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Breaking in Semi Auto and Cleaning
handye9
Member Posts: 54 ✭✭
One gun in particular, Sig Mosquito. The book says break in could take up to 1000 rounds. It also says, gun should be cleaned after every trip to the range.
I've had numerous folks at gun shops (or shows) tell me "the key to a smooth operating Mosquito, is good ammo, clean and well oiled gun".
I'm up to about 400 rounds and have cleaned the gun 3 - 4 times. Even with CCI minimags, I still have FTE's, stovepipes, and a few FTF.
What brings up my question - Yesterday, I visited a (not so local) gun shop / gun smith. He told me " your first mistake was taking that gun apart, and cleaning it".
He went on to say:
1. Part of what breaks in a semi auto (any semi auto), is the grit from being dirty.
2. The gun should not be taken apart and cleaned, until after the recommended number of rounds. That would be 1000 for a Mosquito.
3. Now that you have cleaned that gun, start over on break in count.
4. The manufacturer puts in a special (gritty) break in lube. If I cleaned the gun too soon, I removed that lube.
5. The slide needs to wear down a little.
I'm 58 years old, dad had guns in the house since before I was born, I've had my own guns since I was 10, I spent 21 years in the military, and I've never heard of things like that.
Did I miss something?
Note:
I have five other semi auto's (including a 22 of a different brand). They were all purchased new, all cleaned after each trip, and to date, I've not had an FTE, FTF, or stovepipe with any of them. I didn't tell that to the guy in the gun shop.
I've had numerous folks at gun shops (or shows) tell me "the key to a smooth operating Mosquito, is good ammo, clean and well oiled gun".
I'm up to about 400 rounds and have cleaned the gun 3 - 4 times. Even with CCI minimags, I still have FTE's, stovepipes, and a few FTF.
What brings up my question - Yesterday, I visited a (not so local) gun shop / gun smith. He told me " your first mistake was taking that gun apart, and cleaning it".
He went on to say:
1. Part of what breaks in a semi auto (any semi auto), is the grit from being dirty.
2. The gun should not be taken apart and cleaned, until after the recommended number of rounds. That would be 1000 for a Mosquito.
3. Now that you have cleaned that gun, start over on break in count.
4. The manufacturer puts in a special (gritty) break in lube. If I cleaned the gun too soon, I removed that lube.
5. The slide needs to wear down a little.
I'm 58 years old, dad had guns in the house since before I was born, I've had my own guns since I was 10, I spent 21 years in the military, and I've never heard of things like that.
Did I miss something?
Note:
I have five other semi auto's (including a 22 of a different brand). They were all purchased new, all cleaned after each trip, and to date, I've not had an FTE, FTF, or stovepipe with any of them. I didn't tell that to the guy in the gun shop.
Comments
I know what you are going thru, and that has been a problem that has been a cloud hanging over many of the GSG type, pot metal, look-alike guns. The Walther P-22, Sig Mosquito, a lot of the 1911 look alikes in 22.
I have a simple solution...get rid of it, as it does not even really operate like your Sig 220, 226, 228, or 229. I would personally opt for a Browning Buckmark. Much more reliable, and accurate.
Best
Have you looked at the magazine lips on the inside? De-burred the follower and the indicator holes. Check the extractor for crud/grit limiting the movement and for burrs on the hook.
Try pressing up on the magazine base if it will move, sometimes that corrects the alignment for failure to feed.
Do you have a different mag to try? Try different ammo/types at least a separate lot.
A "gunsmith" giving that odd information to a customer imho is looking for more gunsmithing work.
I have a Mosquito and have followed the same procedure for all my guns new or old.
Check, clean and lube any new gun before shooting it, after wards check, clean and lube it every time.
Did yours come with 2 different recoil springs? Mine did and only works with one of them no matter what type of ammo I put through it.
And it did take about 200/300 rounds to break in and since then has been great.
And yes it seems some Mosquitos take a lot longer to settle in and be reliable.
That said, good quality high speed 22 ammo is the ticket for a Mosquito to function properly,.
Talking to the counter jockey, I confirmed (from him) that he was familiar with the pistol and also confirmed from him that the Siq was going to be reliable with almost any 22LR round.
That evening when going through the paperwork, I see that Sig strongly recommended CCI minimags. Put the pistol back in the box, made sure everything was just as I had received it and took it back the next day, unfired.
Any .22LR pistol that specifies a specific manufacturer is going to be a problem, IMO.
Brad Steele
I take my stuff apart and stone the working surfaces after working the action some to mark the areas. Very few thing wear in, most are wearing out.
Have you looked at the magazine lips on the inside? De-burred the follower and the indicator holes. Check the extractor for crud/grit limiting the movement and for burrs on the hook.
Try pressing up on the magazine base if it will move, sometimes that corrects the alignment for failure to feed.
Do you have a different mag to try? Try different ammo/types at least a separate lot.
I have three magazines, changing the mag doesn't appear to make a difference. I have been trying a variety of ammo. All have been at least 1250 FPS. Some work better than others. Minimags (I believe they are 1250 FPS) are hard to get right now. That shop I was in, did have some CCI Velocitor (a little higher velocity than minimag). I'm going to try 100 rounds of that.
So far, Remmington Viper has worked the best. With those, I had one hickup in 100 rounds, and that was after shooting 100 rounds of dirty bulk ammo.
-The traditional teaching is that it takes 500 (not 1000) rounds to break in a semi-auto pistol. Lots of them don't require that many and in fact, most of the high quality combat type semiautos will basically run 100% right out of the box with just a cleaning and no real break in whatsoever.
-IMO, the advice you got was wrong and back-asswards. FIRST THING you want to do with any new gun is break it down and clean it. Part of this is that taking down the gun familiarizes you with its parts and operation; that's part of the "manual of arms" of any gun you need to learn when operating it. Might as well learn it BEFORE you start working with the gun! The bigger issue is that manufacturing itself can leave guns full of metal shavings or other dirt that can abrade and damage moving surfaces on use.
You clean and lube the gun upfront to HELP it break in. How the heck are you going to put your 500-1000 break-in rounds through the gun when it arrives from the factory full of grease and metal shavings, and jams continuously? That makes no sense.
-Yes, wearing away rough spots where parts ordinarily rub against one another during function is the biggest part of break in. But you don't want or need wear in OTHER places than that. Also, no manufacturer deliberately puts abrasive compounds into their brand new guns. That's cuckoo talk. Abrasives aren't necessary since metal parts of equal hardness will naturally rub each other smooth over time.
-CCI minimags are high-velocity and use copper plated round nose full 40 grain bullets. Basically they have every feature that "should" run ANY .22 gun reliably, and that's what most people report. I agree that I'd never want to own any gun that only runs one kind of .22LR reliably, but I can tell you that SIG mosquitos will run other ammo OK (or I should say, I've seen other people do it).
-In general, the SIG mosquito has a bad reputation for reliability, as do most of the combat "copy" .22 guns. IMO, most shooters are better off with a purpose designed .22LR handgun if the goal is to actually shoot things. For a "trainer" designed to familiarize yourself with a centerfire weapons platform and get in cheap practice, what you want is a .22LR conversion on top of your actual centerfire caliber handgun.
this is my opinion but I have shot pistol matches for over 40 years #1 clean is good and #2oil is your friend. With any semi auto pistol . Now one thing you may not want to hear is the Mosquito is made with some zinc alloy parts and have been noted for some being problematic[:(] Last but not least bulk ammo that is just poured into an open box will have more feed issues than ammo that is properly boxed.
I haven't a problem what so ever, they work flawless, I use it on all my guns, awesome stuff! Give it a try, and it's only about $6 a can! I also use it for other things around my house, anything that needs lube!
I talked to Sig about oil once, and they said that oil is more important than cleaning the gun!