Service life?

[Blownmotor]

Just curious on what's the average service life of a modern semi auto pistol? Like such as Glock, HK, Sig, and etc. Not talking about torture tested either.

[deadcoyote]

I believe when I did the glock armorers school they told us Glock will not warranty pistols once they break either 50,000 or 100,000 rounds. They also gave us the ol' *wink-wink* and said its impossible for them to tell how many rounds have been through the pistol so don't disclose if its in excess.

[TMcGuff]

Basically do what everyone else on cal guns does "Only 200 rounds down the pipe"

[jeffafa]

In before Highlander pic of his Glock...

[Manolito]

I think that some components deserve replacing before they fail. The recoil spring is one of them the other is an extractor.
Looking at the firing pin under at least a ten power magnification is worth while also. I have had two of them show wear and a chip. I have never shot out a barrel on anything but a little rifle I put together and was pushing some pretty hard FPS numbers and I had to replace the barrel. I have replaced barrels but not because they were shot out.

I guess the one area you could not repair without welding would be the slide rails.

[RedFord150]

Years ago, my local range told me several of their rental guns had gone over 100K rounds. This included revolvers and semi-autos.

[bsumoba]

service life will probably be 3 generations, since most of us don't shoot nor have the funds to finance 10-50K rounds. your great grandson will still have fun shooting your pistol, assuming you take decent care of your pistol.

[deadcoyote]

I think that some components deserve replacing before they fail. The recoil spring is one of them the other is an extractor.
Looking at the firing pin under at least a ten power magnification is worth while also. I have had two of them show wear and a chip. I have never shot out a barrel on anything but a little rifle I put together and was pushing some pretty hard FPS numbers and I had to replace the barrel. I have replaced barrels but not because they were shot out.

I guess the one area you could not repair without welding would be the slide rails.

Just for clarifications sake I'm not saying a Glock will go that long without parts. Just for the lay person out there I find the locking block pin, trigger spring, and recoil spring are the parts that need replacing on a regular basis if you shoot a lot (locking block pin every 5000 rounds or so, recoil spring assembly every 3000 or so, and I do trigger springs every July since they only cost $.75).

I've actually never replaced a locking block, but did chew one up pretty good by not replacing the recoil spring on a .357 sig glock for 10k rounds or so.

I've also seen one extractor explode. I wasnt the armorer at the time but it was gnarly and stuck in a cops face. the pistol was sent back, I would have liked to have been told what happened.

[Dutch Henry]

A lot depends on the power level of the ammo used. Without getting into replacement recoil spring weights, shock buffers, etc., a pistol or revolver fed a steady diet of high pressure, high velocity (+P and +P+) rounds will wear faster than one using conventional ammunition. Pistol frames usually sustain considerable battering, and I have even seen some 1911 frames that cracked as a result of hot hardball loads.

Revolvers show the wear as flame cutting of top strap area, just above and slightly forward of the cylinder. Erosion of the forcing cone is another area of wear. Revolvers have been know to 'shoot loose' and lose their timing when hot loads are used.

With decent care, and moderate shooting, you probably wouldn't wear out a pistol or revolver in your lifetime.

[Dark Mod]

I doubt you could ever shoot enough that it would wear out a pistol. In low pressure rounds like .45, 9mm, and .40 i doubt you would even wear out the barrel in your lifetime.

Just as an example:

When doing pistol qualifications in the marine corps, we used range pistols to qualify: Beretta M9's. This range runs 5 days a week, and each pistol goes through a good 200 rounds a day, sometimes more. In fact probably alot more than that if there is any practice being done outside of qualifying.

At any rate, there were 3 or 4 particularly worn looking Berettas, and i asked the range officer why they were so silvery (thinking they went into combat). He said those had been used at that range since 1999 and wouldnt get refinished unless they broke, but at that point its the armorors problem.

200 rounds per day x 260 days a year, for 7 years = 364,000 rounds. At $.20 a round it would cost you about $73,000 in ammo to wear one out.

I qualified with one, and it still worked fine. I wouldnt sweat it.

[Blownmotor]

All you guys are saying is under normal use and regular maintenance, most modern handguns will out live you. I'd imagine most slides and rails or frames will wear out anywhere from 50,000 to 100,000 rounds.

[E92335i]

+1, then just change the springs.

[Lead Waster]

Well, the more guns you have, the less each one gets worn down, right? So .. you gotta spread the shooting out with more guns. SImple solution!

[stormvet]

Well, the more guns you have, the less each one gets worn down, right? So .. you gotta spread the shooting out with more guns. SImple solution!

Very true, in the last two days I fired 600 rounds out of 6 handguns. So that means only 100 rounds a week per handgun. They gonna last a long time.

[Lugiahua]

The only part that often wore out on my handguns is trigger springs, but I shoot about 15,000 round from that gun a year...