i'm 61 and a retired le officer having spent 27 years on the force. unlike some cops, i'm into guns and have been shooting since the mid 60's. i carry all the time "off duty." no exceptions. and also in the house!! currently, i'm employed at a police equipment store that sells firearms. this has been my 2nd experience in retail firearms.
my duty weapons began with a smith model 19, then the newly issued smith model 59, then back to a smith revolver, and for a short time a glock 19. my off duty guns have been mainly compact .45 autos, but also included various other calibers no smaller than a 9mm. i have also carried revolvers off duty for one reason or another. again, nothing smaller than a .38.
last week i took one of my glocks, a trusty glock 27 to the local pd range for a session. this glock 27 had been absolutely reliable after being fired close to a thousand rounds. like always, i was shooting nothing but new factory over the counter rounds, this time, wwb fmj. as i proceeded to fire my 2nd magazine, i suddenly had a "jam." it was a FTFire. upon examining the round, i noticed a light primer strike. of course this had never occurred in this gun before and i was quite surprised. the round was chambered again and fired.
recalling my 40 some odd years experiences with handguns, i can remember the exact number of times i had a problem with a revolver and exactly what happened. that's because there hasn't been many. not more than 5. but i have lost track of all the times some mishap occurred with an auto, because there has been too many. for one reason or another, whether it's magazine, ammo, springs, gun, etc, i've lost count.
though i still on occasion pack an auto, if reliabilty is a factor, i don't think a "quality" auto will be as reliable as a revolver from a first rate manufacturer. that's because the auto is dependent on too many factors for functioning. when an auto jams, you'll read the same explanations: it was the ammo, it was the spring, it was the mag, it was limpwristing, and on and on. every reason but the gun itself. but the truth is no matter what caused it, you still had a "jam." and good autos will jam. much more often than a good revolver.