Break in period garbage

[cmgee67]

This is something I have seen and it really gets on my nerves. If you buy a firearm and it says only to use factory fresh hollow points and gives your certain weights to use? That is stupid. Here's the thing. Not everybody can afford to throw 1000 rounds of 22$ a box hollow points for a break in period. That would take me a few months to do that. ( yes I realize you can buy hollow points cheaper that's just an example.) But it needs to eat anything I throw at it. Here's the thing. If you buy a firearm for range use and just plinking who cares for a break in period that doesn't bother me there but, when you buy a firearm for self defense it needs to go bang every time out of the box. While this is nearly impossible for every gun my Glocks and Sig 226 have never hiccuped. If there's a 3-500 round break in let the manufacturers do that. Why would I pay 1200$ for a gun ( cough kimber) when I could pay 500$ ( clears throat) for a glock that will not require anything. And if I pay the hefty tag say like I did for my Sig then it better work out of the box. When you pay for quality it should deliver. Every gun I buy I purchase it knowing it may have to be a tool to survive with one day and that can mean various things just apply your own application. I don't want something I have to clean every 100 rounds with fear of it not working. While I clean my guns completely after only 25 rounds I have let my glock or sig run almost 500 with out anything but the oil from the last cleaning and they ran perfect. This is just my humble opinion and while you may or may not agree with it I think we can all agree like I stated if you Pay the big bucks it should deliver. I am not trying to stir anything up just putting my opinion out there because I have a right to do so like you. Stay safe this weekend my friends and stay dry and warm!

[FastCarry]

I agree to an extent. I paid 1300 for a performance center 1911 from SW, It was amazing quality..visually. Had all kinds of trouble with it, it back to SW 3 times, each time with pictures, videos, casings, documented every round fired and multiple tests with results. I had spent hundreds on ammo and range time, they told me to put more rounds through it to break it in. I was livid, they had all the proof, i was out hundreds of dollars. On the 4th RMA, I sent leadership an email with a request for a refund. A few phone converations later a check was in the mail. I ordered a Sig 1911, not a single hiccup with it.

Needing a break for smoother operation is fine, but using it as an excuse or first step to resolving a malfunction is absurb.

[Beiruty]

Buy HK and you would be a happy camper. That is being said, I never owned an ugly glock, and I do clean all my firearms after I use them at the range (within a week or so). The more you keep the gun dirty for extended time, the tougher to clean up. Some pistols are 100yrs old design 1911 is 105 yrs old design. I have been advised that 1911 loves to be oiled to run well.

There is no break-in of any firearm. That was and still a Myth. Treat your guns well so they can treat you well when you need them

[Skiprr]

If you're near Houston, I'll let you shoot my circa 2005 Kimber Super Match at PSC.

One of the finest handguns I own and, yes, it was flawless right out of the box.

[hovercat]

Hand polishing and fitting is expensive. Much cheaper for the manufacturer to have you rub out all those little burrs and tool marks by firing.
Having a good gunsmith polish up the action would seem to be less expensive than all that break in ammo.

[WhoWouldGuess]

Regardless of whether the manufacturer recommends a "break-in" period, some agencies and experts recommend you fire a few hundred rounds during a familiarization period when you have a "new-to-you" weapon.

[dlh]

This is something I have seen and it really gets on my nerves. If you buy a firearm and it says only to use factory fresh hollow points and gives your certain weights to use? That is stupid. Here's the thing. Not everybody can afford to throw 1000 rounds of 22$ a box hollow points for a break in period. That would take me a few months to do that. ( yes I realize you can buy hollow points cheaper that's just an example.) But it needs to eat anything I throw at it. Here's the thing. If you buy a firearm for range use and just plinking who cares for a break in period that doesn't bother me there but, when you buy a firearm for self defense it needs to go bang every time out of the box. While this is nearly impossible for every gun my Glocks and Sig 226 have never hiccuped. If there's a 3-500 round break in let the manufacturers do that. Why would I pay 1200$ for a gun ( cough kimber) when I could pay 500$ ( clears throat) for a glock that will not require anything. And if I pay the hefty tag say like I did for my Sig then it better work out of the box. When you pay for quality it should deliver. Every gun I buy I purchase it knowing it may have to be a tool to survive with one day and that can mean various things just apply your own application. I don't want something I have to clean every 100 rounds with fear of it not working. While I clean my guns completely after only 25 rounds I have let my glock or sig run almost 500 with out anything but the oil from the last cleaning and they ran perfect. This is just my humble opinion and while you may or may not agree with it I think we can all agree like I stated if you Pay the big bucks it should deliver. I am not trying to stir anything up just putting my opinion out there because I have a right to do so like you. Stay safe this weekend my friends and stay dry and warm!

I agree. I have seen a noticeable decline in the quality of firearms over the last several years---especially Remington and Mossberg. The last Mossberg 500 I bought would not fire right out of the box and I had to send it back to the manufacturer who replaced the trigger group. Lots of aluminum and plastic on that shotgun.

The old bolt-action .22 long rifles I had as a kid would eat anything I put in em--not some of the new ones. My modern Savage MKII bolt-action .22 is very picky what it shoots---it will fire some brands just fine but others result in a failure to fire.

Not sure what we as consumers can do about it other than to educate ourselves before we buy and spend the extra money hoping we get what we pay for---though even that is no longer necessarily true.

[TexasCajun]

Break-in periods used to be standard procedure for firearms. So a lot of the internet lore still dredges that up as a remnant of the past. But guns are mechanical devices that are (for the most part) mass-produced. Any mass-produced mechanical device can fail right out of the box - it's just a bad luck of the draw when it happens to you.

So if you're going to rely on a gun in any capacity, it's probably still a good idea to go old school and implement your own break-in schedule/routine. Granted, the odds of needing a self-defense gun at all are pretty low. And the odds are probably much lower for needing a self-defense gun right after you take it out of the box and put it on your hip. But if you happen to be the Murphy's Law lottery winner, wouldn't you want to have some idea about how the gun actually works???

In a less extreme situation, spending time and money going to a shooting match only to have your brand new gun suffer from some unknown manufacturer defect at the beginning of your first stage would definitely not be at the top of my 'fun experiences to look forward to' list. I actually saw this situation play out at one of my first IDPA matches. A guy showed up with a newly upgraded/worked on HK. Middle of the first stage, the gun quit ejecting. Beginning of the 2nd stage, double-feeds. After re-shoots on the first stage and another issue on the 3rd stage, he gave up & went home. Not a good day for him.

I can't recall the last time I've seen owner's manuals actually recommend a break-in period for a gun (but it's been at least 20yrs or more). But my own personal practice is to take a new gun out to the range at least a few times before I put it fully into the role for which it's intended. The bulk of my break-in is with cheap range ammo so that I can just put up a round count while getting used to the particulars of the gun. I may mix in a few jhp rounds for a home/self-defense gun, but nothing en mass until I'm just about ready to put the gun into actual use. And even then it won't be more than 2 boxes (3 at the most).

[LTUME1978]

I agree with you on the break in nonsense with pistols. I bought a Kimber Super Carry Pro a few years ago. Had issues from the beginning (failure to feed, failure to eject, plunger tube loose, etc). Kimber told me to keep putting rounds down the tube and everything would be fine. Well, that did not work. Same response on every phone call and they started giving me a lot of grief about calling them. At 600 rounds, they told me to go to 800 rounds. I said I had enough and asked them to pick the pistol up. Once they got it back, they gave me a call and apologized for all my troubles. I was offered the chance to get a refund and I took it. I have heard the older Kimber pistols are fine but the new ones (under the new owners) are not the same. I picked up a Springfield Armory TRP and that thing is really nice.

Sad thing is, I like my M&P 45s better and shoot them just as well if not better than the TRP in IDPA. No, I am not selling the TRP :-) .

[Archery1]

I admit that most fine print I gloss over, but I don't remember reading it had to be hollow points on ammo recommends in any manual. I generally know everything about a new gun after 500 rounds or so, and plated ball ammo is fine to get there. Matter of fact, my mag on my Sig 938 started to sel-disconnect after 300 or so, and a replacement mag had now proven worthy.

[stash]

This does not really mean anything, but at my last renewal I took a brand new Glock 19 Gen3 and shot 50 rounds with nary a problem. Of course the 19 was being used for a test and not for SD but I have never had a Glock fail to operate right out of the box.

[JerryK]

So if you're going to rely on a gun in any capacity, it's probably still a good idea to go old school and implement your own break-in schedule/routine.

I agree but you need to change a word from (break-in schedule/routine) to prove. Guns are mechanical devices and need to be proven if you are going to trust your life to them. The problem with the internet, just like the old childhood game of whispering through a 10 person game. We need to prove our guns are reliable (through the years that has been changed to (break-in) I know it is an exercise in semantics but this is how things are perpetuated, as mentioned above

[Bitter Clinger]

This is something I have seen and it really gets on my nerves. If you buy a firearm and it says only to use factory fresh hollow points and gives your certain weights to use? That is stupid. Here's the thing. Not everybody can afford to throw 1000 rounds of 22$ a box hollow points for a break in period. That would take me a few months to do that. ( yes I realize you can buy hollow points cheaper that's just an example.) But it needs to eat anything I throw at it. Here's the thing. If you buy a firearm for range use and just plinking who cares for a break in period that doesn't bother me there but, when you buy a firearm for self defense it needs to go bang every time out of the box. While this is nearly impossible for every gun my Glocks and Sig 226 have never hiccuped. If there's a 3-500 round break in let the manufacturers do that. Why would I pay 1200$ for a gun ( cough kimber) when I could pay 500$ ( clears throat) for a glock that will not require anything. And if I pay the hefty tag say like I did for my Sig then it better work out of the box. When you pay for quality it should deliver. Every gun I buy I purchase it knowing it may have to be a tool to survive with one day and that can mean various things just apply your own application. I don't want something I have to clean every 100 rounds with fear of it not working. While I clean my guns completely after only 25 rounds I have let my glock or sig run almost 500 with out anything but the oil from the last cleaning and they ran perfect. This is just my humble opinion and while you may or may not agree with it I think we can all agree like I stated if you Pay the big bucks it should deliver. I am not trying to stir anything up just putting my opinion out there because I have a right to do so like you. Stay safe this weekend my friends and stay dry and warm!

[rotor]

There is a recent post about a Kimber problem
http://www.texaschlforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=87070
with a similar topic.

I agree with the OP 100%. If it doesn't work correctly right out of the box it goes back. I just don't understand this philosophy of 500 rounds downrange to break it in. If it has problems within 20 rounds it goes back. If the manual says only use certain brands of ammo I don't buy it. This is one of the reasons Glocks are so popular. Pretty much you can go with them right out of the box. I still test fire them and get familiar but I don't need 500 rounds with a Glock to know it is good to go.

I have a whole safe full of guns and one went back for firing problems, a RugerSR762 rifle. 500 rounds of .308 on top of the cost of an $1,800 rifle is not my idea of reasonable and I did not do it. To Ruger's credit they fixed it on their dime pronto.