Well, you're going to need to keep track to know when you've arrived at 10k rounds, just like you would to know when you've reach 5k, no? Pro-actively changing out a recoil spring every 5k is hardly an indication of anything being inferior - it's just basic and common good gun maintenance. What does a recoil spring cost?
I think you may be confusing recommended maintenance with actual failure.
I tend to agree with 1911Fan, I would just move on to another platform that I understood had a better track record. That’s just me. For instance, I now carry Beretta’s PX4 Storms in one configuration/caliber or another and have for a while but years ago, when they were young to the market I wouldn’t give you 2 cents for one. As a matter of fact, I was offered a PX4 Compact 9mm by a friend at a deeply discounted price but declined because I could not get past the “ugly duckling” appearance and the fact that it was a DA/SA. Fast forward many years and I start following Earnest Langdon on YouTube as he puts a full size and a compact carry through the paces. He ran unmodified models of each through a 100,000 round torture tests, lubricating them only at 25,000 round intervals, without a single malfunction! He discovered after the test, a crack in the block of the Compact Carry, but the gun had continued to run without a hitch… I was impressed! I now own 4 of them… And yes, I’ve had to learn how to manage a DA/SA, which I believe honestly has made me a better Pistoleer all round. We are fortunate to live, at present anyway, in a country where we can run any gear we want, AND share our insight from these experiences so that, hopefully, others can learn from them without the grief we might have encountered along the way. However, an opinion is just that, an opinion, not a put down, and should be taken as such even when we disagree.
Test and Influencer firearms are “Cherry-Picked,” test fired, tuned, polished, inspected, tested again, adjusted, tested again, cleaned up and then sent out on either loan or “gifted” to the influencers or testers. Prodigy issues were known from the get go.
I guess I got an influencer gun then. Other than a handful of FTFs on my first range session mine has run like a freight train from the get go. No trips to SA, no polishing of parts, it runs SA mags without complaint and the only mod was to get rid of the two piece recoil rod. I do think a lot of the problems were inexperience with a 1911 based platform. I read comments from a lot of noobs on many forums who were just unfamiliar with the peculiarities of the 1911. Not saying experienced people didn’t have issues. And of course everyone was crowing that they would never buy a brand new production gun, they’d let others work the bugs out and then when people had bugs people were shocked. And of course most of the people we heard from were the ones having problems, not the tens of thousand who just got on with it. I personally don’t think the Prodigy was the debacle it was made out to be.
You know, I hear that a lot, but the evidence doesn't really support that theory. There were a number of reviewers/influencers who reported "issues" with the Prodigy. If the guns that were sent out to reviewers were supposedly "cherry picked" in order to be running perfectly before they were sent out, then how do you explain that?
And had the reviewer kept the original recoil spring in the gun after 5k, and the spring had failed at some point between 5k and 10k, would that have demonstrated anything, other than that a recoil spring had failed? Would a recoil spring breaking after 5k have been an indication that something more serious was wrong with the design or manufacturing of the gun itself?
In the realm of running torture tests, I agree with Eagle - set the bar and run the gun until you either clear the bar or it doesn't run. If the point of the exercise is to show how a pistol can stand up to frequent, regular high(ish) round counts, then have at it! Running 250 rounds every few weeks really isn't a torture test in my mind. That's just normal range use. At best, perhaps you could call it a MTBF (mean time between failures) test.It's great to read about a 10k round torture test. I would've rather seen the gun run 10k rounds with Zero parts replaced. A torture rest, in my mind, I'd shoot a gun until it won't shoot anymore or its reached the rounds fired goal established beforevthe test begins. Replacing the recoil spring at 5k rounds makes this a 5k round torture test BECAUSE you started to preemptively avoid failures by replacing parts. Its unclear whether the spring "FAILED" or it was simply replaced because you what?
1. Were going by the SA Progidy owner/operators manual suggesting a spring replacement at 5k rounds
Or...
2. The spring no longer provided reliable return to battery
Or...
3. You replaced the recoil spring simply to preemptively avoid a recoil spring failure.
If you replaced the recoil spring for reason #3, then IMO the gun ran a 5k torture test and probably did or could've continued without that replacement spring, however, we won't know for sure. Call it a 5k torture test which it passed with flying colors with one particular brand and type of ammo. That doesn't mean it will stand up to 5k rounds of Black Hills honey badger rounds, or other self defense oriented ammo. It means it will shoot PMC Bronze 9mm 115grain FMJ. Not really a torture test in my mind if mixed ammo and/or nato stamped ammo 124 grain ammo, or +p or +p+ ammo werent mixed into the test protocol.
Thanks for running this test but realize the parameters it was tested under would exclude a torture test as done by the great Chuck Taylor.
In the realm of running torture tests, I agree with Eagle - set the bar and run the gun until you either clear the bar or it doesn't run. If the point of the exercise is to show how a pistol can stand up to frequent, regular high(ish) round counts, then have at it! Running 250 rounds every few weeks really isn't a torture test in my mind. That's just normal range use. At best, perhaps you could call it a MTBF (mean time between failures) test.
Just my thoughts from the peanut gallery
I'm not saying it needs a ton of oil, but it does run better if it is well lubed. It's just the nature of the beast. Compare a 1911 style pistol to the more modern Glock style that we see today.
Pretty typical for 1911s.