Have you ever had a gun fail completely?

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I've had a couple, a Glock 17 and a S&W 940. Both failed, were repaired at the factory, and failed again, in the exact same way.

The Glock's trigger just out of the blue refused to work, no matter how hard you pulled it. Work the slide, jump up and down, nothing.

Basically the same with the 940, but you couldnt even get the cylinder open, and the gun had to be taken apart to get the unfired ammo out.
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Hello, all new person here :)

I had the same thing happen with my Glock 17 back in like 1990 when I first got it after a short period of time..I'd press the trigger and it would bottom out against the back of the trigger guard/frame and not drop the striker..in other words it just wouldn't fire; sent it back to Glock and after it came back it never failed again, except for refusing to reliably ejecting aluminum cased 115 grain Blazer ammo..anyway that was a a total failure for sure..

And (!) I also had a similar thing happen revolver wise with a S&W 586: when firing .357's out of it the cylinder would just totally lock up. Sent it back to S&W the modified the cylinder latch pin and it's worked beautifully ever since (they also stamped an M I guess for modified at the end of the serial number)....anyway that was a total failure also!....
 
Sears Ted Williams auto shotgun -action bar broke whilst shooting trap.

Transfer bars are the weak link in modern revolvers, and not just on Charter Arms. When I used to pay attention to the SASS boards seemed like somebody was reporting a breakage of the transfer bar on their Vaquero every couple of months. This was back in '99 and 00', so maybe the tendency has been corrected. Also, you are talking about boys putting hundreds of rounds through their guns on a regular basis. However, goes to show that a wise man never assumes the infallability of a firearm, regardless of who makes it.
 
S&W 4006

The magazine disconnect broke in the middle of firing one day. I pulled the trigger and there was no resistance. Good thing it was just at the range and not in the middle of a bad situation.
 
Yep. Taurus 605 (I was just talking about this gun on a different thread). Anyway, during a range session, the cylinder pin (the springy li'l bastitch that anchors the cylinder in the frame when it's closed) failed to be springy. The gun immediately stopped working--it wouldn't lock up, so the trigger wouldn't pull, the cylinder wouldn't stay in place. It was DRT. And had it happened in a defensive situation, I would have hoped that the first couple rounds did the job, or I might have been DRT.

On the other hand, mechanical things fail, so I was philosophical about it. Got it fixed, and continued to use it until I sold it later.
 
When I was still a firearms instructor, I saw a couple of S&W 6906 pistols where the recoil srping rod went forward along with the slide and both hung over the front end of the frame.

I have also seen a Glock 19 do something similar.

I, personally, have had two S&W, and one Charter Arms .38 revolvers wherein the shell casings did not extract because they somehow wound up behind the star extractor. Try firing a revolver like that; all they were good for was for throwing at the bad guys.

I have also seen the cylinders fall off of a number of revolvers, mostly S&Ws because that was what the shooters were issued. This was usually due to shooter error in that they forgot to tighten a certain screw after they had replaced the cyliner after cleaning the gun; although I once saw this happen when the screw was defective.

All the best, GB
 
I've had the cylinder fall out of my model 29. The screw backed out without notice and when I lowered the gun to reload after dumping the empties, away she went. I Loc Tite key things on my S&W's now.

Other issues with the S&W's can be the ejector rod backs out, tying the gun up, or if you dont dump your empties muzzle up, you can get unburnt powder under the star, which can tie the gun up pretty good and drive you crazy troubleshooting it if you never heard of it. You'd be amazed at how little it takes to bind the cylinder or even make closing it near impossible.
 
my instances...

I had a Colt Anaconda .44 that the barrel would unscrew and lock up the extractor rod; and this was with .44 Special ammo. Got it fixed and sold it.
I have a SIG P220ST that had the extractor hook break off; I suppose the gun could have been "used" but the double feed before I saw what was wrong was time consuming to clear and in a fight the gun might just as well have been blown.
I saw an Air Force M-16 blow up at the Air Force Academy back about 1975 or so. Upper receiver peeled open like a bananna. No one got hurt, fortunately. Military ammo too....
I have used Smith revolvers for decades and never had a single failure; and I'm talking dozens of gun.
Still, all this brings up the question...do you carry a back up gun?
 
yup, more than a few. Revolvers,semiauto handguns and rifles,pump shotguns and lever actions.Always unlikely to ever happen again but they did happen,sometimes even getting them fixed right, I still didnt feel comfortable with them nor did I trust them from then on.
 
My first centerfire handgun (circa 1992) was a Springfield Armory 1911 in .45 ACP. That thing would regularly lock up so bad that nothing short of completely breaking it down would cure it. After going "bang" the slide would get totally stuck somewhere between being fully retracted and being fully in battery. I could drop the mag, but that's about it. I never figured out the problem with that beast of a gun. :banghead: It was inaccurate, too, and I sold it to someone else (who knew it had troubles) for cheap. Fifteen years later, I still have an otherwise irrational dislike for 1911s based on that one experience. :confused:

I also shot a S&W Model 10 to the point that its cylinder would no longer turn. A friend and I took turns firing 100s of dirty .38 reloads through the gun. All the grit finally bound the cylinder. It was kind of like what might happen when you shoot several cylinders through an old blackpowder revolver.

I also had a Ruger .357 that would not function because the ejector rod backed out of the cylinder so much that it would no longer close. A little Loctite fixed that.
 
Nothing that could not be immediately cleared and fired. Exception
was a Win. Mod. 100 in 308, that would short cycle with some handloads.
Pistols 1911A1 GI,cheapie semi autos that once broke in, never. Various
revolvers Colt @ Smith, never. Semi Auto rifles, bad magazine on 30 Carb
the rest never. Bolts, one misfire bad primer. Shotguns not used as
often, never
 
Had a new S&W 27-2 quit in the late 1970s. I pulled the side plate and found the hammer pin sheared off. The metal was pourous. Sent it in to S&W and they repaired it. It worked fine after that. I eventually sold it.

Again in the 1970s, I also had a S&W model 41 quit. All of a sudden pull the trigger and nothing happened. Sent it into S&W for repair. When it was returned I went to the range and within 150 rounds the trigger quit again. Sent it into S&W again. It came back and worked fine after that. I never did trust it or like it after that so I sold it.

Come to think of it those were the last S&Ws I bought.
 
I've had easily repairable but still disabling parts breakages render handguns inoperable. On two "classic" SIGs (P220 and P228) I had trigger bar springs break. With the trigger bar no longer contacting anything the trigger just swings/flops back and forth in the frame. On a Glock 19 I had the slide lock (the piece of metal with serrated tabs that you pull down to release the slide) retaining spring break. The part fell out and the slide, with the barrel and recoil spring still attached, flew off the front of the frame and hit the ground.
 
Another Taurus failure

I got into a rather contentious series of posts on this board with a member regarding Taurus firearms. Your story makes my point perfectly. In my opinion Tauruses (Tauri?) are not to be trusted.
I had a PT-22. I shot maybe 50 or 75 rounds through it. It had the worst trigger of any pistol I have ever fired. I carried that gun for a summer time pocket pistol for a few months. I came home on day and found a raccoon in my bird feeder. I pulled the little Taurus out of my pocket, aimed at the 'coon, pulled the trigger and nothing happened. After a little investigation I found that the firing pin was broken in two. Thank God it was just a raccoon and not something or someone more dangerous.
The second complete failure was another Taurus. This time it was a stainless .357. I loaded the cylinder with some 125 grain jacketed hollow points. I fired one shot and the gun was completely locked up. I couldn't pull the trigger or cock the hammer. I tried to open the cylinder but it was impossible. I ended up having to knock the cylinder open with a leather mallet. As it turned out the frame to cylinder fit was so poor and the machining so rough that it was rather suprising that it fired the first shot at all.
Two Taurus handguns and two complete failures. I'll never own another.
 
When I was just a lad of ten, my father gave to me his Raven .25 MP he said shoot it at that tree, then it shat the bed roy-al-ly:D
sing along with me now!
Seriously though, it was my first pistol experience and wow, the pos had a serious jam after the second round. It had to be stripped to remove the brass.
Lesson learned: don't buy a handgun for under $120!!
 
my xd that broke but other than that no. the trigger bar thing broke near the trigger and the sear couldn't be released, i couldn't even disassemble it. btw it is at sa right now getting warranty repair work done.
 
And Yet Another Taurus Failure!

I'm glad to see I'm not the only one with a defective PT145. While enjoying a summer day at the range the take down lever on my Taurus broke clean in half, rendering the gun useless. Even more useless than with the dozens of failures to feed I experianced with the gun.

I got a new lever from Taurus, fixed it, and traded it off... good ridance!
 
Mossberg 500. Safety locked up while dove hunting. Not sure if it was crud or what. Took a half hr of working on it to get it going again.
Beretta 96. First 5 times I shot it with wolf ammo. Every round expands and jams in the thing. Takes a cleaning rod and a mallet to extract.
Taurus 605. Probably my fault from dryfire exercises. firing pin return spring broke. Kept firing and seared the firing pin.
 
Depends on your definition of completely. I've had some squib rounds that finished my shooting of that piece for a day, but never had something drastically fail that required a trip to a gunsmith for repair. And now I have a nice new Pact High speed dispenser and scale and learned to use the ol' mark one eyeball on the loading blocks before I insert the bullets.
 
I've had springs break on a Glock 19 and a Taurus PT-22 that would not fire a round with a jam on the next.

However, the most complete failure I saw was one of the new Kel-tec 223 rifles where the plastic frame back by the stock mount just cracked right off, flopping the stock and making the gun totally inoperable. It just fell apart.
 
Glock 17-The trigger locked up on me shortly after I bought it. I had been putting that single drop of oil in the wrong place. I stripped it, polished the trigger bar and started putting that single drop of oil in the right place. It has worked perfectly ever since.

Springfield M1-A Standard-During a range session it puked it's extractor out. I could not find the extractor in the grass/dirt. The bolt assembly was re-worked by SA under warranty and I sold the rifle.

Mossberg 500 Persuader-Had the safety jam while shooting 3" slugs. The trigger could not be pulled. I did not touch the safety while firing. The malfunction was caused by recoil. I stripped the gun and gave it an unwarranted cleaning (the gun was already spotless). There was no indication as to why the safety jammed. The gun has worked fine ever since but I have not tried 3" slugs yet.

Ruger GP-100-During a range session the gun locked up. The hammer could be pulled back about half way and would stop. After a strip and clean it started working fine. There was no evidence of why it locked up during cleaning. Traded it for a rifle.

Rossi Puma .357-I forget the name of the part, it's a little collar behind one of the springs. The collar sheared in half and got wedged inside the rifle. The rifle would not cycle. No comment on how I fixed it. Sold it to a pushy fellow at a gunshow.

Walther G22-During the last range session the rifle stopped functioning. The trigger can be pulled but the sear does not release. The "pushrod" inside the action is actually slipping off of the sear due to wear. I still need to order parts.


So in short, my answer to your question is yes. :banghead:
 
T/C Contender, firing pin broke, T/C sent out a new one.

Winchester 1903, trigger spring broke on a 100 year old rifle.

S&W 625, ejector rod backed out, locking the cylinder closed.

and personally witnessed a spanky new S&W lock break, locking the gun with the hammer back over a loaded chamber. It took using a dowel rod to pull the trigger with the hammer tied down to get it open. The gun went back for refund.
 
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