Hi everybody,
I would like to see an "add-on" to the Rohrbaugh R9 purchase price, of a "reliability certification" for the R9 made by a gunsmith, or group of gunsmiths, approved by the Rohrbaughs. The certification would consist of the statement that 50 rounds of a good ammo (say, Speer Gol Dot 115 gr.) where run through the R9 with no failures-to-fire or failures-to-eject. If failures were encountered, the gunsmith would work on the gun until the 50 successes in a row were achieved.
The ammo and the 50 rounds were selected arbitrarily by me. Other ammo and/or number of successive perfect shots might be selected differently after further consideration.
Some of you enthusiasts like do do this sort of gunsmithing yourselves, so this "reliability certification" would not be for everyone. That's fine. But for those of us with limited time or range access (or terrible winter weather), we could pay maybe a $100 and get it done by somebody approved by Rohrbaugh.
I recerived my R9 about a month ago, but was delayed in test firing it by my wife having an operation. I finally was able to get out to the range last Sunday, in quite cold weather (Wyoming in December!) and squeeze off 15 rounds of Speer Gold Dot 115 gr. with 2 failures to eject.
Now I am faced with problems! I have to have reliability in any gun I carry. Various "fixes" have been suggested on this forum.
(1) Break-in the gun with 50 or a 100 rounds.
(2) Take the gun apart and put on special lubricants.
(3) Get a stronger ejection spring
(4) Work on a "stronger hand hold" on the gun to avoid "limp wrist"
(5) etc.
The difficulty is that I don't have time for all this, nor am I inclined to do it for a gun that cost $1000. I want a gun that goes bang when I pull the trigger. We'll have lousy weather here in Wyoming for about the next four months, and I couldn't really get at an energetic test program until the weather on the outdoor range improves in the Spring. I hate the thought of throwing the R9 into a drawer until then.
I am happy to pay for a quality-control "burn-in" as is done with critical electronic equipment. A certain percentage of electronic devices fail almost immediately. The burn-in eliminates those with this short-life mode of failure, and the survivors generally have a much longer dependable life. A dependable carry" gun is at least as important as a dependable electronic device.
I am a professional statistician and am familiar with quality control procedures. Quality control is an important part of producing dependable mechanisms, but it does have its costs. For those who would rather do it themselves, that's fine. But it has to be done somewhere.
The R9 is beginning to acquire a reputation for "occasional lemons". The gun is a quality object. Well made, accurate with a smooth trigger pull, small for pocket carry. I loved everything about it when I shot my 15 rounds, EXCEPT the undependability.
I would be most happy to pay for someone to certify that dependability with an appropriate test program.
Best Wishes,
Leon Borgman
