Preacherman, while I understand your point on reliability, I would have to ask a few questions to justify your stance. Were the semi shotguns cleaned thoroughly before each student used them, or was residue and dust allowed to work all day long? Were the shot guns the only weapons that had some sort of failure during the course? Were Imediate Action Drills part of the course cirriculum?
I have seen range rental guns have failures when being used since they are usually not clean to begin with. We have all heard of the early failures of M16's and SA80's in the desert of Iraq. Dirt and dust contamination and maintanence must be considered with any weapon in that type of environment.
My contention is that each person must descide the tactical use of their weapon system, and determine if sludge, dust, grime, mud, and rain will affect their ability to operate the weapon successfully, weather in a hunting of self protection mode. All of my weapons are cleaned thoroughly, and I have even been known to clean them during down times in a match of some other training course. But that is just me.
Again, I am not discounting what your review said. I am only trying to establish the facts and reason for the semi shotguns failures. I do appreciate your position.