Wanted to post some observations on gun reliability i have seen over the years after shooting and working countless USPSA and 3 gun matches. Here are the most reliable guns I have seen from best to worst. Now I am talking reliability in shooting, not shoveling mud over them in a wheel barrow, which while interesting is kinda pointless IMO for most people because as long as i have been shooting in all kinds of weather I have never had a gun get wheelbarrow muddy. But i have seen a lot of guns choke just from being shot, and being shot tends to happen way more than being thrown in a wheelbarrow of mud . Also, I am sure that many malfunctions were ammo related, but can only post what i see, in other words I didn't do a diagnostic mid stage to find out what happened. That said I feel I have seen enough guns crap out to get a feel for general reliability under adverse and hard run situations. This list also accounts for reloading issues etc. So here we go:

1 Plastic pistols. Glock M&P Sig, etc., while ALL of these can and have failed, they do it at a very low rate and none of them really out shines the others (assuming a quality plastic fantastic), regardless of what you read on the interwebs

2 1911/2011 pistols, these are only slightly less reliable than plastic. Hard for many to believe but true. VERY solid performers

3 AK/M1a/m1 garand. While i don't see as many of these as ARs, so my data is admittedly limited, the ones I do see just seem to work without as many of the random stoppages that all ARs seem to occasionally have

4 ARs, Way more reliable than a lot of people believe. Other than an occasional random stoppage, they are very reliable. ARs will run a long time without issue and then for no reason have one of several types of malfunctions and then go on to run a long time without any issue.

5 Revolvers, I know they are not supposed to fail, but they do and for as little of them as i see it is at a rate that I wouldn't have guessed. From factory ammo jumping crimp and locking up guns, to high primers locking up guns, to a myriad of issues with reloading the cylinder, revolvers don't seem to be as near as reliable as people believe.

6 PCCs, what can i say other than if you have a PCC, expect it to choke. They are cool and fun when they work, but I rarely see people make it through a match, much less two with out some sort of failure

7 Pump shotguns, 9 times out of 10 it is the operators fault, but the operator is required for a pump to work and you can pretty much guarantee there will be a short stroke, forgot to stroke, or a bobbled reload (talking tossing ammo on the ground and not in the gun) some where in a match for all but the BEST pump gunners, and MANY of those issues for most people who say pumps always work. The good news is that pumping the usually fixes the issue

8 Auto shotguns, They just are not going to work as well as everything else, but it makes sense when you think about it, SGs are asked to run bird, buck, and slugs, and back again and getting them to do that 100% just don't happen. Benelli tends to be the most reliable, but they have their issues too. With all SGs, use the 7 dollar a box ammo instead of the 5 dollar ammo and many issues will go away.


So there is the list based on what i have seen, one thing that might not come across is how reliable ALL the guns tend to be when you see how hard they get used. Much is made on the internet about gun reliability and i agree that knowing how to clear a jam is good to know, but in reality you are probably not going to have to do much of it.

Thanks for sharing.

I would enjoy hearing any feedback you may have on smaller, pocket carry handguns. It seems as the pocket carry firearm gets smaller, the angle at which the cartridge must travel between the magazine and chamber gets larger, which increases the chance of jamming in between the two.

TIA

Why would you think that? I don't get that at all, sounds like Academy gun-counter talk. If they're trying to make it smaller, they're also likely lowering the barrel in relation to the rest of the gun, thereby negating any increase in angle *if* they shortened the ramp to decrease the length of the gun. For the record, I have about 600 rds through my Shield 9mm, no malfunctions.

Probably something that dictates further discussion in another thread. I was just interested if the OP had seen more issues with smaller pocket carries than larger framed handguns. No need to be so focused so early in the discussion.

Most of what I see get shot a lot is service sized pistols. I know that 3 inch 1911s do seem to be more temperamental than 4 or 5 inch guns. I have also heard that barrel tilt has something to do with it, but no promises on that. The few times i have seen people use smaller guns at matches they seem to be no worse than the large frame guns, but thatis a small sample. My carry gun is an xdm 3.8 compact, so not tiny, but i don't remember ever having any stoppages with it, other than over inserting a non sleeved mag, luckily I learned that in a match and not when i really needed it. It was also a problem that was rectified by simply racking the slide instead of using the slide release.

The angle on my kel tec 380 looks about the same as my sig 365 and my xdm 5.25

"The Officer’s Model was the original short 1911, with a 3.5-inch barrel and grip shortened enough to cut magazine capacity by one round. Today most compact pistols have 3-inch barrels. The Officer’s Model demanded considerable revision of the design but the 3-inch pistols even more so. In order to accommodate the sharper barrel tilt in a short slide pistol, the barrel no longer used a barrel bushing. The Commander used a standard bushing, although it was shortened."

This is from gun digest, so there appears to be some truth to the sharper barrel tilt at least in the short barrel 1911s. I can't say if other designs have more or less barrel tilt than their counterparts, as the 1911 was modified from full size and not designed around the short barrel. That is my take on it anyway, could be wrong

You left off over under shotguns. Put the quality ones at the top of your list as most reliable IMO. The amount of high volume shooting they stand up to is impressive.

I didn't leave them off, they just aren't used in what I do and my experience is very limited with them. And while I use bolt guns, leverguns, etc., for personal use, hunting and such, I am not around competitions where they are used hard. That is why my list what it is. But i would assume that those ou shot guns are very reliable, but with so little personal experience with them I don't feel qualified to speak about their reliability

When I shot informal IPSC ( Bishop TX with the guys on Wednesdays)the Glock was NEW and as purchased, was very reliable. The 1911s were adorned with many aftermarket features and much gunsmith talent thus made more reliable. Today's production is likely much better.