BREAKING IN NEW PISTOL

[jaeger45]

BREAKING IN NEW PISTOL

1) Is it necessary to "break in" a new pistol? If so, what is the best way?

2) Is it necessary to limit the number of shots fired the first few sessions?
This is really an academic question by now, for my friend, the proud owner of a new S&W 40VE in 9 mm Double Action only, fired almost one brick- 500 ounds for the following reasons. Magazine is double-stacked.

He started using brass-cased PMC ammo, but after the first few rounds, we found it would extract the empties but will not eject them, resulting in jamming. Or else, it would not chamber the new round- the nose would get stuck as it points upward. In short, FTEject / FTChamber.

He then used aluminum-cased CCI's. The gun liked it better: it would gag only once in every 10 rounds or so. So he contniued firing to smoothen out the edges and fill in the rough spots in the chamber ceiling which may be causing the round to balk.

After hundreds of rounds, it would still gag with PMC feed.

But going back to my original question, all things being normal, shouldn't it have been broken in first?

BTW, my first time to fire a pure DAO, and to me, it's just a waste of money. It might be good at best at point-blank range of 1-5 yards, but farther? Uh-uhh... And my finger was sore from rubbing against the trigger guard for such a distance.

[bearandoldman]

Hey ther old buddy Hunter jawohl?
I guess I am too old an do not want to waste time but I just clean them and shoot them.
I am not a real fan of DAO guns myself but do carry a Kel Tec P3AT .380 ACP as a backup gun, did have some problems with it at firs and it was used when I bought it. It would not run the 1st 2 rounds in the mag well but would function well with the rest. Took a comp;ete turn off the mag springs and the gun now runs fine. the round in the mag was causing so much drag on the slide that the gun would short cycle until there were only 3 rounds left in the mag.
Had some problems with Wolf in my Micro year ago, they are a little on the weak side and would also cause the gun to short cycle, Blazer as you may have noticed is a fairy hot load, and will run most any gun well.

[Blindpig]

I don't think any modern pistol requires a break-in period other than to check out any malfunctions that occur during the first 500 or so rounds. They do, however, require a thorough cleaning and lube job before firing the first round if you want to lessen the chance of a problem. Did your buddy break the S&W down and do the necessary before he went to the range the first time? Personally, I don't care much for PMC ammo. I think I've had more malfunctions with that brand over the years than any other and I don't buy it any longer. I pretty much stick with CCI Blazer with the aluminum cases for practice ammo.
Like B&OM, I also don't care for DAO pistols. I stick with my 1911's or my Springfield XD's.

[bearandoldman]

When you get to be my age, you do not waste the time for breaking in, just go out and start shooting it. I prefer my Ruger and My SA 1911's single action trigger to the DAO guns myself. The Kel Tec is not bad you can pretty well feel when the slack is out and it is ready to go, much like the trigger on a a S&W revolver. The Kel Tec is no target gun at 8.5 ounces empty and about 10 pounces with a 6 round mag in it, it is an ideal secondary means of defense. My mentor has taught me to carry an extra mag to reload the primary after the fight is over and it is quicker to grab another gun that to load the empty one under stressful condition. I take his advice as he has been ther 11 times.

[Bullseye]

Some pistols come off the production line a little rougher than others and require more break-in time. Machining can put tiny tooling marks on the pistol's components, depending on when the tool head was changed out last. As the tools wear, they create parts that are closer to the edge of designed specs. A pistol is the sum of all the parts and if one or two of these parts are a little rough then it takes some time to smooth them up. I cannot say how your friends pistol is without examining it but shooting is the best way to break it in. Use minimal oil, lots of rounds and those parts should operationally hone each other into smooth operation. Parts that are not fitting well with the others will have shiny spots on their finish where they are being worn or broken in. Sometimes I have to use some lapping compound to assist the break-in process or to fit two components to one another. But that is typically in extreme cases for a production pistol. Custom match pistols require this treatment to get the accuracy tolerances one desires for shooting in competition. These tight tolerance are acceptable out on the competition shooting line but are not desirable for a duty pistol, where one's life could depend on a pistol's flawless functioning.

Keep shooting it and try different brands of ammo. I have heard that the Sigmas can be a little ammo sensitive, try some more brands besides PMC and CCI.

R,
Bullseye

[DeerSpy]

I have a new XD45 and when I try to shoot my 185gr target load that works great in my Colt series 70 they jam every time. Do you think it will
ever get to point where it feed 185gr ok or will a have to stick to round nose for this gun.

[Bullseye]

Deerspy,

Yours may be an issue of an overpowered recoil spring. 185's have a lesser amount of recoil and a lighter spring may do the trick.

R,
Bullseye

[Blindpig]

Deerspy,

Yours may be an issue of an overpowered recoil spring. 185's have a lesser amount of recoil and a lighter spring may do the trick.

R,
Bullseye

Yep, as usual, I think Bullseye is correct. XD's tend to not care for light loads. Think of them as a combat weapon, not a target pistol.

[bearandoldman]

Deerspy,

Yours may be an issue of an overpowered recoil spring. 185's have a lesser amount of recoil and a lighter spring may do the trick.

R,
Bullseye

Yep, as usual, I think Bullseye is correct. XD's tend to not care for light loads. Think of them as a combat weapon, not a target pistol.

That is why the CCI Blazer ammo works so well, shot a lot of the in .45ACP before I started to reload and never had a failure because they are a fairly hot load, you can tell from the recoil noise and muzzle flsh. Did have a lot of failures with Wolf as ia lot of them were too weak to fully cycle the gun, they could notoverpower the recoil spring.

[DeerSpy]

I reload and was wanting just one practice load that would work in all my 45’s a nice light target load I though it might be shape of bullet so I got some 200gr round nose and kept adding powder till the gun quit jamming guess I will stick with that for awhile.
Thank for info

[bearandoldman]

I reload and was wanting just one practice load that would work in all my 45’s a nice light target load I though it might be shape of bullet so I got some 200gr round nose and kept adding powder till the gun quit jamming guess I will stick with that for awhile.
Thank for info

I have done just about the same thing to get a load for my 1911's, if it will run my SA Micro Compact it should work in anything. Have been using a 200 grain LSWC with 6.3 grains of Green Dot. Works for me.

[jaeger45]

I reload and was wanting just one practice load that would work in all my 45’s a nice light target load I though it might be shape of bullet so I got some 200gr round nose and kept adding powder till the gun quit jamming guess I will stick with that for awhile.
Thank for info

I have done just about the same thing to get a load for my 1911's, if it will run my SA Micro Compact it should work in anything. Have been using a 200 grain LSWC with 6.3 grains of Green Dot. Works for me.

I use that too, in front of 4.7 of Winchester 231. Can be stronger too, but gotta watch it with cost of components going up. And easier on the innards. I prefer the SWC to RN simply becuase of the purty round holes they make, with no ragged edge.

[bearandoldman]

I reload and was wanting just one practice load that would work in all my 45’s a nice light target load I though it might be shape of bullet so I got some 200gr round nose and kept adding powder till the gun quit jamming guess I will stick with that for awhile.
Thank for info

I have done just about the same thing to get a load for my 1911's, if it will run my SA Micro Compact it should work in anything. Have been using a 200 grain LSWC with 6.3 grains of Green Dot. Works for me.

I use that too, in front of 4.7 of Winchester 231. Can be stronger too, but gotta watch it with cost of components going up. And easier on the innards. I prefer the SWC to RN simply because of the purty round holes they make, with no ragged edge.

Yes, they sure do punch nice neat holes in paper. I use Green Dot for 2 reasons, it is a lower pressure powder and makes a nice soft shooting load due ti the fact that the pressure curve rises slower and 2 I have a lot of it around as I use it to load 12, 16, 26 and 28 gage shot shells. Makes a great load for all guns. That way I jsut need to stock 2 powders, using Win 296 for the .410 shotgun.

[Bullseye]

I'm using a .45 load in practice matches that works pretty well - 200 gr LWSC with 4.2 grains of Green Dot.

R,
Bullseye

[bearandoldman]

I'm using a .45 load in practice matches that works pretty well - 200 gr LWSC with 4.2 grains of Green Dot.

R,
Bullseye

I tried loads in that area, under 5.0 grains but they would not reliably run my SA Micro Compact. That is my normal carry gun and every time I hit the range I like to run at least a box of ammo through it to stay proficient with that gun for self defense. I had to get to about 6.0 or better to get 100% reliability with the Micro of the V-10. My SA loaded Parkerized has some changes, it uses a 14# Wolff progressive recoil spring the sock mainspring which I think is about 23#, and the original small JMB radius on the firing pin stop to slow the slide on recoil and give less muzzle flip when it hits the stop, also on this gun iIuse a shock buffer. The Micro runs so well on this load tha on a turning taget that opens for 3 seconds at 7 yards, I can get 4 shots into about a n 8 inch ciircle in COM on a BG target before it closes.