I’ve been researching the general topic of Reliable And Trustworthy - I’ll call it RAT - of a defense carry handgun. The “testing” to get to RAT varies greatly.
Sig Sauer publishes a document titled Maintenance Schedule for the Sig P365 Micro. It lists every part by number in an exploded diagram, description, qty, and REPLACE @ RDs.
Most of the parts are at 20,000 rounds, with 5 parts at 10,000 rounds, and only one part at 5,000 rounds – the Recoil Spring Guide Assembly. There also some “Notes” about inspection, signs of wear, or damage.
My thinking is that if Sig recommends replacing the guide rod spring assembly at 5,000, my CC or EDC will most likely not have more than 2500 rounds through it in its entire life as my carry defense handgun. If I need advanced practice and training, I will buy duplicate and use it.
Regarding the number of rounds to get to RAT for defense carry, one expert and S&W armorer, said generally about 200 rounds with zero malfunctions is adequate for his RAT handgun. There are obviously some variables on which carry gun is being evaluated. A military handgun will most likely have a documented history of RAT. A newly designed handgun by a newer manufacturer may require more testing rounds.
Another handgun listed in that document is the Sig Sauer P22X. Most REPLACE@RDs of parts are 50,000, some 20,000, and 3 parts at 5,000 rounds.
I read a short thread here that indicated there is no known Maintenance Schedule for any S&W firearms. Would that information be helpful or desired?
In my semiconductor days, there was something commonly discussed among the design and application engineers regarding reliability called MTTF.(Mean Time To Failure) and MTBF (Mean Time Between Failures). To use the MTTF measurement as NRBF (Number of Rounds Before Failure), what is the likely number, predicted number, or known number through testing, of rounds before my S&W Body Guard 2.0 handgun fails? Not ammo or environment induced, but simply a malfunction of the gun or magazine.
What do the gunsmiths, armorers, self-identified experts, instructors and trainers, other highly experienced gun owners say about how many rounds with no failures do they want before they will “certify” their carry defense handgun is a RAT weapon?
Are those reasonable and fair questions?
