Dedicated Carry Gun with a "Low Round Count"

[revchuck38]

This is a consistent theme on this forum. I subscribe to it myself because it intuitively makes sense. However, I've never seen the phrase "low round count" quantified.

My main carry gun is a full-size PX4 G, and my practice/training gun is a PX4 F converted to decock-only. I've run a couple hundred rounds of my carry load (124-grain HST +P) through each with no problem. I've got about a thousand rounds total through the G and maybe 6-7k through the F. The G gets field stripped, wiped off and re-lubed about once a month just because. The F gets cleaned when/if I think about it. It's been a few months since I've shot the G.

Is there a consensus on how often the carry gun should be shot to confirm it's still good to go?

[JAH 3rd]

I follow your thinking. I have an HK P2000 9mm that is my preferred carry pistol. I put about a thousand rounds through the pistol and it was one hundred percent reliable. I now shoot it occasionally at the range just to make sure it is still 100%. I shoot the mags that I carry with my carry round is the HST 147gr bullet.

Anything mechanical can break at any time. Logic would indicate that the more use, the closer one is to a breakage. Just have to inspect things after shooting ones' carry pistol to make sure things look good.

[jetfire]

My 3 inch LCR gets 25-50 rounds a month of carry ammo fired through it during very focused drilling every month. That's my definition of low round count.

[Clusterfrack]

I always have two of my main carry gun, one for practice and one for carry.

As long as the carry gun isn’t full of dirt, sand, water, or lint I don’t worry about confirmation of function. But since it gets carried, I usually end up firing some drills with it every few weeks.

My carry P-07 has only around 3500 rounds through it.

[WobblyPossum]

I like to fire 2000-2500 trouble free rounds through my carry gun and then I only really shoot it annually when cycling through carry ammo. All other practice is done with the training gun. Now that my on and off duty guns are the same and I qualify quarterly, my carry gun will be shot a little more than I like but I’m not too concerned.

[Hambo]

Is there a consensus on how often the carry gun should be shot to confirm it's still good to go?

Other than no lube, what would go wrong with your carry gun? How could you tell if you were about to have a part fail?

[JohnK]

Right now, the gun I am transitioning to is around 2,000 rounds through it. I'm going to put a few hundred rounds through it this weekend to get acclimated with any nuances. Then it'll get cleaned and holstered and I'll put 50 or so rounds through it at the end of each range session.

[Robinson]

Before I start carrying a gun I shoot at least 500 rounds through it, usually more, to ensure proper function. After that I shoot it a few times a year. Same with my bedside gun. The practice gun is the one I shoot all the time at the range.

Current list:

Carry gun: Colt Special Combat Government
Bedside gun: Colt Rail Gun with TLR1-HL
Practice gun: Colt Special Combat Government
Fun gun: Colt Series 80 Government basic model
9mm gun: Glock 34

The two SCGs are very similar other than the finish, and the carry gun doesn't have the mag well installed. I may have some Harrison sights installed on the carry gun soon (not sure yet).

[blues]

Why not treat it like a service weapon? For example, you could do something like we feds did and shoot it quarterly for a minimum of say, 50 or 60 rounds.

That wouldn't be taxing on the firearm and would give you an idea if anything needed addressing.

[oldtexan]

I have not adopted the idea of keeping carry guns at a relatively low round count compared to more heavily used training guns. But that idea seems to suggest there is a 'trustworthy zone' in which the carry gun is shot enough to establish/confirm proper function yet is not shot so much that the likelihood of mechanical failure begins to increase to a significant level. I would think about 1500-2000 rds (with 0 stoppages) may be the low end of the trustworthy zone, but don't have a good sense of where the top end of the trustworthy zone would be.

In my case, I have four 2015-2017 vintage Gen 4 G17s and a 2014-vintage Gen 4 G19 that fulfill the roles of carry, home defense, and spare guns. Each is factory-stock except for sights, SCDs, and undercutting the trigger guard, and each has had 0 stoppages ( other than a few me-induced failures of the slide stop to engage on an empty mag). Round counts currently range from about 3700 to about 4400. I plan to change all springs at about 5k intervals. I rotate the guns to keep the round counts roughly even among the five, putting an average of about 100 rds through one of the five each week. I do however have a few training-only magazines (2x G17, 2x G19) that I use for my weekly shooting sessions. I acknowledge that each gun will experience a part failure at some point, but don't have a sense of a round count at which that probability may become significant. Is it 10K? 20K? 50K?