TexasCHLforum.com

I'm sure most of us recognize that most gun owners and CHL holders are casual shooters at best. Not many of them are going to put a statistically significant volume of ammunition through a potential carry gun just to see if it's really reliable. It's not the best route but, many people will elect to ask the opinion of someone with experience with a particular gun or simply turn to the next closest "gun nut" for advice. There's nothing wrong with it, that's life.

Having said that, I'm a little past picking new carry guns. With the exception of S&W revolvers, I only carry guns that I can strip down to the frame and rebuild on my own. Right now, that pretty much means 1911's, Glocks and not much else. My way of verifying reliablity is simply to shoot the snot out of them. All of my carry guns used to be "working" guns that I previously used in weekly matches or while training to the tune of 250-500 rounds a week with ammunition from random sources.

My working guns get treated a lot like rental guns at ranges. That means almost no maintenance unless it gets too heavy or stops working. Even then, I'll typically throw some brake cleaner at it, re-oil it and keep going. If I decide the gun will work for me as a carry gun, I'll pull the gun off the line for a thorough cleaning and some real maintenance. During the maintenance check, I'll inspect parts for excess wear or damage. Assuming I haven't spotted any major issues, I'll replace all the springs, buy fresh magazines, relubricate the gun and verify it will run 100% with 200 rounds of my typical carry ammo.

Not exactly the cheapest or easiest way to be sure a gun works but, that's how all my current carry guns got to be carry guns. YMMV