Round Count Relevance When Buying Used

[90lxracer]

In trolling the classifieds here I see pistols with what *I* would consider crazy high round counts.. However, I really don't have some accurate gauge as to what is approaching the end fo service life for a competition barrel, or any barrel for that matter. 

 

What is starting to get into the threshold of "too much" and you're just buying something that would need to be rebarreled? Is it just a matter of buying a barrel and sticking it in.. or is there some manner of gunsmith fitting to get it just right?? Would that time and cost involved involved be worth it over just buying new? Yes, I know it's case dependant.. but in speaking in generalities here.. 

[Hi-Power Jack]

Really takes a LOT of ammo to ruin a barrel - usually other parts go first.

 

Gun gets "loose" -

 

No, you can't just "stick" a barrel in - has to be gunsmithed (that a word?).

 

Have to consider the price vs the round count when buying.     

[Garmil]

It's hard to say an amount of rounds that requires a barrel change every gun and ammo combo that was used is different. Basically it's fine until it starts losing accuracy.

 

With regards to new barrel it depends on what type of gun we are talking about.

 

The majority of guns do take drop in replacement barrels with no fitting.  1911/2011 based guns are the main exception to this.

 

[tyler2you]

As Garmil suggests, there are way too many variables to even come up with a generalization.  While 40,000 rounds might wear out an Open Gun's barrel shooting jacketed bullets at 1400 FPS, that same round count would probably leave lots of life in a Polymer Gun's barrel shooting coated lead at 900 FPS.

 

 

Edited March 7, 2017 by tyler2you
clarification

[90lxracer]

Looks like it's a case of "it all depends" lol 

 

I guess, I can somewhat refine it to a point.. I was thinking in the Limited arena.. 

 

But at 40K rds.. that's getting going??? Whew.. I guess that's a bit more reassuring.. even with buying new.. it's take me a good long while to approach that kind of rd count.

[rowdyb]

for someone who really practices and competes, 40k rounds is only one to two years of usage on a gun.

 

most replacement barrels that are non-oem need some fitting. when buying used i take it as a matter of course i'm going to have to change every spring in the gun. then i shoot it and see what's what in relation to other wear and tear and tolerances.

 

i also use round count as kind of a BS detector from the seller. if they say it has only 2k rounds through it but has some serious holster wear and the breech face looks all worn and such then i ask more questions. i ask myself, does this gun generally match the wear and tear on all other parts of the gun based on round count? and if not, why?

Edited March 7, 2017 by rowdyb

[ScottieShootz]

To me, a limited or open gun with under 10,000 rounds is still New (Used Like New) condition.  I agree with Rowdy, I'll look at the breechface and slide and see what the wear really looks like.   Lots of holster wear but no breechface signs just tells me someone dryfired 100,000 times, unless it's a STI Trojan and the wear starts at draw number 2. 

[MikeBurgess]

In general guns are way more durable than the general public thinks, in the competition community putting 10's of thousands of rounds on a gun is just par for the course, outside our little bubble people who shoot 50 or so rounds at a time think the numbers we run up are crazy and assume our guns must be worn out because they have 50x more rounds on them than their guns do. I know many of us run more rounds between cleanings than most non competitive shooters run in a life time. Just remember in this game the guns are the cheep part, to use the numbers from above 40,000 rounds of open ammo costs something north of $6,000 and that is probably on the low end for barrel life and ammo cost, so a new $500 barrel every $6,000+ in ammo is not a big deal.

 

I saw a article a while back about a pro shooters limited 2011's  passing 500,000 rounds, I'm sure it has had many new parts over the years but its still going. 

 

Edited March 7, 2017 by MikeBurgess

[CHA-LEE]

I think it really comes down to the buyers basic requirement of Fashion verses Function. If you want a gun to look awesome showing very little wear then you should be shopping for low round count safe queens. If you want a gun that functions reliably then you should be looking for well worn work horses and not really worry about the total round count because anything can be rebuilt. Its also unlikely that someone shooting north of 40K - 50K on a single blaster is going to shoot it until total failure without maintaining it or replacing parts as needed when they do fail. These heavy use guys are using their gear hard and also maintaining it appropriately for those conditions to keep it running reliably. If it didn't run reliably then it wouldn't have a high round count on it. 

 

I purposefully do not keep track of the round count I shoot on any of my guns because there is no consistent "Life Schedule" for any individual part. I break and wear out stuff all the time. Some parts will break or wear out well before I think they should, but they get replaced just as if they lasted a long time. I simply replace parts as they break or wear out regardless of how long they lasted because I want to keep my guns in top functional order.

 

I would be more leery of a low round count safe queen as its reliability hasn't really been proven yet.

 

You can also tell which sellers are actually taking care of their stuff are not by the quality of the pictures and the details on the firearm. If someone is too lazy to take a decent picture of the firearm they are selling, then they are usually too lazy to maintain the firearm properly as well. The same could be said when you see obvious issues with the gun in the pictures. I always look for missing screws/parts, beat up parts, super dirty items and things like that which show a certain level of laziness from the seller. If the seller can't even clean up the gun to make it look presentable to sell, then how do you think it was treated before they decided to sell it?

 

 

[EngineerEli]

I bought a used Infinity Limited gun. It supposedly had about 80k through it, based on the looks of it I believed the seller. The slide to frame fit was starting to get a little looser but not enough to be a problem. About 5-10k rounds later I noticed a crack forming at the rear of the sight tracker rib, this was more of a fitment issue than the barrel being shot out. My point is, at that point 85-90k rounds through the gun, I had Infinity properly fit a brand new barrel to my gun, and the gun has been running flawlessly since. Also, remember with a limited gun, or any iron sighted gun, or even slide mounted optic, the barrel to slide fit is way more important to accuracy than the slide to frame fit. When I got the gun back with the new barrel, the slide and barrel fit like a bank vault.

[90lxracer]

On 3/7/2017 at 2:45 PM, CHA-LEE said:

I think it really comes down to the buyers basic requirement of Fashion verses Function. If you want a gun to look awesome showing very little wear then you should be shopping for low round count safe queens. If you want a gun that functions reliably then you should be looking for well worn work horses and not really worry about the total round count because anything can be rebuilt. Its also unlikely that someone shooting north of 40K - 50K on a single blaster is going to shoot it until total failure without maintaining it or replacing parts as needed when they do fail. These heavy use guys are using their gear hard and also maintaining it appropriately for those conditions to keep it running reliably. If it didn't run reliably then it wouldn't have a high round count on it. 

 

I purposefully do not keep track of the round count I shoot on any of my guns because there is no consistent "Life Schedule" for any individual part. I break and wear out stuff all the time. Some parts will break or wear out well before I think they should, but they get replaced just as if they lasted a long time. I simply replace parts as they break or wear out regardless of how long they lasted because I want to keep my guns in top functional order.

 

I would be more leery of a low round count safe queen as its reliability hasn't really been proven yet.

 

You can also tell which sellers are actually taking care of their stuff are not by the quality of the pictures and the details on the firearm. If someone is too lazy to take a decent picture of the firearm they are selling, then they are usually too lazy to maintain the firearm properly as well. The same could be said when you see obvious issues with the gun in the pictures. I always look for missing screws/parts, beat up parts, super dirty items and things like that which show a certain level of laziness from the seller. If the seller can't even clean up the gun to make it look presentable to sell, then how do you think it was treated before they decided to sell it?

 

 

 

Well put! This is another mind set change for me.. again, moving from, say, the "hobbyist" ranks, towards the competitive side.. holster rash a,d nicks and dings are going to be common.. same with high round count. 

 

It's still very new.. so call it normalizing for me.. lol 

[90lxracer]

On 3/7/2017 at 2:57 PM, EngineerEli said:

I bought a used Infinity Limited gun. It supposedly had about 80k through it, based on the looks of it I believed the seller. The slide to frame fit was starting to get a little looser but not enough to be a problem. About 5-10k rounds later I noticed a crack forming at the rear of the sight tracker rib, this was more of a fitment issue than the barrel being shot out. My point is, at that point 85-90k rounds through the gun, I had Infinity properly fit a brand new barrel to my gun, and the gun has been running flawlessly since. Also, remember with a limited gun, or any iron sighted gun, or even slide mounted optic, the barrel to slide fit is way more important to accuracy than the slide to frame fit. When I got the gun back with the new barrel, the slide and barrel fit like a bank vault.

 

80K!!!! Wow.. it just seems so foreign to me.. lol Sounds like a bad hombre of a pistol!