Thoughts on Massad Ayoob quote

[BLACKHAWKNJ]

A lot depends on the manufacturer, IMHO. I recall George Nonte writing that he practiced DA shooting in the 1940s with an H&R revolver, replaced hands and other parts often enough to realize it was not made for that type of sustained use.
I have had only four handguns malfunction on me. My 1972 High Standard Victor, the ejector broke after I don't how many rounds, my 1953 Combat Masterpiece-looks like it needs a new hand. My 4" M-19-that one I had to take to the gunsmith, a part broke (forget which one), my Colt Mark IV locked back on me, disassembling it down to the frame and cleaning the trigger area-thoroughly-restored it. I got my 1943 Walther made P-38 at a good price-it was "broken". A new firing pin quickly restored it.
I would say that semiautomatics-the Browning designs, especially-are easier to maintain as they are easier to disassemble and reassemble.

 

[e3mrk]

I have been shooting for years and if you keep your weapon clean and lubed it will last for years with no major problem.
The only problem I have had is with my Smith and Wesson model 29-3 44 Magnum, The Barrel has twisted in the Frame and is in the process of being repaired at the Factory and the rear adjustable sight keeps coming loose after a day at the Range. Other than that never any problems to speak of.

 

[Doug627]

I believe we are comparing the semi-auto to the revolver unfairly. We all know that revolver rounds, 357 mag and 44 mag, are much more powerful than 45 acp and 9mm. Of course a revolver shooting the much hotter rounds will show faster wear. Shoot equivalent rounds and I believe the revolver will fair much better in the tests. Shoot hot rounds through a semi-auto and it will wear faster. Just my thoughts. I could be wrong.

 

[Scott in NCal]

in its first 50 rounds the hammer fall out of my Taurus 85. When it came back from Florida trigger wouldn't trigger anything. By the time I finished the first 50 rounds it was clear the point of impact and the point of aim disagreed with each other by 5 feet at 7 yards. After anouther round trip to Flordia I got back a most precise, hand fitted beautifully finished and functioning revolver. someone that knew what they were doing spent time on it.

 

[rwsmith]

Another practical question.....

So, if you are dropping both from 6' high onto a concrete floor in series, the revolver will most likely fail sooner than the semi auto?

I'd guess that would be true. I think the cylinder would get knocked out of alignment quicker than the semi would get beat up enough to fire.

 

[Old cop]

I carried a revolver through more than half of my LEO career and it got me through three deadly force confrontations, so that's where my comfort lies. We transitioned to the Glock 23 during my last 10 years and never had a problem w/it until after retirement when some internal springs broke and had to be replaced. As to Mr. Ayoob I had the opportunity to meet him when he was gathering info for a magazine article and I found him to be friendly, respectful and very easy to work with. The man has my respect.

 

[BigBill]

My autos are dependable and reliable, run ammo flawlessly as my revolvers do. Afterall my life could depend on it someday. My autos do get cleaned and lubed with moly. My 1911's get the FLGR kit, disconnector ramp, the feed ramp polished to a mirror finish. The extractor gets tuned to specs and modified as to the JB specs.

The words fail to fire, fail to load, stove pipe, jammed, jamming aren't in my dictionary. It's unacceptable.

 

[Ranger514]

During a two week Reactive Shooting Course, we shooters fired approximately 5,000 through our semiautos. The instructors provided us with "frangible, lead-free" ammo they had just received, and wouldn't let us clean or lube our agency handguns during the entire training. They wanted to see how well the "new" ammo performed for training purposes.

The ammo was pretty dirty compared to the duty ammo we carried and used for practice and qualifications. After about three days, I could feel the Sig slide dragging when we started our courses of fire in cold weather. After a couple of magazines, the gritty dragging went away. I didn't have any failures, nor did the others, many of whom fired Sigs, but there were a few Glocks and at least one Beretta 92 representing other agencies.

When I got home, I stripped the P229 and cleaned it thoroughly. I carried that gun for nearly 20 years, changed out the springs every five years, and the only issues I had were a cracked plastic magazine butt plate (too many drops on concrete) and a broken extractor (after over 30,000 rounds.)

Because my agency transitioned to semiautos within five years of my EOD, I've never fired as many consecutive rounds through any of my revolvers, much less failed to clean and lube them after every range outing; however, I have experienced cylinder and forcing cone buildup that caused binding, requiring immediate cleaning when using cheap ammo during one training session.