Whether you’re a gun enthusiast looking to add to your collection or just aiming to defend your property, a reliable weapon is a must. After all, the last thing you want is a firearm that misfires or fails when you need it most. The great thing is there’s a strong consensus based on years of data about which are the most reliable.
The most reliable gun is the Glock 19 because of its compact size, ruggedness, ease of use, and bullet capacity. It’s a superbly engineered automatic pistol with excellent safety measures and is exceptionally user-friendly. It uses 9 mm bullets and can accept magazines with up to 33 rounds.
Follow along as we delve deeper into the factors that make a gun reliable and explore the most reliable handgun, rifle, and shotgun on the market. By the end of the article, you’ll know precisely what to look for in obtaining the most reliable gun that fits your needs. That way you can make an informed decision.
I recommend buying firearms, ammo, and accessories at a reputable online dealer, like my top pick, Palmetto State Armory. They are well-respected in the community and provide a 100% lifetime warranty on every weapon they sell. Just click here to see their latest inventory.
What Makes a Gun Reliable?
Naturally, the most reliable gun goes bang every time you pull the trigger, regardless of its caliber. That means a gun’s reliability isn’t a multi-faceted concept with several dimensions. For simplicity’s sake, you narrow it down to some critical factors that ensure the gun remains in excellent working condition.
A gun’s reliability depends on:
Your Gun Handling Skills
Your skills and experience handling firearms determine the gun’s reliability, too. Guns come in various sizes and calibers, and handling experience doesn’t always carry over. For example, you might be excellent with a pistol, but that doesn’t make you a crack shot with a long rifle.
Various factors influence your ability to handle firearms, including experience, a gun’s mechanics, your physical characteristics, muscle memory, and more. For the best results, you need to train and practice with a particular firearm to hone your skills. It takes a little readjustment to use different guns with mastery and precision.
Gun Design
All guns aren’t created equal, and that is readily demonstrated in the design. Revolvers rarely jam, but they can only hold a maximum of six bullets. On the other hand, semi-automatic pistols use magazines that carry more ammunition, but the magazines lead to frequent jamming.
Since magazines are an integral part of your firearm, they will pretty much render the gun useless if they don’t work as intended. With semi-autos, you need to test each magazine and ensure it’s in excellent working condition. Buying decent mags, replacing, or fixing the broken ones makes your gun even more reliable.
Related How To Choose the Best Gun To Buy (Based on Your Needs).
Size
Surprisingly, a gun’s size matters because a firearm might be too small or too big for your hands and body. The size of a firearm influences the handling ability, particularly the thumb and finger placement.
Improper grips can affect the grip safeties, put pressure on the auto slide release, or eject the magazine prematurely.
Any of these factors might affect the gun’s reliability and cause it to fail you in a life-and-death situation. Picking the right gun size can help you avoid these potentially dangerous situations while building your skills.
Ruggedness
The best guns have few, if any, fragile parts that can bend or break, causing them to malfunction. The more rugged firearms have limited delicate components that are likely to break when handling or using the weapon as normal.
If a gun has inferior internal components, it’s prone to premature wear and breaking, compromising its accuracy and reliability. If some of the parts wear quickly because they’re too soft or too hard, the weapon will certainly malfunction at some point. Extractors, springs, and magazines are leading causes of gun malfunctions.
In-depth research into the gun design can help you avoid unreliable firearms and pick quality replacement parts when the time comes.
Maintenance
Safety is the hallmark of a responsible gun owner, and a safe gun is clean and well-maintained. Cleaning your gun after each use keeps it in tip-top shape.
Grime and powder residual build-up in the barrel affects the gun’s performance leading to unpredictable and unreliable performance. Proper cleaning, maintenance, and storage ensure the firearm retains its top operational form and is ready to go whenever the need arises.
Taking a class from a professional can teach you how to shoot with precision and how to handle and care for your firearms, so it goes bang every time.
A reliable carry gun should let you fire off 200 of your choice ammunition without experiencing a single malfunction.
Related What is the Best One Gun? (If You Could Only Have One).
Most Reliable Handgun: Glock 19
When looking for a reliable pistol brand that’ll stand the test of time and never fail to live up to expectations, you can’t go wrong with the iconic Glock 19.
While both of Glock’s 9 mm models – 19 and 17 – are reliable, the compact Glock 19 is the best handgun for civilian use. The mid-sized pistol can either be the primary sidearm or a concealed carry weapon. Glock 19 is also the perfect pistol because of its ideal build, dimensions, design efficiency, and readily accepts modifications.
However, the Glock 19 towers over other automatic pistols thanks to its reliability. The handgun will unfailingly pump out round after round, even after running through tens of thousands of rounds.
The 9 mm rounds are cheap and readily available to let you keep shooting and improving your skills without breaking the bank. A Glock 19 is compatible with G7 magazines and higher-capacity magazines that carry up to 33 rounds.
A Glock 19 is super user-friendly while maintaining exceptional safety standards. Even with a round in the chamber, the handgun will not shoot unless you press the trigger and safety mechanism.
With a Glock, you have a simple, reliable, and safe handgun that’s easy to clean and maintain and will probably run out of bullets.
Here is the latest price of Glock handguns on guns.com. They have a very wide selection of firearms and ammo and are the dealer that I recommend.
Most Reliable Rifle: AR-15 Rifle
Initially made for the military, the AR-15 is now the most popular civilian rifle in the country. The semi-automatic gun fires a single round with each pull on the trigger, which helps conserve ammo and build your shooting accuracy.
The 5.56 x 45 mm caliber is an ideal rifle for home defense because it packs a punch, and a single shot is powerful enough to kill, maim, or repel invaders.
For its power, an AR-15 rifle chambered with 5.56 x 45 mm rounds has a milder recoil than other rifles. Coupling that with excellent ergonomics makes the AR-15 quite a user-friendly rifle.
The AR-15 rifle is built to precision for deadly accuracy, and some models come with scope mounts, easy-grip handguards, and other modifications.
The rifle comprises two parts – upper and lower receivers – that make for easy stripping and reassembling, with the modular design being convenient in the field.
The innovative design makes it easy to customize the rifle to your specific needs and preferences. That means you can configure an AR-15 for marksmanship, hunting, or close-quarter combat.
Here is the latest price of an AR-15 on guns.com.
Most Reliable Shotgun: Remington 870 Pump Shotgun
Favored by the law enforcement officers, the Remington 870 sets the shotgun’s gold standards, towering over its rivals such as the Mossberg 500. This firearm is renowned for its sturdy beast-like qualities and performance.
It comes with a durable yet beautiful design coupled with excellent ergonomics that makes for effortless mastery. The Remington offers a relatively short learning curve to let you master the delicate art of side saddle reloading.
Weighing slightly over seven pounds, the Remington 870 is among the lightest shotguns on the market. Luckily, it comes with a rubber butt pad to absorb the recoil and protect your shoulders.
Most of the scattergun’s stock is slick black plastic fitted with rubber panels fitted on the grip area to let you hold the firearm securely. A sizeable comb on the stock makes for solid check rest to let you take accurate shots.
Despite the sleek design, the 870 feels well-built and reliable in your hands as you shoot or carry it around your property or to the shooting range.
The Remington 870 shotgun is compatible with multiple munitions, including buckshot, slugs, and birdshot. The firearm will pump out hundreds of these rounds, going bang every time. It will go off without a single malfunction when you press the trigger while ejecting the empty shells correctly.
Here is the latest price Remington shotguns on guns.com.
Conclusion
If you are looking for something dependable for personal defense, then you can’t go wrong with a Glock. The Glock 19 is the most reliable weapon, and you can depend on it over other models to never fail or malfunction. It’s well-known will stay true and shoot straight even after running through tens of thousands of rounds at the shooting range.
If you want something that packs a bigger punch, go with the Remington 870 and/or the AR-15. They are excellent choices if you want higher firepower.
Jim James is a published author and expert on the outdoors and survivalism. Through avid research and hands-on experience, he has gained expertise on a wide variety of topics. His time spent at college taught him to become really good at figuring out answers to common problems. Often through extensive trial and error, Jim has continued to learn and increase his knowledge of a vast array of topics related to firearms, hunting, fishing, medical topics, cooking, games/gaming, and other subjects too numerous to name.
Jim has been teaching people a wide variety of survivalism topics for over five years and has a lifetime of experience fishing, camping, general survivalism, and anything in nature. In fact, while growing up, he often spent more time on the water than on land! He has degrees in History, Anthropology, and Music from the University of Southern Mississippi. He extensively studied Southern History, nutrition, geopolitics, the Cold War, and nuclear policy strategies and safety as well as numerous other topics related to the content on survivalfreedom.com.