quote:

Originally posted by Bigboreshooter:
Does watching your Ruger 1911 launch the front sight into space count? Mine was on its FOURTH front sight in less than a year when I decided it was time to move one.

I once had a Seacamp .32 that would occasionally launch the entire slide off the gun when fired ...
Notice the key phrase, once had

I once had the tab on the inside of a Colt Series 70 Government Model slide stop break off. While the pistol was still theoretically operational, the broken slide stop had a tendency to back out of the receiver.

I had my Kimber Ultra CDP at the range just having a ball.....then it stopped extracting the spent brass. The extractor claw fractured off, and that ended that, except for shooting it single shot and using a squib rod for extraction.

Had a Springfield 1911 break the slide stop, had an M2 .50 BMG blow up on me, a squib sticking the bullet just into the rifling.

A sear spring pin fell out of the frame of a P226 and left the gun totally dead.

A question for anyone who has sworn off a particular gun because of a failure as described here: How is experiencing a failure personally different from someone else’s experiencing a failure? In the mid 1970s I saw a Colt Python whose frame developed a huge crack on the left side behind the cylinder. That was at a shop where I bought a lot of guns. What would the consensus be if I said that experience was why I decided I’d never own a Python myself?

Saw a Kimber get rendered INOP by a double charged reload that blew the top round in the magazine up after the case in the chamber let go. That needed a magazine, recoil spring and ejector to get running.

Same Kimber, same reloader, squib. Removed using the FLGR as it was the only rod around. Told the shooter to pack it back up and pull all his reloads, which he did.

Had the bottom of the weld repaired tab on a Garand operating rod come completely off while firing. Uneventful, but turned the rifle into a club. Re-repaired and running fine.

Shooting a S&W M66 no dash when the trigger stop rotated allowing the trigger to be pulled but not enough to fire a cartridge. Solution, remove the trigger stop.

A trio of AR type rifles were used to shoot a ton of Wolf lacquer coated ammo and not cleaned after the range session. Next range session all three FTE'd with cases glued into the chambers by the now melted lacquer from the previous range session. No cleaning rod at the range so shooter was done for the day.

I can probably think of a few more.

Failure. Hmmm.

I remember when I told myself I was not going to buy an X-Six... Fail!

I have had several small parts breakages that disabled the gun until it could be repaired. Trigger bar springs on two P-series SIGs; slide lock spring on a Glock (the slide lock fell out and the slide launched off the frame); and extractor, firing pin and thumb safeties on an early SIG 1911. These were all repairable, the first two by myself. Last year I had a complete frame failure on a Ruger LCP; the entire rail broke off one side. It would still shoot, however, although it was jamming every other shot; I didn't discover the broken frame until I broke the gun down. Ruger replaced the gun at no charge. Lastly, not mine, but my brother's three-screw Ruger Super Blackhawk got blown up with a bad handload. The cylinder split in half, the frame topstrap broke loose on one end and bent up, and the frame also cracked in half at the barrel threads.

Hard to explain, mainly because I suck at explaining, but I had two of my Glocks cerakoted. The guy cerakoting the slides was new at it at that time but great at it now, has his own store. Anyway, he accidentally left the firing pin channel in my 19.4 and after about 10 rounds, the slide locked up. It was not coming apart. I had to take a rubber mallet to it, get the melted plastic out and put a new liner in. So not complicated at all but it locked the gun up.

I had a squib once with an M&P compact with factory Winchester white box. S&W fixes it for free within a week. Best customer service experience I’ve had with a firearm.

I've had 2 different Sigs break springs.

1st one was a P6 I put the trigger return spring in wrong and after an extend range session it broke.

The second was an Israeli surplus P228. The hammer reset spring broke and a piece got in to a spot and locked up the hammer. Once home and apart I discovered the the spring was brittle.

In both cases a few dollars each for springs and they were both back working great.

Brand new Ruger Blackhawk 357, front sight flew off during the first box of ammo.

I chipped half of the extractor on my Glock19. This caused a whole bunch of stoppages but was not necessarily an absolute or difinitifve failure, if that makes sense?

I suppose if it had chipped the other half off, it would go to a single shot handgun though.

The barrel in my MPX broke too. But it was an aftermarket part and had been recalled. But it made it a single-shot gun too

Broke a trigger bar spring on a P6...gun was done for the day.

Had a long reload (not long for my other guns, but barsto barrels have stupid short throats) stick a bullet in the rifling on my p229 with a barsto conversion barrel in it. Gun failed to go into battery, had to leverage the rear sight on a table to get the slide open. The bullet stuck in the barrel, and the case dumped powder all over the intrrnals. The gun locked up tight because of all the loose powder, thankfully now with no round in the chamber. I had to take it home, knock the bullet out of the bore, and use a mallet and air compressor to get the powder out and the slide off the frame.

Years ago I'd say if I come home from the range without at least one thing broken, it wasn't a successful day.

I worked as a part time range officer at a busy public range for five years. Them 10 or so years of RO/CRO'ing USPSA matches and the like after that. I've seen a lot of dead stoppages. Lots of "death jams", squibs, and lots of broken parts, two kabooms.
And surprisingly, lots of people with jams they can't clear. Even amongst frequent shooters, regular competition shooters, not just a couple times a year guys or once a year hunters. Quite often I'll end up saying to a competiter "Do you want me to try?" I can only think of one time when I couldn't clear it and the guy ended up leaving with a "hot" but jammed gun.




The front sight off a Mauser (IIRC) that someone fired with a laser bore sighter in the
muzzle.



I ruined a P220 barrel with a squib in an match. Got a click, thought I'd failed to seat the mag on the reload like I'd done earlier in the day. So "click", tap-rack-BOOM! Lots of recoil and a big hole in the target. I had to do very mean things to that gun to get the slide off. Then cut the end of the barrel off to get it out of the slide. To it's credit it handled it fine (machined slide). Everything was still in spec.

I've seen a PM9 break itself apart at the range. I've seen the remnants of a LE6920 barrel that a customer brought in with his somewhat shattered rifle when his brother failed to recognize a prior squib round before lighting off the next. I saw the end result of what happens when an incorrect Beretta choke tube is screwed into a Silver Pigeon III barrel, though technically that one could probably still shoot (it bowed the upper barrel and added a 'ported' slit to right side, and started a separation crack between upper and lower barrels) but it would probably take a while to figure just how much sighting compensation one would need to make to have the fired target shot actually find the intended target. A customer brought in a old Savage bolt gun in 30-06 that had a live round jammed so tightly out of battery that we couldn't clear or send it into battery. Another blew up his PC S&W revolver shooting insanely overcharged factory 38SPL ammo. Ammo from that same batch gave me and my 3" GP100 a wild ride...but the Ruger survived. I've seen a Glock LWD barrel with one of the lugs sheared off; didn't get the backstory on that one, but the slide looked fairly intact though the frame had a sizable gouge where there used to be polymer. A friend of mine cracked the frame on his Security 6; another got stupid crazy with a .308 load and detonated a 700 that wasn't his. As well there have been other tales and examples brought to us by customers.

Given enough time and/or stupidity, wrong things are bound to happen.

How about when you put an AR bolt into the carrier backwards and the spent round gets stuck between the extractor and reciever. I guess that was the opposite of extraction. Needless to say, I paid a little more attention to the bolt reassembly after that.

My dad had a ejector break on a Browning Superposed over under shotgun. Not a complete failure because you could still use the gun, it just wouldn't eject.

In the first couple of mags through my brand new P220ST about 15 years ago, the slide locked up tight about 1/4" out of battery. It had to be pounded open, couldn't find anything wrong with it, kept shooting it, and I've out probably 5000 rounds through it since then without a hiccup, including 1000+ rounds in two days at a training course.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: maladat,

My main job was gunsmithing for a few years, now its my once in a blue moon part time job. For part time, rarely do I see any major repairs since the 2 full time guys do that to fill dead time inbetween custom work or builds. When I was full time, it was fucking endless with ways people could break a gun. One of the most common things I saw though wasn't their fault. Slide locked up like a vault from factory ammo instead of reloads.

Did see a guy lock up a 500 s&w with reloads. No idea what the issue with reloads was, but primer ignited, powder didnt. Pushed the round part into the forcing cone and locked up the cylinder.

We also occasionally saw house fire damaged guns for estimates on repairs or replace for insurance. Most were typically a total loss.

Besides all of those, cracked frames, bulged barrels, broken trigger parts, broken extractors, and one guy who couldnt make his taurus clone of a beretta 92 cycle with any ammo he bought and tried. I shot it and worked fine. He asked me to prove it so I did in a test tube. He took it home and brought it back again and said same thing. I asked him to bring me the ammo. He brought 9mm ammo when his gun was a 40s&w.

Yes, my Browning Buckmark .22 standard with umpteen rounds through it is out of commission right now, the trigger is stuck in the rear position and you can pull it forward with some force but it won't fire.....I haven't bothered to take it apart yet to figure out why.

I also had my S+W 1911 break the MIM slide stop in it's first 200 rounds rendering the gun unshootable.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: jimmy123x,