: July 6, 2009 Location: Rocky Mountain West Posts: 3,395	I trust mine fully after 200 flawless or near-flawless rounds using least two brands of FMJ / plinker ammo, followed by a flawless box of carry ammo. Some need 50 rounds, some 1,000. When you feel good, you're good to go. What is NOT debatable is that you must test at least 1 full magazine of your chosen carry ammo.

February 18, 2012, 03:03 AM	#6
arentol Senior Member Join Date: December 11, 2011 Posts: 230	The answer is simple.... As many rounds as it takes you to trust that pistol. For instance, you might purchase a cheap pistol and find it FTE's about 1 time in 100, causing you to never trust that pistol for defensive use. Then you might buy a new Glock and be confident after just 100 rounds. Or you might get a gun from a friend that you know has a great history, and trust it immediately. In my case I have a fair number of handguns. Each gun has required a different number of rounds to earn my trust in its reliability, but none of them has required a particularly large number (100 for the least, 400 for the most). Even the two 60-year-old beretta's my dad has loaned me gained my confidence with a fairly small number of rounds. What is more important is how many rounds it takes me to trust myself with a particular gun for defensive carry or home defense use. This number is almost always much higher than the number of rounds needed to trust the gun itself. The only exception would be when the guns are essentially the same, such as when I already owned a .45 XD and then picked up a 9mm XD. In that case I trusted myself at the same time I trusted the gun.

February 18, 2012, 07:13 AM	#8
Sparks1957 Senior Member Join Date: September 4, 2011 Location: Vermont Posts: 1,552	If I've fired 200 rounds without a problem, I think it's trustworthy. One never knows, guns are mechanical devices and something can always go wrong. But 200 with a variety of ammo will usually highlight any potential issues.

February 18, 2012, 08:01 AM	#9
pjp74 Member Join Date: November 12, 2011 Location: Anna, TX Posts: 75	Unfortunately this question is completely subjective to each individual user, you ask 10 different people this same question, you are likely to get 10 different answers. Personally for me, I allow up to 2 malfunctions in the first 50 rounds, using the supplied magazine(s), and up to 1 malfunction in the second 50 rounds, after that I have to have at least 250 malfunction free rounds.

February 18, 2012, 08:10 AM	#10
hoytinak Senior Member Join Date: July 5, 2006 Location: Texas Posts: 5,721	Like everyone's said, it really depends on the firearm and you. The average for me is 200-500 trouble free rounds. I've got just about 70K rounds through my HK USP Compact 9mm now and I just had my FIRST malfunction (double feed) in it 2 days ago at the range. Thinking it was a weak mag spring so it's been replaced but won't be able to hit the range again for about a week to find out.

February 18, 2012, 08:31 AM	#11
Dave Chuppa Senior Member Join Date: September 8, 2007 Posts: 448	That's the question, when will something mechanical malfunction. Only God knows and he's not sure. That's why I carry Two Guns at all time's.

February 18, 2012, 08:55 AM	#12
Walklightly Junior member Join Date: September 28, 2011 Posts: 985	299, less than 300.

February 18, 2012, 10:39 AM	#16
Couzin Senior Member Join Date: August 27, 2006 Location: Terrell, Texas Posts: 240	As above - different folks, different levels of trust in their weapon. BUT - the real bottom line is this - learn how to clear a malfunction under stress. Range time is fine if you are just burning ammo to see when a FTF etc will occur. But that is ideal conditions - a stress situation just may create a hurried grip, a weak hand use, bad ammunition, whatever - and the weapon then has the potential to fail. Also consider what to do when the weapon is unusable and a hands on defense is what is left.

February 18, 2012, 11:32 AM	#17
Flaman Senior Member Join Date: February 28, 2005 Posts: 201	I normally shoot 300 rounds of range ammo, then 100 rounds of what my carry ammo will be

February 18, 2012, 12:06 PM	#18
RC20 Senior Member Join Date: April 10, 2008 Location: Alaska Posts: 7,014	I shot 20 rounds out of my Sig and it was, this thing is solid. Put the laser on it and it was my HD gun (I can clear a malfunction, but if I can't see to shoot....) I chose a good ammunition and I am still using that is as my home D load (I prefer factory SD ammo to my hand loads thought those are available in an extended Katrina situation at which point I would have more than one pistol and the carbine would be the primary. I have continued to shoot it as much as time and weather permits at the range and it continues to be rock solid. Normally a couple hundred rounds will tell you, I have 500 or so through it and it continues to be solid, but this was so solid that it was trust at first firing as it were.

February 18, 2012, 12:54 PM	#20
Neal_G. Senior Member Join Date: October 1, 2010 Posts: 226	5 for my Ruger SP101. The other rounds I've put through it after just confirm my initial trust!

February 18, 2012, 01:27 PM	#21
B.N.Real Senior Member Join Date: February 22, 2008 Posts: 4,092	No set number for me too. I can get a sense of what the gun will do as I fire it because I rarely ever change the ammo I use. Plus,I try to buy handguns that don't have a bad reliability history to them. Just why I'll never buy a PF-9 or the Ruger LC9 based off it. And why the almost new Ruger 22/45 that had just bizarre reliabilty issues I just bought got resold. But I've owned several M85's (as well as the one I own now) just like the one that craxxed on kreyzhorse that I've never had an issue with so go figure. And it matters HOW it misfeeds too. If the gun misfires or misfeeds in a way that makes it impossible for me to rack the slide or clear the gun quickly -I'll either fix it or get riud of it. I had a Mauser HSC that would get just evil misfeeds that would lock the gun up solid. Got rid of that one too.

February 18, 2012, 04:07 PM	#22
shaunpain Senior Member Join Date: September 12, 2008 Location: Chicago Posts: 854	If new, typically the manufacturer says 500. I have found this to be true. On guns that have obviously been USED, as is the case with most of the guns I own, I usually assume that it runs like a sewing machine. I have also found this to be true. __________________ "Shut up, crime!"

February 18, 2012, 05:18 PM	#23
ClydeFrog Junior member Join Date: May 1, 2010 Posts: 5,797	Handgun T&Es, Massad Ayoob, modern semi auto pistols... I'm a bit confused by the intent of the member post. A new or high quality firearm should have 0 feeding or cycle problems. It should by design handle 1,000s of factory made rounds w/o jams or mishaps. This includes proper care & regular cleaning too, . A duty or carry sidearm should fire at least 250rds of duty-carry factory made ammunition before you start to tote it around ether & yon. In the "old days" many top firearm instructors & gun press writers like Massad Ayoob would say to fire at least 500 rounds in a handgun but IMO, new engineering and improved ammunition designs can cut that down to 250-300 rounds. For a semi auto duty pistol, the big points are for it to feed & cycle the rounds(JHP, +P, FMJ) w/o breaking or failing. If you clean & inspect the firearm and check it often you can prevent problems. Clyde

February 18, 2012, 06:18 PM	#24
Coach Z Senior Member Join Date: February 18, 2011 Location: RI Posts: 795	As a side note to this, test your guns every so often and definitely after any changes no matter how insignificant. Case in point I put hogue grips on my 92 compact. Didn't think twice about it, good name brand right? The grips interfere with the trigger bar and I had issues with it not resetting all the time. I didn't think for a moment about grips affecting the performance of the gun. Lesson learned. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

February 18, 2012, 07:55 PM	#25
dave9969 Senior Member Join Date: February 5, 2012 Location: South Florida Posts: 199	I believe what the original poster was asking, was at what point can I trust my life to the pistol I have chosen as my every day carry. I have found fans of every brand out there, and people that have something bad to say about every brand other than their choice. It's a fact that the shooter can cause a pistol to jam with poor shooting practices, and poor choices of ammo for the same pistol. You should trust your pistol when you have a firm belief that you can adequately hit your target consistently and your choice of ammunition has not yielded several failure to fire or ejects. I don't think you can say pistol X is the safe weapon of choice for 99.99% of all users. We just all have too many different habits when we shoot.

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