[Deluxe247]

Which made me wonder if people who didn't have these problems kept one on the chamber (or a stored the gun with a snap cap) and thus loosed up LCI spring.

Actually, this would not make a difference. A spring wears out by the motion of being compressed and uncompressed.

It's just like your mag springs. Leaving a mag full for extended periods of time will not wear them out. The actual use; reloading/emptying will.

More on springs: http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/ ... i_99130369

I agree that when any pistol is new that it needs to be broken in and that would directly affect the reliability of the weapon at first. Any spring in the gun will need to seat and all the parts must "learn" to work with each other before you will get something consistent.

It would be hard to say that one particular spring or combination is the culprit. All guns wear/operate differently at first. Some Steyr's might have problems with the LCI and it's spring or the extractor or both. But like I said, when new, you have to expect this until it is broken in. There is no set amount of time or rounds that you could say "This weapon is now broken in." They are all different. Mine was a little erratic for the first 600 or so rounds but now works great and I have almost 8k through it. Someone else might have had to go through twice as much for theirs to be considered broken in. Like you stated, as things loosen up (break in) the weapon will work as intended.

-D