[WKC]

I was planning to put some of my thoughts down to answer Xffdo's question. But it's late so I'll put that off till tomorrow and ramble a little here.

I then to think that the issues with the O-Frame a lot of people see and encounter is due to the lack of involvement in the gun. By that I mean they do not understand how the gun works and what you need to pay attention to. Add that to the tolerance stackup during production and you're very likely to have issues out of the box. Like I said before, the O-Frame was design in an age where manufacturing technology was not as advance as it is today. So the design depends on handwork to finish the production. On the other hand, the gun was designed to be maintained in the field with very little technical support. It is very easy to maintain and once it is tuned, it will run reliably.

The Glock on the other hand was design using modern design and manufacturing techniques so there will not be very many build issues. However, they had their design issues early on. I have also seen and read reports of Glock Perfection behaving not so perfectly.

I like to address Xffdo's question with a reference to the reliability bathtub curve. In this concept, we divide the life of a product into three regions. At the beginning, you encounter problems due to the production issues with the gun. This is also referred to as infant mortality. This is what the O-Frame is known for. But once you out grow these issues, the gun then runs reliably. This is when you run into the next region where issues will be totally random. Kind of the trout happens region. Things break because it's not your day. As the gun ages, you enter the next region where you begin to encounter issues due to wear out of parts. Things like springs and extractors are common parts to go because of age and these will be cycle related (how many rounds you put through the gun). Depending on the design of the gun, other parts may encounter the fatigue issue. The only thing we can do here is to stay on top of the maintenance of the gun. Perform periodic inspection for cracks in high stress parts. Replace springs periodically.

I'll try to put down some thoughts on what to look for in the O-Frame. I can make an attempt at the Glock based my understanding of the design but it would be better if someone else can share their experience.