How many round fired until a gun should be considered reliable?

[Warbirds]

There are so many post out there that state "I have fired X number of rounds without problem from my Y handgun".

What do you consider to be the threshold to fire from your weapon before you are willing to trust it with your life? Or do you trust brand name more than use? What's your opinion?

[Raider-3]

I think personnel preference. Just do some practice with practice rounds and your carry rounds at the very least.

[Caribou]

I have repeatedly heard that it takes a couple hundred rounds to break in a pistol. Now that doesn't mean that it is not reliable before that or that you may not have a problem after that. Remember, almost every class whether military, police, or civilian includes clearing drills. You can have problems with the gun, rare but it does happen, you can have problems with a limp wrist, or bad ammo. Personally most of my problems have been with the ammo. I learned the hard way not to buy chinese. Train and practice will serve you well. This will give you the confidence you need in both the gun and yourself.

[nodaywithout]

It is all personal preference.

For me personally at one point in time I would not carry a firearm until i have put 500 rounds through the pistol. This would allow me the chance to get familiar with the grip, sights, and trigger pull. As I became more experienced with pistols and defensive techniques I found 500 was no longer my min number of rounds needed.

I now prefer to get a bare min of 50 rounds of 236 grain .45 followed by a few magazines worth of defensive hollow points.

I will say brand reputation has a lot to do with my choices. Most recently I purchased a 1911 made by springfield, fired 50 rounds total then i knew i could rely on this firearm. now i would not do the same thing with a highpoint as they are more likely to have issues with the assembly causing malfunctions due to the high amount of production quality can go down.

My opinion.

[B2Tall]

I go 200-300 rounds before I feel a gun is broken in.

[Trini]

Get a glock. No break in period.. .period !

[longslide10]

I believe Springfield XD's don't need anything but a good cleaning for break in. Mine eats anything but likes Magtech the least--seems inconsistent and underpowered compared to others, maybe I got a bad box.

[S&W645]

I go 200-300 rounds before I feel a gun is broken in.

I agree but if it has already run 50 rounds without problems, the next 150 should also be just as problem free. If it is stiff or has FTF/FTE during the first 50, then it needs to run the other 150 before being trustable. The first couple mags will tell if it needs more break in.

[Purple]

There is no pat answer for your question. I don't consider what I do with a new gun a break in. I consider it a quality assurance or reliability test - first with some good quality target practice loads with as close as I can get to the same bullet weight I plan to carry in my defensive loads, and then a couple mags or cylinders full of my defensive loads. I also consider it a training and familiarization period between me and the gun - the later might take more than a few mags or cylinder loads and is a matter of preference based on the gun and how it fees to me.

[S&W645]

Also, it depends if all your guns are of the same type. While you'll find differences in 1911 makes/models, if you stick with that design, the learning curve will be less. Same applies to those who like Glocks.