Getting a 'Good' Gun

Caleb over at Gun Nuts posted this today.
http://gunnuts.net/2010/12/15/life-is-too-short/

I encourage you to go read the article as it's a pretty good post about equipment reliability and choosing a firearm that you can trust.  The only thing I don't agree with is his characterization that a Glock or a  S&W revolver is going to be a better gun than a Bersa or any other cheap gun.  All guns are mechanical objects that can fail.  The only way to never experience a failure with your firearm is to never shoot it.  I own two PF9s, a Ruger P95, a Smith and Wesson SD9, and a Sig P239.  I mention these guns in particular because two weeks ago I took them all to the range for an extended range session.  Now up here in Montana we are experiencing something of an indian summer.  It's above freezing and the sun is shining.  Two weeks ago it was 12 degrees and there was 17 inches of snow on the ground.

These are not ideal gun conditions.  Guns carried next to the skin are warm, happy, and moist.  The second they clear the holster they are covered in frost and you don't want to lick them.  The first thing I did when I got to the range was practice an all up, the crap is hitting the fan drill.  Now, not all of my guns were in their carry holsters on my body when I got the range.  The SD9 is brand new and hasn't earned it's place as a carry gun yet.  The Ruger is semi-retired with almost 8k rounds through it.  One PF9 was in my pocket and the Sig was IWB.  The PF9 came out first and all eight of it's rounds rang the steel at 25 yards with narry a glitch.  Same with the seven round reload.  The Sig came out and the first round range steel at the same time that the magazine dropped out of the gun and all the little bullets rattled around on the ground at my feet.  The magazine spring was stuck all the way at the bottom of the magazine and I was unable to clear that malfunction until I got the magazine on the bench at the house.

Both the P95 and the SD9 choked on the some low power LRN bullets that I built in my quest for the most accurate range load I can build.  But when using factory and full power reloads both of those guns performed flawlessly.  The Sig continued to run very well with a different magazine.

I guess my point here is that a cheap gun is probably no less reliable than an expensive gun.  The only way you really know if a gun is going to go bang for you, is to pull the trigger.  I would never have guessed that my Sig would have such a catastrophic failure that day.  Two is one and one is none, no matter how 'good' a gun you've got on your belt.