Tennessee_Ted
Member
I got a Glock 20 Gen 4 about six weeks ago. I just put my 200th round through it. It's my first Glock.
The first 100 rounds were factory ammo—half SIG and half Remington. The Remington ammo seemed like fairly typical downloaded 10mm. The velocities claimed on the SIG box would indicate a full-house loading, and the recoil difference seemed to suggest that was accurate. The recovered brass from both seemed fine.
The next 50 rounds I fired were handloads I made using 180 grain XTPs and new Starline brass. When I was done, I noticed smiles on several of the spent casings. That was unexpected, due to the quality brass and the fact that I had heard that the Gen 4 chambers were cut a little more conservatively than earlier Glocks, but I chalked it up to using fairly hot charges of Longshot.
Now, I just finished a quick range trip where I shot a box of inexpensive (by 10mm standards) Armscor USA ammo. Judging from the recoil, it seemed like a fairly light loading, but virtually all of the cases had smiles.
Having no experience with Glocks, might I be mistaken about what a smile is? What I'm referring to are bright lines in the brass that seem to match the outline of the chamber cut for the feed ramp. Some of them will catch my fingernail if I run it down the casing. The cases don't seem to have any major bulge at the base, but that line is definitely there.
If these are the infamous smiles, should I be suspicous of the quality of the Armscor brass, or is it possible that I got a particularly generous chamber from Glock? I know the reloadability issue could probably be mitigated with an aftermarket barrel, but might my factory barrel present a safety issue, even with new ammo?
The first 100 rounds were factory ammo—half SIG and half Remington. The Remington ammo seemed like fairly typical downloaded 10mm. The velocities claimed on the SIG box would indicate a full-house loading, and the recoil difference seemed to suggest that was accurate. The recovered brass from both seemed fine.
The next 50 rounds I fired were handloads I made using 180 grain XTPs and new Starline brass. When I was done, I noticed smiles on several of the spent casings. That was unexpected, due to the quality brass and the fact that I had heard that the Gen 4 chambers were cut a little more conservatively than earlier Glocks, but I chalked it up to using fairly hot charges of Longshot.
Now, I just finished a quick range trip where I shot a box of inexpensive (by 10mm standards) Armscor USA ammo. Judging from the recoil, it seemed like a fairly light loading, but virtually all of the cases had smiles.
Having no experience with Glocks, might I be mistaken about what a smile is? What I'm referring to are bright lines in the brass that seem to match the outline of the chamber cut for the feed ramp. Some of them will catch my fingernail if I run it down the casing. The cases don't seem to have any major bulge at the base, but that line is definitely there.
If these are the infamous smiles, should I be suspicous of the quality of the Armscor brass, or is it possible that I got a particularly generous chamber from Glock? I know the reloadability issue could probably be mitigated with an aftermarket barrel, but might my factory barrel present a safety issue, even with new ammo?
