Glock durability

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Joe Sacco

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What's the life expectancy of a full size ( 17L, 34 etc) Glock 9mm used in competition? What breaks? Thanks, Joe Sacco
 
I am not a Glock fan, but we had an old 17 on the rental range which went over 200,000 rounds before the slide developed a hairline fracture under the ejection port. The only way we knew was the POI changed to the left a half inch or so. Grock fixed.
 
You can break the trigger-spring if you shoot enough. I saw that at a high round count class (2,000 rounds in 2 days). The NY1 trigger spring takes care of that, and it is still light and crisp if you put in a polished 3.5 pound connector.

You can also have a failure of the plastic guide rod. I have a non-metal captured rod with a stock power spring in mine that has been 100% since I installed it several thousand rounds ago.

Metal magazines will also tear up the mag release, which is plastic. That happened to me, and the mag would fall out of the gun when fired. That was fixed by a local Glock armourer for free in about 2 minutes, and has not happened again since, as I gave away the metal mags and only use OEM mags now.
 
The long slide models sometimes contact the rear retaining, uh, wedges? (metal inserts molded into the Nylon6 frame) with the bottom of the slide as it bends under recoil.

Many tens of thousands of rounds are to be expected before this is a problem. Probally more like many hundreds of thousands.

There are flukes, some stuff can break, etc. But overall they last nearly forever, or at the very least, longer than they have any right to!

I've seen a few that reputedly had over half a million rounds through.
 
Glock Problems

I usually get somewhere between 4k and 5k through a glock 21 before the trigger spring breaks. I have 4 glock 21's and somewhere around 17 to 20K the rails in the frame will break off and the gun not cycle. At least that has been my experience.

Glock as always replaced the frame without exception. The second time it happend to the replacement frame they replaced the whole thing frame, slide and barrel.

I have not had any such problems with my 17, 34, 35s or 24. If anything, the magazines springs wear out and fail to properly feed the round for the slide to pick it up. LM
 
I broke a framerail at 25K on my G34, it is known that Glock had framerail problems with 2002 production pieces. I broke an extractor on one of my Gen II G17 police trade-ins, roundcount unknown. The sights fall off, get real ones. I prefer the fixed glock rear on my G17s with a tritium/fiber combo front. I know another shooter who broke two magazine release springs from reload practice. I have not broken a trigger spring, but it is possible. I know of several others breaking trigger pins. Slide stops don't break, but many owners manage to goober up the spring. I had several ten round mags where the part of the follower that engages the slide stop broke off, so no slide lock with those mags.

Overall, I think it is a very durable gun. I always have a spare parts box with me, the further I travel for a match the more likely I am to have a spare Glock.
 
Never met anyone except online who had problems (breakages, mechanical malfs., etc.) with their glock. If they did, it was usually due to them messing about with it, like adding aftermarket springs, etc. Not saying it doesn't happen of course, just saying that there aren't many problems that exist independently a user cause.

My 17 has had around 15,000 rnds and has not had a malfunction or breakage, and the only signs of age are from holster wear. My 33 hasn't either, but it's only had around 7,000 rnds through it.
 
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