68,996 rounds
10 stoppages, 0 malfunctions, 3 parts breakages
Yesterday while shooting, I had a stoppage with my P30 test gun. Upon inspection, it appeared that the slide had failed to cycle properly, preventing the spent cartridge from fully extracting and ejecting. Since it had been about 9,000 rounds since the last time I cleaned it, it seemed like an appropriate time to disassemble and inspect the gun.
The first thing I noticed was a substantial wear mark on the underside of the slide being caused by the disconnector. The obvious conclusion was that the mixture of TW-25B grease and Militec-1 oil, combined with nine thousand rounds worth of gunpowder and primer debris, was causing the disconnector to stick, dragging on the slide, and inducing the stoppage.
But as I was putting the gun back together, I discovered this:
Yes, boys and girls, that is the trigger bar and the disconnector, being held together by the amazing power of magnetism. My whole pistol somehow got magnetized. It’s minor, but I’m sure that the combination of dirtiness and magnetic attraction was enough to cause the hiccup.
Now I just need to find a safe way to demagnetize the thing…
Train hard & stay safe! ToddG
Previous P30 Endurance Test posts at pistol-training.com:
- Week Thirty
- Week Twenty-Nine
- Week Twenty-Eight
- Week Twenty-Seven
- Week Twenty-Six
- Week Twenty-Five
- Week Twenty-Four
- Week Twenty-Three
- Week Twenty-Two
- Week Twenty-One
- Week Twenty
- Week Nineteen
- Week Seventeen
- Week Sixteen
- Week Fifteen
- Week Fourteen
- Week Thirteen
- Week Twelve
- Week Eleven
- Week Ten
- Week Nine
- Week Eight
- Week Seven
- Week Six
- Week Five
- Week Four
- Week Three
- Week Two
- Week One
- Initial Report
You can take a polymer handgun, unload it, and drop it into an ultrasonic cleaner.
…I’m just sayin’.
It was probably that blue spiraling light over Norway that did it.
For those keeping score at home:
Mean Rounds Between Stoppage (MRBS): 6900
80% Lower Confidence Level MRBS: 5054
Mean Rounds Between Failure (MRBF): 22999
80% Lower Confidence Level MRFB: 12511
Jason — Can you explain “80% Lower Confidence Level” please? It’s obviously not as simple as just 80% of the recorded number.
why demagnetize it? Now if you ever get lost in the woods you can carefully place it in a bucket of water and it’ll point North.
Todd,
Simply put, if you were to run this test again 100 times, 80 times you would observe a MRBS equal to or greater than 5054 rounds (or MRFB of greater than 12511).
This is based on a statistical distribution, and also requires a few assumptions: 1. You did not get a “gold-plated” gun. 2. You did not operate the gun long enough to reach wear-out. 3. YOUR gun is statistically representative of all P30s 4. All failures were random with respect to when they happened.
Jason — Thanks for the explanation!
Todd,
You probably know this but it is worth a mention.
If you have any machine shops around that do surface grinding I am sure that they will have a demagnetizer.
You can also make your own, but it will cost some money and most likely be weaker then the one in a shop. If you Google it, you can find the instructions.
Since the part is pretty small, you could do it like computer geeks do it for screwdrivers:
How to magnetize/demagnetize a screwdriver
Or, you could always tell your wife that your “Animal Magnetism” is at work. Just sayin’.
Can’t imagine why I would worry about a gun getting magnetized. A quick test of my PF9 shows it’s got a slight magnetic attraction. The hunting rifle does too, so does my son’s rifle. The P95, however, does not.
Go to a electronics and find a demagnetizer. They were available when cassettes players were used and you had to demagnetize it every 1,000 hrs of use to keep the clarity of the sound.