Have You Had A Failure In Semi-Auto/Revolver That Made It Inoperable?

[RickB]

Two broken extractors, two limp extractors (50+ years old) in autos.
"Inoperable" for how long? That is, a malfunction that requires fifteen seconds to clear is inoperable? Or, only a gun that needs repair to put it back in action is considered inoperable?
I've had revolvers tied-up by a grain of unburned powder under the extractor star, or a case rim under the extractor star; there's nothing wrong with the gun, but they sure were inoperable.

 

[sandbag]

Squib Round

I had a 44 Magnum commercial reload squib round lock up my Ruger Vaquero-the round was stuck in between chamber and barrel-it needed a gunsmith and had to be re-timed.

 

[MR.G]

I have had both fail.

 

[Blue Duck]

I have had both types of guns fail. I have owned and shot and traded a lot of guns over the years. Most of the failures with revolvers that I have had, were due to factory defects in the guns themselves and were pretty much known right away. Outside of that I have had a couple of hammers break, I have had some misfires because of too light firing pin strikes due to guns being tuned to light to get a light trigger pull. And I have seen a grain of powder get under the extractor and lock up a revolver.

However, once a revolver is tested and found reliable, then they were usually very reliable from then on.

I have had and own several very reliable semi-autos, but I have also purchased several that were unreliable and those defects were usually know right away. Outside of that, I have seen a few jams due to bad magazines, bad ammo, had a few extractors and firing pins break on heavily used guns. But generally if the semi-auto is reliable it usually stays that way, unless it gets pretty dirty or encounters bad ammo or a change in ammo.

I would give a slight edge to the revolver for average use, but actually in heavy dust or mud, a good old 1911 might surprise you with it's reliability, vs a revolver that gets muddied.

Once proven reliable, I have pretty good faith in either weapon. But frankly I have had and seen a lot of lemons new from the factory, I have even had my share of Ruger Singleactions that had problems due to quality control from the factory. As far as new guns go, I have had the best luck with Glocks, over just about every other brand, to be out of the box reliable. I didn't say they were my favorites, just seemed to usually work out of the box, which is a lot better then I can say about a lot of others.

One thing I don't agree with is that a gun needs to be shot in, before it's reliable. Yes, they need to be shot, 200 rounds to prove they are reliable, but It's been my experience that if they are unreliable to start with, they usually remain that way until fixed, and some are pretty hard to get fixed IMHO. A good gun should work right out of the box, but many don't.

 

[Schnitzjr]

The trigger reset spring broke on my Walther PPQ. Sent back to S&W, back with new spring one week later.

 

[stevelyn]

Installed a recoil buffer on a a Browning Hi-Power. Some how during a shooting session it came loose and bound up the slide requiring considerable time to undo. I use recoil buffers on other pistols with no issues.

Watched a friend's .460 S&W cylinder bind up due to a bullet jumping crimp under recoil.

 

[405FileFound]

Failures in Both P and R

GAAH! I meant to vote for "both".

Pistol. Ive been to various ranges here and there more than a few times, and the inevitable is bound to happen. I dont own a semi of any kind but Ive fired them at the ranges that allow rentals. I rented a Glock 17 that jammed twice, and took some rock and rollin to get back into action. And this is within two mags of each other. I can't say "well, it was a rental weapon so it wasnt cleaned", since not every semi owner is committed to cleaning their pieces, so that G17 to me represented the average condition of a semi. And Ive had a Ruger P95 jam on me twice in a session.

Revolver. My 649 has always been reliable - except twice. One time the FRONT SIGHT BLEW OFF! The gun was still fire-able except with some major porting on the barrel! S&W fixed it for free though. The other time I bought some super smoky CHEEP 357 mag re-reloads. After a few rounds of five shots the cylinder was jammed shut, and I had to really mess with the release and work the bullet container thingy loose. It took a few minutes and some CLP. Ive fired much fewer rounds in pistols and had more jams, and this doesnt inlucde the MP5 and COlt SMGs that have been available from the rental ranges. Thats it, and I meant to vote BOTH.

 

[rayway]

I had a feeding issue due to a sharp case on a 9mm and my finger was on the slide slowing down the extraction force on a m9 quickly remidied with dropping the mag and pumping the slide .

 

[Wallyl]

Semi Auto failure

Had a Taurus 99AF fail on me twice and locked it up very badly (ie you coudl not open the action "normally".

1) One "leg" on a locking lug broke off

2) Barrel developed a "crack" on it's base just ahead of the chamber

With alot of effort I managed to to open it up for # 1. With No. 2 had to use a helper to hold a wood block so I could hammer to open the action.

Neither load was an overload as I retrieved the spent case (as they wern't able to eject). IMHO it was metal fatigue. I do not load to maximum levels and use cast bullets at low-medium recommended powder levels...I don't use a progressive press and I didn't use the wrong powder.

 

[PzGren]

Colt Python, case separation. The front of the case lodged itself into the forcing cone.