Are non-plastic guns becomming extinct?

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I don't care for tupperguns. Don't like the way they feel in my hand. They never feel balanced and instinctively point able. I like the mass of a steel handgun. I do own one. It's a PT3A that I use for back up carry. It does what it is supposed to do. All the expectation I have of it is for it to go bang when I pull the trigger. That is all a "belly gun" needs to do.
 
Fastcast is right. Exposure to sunlight causes a molecular breakdown of polymers resulting in frames that, while able to sustain high round counts in the relative short term, will not have longevity after a certain point becoming brittle. It would not surprise me that early Glocks, while built of better polymers than tupperware, will reach a point where they are not recommended for shooting due to frame fatigue. Plastic degrades like other materials just fine. It degrades differently from steel or aluminum, but it degrades all the same.

That polymer pistols have been on the market in any real sense for three decades (there are precious few Hk VP's out there to test), with the largest bulk of them coming onto the market only within the last decade and a half, provides no evidence of polymer frame longevity among the elements.

And when polymers go, they really go. I would hate to have a Glock frame fail because of the effects of ultraviolet light and get a slide in the forehead. Likely? Probably not, but the frame started to degrade the moment it cooled from the molding process.
 
Ash, I'm pretty sure someone who uses their gun enough for it to degrade that much is going to notice a problem before they suddenly get a square black eye. Someone who's gun stays under the shirt or in a safe all day isn't going to have a UV problem.
 
How do you know it has gotten brittle until it breaks? Often darker polymers don't change color as they degrade. In truth, major cracks would be more likely, but the fact has always remained that polymers have had issues with degredation of their own kind.

But the shoe goes with the other foot. Properly-maintained steel arms don't degrade at all.

In fairness, in terms of use, poly guns hold up nicely. But we are nowhere near an army carrying, say, a Glock, for the length of time armies carried 1911's or Hi Powers - ditto for police and S&W Model 10 revolvers. The jury is out on this issue and while I won't make predictions, it may lead to a view of poly guns being disposable by military forces (a problem that already exists to an extent with any kind of pistol in some armies, such as ours).
 
One_Jackal said:
Plastic isn't being welcomed by the revolver crowd. I think we will see metal revolvers for a long time to come.
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Actually aren't there quite a few polymer frame revolvers out now? The LCR in 38 and 357 is hard to find locally. I know quite a few locally that are selling all they can get their hands on.
 
I'm not a polymer chemist like ol' Ash, but I have put a few hundred thousand rounds through my Glocks over the past 20+ years. As somebody else so astutely observed, most Glocks aren't exposed to much UV radiation. I believe I'd be able to discern, in that I do shoot my Glocks a lot, that a frame was degrading. I own both 1911s and Glocks. One thing's for sure, the 1911s will never suffer from UV radiation degradation, as there's not too much UV in my safe!

I'm of the opinion that authoritative-sounding opinions about the degradation of polymer is largely irrelevant to discussions of the longevity and reliability of handguns. If a polymer frame fails, another frame is available pretty inexpensively, and a gunsmith isn't required to "fit" the frame to the slide. ;)
 
The one thing missing from any and all "your plastic handgun will melt in the desert/car/sunlight/Martian surface" threads is any actual evidence that it has ever happened, to any of them, ever.

Show me a 30 year old Glock or equivalent that failed in the course of normal use. Just one. I'm sure someone out there has left their Glock out in the sun a time or two without so much as giving it a hat and sunscreen to wear. I know I have. Slide yet to hit me in the forehead.
 
The one thing missing from any and all "your plastic handgun will melt in the desert/car/sunlight/Martian surface" threads is any actual evidence that it has ever happened, to any of them, ever.

Show me a 30 year old Glock or equivalent that failed in the course of normal use. Just one. I'm sure someone out there has left their Glock out in the sun a time or two without so much as giving it a hat and sunscreen to wear. I know I have. Slide yet to hit me in the forehead.
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Here is one.

http://www.thegunzone.com/glock/g19_cracked.html#nb2
 
^Did you not read what you wrote?

desert/car/sunlight/Martian surface"
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So it was a van and not a car... Regardless it's possibly degradation throu heating. You asked and were provided with "actual evidence".
 
Someone said plastic/polymer was "impervious to the elements".....Anyone who truly believes that, either lives on the Martian planet or drinks Martian Kool-aid. :p

It is however impervious to rust...To keep it into perspective.
 
It was me. I believe it. You got me.

Man that gunzone has me convinced with all that evidence; someone should issue a recall! Millions of police should stop shooting their Glocks immediately.
 
No one is saying millions of police should stop carrying Glocks or that they're not a quality tool....Just saying polymer frames are NOT indestructible (or impervious to many common earthly elements) as some believe. Nor are they as strong as a properly tempered steel frame, that is regularly & properly maintained.
 
Now it looks like we can include canines to the list of things polymer is NOT impervious to. :eek:
 
No. Thay aren't going extinct. As long as people are willing to pay for them, someone will make them.
 
I do not worry about regularly and properly maintaining a polymer frame. Internal metal parts, occassionaly. Frame, no. I leave the Glock in environments for extended periods of time that quickly rusted other gun for me in the past. Glock... no worries.
 
"One word, just one word; Plastics."
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Great movie reference.

As a plumber I work with PEX tubing. This is a cross linked poly that is very susceptible to UV light. In one instance a line was exposed to direct UV light for about 2 years when it started to fail. It cracked all over. If you would bend it it would crack more. But! It held its shape and wouldn't fall to pieces, it just had small cracks.

This is a ploy that is not designed to resist UV at all. It lasted two years and didn't really fall apart. Poly handguns are made to be UV resistant. Not totally impervious to UV, but resistant. I see no reason to think that poly handguns won't last a 100 years with the amount of UV they will see.
 
Extinct? No, but almost every new design is based on polymer frames today.
Weight, cost, durability and ease of manufacture play a big part in this, rarely is a new all steel design introduced.

Polymers degrading? Remington made the Nylon 66 starting in 1959 and those are not crumbling apart in their owners hands-many of them still look very good.
 
ny32182 said:
I do not worry about regularly and properly maintaining a polymer frame. Internal metal parts, occassionaly. Frame, no. I leave the Glock in environments for extended periods of time that quickly rusted other gun for me in the past. Glock... no worries.
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Exactly, polymer is perfect for people who don't maintain their tools....:)
 
My point exactly. More durable (and lighter, and cheaper) = better for a carry gun that will be getting constantly exposed to sweat, humidity, rain, hot temps along with the above, etc...
 
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