How many rounds does it take to shoot out a modern pistol

mudgunner49 said:
For the past 18 years or so he has been the senior firearms instructor for the province, responsible for conducting training both regionally and for all the firearms instructors for the agency provincially. He has competed nationally and international and though he was on his 5th barrel that one was installed late in 2014.
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So likely his pistol was "tuned" as well. We had competitive shooters at regiment who used issued "service" pistols but they were highly "tuned" and did not rattle like my issued pistol.
 
A shooting buddy of mine had a Sig 226 he picked up used; he had been told it had around 40,000 through it. He figured he had around 30,000 rounds through it himself when he noticed it was not hold that great a group. We looked down the barrel and it was pretty clean...including the lack of rifling :). That being said, he had a fairly new one there, we yanked the barrel out of that and put it in the old one and it was back to shooting very serviceable groups. You could tell the slide to frame fit was a bit looser than the new one, but it still functioned fine.
 
my understanding is that the loose of the group mostly caused by slide worn instead of barrel aging.

Pretty important to keep it in good lub condition then.

I have heard some either Glock or Sig ammo test pistol had 270000 rounds and just had the reload spring broken. Replaced and back to service again and still holds a decent group. By that time I just thought it was a legend. Now seems it is reasonably true.
 
Barrel life is essentially a non-issue with pistols. In this case, the first third of the rifling was worn away after "only" 53,000 rounds of lead-free ammo (which does wear barrels more than regular ammo), yet the gun still grouped just over 2" at 35 yards:

http://pistol-training.com/archives/8648

100k is probably a reasonable order of magnitude number using conventionally-primed ammunition.
 
I wonder how many times that a piston travels the length of the bore in the life of an engine - and in the case of the handgun, it gets a new lead or copper jacketed piston each time. Lube is a bit iffy and temperatures would be much different. Rail lube would decide the conclusion for sure. I would be hard to imagine that clips would last very long. An engine will not last long with poor lube.
 
tomo333 said:
If he was on his fifth barrel and got 50,000 rounds out of a barrel that means he shot 250,000 rounds in 22 years? That's over 11,000 rounds per year! Just sayin.
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And your point is? This is about what I shoot a year and I have to pay for my ammo. He sounds like a responsible officer who liked to maintain his skills. I know a few guys who shoot up to 10,000 a month, top level competition guys I will admit but...
 
fraserdw said:
So likely his pistol was "tuned" as well. We had competitive shooters at regiment who used issued "service" pistols but they were highly "tuned" and did not rattle like my issued pistol.
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Not tuned at all insofar as doing anything "custom" to it. He had skateboard tape on the grips and that was about it. And he shot it. A lot...
 
Suputin said:
This. Prob more guns get "worn out" by excessive and bad cleaning.
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and double this! So much also depends on the ammo you shoot and the age of the pistol. If all you shoot is lead, your barrel will largely be eternal. In the first edition of The book of the 1911 Patrick Sweeny talks of a ipsc barrel in 45 that he had 300 000 documented rounds thru (lead) that still shot tight enough for grand master level IPSC. Im sure a steady diet of jacketed magnum rounds will be harder on a barrel then lower pressure standard rounds but i'd still expect 100 000 out of a modern barrel. Any loss of accuracy would be more likely due to wear on the frame/slide/barrel lock up rather then rifling wear. Or as mentioned, over zealous cleaning. Most of the time you inflict more wear on your handgun cleaning it then you do by shooting it.
 
grinder08 said:
Sad but you are probably right about a lot of cops but I regularly see cops practicing at my range so the "normal" if it exists is is probably somewhere in the middle.
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Far from the "norm" for police shooting - he conducted training for NE Region and was the principle firearms trainer for firearms instructors for most of the past 18 years. In addition he competed pretty fiercely for more than a few years - there a a bunch of cops out there who are outside the "norm". I've been on shotgun ranges with him where we fire so much buffered buckshot that it looked like it had snowed Super Grex...

As for barrel life, I have a Smith 4" 66 that I bought new in 1981 that has at minimum 150,000 rounds through it. Murray Charlton had a go at it when it hit about 100K for some end-shake issues and it's been fine ever since. Mostly lead WC @ 800 FPS and SWC @ about 900 - no signs of slowing down. I also have a Smith 4" Hwy Patrolman with about 90K through it same thing, no sign of slowing down.

I don't get the obsession with this barrel life thing, the amount of ammo you have to shove down the pipe is many times over the cost of a new gun...
 
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