I havent been to any of the Civilian firearms training schools, but I have been to several Police shooting schools.
As is normal with most Police schools, Glocks are the dominant platform. While going through the academy, we had several student Officers there that were using personal weapons. There were two Smith & Wesson pistols there. One 40V and one Sigma. Neither one ran well and had to be removed from the firing line due to multiple malfunctions. Those students were given Glock 22's from the School house's armory. There was an older Para Ord P12 that ran just fine. My buddy was using a compact XD in 40 cal that did not have any issues.
The Glocks there were 22's, 21's, 23's, 31's, and a G19. No issues with any of them. There was one magazine failure with one G22 . While doing alternate shooting positions, an Officer was laying on his back, head facing the targets. The officer began engaging targets. He got about 5 rounds off then the baseplate broke and all the guts went ripping through the wild blue. It was rather comical. The mags he was using were pretty old and beat up. We never found the magazine parts that shot out. We fired about 1,000 rounds through the course of a week. Usually 250-300 rounds a day. Pistols were cleaned at the end of every day except for one day when we didnt have time.
At Officer Survival school it was 100% Glock. Mixture of G22's and G31's mostly with a few G21's. No problems were experienced. They were ran pretty hard during this school, which was mostly run and gun type courses.
During our biannual department firearms training I can only recall 5-7 malfunctions within the five years that I was there. Mostly phase 3 malfunctions. I had one with my G31, which I believe was my fault (limp wrist, one hand shooting, sweaty hands) . I also had one where my slide contacted the ballistic shield I was carrying in my support hand, which was my fault. Most of the other malfunctions I witnessed were due to worn out mag springs. There were zero catastrophic failures.
All ammo that was used was either Remington green box or Speer Lawman.
Also some recent local classes with my current main squeeze: 3953 S&W (3rd Gen). So far as watching others obtain good results, I'd say that XDs and Glocks seem to be the most represented.
