I Did It Again! Bought Another Glock, Texas Edition

[GunAdmirer]

I saw a new 3rd Gen. Glock 22 with "God Bless Texas" laser engraved on the slide at Cabela's this morning and had to have it. It also has a the Texas flag and an outline of the state engraved on either side of "God Bless Texas."

It's my first .40 S&W pistol. I've been slow to want to buy a .40 but have had the itch lately.

Of course it fired the Federal 180 grain range ammo and Winchester Ranger 135 JHPs flawlessly. The .40 has pretty snappy recoil but the G22 seems the ideal size to handle it. I'm surprised the G22 uses the same recoil rod/spring assembly as the G17. Any value to replacing it with a steel rod and a slightly stronger spring?

I plan to buy a 40 to 9 conversion barrel in the near future. Any experiences or preferences?

I like Glocks. I've had many of them. They've all run 100%. I don't care for the newer Glocks. I've shot and own other pistols but keep coming back to Glock. To each his own.

 

[Zerodefect]

Steel guide rod? Yes.
Aftermarket spring? No. NO.

The Factory spring worked best by far during my testing. The .40 glocks don't need a stiffer spring. It's the 9mm Glocks that need a softer spring.

I like the Lone Wolf SS guide rods.

 

[GunAdmirer]

So, the G22 isn't under-sprung? You took the spring from a factory Glock recoil rod/spring assembly and put it on a steel guide rod? Tell me more, please.

 

[Zerodefect]

Yes. I cut the nipple off the plastic guide rod. Then retrieved the spring from the wall three doors away before my cat ran off with it.

I put it on the Lone Wolf guide rod. The captured model.

It's hard to torque the capture screw because the rod is round. So I used red threadlock and light torque. Allen wrench on one end, taped up channel locks on the other. When you need to change the spring you'll need to heat the guide rod with a lighter until it's super hot to weaken the threadlock.

I tried multiple ISMI springs, glockworx springs, etc. Some of the ISMI springs rub and bind up. I never gained any less recoil or speed.

The stock Glock recoil spring was by far the best setup.

You may want to polish your SS guide rod to reduce friction further and to reduce the "Glock rack squeal" noise. I used a dremel with a cotton wheel thing and the dremel orange polish. (dremel polish kit)

While your at Lone wolf grab a Lone Wolf 3.5 connector and a handful of extra strength trigger springs. (replace aftermarket trigger springs frequently, 1000-2000 rounds, you don't want to see what happens when they break)

 

[GunAdmirer]

the "Glock rack squeal" noise - you mean the screen door noise? It's embarassing!

 

[Zerodefect]

Yeah.

That's the flat wound recoil spring dragging on the rod. I was able to polish some of that noise away.

The ISMI spring is even worse. It has a slightly larger bore so it flexes back and forth more across the rod and screeches even more than stock.

 

[DustyDawg48]

the "Glock rack squeal" noise - you mean the screen door noise? It's embarassing!

Ha! A good friend of mine describes it just that way; you kind of show your age when talking about a screen door, though. That noise does go away after repeated shooting; my Glock 21 is as quiet as a church mouse now! That is probably the easiest way to tell if a Glock truly is 'like new' when buying a used one