You could. Very unlikely you will have to use it.

Even less likely it won't work.

Do you have another choice?
If you do, you know the best answer or you would not have asked.

Bruce

quote:

Originally posted by ZSMICHAEL:

quote:

Just out of curiosity, how many 42s have you owned? “JAMOMATIC” does not describe the 50 or so I’ve seen rounds go down range from

One. Mine works fine now. It is one of the early ones. I own about six Glocks of varying calibers. Never had a problem with ANY of them. I had friends at the range shoot my 42 before I sent it back. ALL had the same problem. I guess you have been lucky. I ALWAYS make sure it is not OPERATOR ERROR. Maybe LEOs get special deals.

From past experience, I don't think cops get "special" guns. I've seen issues with the 43s, but not the first with the 42s. What was the issue?

quote:

Originally posted by RNshooter:
You could. Very unlikely you will have to use it.

Even less likely it won't work.

Do you have another choice?
If you do, you know the best answer or you would not have asked.

Bruce

Bingo. But it is much easier to ignore statistics that don't suit us.

If you don't test it with the required 167.4 rounds of ammo, you will probably be ok. Just like most of the posters who never have been put under stress and forced to perform will be ok. Most of the posters who never have done FoF will be ok. We just pick the easy rituals to focus on instead of the hard stuff that actually requires work.

I've personally seen thousands of M&P's straight from the factory shoot 900-1000 rounds of Federal HST in a transition course and they didn't have lube applied. Maybe a handful had some feeding issues after 4-500 rounds and were lubed. (not a practice of my own, just something I've seen)

Oh, wait..... One pistol had serious issues on the first mag, but that was shooter induced. All the magazines had the rounds loaded in backwards.

The decision you make, you'll have to live with....I'd say just make sure the mags are loaded the right way...

If the choice is between carrying this gun unfired or not carrying at all, then clean & carry the 43. Use common self defense ammunition (Gold Dot, HST, etc.) and test fire it ASAP. I'd sooner trust a Glock unfired than any other weapon.

Make sure it works.

I didn’t one day. We just switched to gen3 31s. I was running out of time during the shift so I just qualified with someone’s gun. They’re all the same, right?

Grabbed my new Glock 31 out of the box, did a quick clean and lube, loaded it up and stuck it in the holster. After some time I finally got to shoot it. Jammed up on third shot. Would not extract after firing. It took banging the muzzle on the floor a few times to unlock it.

Cleaned it and checked it and it’s been fine ever since. No clue.

Now I will at least cycle three mags of duty ammo through a gun before putting it into service.

ONLY IF I HAD NO OTHER CHOICE.

Like has been said the odds of ever needing a firearm for any normal law abiding person are very very low. The odds of the gun not working are pretty low with any modern respected firearm.

All that being said if I had any other choice I would definitely ring out the gun first. I am not one of these I have to have 5000 rounds through it to trust it people but I want 2-4 boxes of ammo through it for several reasons.

1-Check for any system reliability issues.

2-Learn to shoot and handle it. Just because you can shoot X gun doesn't mean you can pick up Y gun and be just as good with no familiarity at all. Guns are like cars with manual transmissions. They are all cars and all have manuals but they are all different in their own way.

3-Break in. Some guns do need a little break in period in my experience. Usually less so with hot / defensive ammo and more so with under powered stuff but running some rounds to smooth things out is never a bad thing.

But when it comes right down to it...."you pays your monies and you takes your chances."

quote:

Originally posted by cslinger:
ONLY IF I HAD NO OTHER CHOICE.

Agreed. I normally take new weapons directly to the range to shoot them stock before anything else happens. I've seen too many people change a bunch of stuff on guns only to have them fail, then no know if it was the gun in the first place or something they did.

But yes, I would carry a Glock or S&W J-frame without firing first, assuming it passed inspection and a function check, if I had no other option.

Murphy is always out there looking for you. Clean, lube and shoot it. Just as important see how you do with it and where it shoots.

Disassemble. Examine. Lube. Reassemble. Function test. If magazine fed, disassemble mags and inspect.
Then 200 rounds of plinking ammo and 50 of street ammo.
And the one gun I would never carry without an extensive maiden vovage: A 1911.
You would think after 107 years... Never mind!

About 20 years ago I was the Range Officer for my department. This was before issued weapons so guys bought and carried their own. One guy had a new S&W 4513 that he had been carrying for a month but hadn’t shot it. He shot the 50rd qualifier course and his target had 6 holes in it. I shot a magazine and didn’t hit the target from 7 yards. I decided to check the rifling and there was no rifling. S&W had sent him a smooth bore barrel. First and only time I’ve seen that but it can obviously happen.

Thanks for all the replies. I know I need to shoot it first.

I love it when the internet commandos insist on firing 500 to 1000 rounds of premium HP ammo before carry. If I had to wait until I could afford that much expensive ammo I'd never get to carry anything.

I have carried w/o some range time but it was with revolvers. I wouldn't do it with a semi auto pistol.

Up to you. There's no law against doing it. If you're comfortable, that's all that matters.

quote:

Originally posted by sigspecops:
I love it when the internet commandos insist on firing 500 to 1000 rounds of premium HP ammo before carry. If I had to wait until I could afford that much expensive ammo I'd never get to carry anything.

I'm not saying you need to burn a ton of ammo, but I there is a lot of room between 500 rounds and zero rounds. Personally, I am comfortable with 100 plinking rounds and 25 rounds of my carry ammo.

Some times, certain guns just don't agree with certain ammo. I was looking at switching to Federal HST in my .357 SIG P320. I found that for some reason, this ammo gets stuck in the chamber and won't extract reliably. My P320 has never had this problem with any other ammo, and obviously this ammo is functioning correctly in other guns or there would be a massive recall on it. If I had just started carrying it without testing it in my gun, I would have never known I had a potential disaster waiting to happen.

quote:

Originally posted by elde:
If the choice is between carrying this gun unfired or not carrying at all, then clean & carry the 43. Use common self defense ammunition (Gold Dot, HST, etc.) and test fire it ASAP. I'd sooner trust a Glock unfired than any other weapon.

+1

Every gun should spend some time at the range before you carry it. I've had guns for 3 or 4 months while waiting for time to get to the range.

I bought a G19 a few years back and after the first few rounds I noticed carbon on the primer area of the brass. Turned out that the firing pin tip broke so it was shaped like a pin and was puncturing the primers. I always put a few hundred rounds though any firearm before I trust it.

I mainly test new guns out first and foremost to make sure I can hit with them, and secondly to ensure it’ll feed my preferred carry ammo. I don’t go nuts with the round count, though. In my experience modern guns are pretty reliable, so I accept the calculated risk that if it’ll feed a magazine or two it’ll feed 20 mags full. And yes, I understand that anything that’s mass produced can have bad examples, so I think a thorough examination by way of cleaning and lubing is in order. Stay safe!