GLOCK defect/FTF???

[UglyAllDay]

Can anyone verify about a possible "defect" with the Glock 21? I received this e-mail from a LEO and well I was not sure if anyone else had heard of this either. I am not sure if this was addressed at some point (this forum seems pretty up to date with info,) but this is firearm being widely used with the Police Departments so I thought it was worth mentioning.

Mesa PD came across a failure to fire issue with a
Glock 21. The initial inspection revealed nothing. A
call was made to Glock who said, 'oh you have the bad
trigger bars.' Apparently Glock 21's manufactured with
serial #'s EFG might have received a short trigger bar
assembly. The bad trigger bar assemblies have the
numbers 4256 stamped on them. The new, correct trigger
bar should have the stamping #'s of 425 6-1. FYI... of
the guns pulled by Mesa PD, 3 more were found to be
bad. Mesa PD is/has pulled all of their Glock 21's off
of the road.

 

[MarcusWendt]

Impossible. Glocks don't malfunction, they are perfect. Just ask any Glock owner. Glock Perfection right?

 

[wally]

Everybody lets bad guns get out, even the high dollars custom makers. Its what they do to make it right that counts.

If you weren't Police, would they send out the part for free, or pay shipping to return the gun to them?

--wally.

 

[JDGray]

Ugly, thanks for posting usefull info

 

[UglyAllDay]

Wally, I am not a rep for the company so I could not even begin to inform you on what their standard practices are. The e-mail I received continues with....

Glock was asked to overnight ship the new trigger
bars; however, they said they wouldn't be shipped
until Monday 3-3-08. Please call Glock to order the
new trigger bars. I am a current Glock Armorer and I
was not notified; therefore, I doubt if anyone knows
about the problem. Apparently Mesa called Phoenix PD
and they have seen some of the same problems, but they
were not notified by Glock either.

I got this letter from a third party (a different LEO Armorer) and my best guess is at this point it is up to the individual to check for the problem and notify the company. This post was partly to inform and also to see if anyone else had gotten news of this.

 

[CountGlockula]

That's why I'd stick with a G22.

 

[Joe the Redneck]

Yeah, and I got an email saying that an African King needs my bank account number to transfer his money into.

Here's an idea, call Glock. I will never know why people don't just call the darn company rather than troll and spread rumors.

Oh wait, I forgot, Glock is in on it. Only the internet knows the truth.

JTR

 

[GLOOB]

The thing about the GLOCK is that it's mass produced to an extent far greater than any other pistol. This is partly because (aside from the slide) all of the parts are injection molded/cast or stamped and don't require practically any hand fitting/finishing. The other reason is because they sell so damn many. This brings about some interesting opinions on the subject of recalls. GLOCK haters find them a reason to say GLOCKs are not well designed weapons. I believe it's a good thing, and it's one of the main reasons I bought a GLOCK.

If the damn guns didn't work at all, I don't think a recall would be necessary, because the owners would probably figure it out without a damn front page story. Now if a particular police department starts having light stikes with a particular batch of ammo, then GLOCK might consider redesigning their parts in order to decrease (not eliminate, because ammo is always part of the equation) the likelihood of a future occurrence. In the case of the G21, I do believe there was such an occurrence in the past. I have read that the G21SF has a redesigned trigger bar which creates a longer striker pull, which would reduce the chances of a light strike with a small spectrum of harder primered ammo. I bet if anything, the Mesa Police Department got a batch of ammo on the extreme side of bad/hard primers.

Now, due to the large scale mass production going on over at GLOCK, guess what? If a light strikes start occuring with one pistol with certain ammo, then chances are good that most, if not all, of the other pistols can also be observed to have the same problems with that ammo.

So now GLOCKs are horrible?

If it were another company, only a few pistols might be found to be considered out of spec, while others might work fine. Then the bad ones would be quietly fixed. Why? Cuz their design doesn't push the envelope as far as the GLOCK. They can't afford to make their trigger pull as short/light as a GLOCK (respectively to their own design) because they would end up spending a fortune on testing each hand built (more-so) gun to sort out the bad ones.

Personally, I prefer a GLOCK, because I know there are quite a few police departments out there doing the field testing. If there is a story saying that someone's 1911, Beretta, or even SIG blew up, it doesn't matter to anyone else... cuz their gun is completely different. Then the story goes... MY [1911, SIG, Beretta] never fails; thus my gun is better designed than the GLOCK.

 

[UglyAllDay]

Thanks GOOB for shedding some light. I am kind of somewhat indifferent torwards Glocks (it's not what I shoot) but think they are fine weapons in their own right. Just to put it out there; my "motives" for this thread were not to "troll" or "spread rumors", just pass along what I heard. Furthermore, I hope the e-mail I received is way off base concerning this, because personally I would be just fine knowing this was not an issue for G21 owners.

 

[GLOOB]

I'm indifferent to GLOCK pistols, too, believe it or not. Not cuz they are ugly or plastic, but because they are somewhat thick and brick-shaped. I got one because I am not the kind of guy that actually enjoys spending an entire afternoon driving to the range, shooting up a hundred dollars worth of ammo, then coming home to clean guns. Some people will tell ya you have to shoot x,000 rounds with a gun and a specific ammo before it can be considered dependable. Well, I don't think I'll ever find out if my GLOCK is dependable, if that's what it takes. But I feel a little bit better knowing it's a pistol that is very uniform in manufacturing process and does not rely on very fine tolerances or being relatively well-maintained to function properly, and has been/is being tested in near identical condition by thousands of other more dedicated shooters.

I'm not indifferent, however, to the expression of idiosyncratic beliefs as facts. GLOCK bashers on this forum sometimes come up with some very suspect "facts." I'm not implying you are one of them, and thanks for the info on the recall. Mine is a 21SF with the redesigned trigger bar. I can tell by the stiffer, rougher trigger pull.

 

[another okie]

If you contact Glock they will replace the trigger bar. I have the -1 bar on my 21. It's only Glocks in a certain serial number range, which Glock can tell you about. Or if you can find a Glock armorer he or she can probably do it.

Glock doesn't like to call things "recalls" or "defects" so ask about "upgrades."

 

[Defensory]

Posted by another okie
Glock doesn't like to call things "recalls" or "defects" so ask about "upgrades."

Ain't it the truth!

 

[Defensory]

Posted by Joe the Redneck
Yeah, and I got an email saying that an African King needs my bank account number to transfer his money into. Here's an idea, call Glock. I will never know why people don't just call the darn company rather than troll and spread rumors. Oh wait, I forgot, Glock is in on it. Only the internet knows the truth.

The Mesa Fraternal Order of Police has confirmed the very real problem with the Glock 21's, thus I don't believe UglyAllDay's info can be classified as trolling and rumor mongering.

From the official website of the Mesa FOP:

We also brought forth a problem with Glock model 21 (45 cal) handgun that the Mesa Police Department found during their last quarterly shoot. The problem is in the trigger bar. The trigger bar in the effective model 21’s is shorter and has a part number of 4256. This trigger bar was in all of our Glock 21s we purchased in 2005 having a serial number starting with "GUE." When Mesa called Glock, they verified with them the trigger bar should have part number 4256-1. This affected approximately 120 pistols owned by MPD and assigned to Officers. Glock agreed to ship them the replacement trigger bars with part number 4256-1.

When Mesa range officers called other Valley Police Agencies, none of their range staff were aware of the potential problem. To our knowledge, no technical bulletins have been sent out to Valley Police Agencies advising to be aware of this potential problem with Glock 21 trigger bars. It is unknown at this time if Mesa PD just happened to get a bad batch of guns starting with this serial number "GUE," and the wrong part was placed into the gun during assembly in 2005, or if Glock later identified the problem in 2006 and updated all their newer weapons with an updated trigger bar having part number 4256-1. In any event, none of our range staff ever
received a technical bulletin advising of the problem.

All of Mesa’s newer Glock 21s that have a serial number starting in "KKV" have the correct trigger bar part number, 4256-1. MPD only had approximately five Glock 21s in this series that were purchase in 2006 from Glock. The National F.O.P. will be contacting Glock to address this officer safety issue and insure all law enforcement agencies are notified about this problem with the Glock 21s.

http://www.mesafop.com/Default.asp

 

[AK103K]

Glock is great at not taking any blame for any troubles you might have. I had a 17 that refused to fire early on. You could not pull the trigger. Sent it back to Glock, it came back "fixed" and the comment that the gun was "to dry". The section on the service slip with the armorers comments to Glock was redacted.

Not to long after that, exact same problem. Pull the trigger, it wont budge, gun wont shoot. Went back a second time, came back, everything but the frame replaced. Guess what, still "to dry". Again, comments were redacted. There was something scribbled about a crack in the breachface. I never saw one, but it was real rough with a lot of machine marks, so maybe it was hiding.

Didnt wait for #3. Dont have anymore Glocks either.

 

[R&J]

What's a guy gonna say?

Here's my Glock experience, all new purchases:

10/2005: G21, 12,000 + Rounds YTD Incl 10 mm

12/2005: G19 8,500 + Rounds YTD

06/2006: G17 10,500 + Rounds YTD

Repairs: None

Parts Replaced: One G19 Magazine

Malfunctions: All Traced To One Magazine, Faulty CCI Blazer .45 ACP Ammo, and trial 10 mm ammos. *

No Kool-Aid folks! Just facts...

My G17 just passed 10,500-rounds without so much as a hiccup! The G19 has been 100% since the faulty magazine (1 of 6) was exchanged, and the G21 is 100% with quality .45 ACP ammo (I'm still tweaking the 10 mm conversion, which is currently at 95% reliability...).

--Ray

* Magazine replacement fixed occasional Fail-To-Feed with G19.
* Out of spec ammo--cartridges varied up to 1/8" in length. Short ones would not feed. New ammo fixed problem.
* 10 mm Conversion Project--square-nosed, naked lead bullets cause feeding problems with KKM Conversion Barrel. Bulbous-nosed bullets are functioning fine.