You know, kinda like a revolver? This thought was spurred recently as I sat down after a range session to clean my revolver, which is a piece of cake and i've never even had the side cover off, and then my 1911 which requires much more work for a simple field strip/clean, not to mention a full overhaul. I have a couple other semi, but all have thier actions "in the open" where gunk invariable makes thier way into it requiring a cleaning. My 1911 is most susceptible to malfunctions when dirty, most generally in the locking lug area, whereas my revolver has never have any whatsoever in my short ownership. It got me to thinking that the revolver has the unique advantage of having a totally enclosed fire control system which natually sheilds it from all the carbon raining down on it every time the trigger is squeezed. This makes maintenance a lot easier after a range session, IMHO. Do any contemporary manufacturers of semi-auto's have thier actions (and i'm really just talking about the hammer/sear/safety) substantially shrouded from the contaminants of usage? Obviously there's really nothing you can do to keep dirt out of the slide and barrel.

... Do any contemporary manufacturers of semi-auto's have thier actions (and i'm really just talking about the hammer/sear/safety) substantially shrouded from the contaminants of usage? ...

 

Not that I know of. However, there are some contemporary manufacturers that produce semi-auto's that can reliably function with "severe" amounts of dirt in their actions:

 

http://www.theprepared.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=90