Reloads in Glock 19

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dave bennett

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Feel sure this has be covered, . . . . but . . . . don't know the procedure to find the appropriate post.
Question: Son purchased a new Glock 19 - 9mm. It will not feed the next round from the magazine when shooting my reload of 115g FMJ over 4.4 gr W231. This information came to me over the phone so I did not witness the problem. This identical load does not miss a beat in 6 other 9mm's that have shoot it many times. Where do I start here . . . . . . could it be the magazine ? 124gr factory FMJ runs fine in this gun.
 
Feel sure this has be covered, . . . . but . . . . don't know the procedure to find the appropriate post.
Question: Son purchased a new Glock 19 - 9mm. It will not feed the next round from the magazine when shooting my reload of 115g FMJ over 4.4 gr W231. This information came to me over the phone so I did not witness the problem. This identical load does not miss a beat in 6 other 9mm's that have shoot it many times. Where do I start here . . . . . . could it be the magazine ? 124gr factory FMJ runs fine in this gun.
124 gr FMJ factory runs fine in the gun. Don't know if he has a 2nd magazine.
 
oal too long? too short? where do the rounds hang up in the gun?

murf
 
Have him field strip the fun. Take the barrel and have him drop your rounds in and see if they chamber. Sounds as if your reloads might not be the right length for his chamber. Just a semi-experienced guess, based on your description.
 
Feel sure this has be covered, . . .

Son purchased a new Glock 19 - 9mm. It will not feed the next round from the magazine when shooting my reload of 115g FMJ over 4.4 gr W231.

124gr factory FMJ runs fine in this gun.
I don't know how powerful 115g over 4.4gr of W231 would be, but we've had many threads covering many brands of semi-auto pistols that have trouble with lightweight, low powered ammo - when new.

The recoil springs are typically designed to handle NATO ammo (and in the case of the early Gen 4 9mm Glocks - .40 S&W ammo) that is on the hot end of the spectrum. Low powered ammo won't drive the slide enough to properly cycle the gun. Eventually, the gun should work with any ammo, but often times, when new, they need more powerful ammo to drive the slide.
 
I've been loading 115 gr. FMJs with W231 for... maybe 30 years? 4.7 grains of powder. Yes, in some manuals it's too hot, but in many manuals it's not. It's right on the edge though. Bottom line... it functions in every single 9mm I have. I would suggest trying a little hotter load. The Glock should be able to handle it just fine. The felt recoil of my 4.7 gr. load is no different than standard NATO 9mm loads, fwiw. Your 4.4 grain load may not even be running the slide back far enough to pick up the second round.
 
The Glock should run just fine as long as everything with the reloads is correct. I also suggest doing the "plunk test" to see if the reloads are going all the way in along with making sure their OAL is correct for that particular barrel.

I originally started reloading 9mm to shoot out of my Star Firestar M43, Taurus 24/7 Pro C, Kel-Tec PF9, and Sig P938. I loaded them on the light side (starting powder charge) and they worked great in all those pistols. Those reloads also worked well in my G19 and the few Polymer 80 940C (G19) builds.

Where I ran into problems was with the Polymer 80 940CL/V2 builds using G17/G34 slides. My reloads didn't have enough power to cycle the longer slides. I bumped up the powder charge to the middle of the charge range (using Hodgdon Universal) and that fixed all of my issues with the longer slides.
 
When my Glock 19 gen 5 was new it would run the crappiest low power 115gr factory ammo I could find. It was Remington green and white box and the felt recoil was silly soft.

Maybe Glock has made a change to the newer gen 5s and they now have stiffer springs? Every Glock I’ve ever owned would run mouse fart ammo or NATO ammo. They usually have their stuff “balanced” really well.


As Anchorite said above, plunk test your
rounds.
 
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Do those reloads pass plunk testing in the barrel of that gun?

Here is a decent video about plunk testing for reference;

 
More food for thought.
New gun. Make sure cleaned and oiled.
If loads are on the lower power side make certain his grip is firm as any limp wristing will exacerbate the issue.
Good info all around.
Does the ammo pass the plunk test?
What is the exact failure?
How many rounds through the gun?
Proper grip?
 
There is another issue that is likely not in play here. I am reading about the glock smile that mostly occurs in 40 caliber cases that requires special measures when resizing, it is said normally not to be an issue in the 9mm, but it can happen. It prevents improperly sized case from entering the chamber due to the smile bulge just about the case head extraction groove. The plunk test should reject such an out of spec case I would think.
upload_2021-4-4_14-6-26.png
 
rbernie asked a good question.

Gen 5 chambers are tighter than the previous Glock chambers. Was taking a class awhile back--one guy had a Gen5 Glock that wouldn't chamber the dummy rounds we were using to generate "malfunctions". All the other Glocks in the class (not Gen 5s) had no problem chambering those rounds.
 
rbernie asked a good question.

Gen 5 chambers are tighter than the previous Glock chambers. Was taking a class awhile back--one guy had a Gen5 Glock that wouldn't chamber the dummy rounds we were using to generate "malfunctions". All the other Glocks in the class (not Gen 5s) had no problem chambering those rounds.
I read that comment often when the Gen 5's were introduced, though I've seen recent comments from Glock users that issue had been addressed by Glock and corrected. I don't really don't know one way or the other.
 
I pick up plenty of 9mm that has the glock smile, in 40 it's more of a bulge but it's barely there on the 9s only see it cause I know to look for it. I size them and shoot them in fully supported chamber guns no problem.
 
rbernie asked a good question.

Gen 5 chambers are tighter than the previous Glock chambers. Was taking a class awhile back--one guy had a Gen5 Glock that wouldn't chamber the dummy rounds we were using to generate "malfunctions". All the other Glocks in the class (not Gen 5s) had no problem chambering those rounds.

I have seen this issue pop up often over on the Marine Gun Builder forum. Not all snap caps/dummy rounds are created equal. On the MGB forum, we have had people post asking for help with feeding and extraction issues only to find out their dummy rounds were out of spec. Though it is usually a combination of bad dummy rounds AND tight/short chambers on aftermarket barrels. I have seen bad dummy rounds cause issues with OEM barrels too.

To the OP:

Definitely do a plunk test with the ammo in question. I also recommend trying a different OEM magazine too. If the pistol in question runs fine with factory ammo, then I would definitely look at the reloaded ammo. Like others have said, sometimes you will find barrel chambers that are on the small side of the tolerances. Add together a tight chamber and reloads that are on the larger side will lead to issues.
 
First I would move this to the reloading section. An admin can do it. Just send them a message.


Second I am not sure where everyone else's data is landing but all 3 of my sources of data show that to be a low load for a 115gr bullet. Some data showing more to even start using win231.

Low loads will not fully cycle the gun and pick up the next round. I call it short stroking.

Double check that data and bump that load up. But remember if your talking reloads use the reloading section.

FWIW my lead data starts at 4.3gr. For a 115gr LRN. Lead data is usually lower than jacketed data.

Good luck. Expect updates.
 
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This is a screen shot of the Hodgdon reloading site for 115 grain bullet loads with W231 powder. It’s not an FMJ load but it should be comparable.
You can crack open a manual to double check but it appears 4.4 grains of powder is too light for FMJ.

96B46712-2E39-41AD-B9BE-CA6A64AA2638.png
 
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If the son’s gun will chamber and fire factory ammo, flawlessly. Then your reloads are not to made to factory specifications, regardless of how long you have been reloading. The answer is right in front of you.
 
Then your reloads are not to made to factory specifications, regardless of how long you have been reloading. The answer is right in front of you.

That is not very helpful.
Firstly, his reloads don't have to match factory specs. That's one of the benefits of reloading, the ability to develop one's own load. Of course, the load must be safe and must cycle the slide, but that's a given.
Secondly, the answer isn't right in front of him. If it was, he wouldn't be on here asking for advice. There are lots of reasons why a gun might not cycle properly.

In this case: if the next round doesn't even come out of the magazine, it is probably a light load issue, as others have said.
If the round comes out of the mag but gets caught elsewhere then there are a lot of other options. We will need more info from the shooter.
 
I bought an early Gen 5 G19 MOS for use in GSSF matches. I ran into issues with certain 124gr and 115gr bullet designs when seated at the recommended OAL. I pulled up photos of some of my load development targets, and the lowest I went with 231 was 4.7 grains with a 115gr RMR RN bullet, and that had to be seated to OAL of 1.120 in order to plunk.

I called Glock and asked about the short throats and they said to send it in and they would fix it. But, I was able to get several 1" groups with the pistol and didn't want them to potentially ruin the accuracy.
 
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