GLOCK FAILURE- leave your story

I have a Glock 26, gen 1. I got it “well used” with no history. The main recoil spring broke while shooting it one day at the range. Getting the slide and barrel separated took some significant manipulation. I bought some Wolff springs. Since then it has run fine. The bottom line is that any gun can and will fail at some point.

 

Your 26 isn't a gen 1.. they were not released until late in the gen 2 cycle

 

My G19 G4 has about 8K rounds through it. No breakage, but based on info on commonly worn parts, I have all of the highlighted bits in my spare parts container.

 

I replace the RSA on the guns I shoot a lot twice, maybe three times a year. Any used Glocks I buy get a new RSA. They are cheap, especially the Gen 3's and before. Even the later aprings are still cheap, especially compared to some others.

Last I heard, Glock bumped the count down to 5k, but I have yet to have a spring not pass "the test", and I've been well past that.

 

Oh...I just remembered. I lost a Glock part once and had to replace from the “Glock Survival Parts Kit” I bought from the Glock Store years ago. There is some cool stuff in those red pouches. I should have looked in there sooner...didn’t need to though.

Does losing a firing pin plunger spring count as a “Glock Failure”?

 

My first Glock ( a G17 Gen 2) jammed a lot when first purchased. Ended up having an armorer look at it during a GSSF match and the extractor was chipped. It ran fine after that, though I eventually sold it and upgraded to a Gen4.

To me Glocks are perfectly fine (I've got 2 of them now, plus another Polymer 80 I built up), but there are a ton of other companies that make guns that are just as reliable. I'd trust my SR9 or my M&P with the same amount of confidence as I have in the Glocks.

 

Poppycock.

 

I've only ever seen failures with fresh out of the box glocks or 80% builds....I've gotten pretty good at fixing 80%s at this point lol.
There's really not a lot that can go wrong, and it kinda has to go way wrong to cause an issue with a Glock.
The only real issue in have with them is they chew my right thumb knuckle pretty good, which could just be how I hold them.

 

My only “Glock failures” were during the now-well-known and generally-accepted troubles with the models made for the .40 S&W. Both of my G22 pistols would malfunction if a weapon-mounted light was on the rail. One of them would malfunction without anything mounted on the rail. Both were remedied with stronger springs in the magazines, which was, of course, not a true cure, but was an acceptable work-around, during a time when I had to use one of four designated .40 duty pistols.

I later added a third G22, to have a “pair and a spare.” One of the three had an out-of-spec slide stop, that caused the slide to lock open if I used 180-grain ammo. This did not become apparent , for some time, because it ran fine with the 165-grain ammo that I had been using. The immediate work-around was to only use 165-grain ammo for carry/duty, and the cure was simple; swap that slide stop.

When I got to handle a SIG P229R DAK, with a short-reach SIG trigger, I thought about it overnight, and then bought it, the next day. The first time I fired a duty qual with the SIG, I fired a better score, cold, that I had ever fired with a G22, in 2.5 years of trying. I soon sold the Glocks, which were Gen3. (I worked for a PD that did not issue duty pistols. We bought our own, within PD specs.)

For you Glock guys; no worries. I transitioned back to Glocks, for duty and much personal carry, in late 2015, shortly after my chief OK’ed 9mm as an alternative duty cartridge. Gen4, with none of the grip adapters installed, fit me much better than Gen3. This better fit meant better accuracy. The high bore axis of the SIG, plus .40 Snap & Whip, were becoming too much for my aging right thumb/hand/wrist. The G17 gave me a lower bore axis, and a milder-recoiling cartridge, in one move.

I have never experienced any malfunction, of any kind, with several Gen4 9mm G17 and G19 pistols, and one Gen3 G17. No “brass to face,” either. I have yet to function-test a Gen5 G17, and a G19x, acquired relatively recently.

I am not saying any of this as a “fan” of Glocks. My sentimental favorites are 1911 and revolving pistols, which I tend to shoot more consistently accurately than Glocks. A Glock is accurate enough, and, like a Dewalt drill; a reliable, utilitarian tool. I have to train more often, live-fire, with a Glock, to feel right in carrying one for defensive purposes. COVID is keeping me away from training, so, I have largely defaulted to revolvers.

Edited to add: I now think that I misremembered one thing about my first pair of G22 duty pistols. I now believe only one of them malfunctioned, with and without the WML attached, and that one of them never malfunctioned. This is a correction of the first paragraph, above. I had already been quoted, before my memory corrected itself, so did not want to change what had been quoted.

 

Considering all of the “crap” factory ammo I have put through my Gen3 Glock 17 in the 11+ years I’ve owned it, I have nothing to complain about.

 

I watched a Glock 17 break the slide under the ejection port. Only thing that happened was the POI shifted to the right until the shooter noticed. Rental gun, had well over 100,000 rounds through it.
I had a Glock 19 fail in my hand, broken mag release would not keep a loaded magazine in the gun. Range qualification pistol, no way of knowing how many rounds were through it, but it would probably go through 200-400 rounds a week.
I had a Glock 17 fail on me YEARS ago at qualification, but for the life of me I can't remember what the problem was - been qualifying with Glock for going on 19 years now.
Glock makes a generally reliable, durable accurate sidearm that just doesn't fit me worth a darn, even though I qualify Expert or Distinguished Expert with one almost every year. I'll stick with CZ.

 

When you listen to enough gun companies who offer armorer training, you start to hear some commonalities when it comes to trouble-shooting & correction techniques. Also, there are only so many things for which the gun companies and their engineers can hope to exert any control over once any particular gun leaves their factory.

For example, no matter the QC of the materials, design and manufacturing, once that gun goes out the factory door the gun companies have NO control over any of the following:
*User familiarization with properly using their gun
*User maintenance practices
*Ammunition selected and used
*Environmental conditions in which its used

The Ammunition part of that list may be a bit beyond the immediate control of the User, because while the User is primarily responsible to being familiar with the safe/skilled use of the gun; the way the gun is cleaned/maintained; and the conditions in which the gun may be used ... the User has to rely upon the Ammunition maker to make a good quality product to reasonably high quality standards. (Yes, it's still up to the User to correctly identify and choose the right caliber ammunition, which can sometimes become an "issue". )

It's just that a gun company can only exert control over what they're doing while they have their hands on the product. Once it goes "out into the wild", they can't have any direct control over some pretty critical influences and potential issues.

Listening to gun company techs and engineers, and a significant number of LE firearms trainers (and even commercial/private trainers), day in and say out, upwards of 95% of all "gun problems" can usually be diagnosed and attributed to something the User/Shooter did (or didn't do, but ought to have done). The remaining "5%" is usually broken down to mostly turn out to be ammunition-related, with the smaller percentage being an actual "gun problem".

For something to be a "failure", it really needs to be diagnosed and determined whether the "failure" is on the part of the User (familiarity, manipulation, or maintenance), the Ammunition, or the actual "Gun". If the "gun", and we're talking about a pistol, then we may need to further separate the "problem" down to whether it's the gun, itself, or the magazine(s) being used.

After all, you can't blame the motor veh for a "failure" of the rubber tires.

Sometimes a broad generality is ... too general.

 

Firestone did.

 

Crap steel case Russian ammunition sometimes doesn’t fire the first time. But it will do that in any gun, nothing to do with the brand.

My first Glock, a G26 3rd gen I bought used, broke a piece off the nose of the RSA after about 3k through it in my hands. Still functioned fine, but I got a new one in and replaced it.

G42 doesn’t feed some bullet profiles. Runs great on everything else.

Failures? None so far.

 

They tried. They still ended up paying the larger proportional share of the settlement than Ford, though.

 

Ah, just carry three or four of them, and all will be well. (Revolvers/1911 pistols.)

Seriously, though, I need frequent live-fire training to maintain reasonable competency with a Glock. With covidity-induced isolation, keeping us away from shooting ranges*, I am not getting that. It is not sentiment that has caused me to default to handguns that use my least-perishable handgunning skill, long-stroke DA. I have seriously considered trying to use some parts, found on evil-bay, to try to convert an S&W 3913 or 908 to DAO.

*My wife has multiple underlying health conditions.

 

The same. When I take emotion out of the equation, even my beloved EDC X9 doesn't offer substantial improvement over the humble Glock 19 in any practical drill (times, splits, hits), and at a consistent (inside of 10 yards) 0.2 seconds slower on the draw is actually a worse carry option, logically speaking.

Also the lighter Glock is more comfortable to carry all day, though only slightly.

I'm precisely the opposite. My most perishable pistol skill is a long double action, be it revolver or semi. If I keep up on practice and dry fire it's just as good as a striker or SAO, but if I don't focus on it I'm tossing my first (for a DA/SA, all for DAO) shot low all the time.

 

And in the 20 years since, the Exploder hasn't lived down it's nickname.

I've never broken a Glock, but I've never owned one. Anything mechanical is bound to fail at some point, with enough use or neglect. Every handgun I own is a 1911 variant...but I'd trust a Glock out of the box quicker than I would a 1911 of any variation.

 

Even as a longtime 1911 shooter, me too.

When I ordered a new Stainless XSE Government Model (because of the discount I received taking a Model O Pistol armorer class, after the AR15/M16 armorer class finished), I still inspected it.

I was pleasantly surprised when I scoped the engagement of the hammer/sear with the nifty illuminated magnifying scope they'd recommended in the class, "pinning" the parts on the outside of the frame (I forget the magnification, but it was sufficient to closely examine the edges of the parts) to see that the factory fitting of the hammer/sear was textbook.

Then again, the SW1911SC 5" I ordered from S&W (after another armorer class) was also very nicely fitted and set up.

Aside from the outside vendor supplied ambi thumb safety on the XSE - of which the L/side lever broke off under thumb pressure within the first 200 rounds of live-fire - that Colt has run any of the varieties of 230gr JHP duty loads I've run through it since '05. The SW1911SC has been equally reliable and tolerant of any JHP load, although the plunger tube came unstaked a few years later. Since it was an aluminum (Scandium alloyed aluminum) frame, I let the factory replace the tube, instead of getting out the staking tools and doing it myself.

The problem with buying some 1911's today is that with so many people, and their brothers, in the business of making them, you just can't know what specifications and tolerances they may be using. Ditto with the plethora of 1911 magazines.

One of the other former 1911 armorers where I used to work also took each brand/model of 1911 on an as it came basis, meaning he carefully inspected each one before approving it for service. I remember one day he brought me one of the big manufacturer name 1911's people will eagerly wait their turn to buy. One of our guys had bought it NIB and wanted it inspected. He showed me the sear he'd just removed from it. Not only was the entire edge of the nose nastily rough (looking like a bastard file had been dragged across it, at an angle), but the curve of the body was too "tight". I don't know how that gun ever passed bench checks, let along any live-fire check, but that was one nasty sear.

Craftsmanship and attention to detail have value, but part of the cost of that value - nowadays - appears to be due to the scarcity of it.

 

I have 100s of thousands of rounds through a few Glocks all gen 2 and 3. Mostly 3. Mostly my Glock 22s. I have two I shoot steel with. I change RsA when I feel like it. None have likely made it to the round count Glock recommends. Ive ordered them for as little as 10 bucks at times so why wait?
The only real problem I have had was in a 6 inch barreled Glock 20 that after 10s of thousands of rounds of 10mm and as many .40 it would drop the mag when fired with a real 200 gr at 1200 load. I do not know whether it was the mag catch spring or the catch. I replaced both parts and the gun still hunts today. The catch was chewed up but I suspect the spring was not forcing it over far enough. 15 bucks or so fixed the problem. Now I stock spares.
I have changed out trigger springs occasionally. I also replaced a few firing pin cups in LE guns that looked chewed up.

I also had a couple of the subcompact that broke the Guide rod end. They worked fine but when disassembled they weren't captive. I believe they broke from setting with a cross breed holster. I think they hit my center console unit or they may have hit the seat belt buckle. Idk.

 

I agree for many reasons. JMB was a great designer, And was always looking to the future. 128 patents many still used today. Made his first gun at 13. He also from what I've read from many sources would not admit an issue or pay Homage to anyone. Very stubborn too. I could be off and I certainly didn't know him, but in my reading thats the feeling I get

I've heard that from many sources. Makes me wonder if the more things weren't going on at glock than in the design. Weaker polymer, bad specs on a machine, or something on a whole crap load of guns. My county department carried G22 most if not all with a light and I never saw or heard of any issues. Both of mine have a light permanently attached not so much for illumination but As ive posted on here, Makes them heavier and balanced better to suit my shooting/grip etc for shooting steel quickly. Since buying them years ago I have also been using them as my middle of the night fox/bobcat/oppossum coon in the chickens etc gun.

I was more used to hunting revolvers and the heavier sig 22x/beretta92/96 and USP before the Glock. The Glock feels great to me empty. But the loaded mag makes the muzzle seem too light. The light balances that. Same for the 6 inch 10mm.

 

Actually, after sleeping on it, I have awakened to realize that my earlier post might have been typed while mis-remembering. (This was over eighteen years ago.) I now think that only one of my original pair of G22 duty pistols malfunctioned. That one would malfunction more often with a WML mounted, but would occasionally malfunction even without the WML mounted.

Regardless, the Wolff mag springs fixed the issue.

Because I had already been quoted, I felt that I should not remove anything already written, in the earlier post.

 

As a LEO Firearms Instructor for 20 years I have seen: sights fall off, various pins shear or fall out, recoil spring guide rods snap, locking blocks shear off, etc. They are tools made by men. Glocks are good, but they are not “Perfection.”

 

I do not know exactly when the first reports of G22 malfunctions, with WMLs, came to light, but a local Glock armorer advised me to use Wolff springs, with a heavier spec than the factory G22 mags, so Glock cognoscenti were aware of the issue, even if Glock, Inc was still in denial.

I bought my first two G22 pistols in early 2002, when it became apparent that the then-mandated Safariland 070 duty holster was not the best rig for allowing the user to get a good firing grip, at the outset of the draw, especially as my right hand was not aging well, and was losing mass in the area that contacted the 1911 grip safety. One option would have been to install grip safeties that extended farther, but I did not like operating that close to the margin. Another option would have been to transition to left-side primary carry. I decided to switch to duty pistols that were more forgiving of an imperfect grip. I had not “grandfathered” any of my revolvers, so, could not revert to duty sixguns. My choices were the G22, P229, an unusual de-cocker Third-Generation S&W double-stack, or, IIRC, the Beretta 96G. (This list grew and shrank, over time.)

The only one with which I could get enough finger on the trigger was the G22. I did not like the amount of bulk and width, with any of them. In 2004, I had an opportunity to handle a P229R, with the thinner, shorter-reach trigger, and immediately transitioned to the P229R DAK. (DAK was my choice; it was not mandated, as DA/SA with de-cocker was the norm.) I returned to using Glocks, in 2015, when my chief OK’ed 9mm duty pistols, and I found that the lower-grip-volume Gen4 fit my hands.