Quote:
Originally Posted by GKC
Well, revolvers are generally reliable...and they aren't ammo sensitive...but when one does fail, it's not usually something you can clear quickly and easily. Not to mention that a semi-auto reloads much quicker...at least for me. I know there are some guys who can use a speed loader as fast as swapping out a magazine, but I'm pretty much a fumble fingers with them.
I've had some 1911s that required a break-in period...Kimbers were the worst...and Kahr advises shooting 200 rounds in their pistols before carrying them for SD (if I recall correctly.) Most polymer pistols haven't had or needed that much of a break-in period but the usual advice is to shoot them a couple of hundred rounds before carrying them, just as a precaution. I grant you it shouldn't be necessary...I think of a car, which is a much more complex machine, and we expect them to run from the first turn of the key, so why shouldn't we expect the same from a gun?
|
Revolvers are not "generally reliable" -with all due respect- good revolvers are very HIGHLY reliable, and with minimal maintenance. (Need to field-strip a revolver for cleaning? Just swing open the cylinder!) Failures are extremely rare with trained revolver shooters. In 40+ years of carrying, competing with, and shooting revolvers, I have never had a single failure. As long as one smartly punches out the empty brass when shooting a J-frame snub-nose whose ejector rod is shorter than the brass cases, a revolver will function and accept reloads. (But the whole issue of reloading is a tiresome moot point and a dead horse argument for civilians, anyway.)
New automobiles, according to many experienced mechanics and at least some manufacturers, benefit from an "easy does it" sort of driving for the first few thousand miles, as various parts wear in and get seated. Yes the car runs from the start, but it is not ready to provide peak performance. So why should a firearm be different? Guns leave the factory after receiving far less personal attention than they did only a couple of generations ago. Now that sort of attention is "performance shop" work!
The break-in period is going to be highly individualistic depending on each shooter.
For the most part, I've found the major break in period for semi-autos seems to be 50 to 75 rounds (wherein firing issues should be expected), followed by a "smoothing in" period of several hundred rounds where you learn the gun and the gun learns you. In all of this, leaving magazines loaded, leaving the unloaded gun stored with the slide locked open, dry-firing, and frequent cleanings, seem to speed up the process, as can the use of a lot of plain ol' fmj ammunition. Just IMHO.