[Denver1911]

I HATE CLEANING GUNS !!!

However, sometimes it must be done. I field stripped this 9mm No Name commander for the first time this year. It's had 870 rounds since its last cleaning in December 2014. Today I detail stripped the slide for the first time ever. I cleaned the extractor, firing pin, and their channels after just over 2,000 rounds.






I purchased this gun early last year and shot 1145 rounds through it in 2014. I had three failures that year. One weakly loaded 147 grain plated RN failed to eject on its debut range trip. On the third range trip, one round nose-dived the did not feed and one did not fully reurn to battery. It went the next 635 rounds without a failure.

So far this year, I have shot it 870 rounds with 6 failures. First trip of the year saw two of them. Another weakly loaded 147 grain reload faled to eject. One 147 grain FMJ nose-dived on the ramp. Second trip of 2015 I had another nose-dive of a 147 grain plated RN. Fifth trip yielded two more rounds stuck on the feedramp. One was a 147 grain plated RN and another was a 124 grain JHP. Last trip I had another 124 grain JHP not fully seat.

Not counting the two weak reloads that failed to eject (my fault), that's 7 failures in 2025 rounds. 0.35% failure rate. 1 out of every 287. The 2 rounds that didn't fully seat could easily have been poor quality of my reloads or a dirty gun. The 5 that didn't make it out of the mag could have been magazine issues. I have already started better QC of my reloads and plan on further investigating reliability impacts of magazine choices. In particular, I have a new 9mm mag from Wilson Combat that's been marketed as helping solve the nose-dive problem. Another note is that this gun has eaten about 100 trouble-free factory rounds.

What's your acceptable failure rate? Unless you shoot over 1,000 per year through a particular gun, your data isn't real valid in my eyes because plenty of people can say their gun is 100% when they don't shoot it enough to get a good feel for the real failure rate.

 

[july19]

For a SD gun I would want the failure rate to be zero.

 

[Denver1911]

For a SD gun I would want the failure rate to be zero.

Me too. Is that realistic?

I have some revolvers that have never had a problem. I also have a Beretta that's flawless, but it's only seen 790 rounds. I have a Glock 34 that's flawless that I've had for some number of years before I started logging these things. It has 2,010 logged flawless rounds and likely as many before I started counting. None of my 1911s are without failure except for a Springfield Range Officer that went over 2,000 rounds before I sold it.

I'd bet that if I cleaned some of these 1911s ever couple hundred rounds, including the extractor and channel, and shot only factory rounds, I could get 100%. In fact, looking through my logs, I've shot 640 factory rounds through 6 different 1911s in 9mm, 10mm, and 45 ACP this year without a malfunction. I had five factory 10mm rounds not lock the slide back on my new 10mm longslide, but I had a 20lb recoil spring and these rounds were fairly weak. I changed the spring and no more problems. I do not count these as failures.

 

[fireslayer]

When you reload your 9mm rounds do you case gauge each one, or use your barrel? Also if you are reloading 147's and are using mixed brass throw away CBC brass if you have any. I case gauge every round and found that CBC brass is horrible especially with 147gr FP coated lead bullets. They would never go fully into the gauge. Just a thought. Good luck and your GI commander is sweet.

 

[Denver1911]

When you reload your 9mm rounds do you case gauge each one, or use your barrel? Also if you are reloading 147's and are using mixed brass throw away CBC brass if you have any. I case gauge every round and found that CBC brass is horrible especially with 147gr FP coated lead bullets. They would never go fully into the gauge. Just a thought. Good luck and your GI commander is sweet.

When I checked my reliability earlier this year and found 0 ... ZERO ... failures in any of my guns with factory ammo and 0.5% failure rate with my reloads, I bought a case gauge and now check every one. I also don't load them as slow as I once did. Flirting with minimum loads yields failures to eject occasionally. I also got new brass. What I had been using was so worn you could hardly read the headstamps. When I got the case gauge, I found about 5% wouldn't pass with that brass. They're 100% passing with the new brass.

 

[domyalex]

My 9mm 1911 (from STI) had a few issues in the first 800 rounds. After replacing the extractor it has had 1 failure in the next 7,000 rounds, so it's now what I consider "reliable".

9mm 1911 can be picky about OAL (they usually prefer it on the longer side of things), I load around 1.135.

Are your nose dive failures on the 1st rounds out of the mag? That's usually the most problematic one in 9mm, especially when using 10 rounds magazines. I *had* a STI Sentry that would choke on 147gr when using 10 rounds magazines, but it fed 124gr just fine, so yours might be similar.

Here is a trick to determine the OAL your gun likes

 

[Southdraw7]

I have no experience with 147gr, but i have a GC Commander in 9mm, that i have fired 124gr LRN, FMJ, and coated RN as a steady diet, and i can't remember a single malfunction. I also have fired facory 115gr FMJ with no problems.
I found with 1911's, both 45acp and 9mm, to load toward the higher end of your powder's range, it seems to cycle better. And of course, watch your OAL.

 

[B_RAD]

Nice gun!