At what point are you convinced that your pistol is reliable? After a box of ammo and

no malfunctions? After 200 rounds? 1000 rounds?

 

I know of some people who only shoot a box and are good to go and others are 500 plus

before they are convinced.

 

For me I think 200 is a good number give or take.

 

What is it for you?

It is best to try 500 in one range trip to test reliability for a HD load. However, when rounds cost upwards of $1, that isnt always financially feasable. Honestly, for my glock I did 200 rounds and I was satisfied especially because of their reliability reputation. If it was a gun that tended to be a little more finicky I'de really try hard to do a 500 round test. Your life is worth 500 rounds, no?

 

For things like a pump shotgun, just blast a few boxes and pattern a few rounds and I'm happy. You really have to screw something up to have one of those jam lol. If it works it works if it doesnt it doesnt. You dont need 500 shells to find out if it does or doesnt.

define reliable? Gun reliable? mags? what kind of issues?

 

For me, I would say 500 trouble free rounds is a good estimate, for the gun.

 

And that much per magazine for regular range duties.

Keep in mind that a gun might be reliable for > 1K rounds of ball ammo and choke on the first magazine of JHPs (think some 1911's with big open hollow points). You may need to have 2 separate round counts to determine if a gun is reliable.

200 trouble free fmj rounds and then 2-3 mags of whatever HD ammo and I am content.

I think that 500 number is WAY excessive. It's a machine. Is the magazine good? Aways use a known good tested, not dropped after you tested it magazine. Is the weapon clean and lubed? The ammo? Is it consistant? I have EGW chamber blocks to test my reloads, not a bad idea to put your defense rounds through a chamber block. In the old days we actually manually cycled the rounds to be carried.

 

Do you do dumb $hit like ride you finger on the slide when under pressure? Fix that finger.

 

Breaking in a pistol is one thing but testing ammo is another. It's a machine treat it like one.

 

Practice tap and rack drills.

How sure do you want to be?

 

Proper maintenance + 50 rounds = GTG for me

200 rnd sesion should do it.. I would not fire more than that without cleaning.

 

number all mags being used to eliminate mag problems.

keep any cases separate that did have a failure.

watch gun is not getting to dirty as you go..

For personal defense rounds I would like atleast 300 rounds completely problem free. ATM I am at 798 rounds of range ammo without any malfunctions and 125 of PD

I'm not confident a gun is gremlin free until 500 rounds without issues. Then I shoot it without any maintenance at matches until it fails, keeping track of rounds. I check out why it failed. I take that round count, lop off a couple hundred, and consider that the mandatory maintenance interval for that gun.

 

That's the simple version.

50 slow fire rounds for accuracy and familiarization with the gun, 5 rounds per magazine. 50 rounds, double and triple taps. If everything functions appropriately then I'm good. If I have problems I try to diagnose the issues, clean and lube the gun and try again later.

Depends on the ammo and magazines.

 

I just finished a little test of my own which was approximately 2,500 rounds through my 75b without a cleaning. There was one issue which was obviously a bad S&B round, the primer did not ignite.

 

I usually like to clean and lube, then shoot around 500-1000rounds of range ammo without cleaning. Then see what happens.

 

With HP's, they are so expensive that it's usually around 250rounds.

Revolvers are pretty easy, 6 rounds (or 5 if a snubby) and I'm happy.

Same thing with shotguns. Load the tube to capacity and let loose. If it works, I'm done.

Semi-auto handguns is a little different. 300 or so rounds and I'm happy. But those 300 have to be hard, ran fast, ran with capacity, dropping the mags and mag dumps.

Good point about the matches. To me if the gun makes it through a match that is

say a 200 round count that to me is the same as 400-500 rounds at the range where

everything is controlled. I only say this because at the range you get mags dropped

in dirt/gravel, shoot faster, reload through several mags, etc. Gun is just working

a little harder. If it gets through a match or two I'm pretty happy. Especially if

I was shooting my reloads.