There's a cut in my new Glock 26 frame. This isn't normal, is it?

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Wispa

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I just purchased the gun new a few days ago. I haven't gotten to the range yet but I'm glad that's the case. After looking it over earlier today (a daily happening since getting it) I noticed a small crack in the slide behind the extractor. Has anyone noticed this type of thing before? I guess I'm off to the gun shop.

I went to the gun shop I bought it from and they were very much willing to help. A couple of people behind the counter started getting various Glock models out to see if they had what I noticed on mine. It turns out the ones we checked had this too. It was slightly more difficult to see on the guns at the store because of all the factory oil. Is this something normal or does he have a bad batch of Glocks?

The pictures I posted are close-ups which make it look larger than it is. They were taken with a macro lens in the sunlight. In real life it's a hairline cut in the metal. It still worries me so I'm calling Glock tomorrow. I'm posting here mainly to see if anyone else has seen this before.

I'm not new to firearms but this is my first Glock. Does anyone else have a recently made Glock that has this same cut in the metal? My G26 was test fired in June of 2010. It's brand new and never fired by me.

Update To save people time I just wanted to post that after calling Glock and hearing from members it seems what is shown below is not out of the ordinary. What does look a bit like a cut or crack in my images actually isn't either of the two. There are pictures in this thread, both linked and embedded, that show this particular part of the slide better than the images below. If you look closely at my pictures you can see that there is a recess but it's harder to see since the only rounds through this particular handgun have been the two factory test fires. Some ammo was delivered by UPS today (10-01)and I will be running some rounds through to see how she functions with the defensive ammo and also some FMJ plinking pills. If anything changes I'll update things here. I'm not expecting things to after the information shared here and from calling Glock.

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Here's my G17 Gen3, bought last August NIB. Looks like it has the same sort of thing going on. For the record I've never had any problems with mine in over 3000 rounds so far. Interesting....

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I just stripped my Glock 17 to have a look at this. Mine has a machine mark from where the slot from the extractor was milled into the slide. Mine is 100% not a crack, and I doubt that yours is a crack either. Let us know what glock says.
 
Glock 17L slide here. Exact same cut in the exact same place. Never had a problem with the weapon.

At this point, since nobody has found a Glock slide that DOESN'T have it, I'm quite willing to believe it's supposed to be there.
 
JoeMal said:
Here's my G17 Gen3, bought last August NIB. Looks like it has the same sort of thing going on. For the record I've never had any problems with mine in over 3000 rounds so far. Interesting....
Click to expand...

Well that's reassuring. It must either be something fairly recent or not many people have noticed it. In person, as you now know, it's fairly hard to see unless you know it's there or catch it in the right light.

Glock 17L slide here. Exact same cut in the exact same place. Never had a problem with the weapon.

At this point, since nobody has found a Glock slide that DOESN'T have it, I'm quite willing to believe it's supposed to be there.
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I just stripped my Glock 17 to have a look at this. Mine has a machine mark from where the slot from the extractor was milled into the slide. Mine is 100% not a crack, and I doubt that yours is a crack either. Let us know what glock says.
Click to expand...

I agree. After seeing the other NIB Glocks at the store and now reading here I'm sure it's an intentional design or possible tool mark of some kind. It looks like a cut/crack in certain light but it could very well be a tool mark. It really is small to the naked eye.

Thanks for your time and help! If I find out why it's there I'll post it in this thread. I'm going to call tomorrow out of pure curiosity.
 
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Thanks for your time and help! If I find out why it's there I'll post it in this thread. I'm going to call tomorrow out of pure curiosity.
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Let us know what they say regardless. I'm very interested to hear as I'm sure many others here are, too
 
It looks like a tool mark made when cutting the slot for the extractor as the mark lines up with the edge of the extractor slot.

But what do I know, oh wait. I machine metal all day long, everyday.
That's how I know.
YMMV

Note to Wispa: that's the slide...not the frame.
 
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I just disassembled both of my G22 and G27 slides. There is a definite flat machine cut (something that a sharp chisel would make) that matches the angle and profile of the extractor angle/shape, but it is not a crack.

You are seeing the sharp edge of this cut on the breech face of the slide. With a new slide, the paint/coating on the breech face accentuates this edge and looks like a crack.

I went ahead and did a cleaning of the slide and looked at this area more closely. Why did Glock put this cut there? There was a bit of hard black fouling build up around the extractor and this depression would allow the case base lip to slide up the extractor as the round is being stripped from the magazine even though there's quite a bit of fouling build up from extended firing of the pistol.

Looks like Glock put it there for a good reason.
 
Snarlingiron, Tilos and bds...I think you've all got the right idea. I don't think the mark is anything to be concerned about. I guess you could say it's a tool with tool marks on it.

I've got some ammo being shipped and should be able to get out and give it a work out very soon. I can't wait!
 
Ok, I called Glock this morning. The customer service gentleman knew exactly what I was talking about when I described it to him. He told me that he doesn't know the exact reason why the engineers made that decision but it's perfectly normal. Not exactly the informative answer I, and I'm sure some of you, were expecting. LOL!

Thankfully bds said it last night in post #13 and I think he's correct. On a different forum a member posted a picture of the slide with the extractor taken out and you can clearly see it's a relief cut.

Thanks again for all the help and information.

If anyone who hasn't detail stripped their slide but would like to see what bds is talking about follow this link. Due to forum rules I can't put the picture directly in my post.

Slide with extractor removed
 
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My 1990's-vintage Gen 2 G-22 has it. My guess is that it is there to ease extraction...as the brass case 'tilts' as it exits the slide.
 
Wow, what and echo in this thread...#12,#13,#15,#16

We can speculate all day long about it's function or design but it is nothing more than a simple tooling mark that appears on some guns because of overlapping tolerences.
YMMV
 
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We can speculate all day long about it's function or design but it is nothing more than a simple tooling mark that appears on some guns because of overlapping tolerences.
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Were you a design engineer at Glock? I seriously doubt its "nothing more than a tooling mark".
 
Creature said:
I seriously doubt its "nothing more than a tooling mark".
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At worst it's a machining tolerance issue as Tilos stated that has no effect on reliability or longevity. At best, it increases reliability for a pistol that is heavily fouled but I have my doubts about that. Member Stevie-Ray on the other forum linked by the OP states "Well, I have a 26 and a 29, and neither of them have this new feature."

As a comparison, none of my six SIGs have a relief cut under the extractor (internal or external type) and they've managed to extract tens of thousands of rounds over the last 20 years without any problems, even after 500 plus rounds without cleaning.

:)
 
I checked a friend's Gen2 G22 and it also has the "relief" cut also under the extractor. Maybe it is due to the 40S&W case rim thickness?

Anyways, Glock has been making subtle improvements to their pistols over the years without announcing them (like the improved chamber support in barrels). If Glock engineers put it there, I am guessing that there was a good reason for it.
 
he doesn't know the exact reason why the engineers made that decision
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Were you a design engineer at Glock? I seriously doubt its "nothing more than a tooling mark".
Click to expand...

I'm not a design engineer at Glock, but I am a design engineer, and imho, anyone who thinks that this is anything more than a slight overcut from the milling operation that produced the extractor slot has never programed a CNC mill.

It's a mass produced weapon, what do you expect? There is no such thing as +/- zero. If the cut is ever so slightly too deep, the pistol functions 100%. If the cut is to shallow and leaves a slight boss, then it just might cause a problem.

Hand finishing is labor intense. Labor intense operatons are not "good" design (from the perspective of economics). Planning you tollerance stack so that a slight overcut that doesn't affect performance is programed in, and avoids a slight under cuto that could adversely affect performance, is imho, good design.

If you seriously think that Glock is "above" leaving an obious tooling mark, I think you need to lay off the kool aide.
 
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I'm not a design engineer at Glock, but I am a design engineer, and imho, anyone who thinks that this is anything more than a slight overcut from the milling operation that produced the extractor slot has never programed a CNC mill.

It's a mass produced weapon, what do you expect? If you seriously think that Glock is "above" leaving an obious tooling mark, I think you need to lay off the kool aide.
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It is not an unintentional "over-cut" in the milling process as you would have us believe. It turns out that it is a relief cut for additional debris tolerance under the extractor claw purposely put there by Glock.
 
Creature said:
It is not an unintentional "over-cut" in the milling process as you would have us believe. It turns out that it is a relief cut for additional debris tolerance under the extractor claw purposely put there by Glock.
Click to expand...

Hmmm ... look at the photos posted by JoeMal ... how much difference could that relief cut make? There's a sizeable gap between the extractor and the breech face but the relief cut appears to be very shallow.

:)
 
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