Poll: Carry Gun & Magazine Failure TESTING?

[melensdad]

Based on posts on this Forum and on other gun forums where I belong, it seems like the reason that many people carry a extra magazines is because they are worried about, or have actually experienced, magazine failures or gun failures.

So I have some questions. . . for CIVILIANS who carry, do you test your guns and magazines for failure? How many magazines do you have for your carry guns? If you have a failure, do you mark the magazine and keep it out of your carry gun?

THE POLL IS A MULTIPLE CHOICE POLL. ANSWER ALL THOSE THAT APPLY TO YOU.

FOR EXAMPLE: I usually carry a Detonics 1911 pattern pistol. I have a couple dozen magazines. I have some magazines that are simply not reliable. I know which magazines are 'bad' and only use those for range practice but NEVER use them when I carry.

Further, I test my carry guns with "duty" ammo and make sure they fire at least 200, but usually closer to 500, absolutely flawless rounds or I simply do not carry that gun. Period. I do not consider flawless running with reloads, generic ammo, etc to be valid. The gun has to fire flawlessly with my intended premium carry ammo or I won't carry it.

So, I only carry proven guns and I only carry proven magazines. What do you do?​

 

[indyjoe]

I voted, I test my carry gun with less than 200 rounds. I test any gun before I carry with over 100 rounds of "practice" (i.e. won't break the bank cost). I need 100 rounds of perfection, before i move on. After 100 perfect rounds, I will shoot about 50 carry rounds. Again, I demand perfection. After that, I'm confident in the gun. I don't think I could afford to shoot 200 rounds of good carry ammo for each pistol I might carry.

Some guns I only have 2 mags. Both must perform flawlessly, or I get more/trade them. For my more shot guns (Glocks) I have tons of mags. 10 rounders are for the range/IPSC. Full cap are for carry, unless they have problems.

 

[USMC_0311]

I empty my carry mags once a month, its expensive but I am just paranoid I guess. I have not done a torture test or anything that extream but my 92 has never had any malfunction no miss fires or stove pipes. Well over 3000 rds in the last 10 years. I don't think luck as anything to do with that either. I clean and inspect it almost daily. I have changed springs in the mags twice in the last 10 years but I clean the mags when I clean the gun also.

 

[obijohn]

all my gear gets tested regularly. there is a box in my gun room that has a fortune in unreliable mags. i do attempt to tune the mags for reliability, but not past the cost of new mags unless they are special purpose. thoroughly testing your gear is important, but regardless of the platform, i feel you should be aware of mean time between failures. in other words, every cycle of a machine takes it closer to the cycle where it malfunctions. you CAN test all the serviceable life out of a machine. a few thousand rounds shouldn't hurt any quality firearm, but the possiblity exists.
i keep duplicates of my carry guns so that i can train with one and carry the other. i try to train a few times a year with my carry guns to assure function.

 

[sparkyfender]

I use less than 200 rounds to insure relibility.

Don't see any reason to change.

 

[jeremy]

I torture any new potential carry weapon with between 300-400 rounds. Everything from the cheapest to the hottest rounds that I can get hold of. I want, no demand flawless function everytime. regardless of the type of ammo that is in the pipe. You can not always insure that my "carry" choice of ammo is in the gun when needed.

On a side not any mags I have that malfuntion three times at the range, are painted and used for training mags. No better way to train on weapons malfunctions than when they happen. And when they happen randomly is the best way.

 

[Dogman]

I'll test fired at least 250 before I'll carry a new gun.
What Magazines do you guys have that are bad? and what do you mean by bad, I don't think I've ever had a magazine that didn't work. Maybe I'm just been lucky.

 

[G McBride]

I carry an XD so it will not fail. Now that I got you all worked up, I practice with WWB .45 practice ammo but at the end of a shooting session I fire off my carry ammo from the magazine and reload with fresh rounds. This lets me shoot a lot of practice rounds and then fire my carry rounds to see if I shoot them the same.

You really should carry an XD when your life depends on a gun that won't fail.

 

[Bubbajms]

I've yet to find a magazine that wasn't reliable, honestly.. all of my mags are factory with no modifications or anything.

I shoot 500 rounds of WWB before I get anywhere. Then 250 of whatever I intend to carry.

 

[Mike Elzinga]

The mag issue is one that I dont think too many people think about. It is also the reason I carry either a Glock or a revolver. I havent seen a Glock factory, untouched, unmodified mag ever fail. They probably have, but I havent seen it. This is also the sole reason I dont carry a STI/SVI commander sized gun. If I could trust the mags more, I for sure would. I do get that the reason most S-I mags fail is due to people messing with them, but I still cant trust em.

Personally I dont mod any part of my carry guns, and I'll shoot 200 rounds or so of whatever variation of ammo I have laying around. Then run a box of carry ammo through it, and if all is well, load up and carry it. This probably isnt the best protocol, but I think it is sufficient. I've also been pretty lucky that most of the guns I have ever bought, match or carry guns, have pretty much ran fine with very few exceptions. I never really held onto a gun that wasnt reliable.

 

[Wabatuckian]

1) I buy the gun and premium magazines.

2) I buy 200 rounds of practice ammo, and fire it.

3) I buy 200 rounds of carry ammo, and fire it.

If it fails #2 or #3, I find out why, fix it while I'm customizing, then test fire the 200 rounds again. Usually the first time fixes it, but there are times as well that I have to tweak them further.

If I do the work myself, I know that the gun is running 100% and why, or why it can't be fixed.

For example, I had a Charles Daly 1911. It would feed empty cases an short rounds (semiwadcutters and such) but not FMJ or HP.

I came to find out that something wasn't fitted right, and I refit it.

As well, the slide stop kept popping out. I found the problem and couldn't fix it - well, I did, but it involved weld on the slide stop - so I welded and refit the slide stop, set it up nicely, and sent it down the road. It's now 100% reliable and will serve well someone who isn't as OCD as I tend to be.

Josh <><

 

[dclaarjr]

When I go to the range I normally shoot 200 - 300 rounds at a time.

All of my mags (7 for my main carry) get used and I normally shoot 1 mag of carry ammo to keep familiar with it and to rotate out the old. I also rotate the mags in and out of the carry rotation. With my Ruger I have yet to have a failure of any kind in over 6,000 rounds and I know everything is working well.