I've never owned one but have worked with a number that belonged to friends. In my experience, which admittedly isn't that terribly deep, I've noticed that a few seem to just not be put together well, but by far the most of them could be made to work with the right cleaning methods. It's not like cleaning a bolt action. And yes, there needs to be a LITTLE (not much) oil in the chambers for 100% reliability. Any time you shoot an auto, cleanliness is next to Godliness .... IF you want them to work. Running a patch through them and squirting some WD-40 inside just ain't gonna' cut it. But then, not many really know how to effectively clean a gun, and among those, few will listen anyhow. That's been my experience, at least. One fellow was told not to shoot his muzzleloader with Pyrodex even for one, single shot, without cleaning it ASAP afterwards. He came up with a rusted barrel (VERY badly rusted) just before the next season opened, and said his gun wouldn't let him load a sabot. One look inside the barrel showed clearly why. I told him there was nothing I could do, and he needed a new barrel. Then I asked if he's shot it and not cleaned it afterward. He admitted he had, but said "It was just once." At that point, I reminded him of what I'd told him, and he said he remembered, but just didn't think one shot would do what it had obviously done. I asked if he believed it now. He had no answer. He got a new barrel, a stainless one, and hunted that season. Next season, he brought that one, saying it wouldn't group. I looked down the barrel, and it was pitted pretty thoroughly. I asked if he'd shot it and not cleaned it afterward. He said he had, "but it's stainless, it's not supposed to rust!" I pointed out how the word "stainless" is spelled, and that indeed, it DOES stain LESS than a carbon steel will. But it's most definitely NOT "stain-free." After that one, he gave up muzzleloading. Some folks just think they were born knowing it all, and that always seems to bring them to humility, and usually sooner rather than later.
You can pretty much bet that ANY machine that does things FOR you, like work its own action, WILL require not only a bit more, but SMARTER care than a machine that is more hand-operated. It just can't be any other way, really. And today, with opinions and advice being like a raging torent, and GOOD advice being rare, as it's always been, one MUST have a measure by which to evaluate the advice being given. And the best way to do that, even if it's not infallible, is to find out who has good and long and beneficial EXPERIENCE with whatever it is you want to know about. If poor advice were dollars, we would all be filthy rich! One good rule of thumb is to NOT take the word of some guy in or near a gun shop, and certainly not in one of the "big box" stores! And the more humble your source is, and the more he qualifies what he tells you, the more likely it is that he'll give you good advice. If it grates against what you WANTED to think ... well, just exactly why did you want to think that way anyhow? Sometimes, I think we ought to invent a new sport just for our times. Let's call it "listening to good advice and learning how to tell which is what."
