Why does our Glock 19 (gen 4) jam when our 20 yr old daughter shoots it?

Sounds like grip technique needs touching up.

Sounds like a Glock is not The Answer.
I don't know your resources for comparing guns and replacing the Glock but that is what I would be thinking about.

It sounds like what I read about on gun forums when a Glock malfunctions , limp wrist .

Make sure her trigger hand thumb is pointing forward along the barrel, this naturally locks the wrist of the shooting hand, have a firm squeeze of the fingers under the trigger guard. With just these corrections on the firing hand should make a difference. Have her push forward with her locked wrist firing hand and pull back slightly with her support hand while gripping her shooting hand.

She's small in stature and has small hands is how I read your post describing her. She should with practice be able to handle the Glock 19; but if not then looking into a smaller frame G43x/48 if Glock is desired or one of the other micro 9's such as P365, S&W Shield Plus, etc.

Gotta keep a stiff wrist with semiautos. Especially if the grip is larger, in my experience. My wife could shoot my 1911 just fine - minus her dislike of the recoil. She shot my G45 and G19X and got stovepipes. She has small hands and she said the grip was to big.

Limp wristing a Glock will almost always cause a malfunction. Lock that puppy in a firm grip and go to work.

BreechFace said:

Make sure her trigger hand thumb is pointing forward along the barrel, this naturally locks the wrist of the shooting hand, have a firm squeeze of the fingers under the trigger guard. With just these corrections on the firing hand should make a difference. Have her push forward with her locked wrist firing hand and pull back slightly with her support hand while gripping her shooting hand.

She's small in stature and has small hands is how I read your post describing her. She should with practice be able to handle the Glock 19; but if not then looking into a smaller frame G43x/48 if Glock is desired or one of the other micro 9's such as P365, S&W Shield Plus, etc.

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Good post.

My off the cuff prescription is also a Glock 48 if the shooter is familiar with Glock and the means are there. The 48 grip size is perfect for petite hands, small enough for a good grip yet wide enough to distribute recoil and not bite like a thin .380 does (LCP for example). Plus the 48 still has the slide length of the Glock 19 for a decent sight radius, though the 43X (same grip/frame) is shorter for slightly easier concealment.

Stay safe.

Maybe the grip angle of the Glock being different from the other guns she has used is causing her to lesson her grip? I think the worst shooting advice I ever got was to grip the gun like a firm handshake and let the gun recoil. The goal should be to manage the recoil which normally requires a very firm grip with a focus on the support hand, firm but not shaking. Also wrist/arms should be tight if not locked. I would tell her to "death grip" it for a mag or two and see what happens. You could also video her hands when she is shooting. Pretty sure iPhones have a slow-mo which could be very helpful. Of course not breaking the 180 when videoing.

Limp wrist x10

Military Arms Channel (MAC) has done a lot of limp wristing videos

Here is one



Another

Neo-Luddite said:

I have the smallest factory grip swells on the pistol.

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Just verifying, but that would be none, correct? You have none of the extra backstraps installed.

20 is still a kid. Most likely she’s limp wristing it.

We had a new shooter of about that description who was quite accurate but apparently limp wristing her XD Elite.
My protege will occasionally limp wrist misfunction her Glock 34; we have dinked around with recoil springs and loads to minimize it but sometimes it will sneak up on her, usually in a one-handed string of fire.

Exhorting a small statured shooter to Hold Hard may not be enough, there might have to be a change in equipment.
Oh, wait, there already has been.
As I said, I would do a search for something with more heft than that little Ruger.

Just to add to my previous post, the grip angle of Glock's push a shooter into more of a thumb forward grip (which in turn naturally locks one's wrist) on the shooting hand, don't fight the angle it's designed for a reason.

If the LC9 works for her that is good.
As to the Glock, other than technique/grip/wrist remove the grip swell and try hotter ammo if her malfunction is with 115 FMJ for example.

Have worked for a Glock instructor and the issue she is experiencing is what they call 'limp wrist'. Saw it with new students and once with myself when I tried to hold the glock close to my side without extending my arm and locking the elbow. It is funny but a lack of a locked elbow is not a problem with my 1911.
Advice given above about grip and thumb and locking elbow should correct the problem.

It's really easy to start shooting with the intention to hold the gun firmly, ignore the recoil, and keep everything right and under control.

But somewhere along the line, she's loosening up, getting recoil shy, and letting the gun move more than it should. She needs more focus on maintaining a strong grip on the pistol. I need to do that too, come to think of it.

Agreed with pretty much everyone. Essentially, she is absorbing too much of the energy which the gun needs in order to cycle. The solution is for her to stop doing that - which of course is more easily said than done. A workaround can be a lighter spring, but that's not foolproof and not a perfect solution.

For my money, unless she's really dedicated to working out, she needs a different gun for self defense.

I tried limp wristing my 23 once at the range after reading a thread about limp wrist causing malfunctions . I couldn’t get my 23 to malfunction doing it . I was at the range with a friend and coworker one day and his 19 kept jamming on him . I shot it and it never jammed on me . The range officer told him to try some hotter ammo and I don’t think that he had any more problems after that .

There are a lot of legitimate cases of limp wristing

CDW4ME said:

...and try hotter ammo if her malfunction is with 115 FMJ for example.

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red rick said:

I was at the range with a friend and coworker one day and his 19 kept jamming on him . ...The range officer told him to try some hotter ammo and I don’t think that he had any more problems after that .

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However, cheap, underpowered 115gr ball ammo seems to be a legitimate factor in a lot of malfunctions with 9mm pistols these days.

Across several forums, you'll get folks with the "a quality gun should be able to shoot any crummy ammo" comments. However, I think the ammo makers have gotten cheap and sloppy over the past several years, and guns designed to shoot NATO level ball and personal defense hollow point ammo in the +P range can have problems with cheap/lightweight/low powered ammo, especially with fresh recoil springs.

I’ve seen issues with smaller stature shooters lacking the “mass” in their arms to create enough inertia resistance to the recoil of the pistol to ensure proper functioning.

When holding a pistol, it’s not just the strength of the grip that provides the resistance but the total mass of the arms and shoulders.
When properly gripped, the shooter becomes part of the process. This fits with what JTQ relates.

I read the thread, but didn't see any mention of the specific stoppages she's had. What kind are they, and are they always the same stoppage (failure to eject, failure to chamber, slide locking back without being empty)? Do they tend to be in the first couple of rounds, or towards the last rounds in the magazine?

I'd also ask how many rounds have been through that Glock. The fastest, easiest, and cheapest troubleshooting step may be to replace the recoil spring assembly (a $15.00 project). I own a couple of Gen 4 Glocks that would barely pass the RSA test out of the box. If you have a weak or defective RSA and good technique, it may run fine. A weak RSA and less-than-perfect technique could lead to a problem that's tough to diagnose. I'd also make sure that you have the current generation of RSA for that Glock. Sometimes they are updated/upgraded during a generation.

If you suspect limp wristing, it may be a good test to ask her to shoot a full mag with the dominant hand, then the other hand. If there are more malfunctions with the non-dominant hand, I'd focus on grip technique due to limp wristing.

And, of course, make sure she isn't touching the slide or slide stop with either a thumb or palm as the pistol cycles and moved in her hand.

Just a few ideas for ya.

Limp wristing is a BS term. It has nothing to do with "the wrist". What it is is, if you allow the arm and gun to move rearward with the recoil, it will tend to short stroke.

I got into a discussion with the boy on the MAC channel back when he posted his first video on it, and the only way I could duplicate his results, was to hold the gun sideways as he did, and hold it with my thumb and trigger finger and with no mass behind the gun when I shot. And even then it still funnctioned about 70% of the time.

I took 4 full 17 round mags (68 rounds), and held and fired one of my 17's with absolutely "no grip", just letting the gun rest on the webo of my my hand and middle finger under the trigger guard, and every round fired as it should with no stoppages. What I didnt do was, allow the gun or my arm, to move rearward with recoil.

As soon as I started letting the gun and arm do that, I started getting it to occasionally short stroke. If you keep mass behind the gun, and dont allow it or the arm to move rearward with recoil, it should function without issue.

I would watch closely when she shoots and see that she isnt doing that, and if she is, correct it. Its simple enough. For most people having the issue, its a stance problem, not a grip problem.