When it comes to a defensive handgun, I fer damn sure want to know it will go bang every time under every reasonable circumstance before I'll consider carrying it.
Every gun new to me gets stripped at my bench, then cleaned and lubed. It's amazing how much crud I find in new guns. Then I take it to the range and shoot a bunch of ball ammo thru it to see how it shoots for me. Some new guns like Kahrs may bobble a bit in the first few mags, but if cleaned and lubed well they'll generally straighten out within 50 rounds. Some tight guns from custom makers may take longer (I'm talking custom 1911's, some Kimbers, etc., I've known & owned in the past).
As for carry ammo, it's a lot less of an issue than it was 15-20 years ago when JHP ammo often failed to feed in some guns, notably 1911's. Nowadays that just doesn't happen much. More likely is [bleep] mags, in which case you'll get malfunctions as you get down to the last 1-2 rounds in the mag.
Like I said, I run a gooodly amount of ball ammo for starters, then make sure all my mags work with my carry ammo on the last few rounds, at which point I figure I'm GTG. I wouldn't trust a pistol I hadn't put several hundred rounds thru.
Ammo costs can be mitigated by reloading, discount shopping, etc. But maintaining proficiency requires frequent shooting, so you've got to expend ammo anyway, so I don't really understand all the complaining about ammo cost.
Yeah but you're rich Doc.
