I worked a major USPSA match for the first time in several years this weekend and noticed an interesting trend. Conditions were very dusty Saturday and handgun failures were more common than I generally see at local matches. The part that was most interesting was what guns were failing. The generally considered finicky 2011s ran very well for the most part, but the generally considered "reliable" plastic/DA/SA guns were choking at a much higher rate. Sig 320s seemed to be the worst offenders, but no plastic gun brand that I noticed was immune to choking. About half the field would have been shooting 2011s and the other half using a combo of glock, sig, cz, xd, m&P, etc, so the numbers would indicate that I should have seen more 2011s crap out than the other styles, but that wasn't the case. While there weren't many PCC shooters, it was surprising that I don't recall seeing any PCCs that didn't work, which is opposite of what I normally see, so maybe people are getting them worked out

To be fair, I have no idea what has been swapped in any of the guns at the match or what those shooters ammo conditions were, I can only speak on what I saw. I have known for a long time that ALL guns fail, but generally it seemed that that failed at about the same rate, but not so this go round

You highlight the need to be able to clear one's weapon, of any kind, quickly and with a minimum of fumbling. Interesting stuff.

2011’s , do you mean 1911 ? Or what is a 2011 ?

Good report , interesting data for sure

2011 is basically a “wide body” double stack, high capacity 1911.

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Just my thoughts

The tighter the tolerances the more dirt and dust causes problems. If they are running them "wet" lubrication the more dust and dirt they will collect as well. The old Government 1911 was designed more for reliability than pinpoint accuracy but with just a few mods can be quite accurate and still function well.

That said the one that I have owned that was the most finicky about being clean was a Kimber 1911, but dang it would shoot well just clean it about every 200 rounds.

Never had my P226 jam from being dirty, even after some tactical drills in which the gun was subjected to being laid in the dirt and shot off the ground.

I think piss poor maintenance probably played a bigger part in the guns failing than the dust did.

As someone who has fired tens of thousands of rounds in competitions, here's what I can contribute:

1. Most people who reload for high-volume competitions like USPSA are pretty terrible at it and neglect basic steps like case gauging, making sure dies haven't shifted out of adjustment, or calibrating scales.
1a. Most people have no idea how to maintain a gun, and do not understand concepts like the pressure exerted on a slide by a fully-loaded magazine.
2. Guns have performance anxiety and will run 100% in practice and then decide to fail at the worst time.
3. Plastic fantastics are more reliable than 2011s given a competent operator.

This just solidifies my thoughts that revolvers won’t ever jam. 6 shots are better than a jammed round on a 12 stack. Just sayin

Any gun can jam. Reliability is something that occurs between the ears.

Nothing can ever go wrong with the clockwork in those things, right?

If anything i wrote gave you that impression i am sorry. Revolvers that i have seen over the years tend to be less reliable than automatics by a margin. While there were no revolvers in the match i worked yesterday I have seen them fail many times over the years. I like revolvers, and have even shot them in competition and carried them over the years, but for all but a few circumstances, autos are better defensive guns and on the whole much more reliable.

Operator errors.

Ok I get it now. Thanks sir

"Tight" tolerances do not necessarily come into play.

Tolerances are the allowable deviation from the call out on any dimension. Every dimension on each component is on a fully engineered design with a tolerance. For example, assume the width dimension on a slide is .6264", with a tolerance of ±.0002". This part would fail inspection if it were over, or under .6264" by more than .0002". If the tolerance were not as "tight" as you state it could be oversized by more than .0002" making the dust be even more than of an issue.

A tighter tolerance on any dimension insures the each component fits and functions together the way the finished design was intended to. Tighter tolerances require more inspection, increased tool cost, newer machinery and often increased run times. This is why expensive guns are expensive. They have tight tolerances, not a "tight" fit. If you were designing for a loose fit, the call out would still be .XXXX", more undersized than the mating component but you would still want a as you say "tight" tolerance to insure less deviation from the optimum design, which would be hitting the dimension dead nuts.

Ive never seen a 6 shot stove pipe a round. Every gun can break/malfunction. Wheel guns are just a lot better at going bang every time you pull the trigger.

Most discussions of reliability are kind of pointless because of how random catastrophic failures can be. Quality pistol vs quality revolver, they're going to keep chugging until a very unlikely event happens and cripples the gun. On an autoloader this might be the extractor or firing pin breaking, and on a revolver it might be the cylinder coming out of time or the hand breaking. Either way, it's very unlikely and we shouldn't plan based on that.

But autoloaders do tend to have small malfunctions just as the nature of the platform. It requires consistent ammo, consistent grip, and balanced spring pressures for good function. Lose one of those, and the gun will hiccup. However, 95% of malfunctions with an autoloader can be cleared with a quick tilt & rack. This takes around 1 second from diagnosis to getting back on target for a good shooter. Even if this happens once per magazine (it doesn't), I still get more rounds off quicker than a revolver shooter who has to fire three whole cylinders.

Ok boomer lol. The 1980's called and they want their outdated opinion back.

An auto loader with tighter tolerances is more precise, it will tolerate less grit before the slide binds enough to affect reliable functioning. This is the reason mil-spec pistols are by design “looser”. Engineer for function or precision but there is no free lunch.

I remember reading the designer of the AK-47 wanted a gun with a lot of "slop" to make it more reliable, while the much tighter-built AR-15 would become a jam master in Vietnam.

This. All day, every day. I work to get the best functionality from my firearm and ammunition and then I start working on ME.

If my gun (whichever one) takes a dump on me (for whatever reason), I better be able to get back into business RIGHT NOW.

Whenever I want to REALLY work on ME, I get my wife to randomly place dummy rounds in my magazines for spontaneous "click, rack, bang" drills.

Mark

What was going on with the 320’s? They are used widely by police departments everywhere and seems like they always have something happening.

Most of what i saw seemed to be a failure to go fully into battery. Like bang, bang, nothing, rack the slide, bang bang, nothing, rack the slide, repeat. People are on the clock so stopping for a solid diagnosis is not an option. As an RO you are looking at the gun for safety, not functionality, so unless it is super obvious, you just see the symptoms

Wonder if they were riding the slide with their thumb.

Doubtful. Most seemed to be fairly experienced shooters. And if that was the case you would see people with other guns have the same issues with them, with about the same consistency. A lot of people shoot 2011 open guns with 7 or 8 pound recoil springs that go into battery fine, and those guns are built to much tighter tolerances than a 320.

True that.