TexasCHLforum.com

My experience is similar to TXinvestigator's. I work at a range as an instructor on weekends and some evenings. I see dozens of clients a week and I've probably fired about 250,000 rounds through various guns over the last 20 years in training and competition. Much like my experience as a network administrator and help desk guy....most problems I see, start with the operator. But good equipment helps too. Here's my experience with my own stuff.

I've got one Glock pushing 150,000 and a 1911 that's just short of 100,000 rounds. The Glock had 130,000 rounds on it when I got it. Other than a worn magazine catch that was failing to seat the magazine for a couple weeks, it's NEVER had a hiccup. I sitll think the mag catch failure might have been the result of an unusually harsh reload in which I managed to crack the magazine body in five places.

The Kimber could almost say it's had a spotless reliability record but I broke the extractor at 87,000 rounds. That failure marked the first time the gun ever actually experienced a stoppage and went down. I replaced the extractor and was back in business within ten minutes. I also cracked a barrel bushing back around 30,000 rounds but it was noticed during cleaning...Oh and I was going through firing pin stops almost once a week between 10,000 and 15,000 rounds but I was shooting 1200 rounds a week at the time. I eventually went to a high quality aftermarket stop and haven't looked back since.

Now, on revolvers. I can honestly say that MOST of the failure I've had with firearms have been with revolvers. I snapped the trigger pin in my first S&W, a Model 10, after about six months. I bent the extractor rod and poked a hole in my hand on a 686 after about the same amount of time. Then if developed timing issues a couple months after that...actually, the timing was fine but the cylinder stops were wearing out. A friend joked I was shooting to fast and that revolvers shouldn't be keeping up with mini-guns. Oh, I also gave up on a J-Frame that kept having firing-pin's breal or get stuck after six months. I've got a 620 and a Model 28 now...don't shoot them much so I haven't had any problems.