My GLOCK jammed!

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GLOOB

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So I was shooting my GLOCK 21SF, the other day. I was in the midst of doing some single-handed hip shots at soda cans, from about 35 feet, or so.

After my 3rd shot, I glanced down at the top of the slide to check my alignment, and I noticed the action was very slightly open.

I try to rack it, and it won't budge. There's a cartridge in there. I dunno if it's the empty from the previous round, or if it's a live round. I can't get it open. The barrel tilts down, but that's as far as it goes. The cartridge is STUCK, and the extractor won't let go of the rim.

I quickly manage to muscle it in the other direction, closing the slide all the way. I point the gun downrange while keeping the back of the gun pointed away from me, and pull the trigger. It goes bang. Luckily, the cartridge stovepipes in the action, so I can retrieve it. Unluckily, I can't seem to find it, anymore.

So I know a pic is worth a thousand words, but this is what I saw. The mouth of the cartridge had a notch missing. Inspection of the interior of the mouth revealed the missing brass. It was like a notch had been broken and folded over, inwards. The folded piece was flattened and blackened with soot so it was hard to see, at first.

This was Remington UMC ammunition.

Has anyone seen this kind of malfunction before? I assume it was a pre-existing ammo defect. The brass was definitely folded over BEFORE the round fired, and I can't imagine that it would be possible for that to have happened while the round was feeding into the chamber.

The extractor looked no worse for the wear, and I had no further problems for the session.

My one thought is, "Gee, it's too bad you can't takedown a GLOCK WITHOUT pulling the trigger." :)
 
UMC is hit or miss, right now. My favorite 9mm (P229R) has been flawless, and my first time putting UMC through it... ugh. First off, two rounds (out of 150) were defective- mangled primers. And it seemed underpowered, too- two failures to lock out of battery, and I'm quite sure I wasn't limpwristing.

I don't like the need for a trigger pull to disassemble, either.
 
I had the same issue with my Glock 36 and some factory ammo (HSM, I'll never use it again). Cartridge fully chambered, I couldn't cycle the gun. After firing the gun I checked the extractor, it's been fired 300+ times since then, no issues.
 
Hmm. Remington UMC was the cheapest ammo I could find, cheaper even than Wolf. I wonder if that's not a coincidence.
 
not to pose a silly question, but what do you fellows mean by "limpwristing"?

(english is not my first and i can't find the terminology in a normal dictionary)

As I never experienced any failures in one of my pistols, (USP 9 and USP match 45), I wonder what you could do wrong.

Peter
 
Remington UMC, 3 failures to feed, all other ammunition 0 malfunctions. All 3 times I tried the stuck round in an empty magazine, still won't feed fully, lock open slide, drop in chamber, action closed normally, fired ok on each. Your thread should be UMC jammed my Glock. I have owned my G34 since Nov 08, shoot it in USPSA and some IDPA matches, between practice, and the matches I've nearly 4000 rounds through it. With the Ammo Panic came Q/C problems across the board, I still buy UMC for practice not competition. I do have to say that the 3 problems happened in about 36 50 round boxes, and 2 in 1 box, something like .16%.
 
I dont' think limpwristing has anything to do with this. Limpwristing won't cause a round to get stuck in the chamber. I believe it is much more likely you had an out of spec round that was oversize and got stuck. Glocks can and will have malfunctions just like any other machine but I would say this was ammo related and I wouldn't worry too much.
 
Glock + Failure = Dream State

:neener:

You must have dreamed this. Everyone knows Glocks never malfunction. Just ask any Glock owner, they'll tell you.

:D
 
The only time my old Ruger P-series ever malfunctioned out of around 3000 rounds it was with Remington UMC. Around here Federal Champion or Blazer Brass is usually cheaper & seems to work better.
 
I had this happen with my P7. It was American Eagle ammo. It makes for a very difficult malfunction.

I would not blame your Glock. I would blame it on faulty ammo.
 
The mouth of the cartridge had a notch missing. Inspection of the interior of the mouth revealed the missing brass. It was like a notch had been broken and folded over, inwards.
Click to expand...

I've seen a few similar instances of the same thing with reloaded ammo, except with the mouth folded outward, and it will jam one up pretty solidly. It's so intermittent that any issue with the gun itself can be discounted, and the only conclusion being that it's an issue with individual cartridge cases.

In any event, it's highly doubtful that the gun is to blame...so your Glock's rep is safe.
 
UMC (yellow box 250 round packs) has run fine in my P226 9mm, though it doesn't always lock the slide back. Ran mostly fine in my P14-45 but I experienced my first FTF ever in that gun with that ammo. Just once. Maybe coincidence, maybe not. I wouldn't bet my life on that ammo but it seems fine for plinking. IMO
 
It pays to "QC" your factory ammo as well; at the least give it a visual inspection as it goes into the magazine. This will catch something like an inverted primer, or a badly mangled case (as was what happened here it seems).

Factory ammo is subject to manufacturing defects just like any other product ever produced.

For "go to" factory ammo that will be used for competition or carry, it would not be a bad idea to gage it as well so you know it will chamber. Ideally you can get an LE Wilson max case gage for this (if you are a handloader you probably already have one), or alternately you can just use your chamber (remove the barrel first of course). Once you get going it shouldn't take more than 1-2 seconds per round to do this.
 
I think i'm the only guy who actually likes UMC. The .38 is soooooper accurate in my Model 19, and the 9mm runs perfectly in my M&P.
 
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My only gripe with the limited amount of UMC I've fired is that it has been extremely light loaded.... taken to an almost ridiculous level. It still cycled my weapons though (G19 and AR15).
 
Let me get this straight, you loaded a round that had a "notch" missing causing a "jam" when the Glock cycled the round. I think the problem should be placed with UMC for poor quality control and with you for not discarding a apparently defective round. Fireing that round was a poor judgement call on your part.

If you feed poor quality ammo into any semi-auto it will have problems not just your Glock.
 
What is it with Remington ammo? Golden bullets = terrible, umc = terrible.. what is it made in mexico or something?
 
I wouldn't say "terrible". Terrible IMO means they don't go bang or are obviously defective. 99.99% of the ones I've run through my guns have been perfectly fine. As I said I've had one FTF out of about 1000 rounds or so. And I've run more of that ammo than any other brand... because it's cheaper and available where I am.
 
I had something sort of similar happen with an American Eagle round in a Glock 17. The primer went "pop," and instead of firing the cartridge created a small, jagged bump toward the back of the cartridge. This froze the slide in place; had to take the slide apart to get the cartridge out. Now I eyeball all my cartridges before loading them, not that I know for sure whether this defect would have been visible.
 
Well, Aguila is the only Mexican ammo company I know of, and they put out some very good product. So I'd say that in this case, that's an unfair dig.
 
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