Direct Personal Experience with High Round Counts

I have read reasonable opinions, but I wonder if anyone is willing to share their personal experience with high round count revolvers (perhaps 25,000+), and the related wear and repair trends.

I'm not interested in what should happen, but rather personal experience with what does happen with revolvers owned since new, particularly 357/38 and 44 K, L, and N frames.

I know there can be no one answer, given vastly different loads, etc.

If this has been well covered, perhaps link me to an old thread. I did try a search. Thanks!

I have a Model 28-2, 4 inch that I bought used in the early 70's. I have put just over 20,000 rounds of .38 Special, 158 and 130 grain fmj. down range so far.
So far no issues other then cleaning. Have not shot magnum rounds.

How do you keep track of the number?

Chop said:

I have a Model 28-2, 4 inch that I bought used in the early 70's. I have put just over 20,000 rounds of .38 Special, 158 and 130 grain fmj. down range so far.
So far no issues other then cleaning. Have not shot magnum rounds.

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Thanks! Good to know, as I mostly shoot similar 38's from my 357's. I sold several revolvers before they hit 10,000 rounds that seemed as good as new, but have a few now that I expect to have for life.

My 629-3 6” full under lug has seen over 20K through it. About 80% SWC, the rest 240 JHP Full house magnum. Only thing I’ve noticed is some little burs on the extractor where the hand indexes it and minor top strap cutting. All else is good.

I didn’t get it new so it had some rounds already through it.

Kind of retired, I put a 3” barrel and it rides with me in my truck.

Model 14-3 6" blued, purchased new, now at just over 28,000 rounds, almost all of it lead target loads. Used as a range gun only so no holster wear. it looks almost new. The hand is just worn enough that the timing will be a problem soon. The ratchet gear on the extractor shows no wear, nor does any other part.

Comrad said:

How do you keep track of the number?

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Hope this is somewhat on topic:

If you buy factory ammo: You buy ammo by the case, 1,000 rounds, and keep a very basic journal.

If you have more than one gun in the same caliber: I buy Winchester 9mm competition ammo for my Wilson Combat 9mm 1911 but American Eagle 9mm for my Glock 34 just so I know who has eaten how much. I only buy the competition ammo from MidwayUSA, so logging on to my account's receipts gives me an instant picture of ammo consumption (1911's are high maintenance so knowing is more important). Since my agency Glock is my only .40 I regularly shoot that is easy to track, and I generally try to shoot only agency ammo (we get Lawman for practice and Federal HST .180 Grain for carry).

Having three .357's has been a bigger challenge. So, I only shoot one 627 at a time using Federal White Box for matches where I'm minor power; and Federal American Eagle for training/range. I compete with Federal because it is round nosed and behaves very well with 0.025 TK Custom moon - clips. My 586 L-Comp is primary carry, so it gets 125 rounds through once a month (100 American Eagle and 25 of my actual JHP defense rounds).

By the way, I clean the competition 627 like every 300-500 rounds. No ill effects. So far. :-0. Collectively I have well over 25K through, but nowhere near that on any one gun.

The last advantage to buying in minimum quantities of 1,000 rounds is you can usually get .38 Special and 9mm cheaper. In .38 Special I paid the equivalent of $21 a box on Fed American Eagle last time instead of the marked $24.99; and, I paid the equivalent of $17.00 a box in Federal White Box buying bulk.

foytfoyt said:

I have read reasonable opinions, but I wonder if anyone is willing to share their personal experience with high round count revolvers (perhaps 25,000+), and the related wear and repair trends.

I'm not interested in what should happen, but rather personal experience with what does happen with revolvers owned since new, particularly 357/38 and 44 K, L, and N frames.

I know there can be no one answer, given vastly different loads, etc.

If this has been well covered, perhaps link me to an old thread. I did try a search. Thanks!

Click to expand...

I presently own the Model 66-2 revolver that was issued to me new and carried by me for six years before we switched to Glock. We were given the opportunity to buy our revolver from the distributor that handled the switch for $175. That revolver has thousands of rounds of .38/.357 ammunition through it without the slightest hint of a malfunction, and it exhibits few signs of wear and tear. Granted, it hasn't been carried regularly in a holster for 25 years, but it continues to run like a sewing machine at a knockoff sweat shop . . .

My original Model 67 (No dash for you "dashers") has some 19,000 rounds through it. That's about where I stopped counting. Figure 14,000 wadcutters, maybe 3,500 service loads, and the rest +P. Still in great shape and restricted to service/practice loads.

Never liked the gun. because it was not a 66, yet it's the one I go to when qualifying for my CCW. I always go home with the girl I brought to the dance.

Kaaskop49
Shield #5103

My primary bullseye competition revolver was bought used and since I have owned it has an easy 30k through it with nothing more than a basic ten minute cleaning every 300 rounds of so never a broken part of need to replace anything worn. My brother has a late 1940 s k-38 he has used for bullseye shooting since the 1970's - my conservative estimate is a round count close to 150k also with no parts worn broke or replaced. With basic care and lubrication any smith revolver pretty much lasts forever

Keeping a journal is the best way to know your round count.

I agree.

But why?

I wish I shot enough to care. Nah - I'd still never care. Even in my cowboy action shooting days, with high round counts, sort of, I didn't care. Why start now?

Once upon a time , I was involved with a fleet of dedicated "Training Revolvers" . They averaged +/- 800-1,000rd per month. For years & years before and after my time with them, using std pressure lead bullets, mostly WC, sometimes swc . No clue as to total round counts, but would occasionally detail strip one, and make swag as to remaining span until needing to be shipped to armourer.

foyt--This is the best documented thread on the net of a Smith Wesson l
know of...lts from the castboolits forum..Texasflyboy is a member here and posts some. A Model 27 357Magnum..l would guess the round count is over 100,000..
75,000 Wadcutters in a Model 27 - Page 6

Just a week or so ago, I got through reading from an old G&A magazine an article on high round guns and some part replacements. I think it was written by Ross Seyfried. I'll look for it tonite an summarize what he said tomorrow.

I recall some raised eyebrows about 20 years ago when a shooter/writer claimed in a magazine article to have fired I believe it was a million practice rounds in the space of a year. When studied, his claim would have arrived at over 2700 rounds daily for 365 days. This did not seem likely. Wonder if it involved just one gun!

Kaaskop49
Shield #5103

My experience is in ICORE and IPSC competition with a 610 revolver. I campaigned this particular revolver for at least 6 years with match and practice exceeding 10,000 rounds per year. I put the total round count at 65,000 plus. The firearm has been retired but could easily be brought back to accuracy by setting the barrel back and re-cutting the forcing cone. The barrel otherwise shows nearly no wear. While I tried some copper plated and cast lead conventional lubed bullets briefly over 95% were moly coated Quality (long out of business) and Bear Creek hard cast lead. I cannot say enough good things about the lack of wear and barrel cleanliness with these bullets. Lack of barrel wear is also attributed to proper/careful cleaning and not over cleaning. Also the vast majority of rounds were 40 S&W loaded to IPSC minor power factor. There were some full power 10mm pin loads run through it. At about 40,000 rounds the cylinder would fail to carry up (turn) on one chamber and it went back to S&W. They did not fix it despite about 20 minutes on the phone with a mechanic who just wanted to argue with me about replacing the hand and star. The gun was returned with the problem and was fixed by a friend by carefully stoning the tip of the hand and star/extractor. A piece of grit had notched the star and hand. I could have fixed it myself but at the time had vision issues that prevented seeing well enough to do the work. The carry up was a little gritty briefly but smoothed up with a little use. The notches in the cylinder opened up and burred periodically due to shooting as fast as possible. The burrs were carefully peened back several times. The metal seems to have memory and will go right back into place. I replaced a broken hammer tip at about 50,000 rounds. Otherwise the gun never missed a beat with the exception of a single misfire due to a primer seated sideways. The key to preventing misfires is proper primer seating and keeping after the mainspring tension. I always shimmed the mainspring screw and would thin the shimming washer as the spring took a set. A trigger pull gauge is used on the hammer. A minimum of 3 pounds is needed for Winchester primers and 2.75 pounds for Federal. I believe this gun would easily go to 100,000 rounds by setting the barrel back and it might need a new hand eventually, or bend it slightly (not for the faint of heart). The key has been light loads, proper lubrication, and bullets that do not wear the barrel. Factory loads would have worn out the barrel long ago, as would have overzealous cleaning.

I have a Uncle who bought a new Python in 1988 and shot 240,000 rounds of 38 special through it just to see if it would go out of time it took him 3 years and it never did.So can you imagine how many rounds it would take to wear out an N frame?

Pursuant to previous reply:
It was NOT Seyfried, but, Jan Libourel, G&A Feb 1996 “Handgun Longevity” and there was not quite 25K rounds in any he spoke of but a synopsis is as follows:

Smith M19 357. 11,600 rnds, firing pin broke between 6,000 and 7,00 rounds. At 11,000 rnds all kinds of things went haywire, cyl gap widened, timing problems. Restores it at King’s but went to light duty use. He did not say how he recorded rounds or detail the diet.

Smith M25-2 45acp/Auto Rim, 8,000 rnds, starting to have some misfires so planning to replace mainspring. No further details.

Smith M15 .38. 6,400 rnds He had installed some after market spring kit at one time and went back to a factory mainspring after experiencing some misfires. Gun seems good as new.

Smith M52. 6,600 rnds. Shot target wadcutters exclusively. Small crack developed b/w rear slide stop cut-out and slide rails. Factory said ignore and carry-on and has.

Incidentally, he had some other make guns in the article:

Colt Frontier 357 5,850 rnds, twice has replaced cyl bushing. Trigger spring has broken twice, cyl bolt broke once.

Colt Govt 45. 18,000 rnds, has added new link and pin after 12K rnds just for an accuracy check, along with a new barrel. Had its share of minor repairs, plunger tube, barrel link breakage, recoil spring wore through, firing pin stop cracked, new hammer.

Colt Combat Commander 38 super-6,400 rnds. After a while the accuracy fell of and was corrected with new bushing and link.

Hope this is helpful.

Thanks for all the interesting and informative replies!

As suspected, S&W revolvers can often, or even usually, run through several times their purchase price in ammo, without major issues.

As an aside, changing the main spring is one thing I don't quite consider a repair, since it is so easy. More like replacing worn tires on a car.

My friend had his barrel set back one turn after many thousands of rounds (he didn't keep track) and was very pleased with the result.