Hunting Forum

Just had a guy complaining that his M17 Glock magazines were all 3 hard to get into and out of his pistol.  He said the plastic was separating down the back.  Examination showed me the symptoms of a commoGlock and indeed all striker-fired semi-auto pistol problem.  The gun is firing out-of-battery slightly, blasting gasses down through the magazine well as the gun blows back prematurely.  I normally see this with the .40s, but it happens to all of the models.  Had it been a .40, or the .357 Sig chambering hed have known earlier becasue it woudl have blown the magazine out of the pistol and likely split the frame.  Being a 9mm however all that had happened was it swelled the magazines just enough to pop the plastic sleeve apart.  The mags were still functioning and could be inserted and removed, but were tight. 

He is returning it to Glock, even though he's had this gun since carrying it in Desert Storm,  Glock has a good reputation for warranty work so that is a plus. 

Periodically, inspect yoru casings on those strike-fired pistols.  The firing pin strike should be dead-center.  If not, the gun is not in-battery when it was fired.  The casings should be bright and if showing a lot of black soot on the outside, the gun was opening too soon.

Whats keeping the slide out of battery? Insufficient cleaning? Buildup of debris at the end of the chamber ream? I would assume this would be bad on any type of pistol?

Glocks, and striker-fired pistols are more proned to this than hammer-fired guns. On a hammer-gun, the impact of the hammer either pushed the slide into battery the instant it fires, or is cushioned enough to not fire at all.

Glocks often see this as a result of minor deviations in rounds' headspace since they headspace on the case mouth. A smidgeon of fouling at the edge of the chamber, often from shooting lead, but even melted laquer from Wolf-types ammo can cause cartridges to hang slightly. Quite often it is reloads that cause this by not being trimmed properly. Another malady that can cause it is debris under the extractor claw. You have to use a pick to scrape it out every once in a while. This guy was a Marine and is good about cleaning. He only uses factory ammo. He said it had been this way for a few yrs and only decided to ask me about it recently.

Everytime I bring this subject up with a Glock owner they immediately become defensive and argue that the Glock is the best as just look at all the LEO's that use them. When I explain that the reason so many LEO's use them is that Glock gives their dept very good bulk pricing on the handguns. I also explain that Glock has funds set aside to pay any lawsuits brought by owners. I have been called anal retentive when it comes to cleaning my firearms as I take much longer to clean mine than most others do but it is because I want to make sure that I don't have problems that others have such as this one. I have a set of picks that I use in the small places where debris can accumulate. I have and will never own a Glock nor another Beretta after having owned just one which is now the standard Army issue sidearm. Just did not like the feel of it in my hand and it was not near as accurate as it should have been out of the box for the price. As for Rugers all my handguns with the exception of my latest buy are Rugers and are revolvers and no semi-auto's at all. My experience with Ruger semi-auto's has not been a good one so I do not recommend them to friends. Whe I held a FFL I had the unpleasant experience of having ordered a couple of the semi's for firends and out of the box they would not fire at all. I simply got them back from my firends and sent them back for refund of my money and then had my friends go with either a Ruger revolver or with another maker. And before anyone gets all huffy remember this is simply my opinion and nothing more nor less !!! My latest buy was the new Springfield Armory XDs sub compact .45acp which is made in Croatia and is a totally designed from the ground up design and not just a smaller version of their full XD line of handguns. The XD is the standard issue sidearm for the Croatian military and are well made as well as durable and dependable as long as they are ketp maintained. It cam out of the box very accurate and to this point it has digested every kind of ammo I have used to include reloads. It is also a srtiker fired handgun and knowing the problems that can be caused by those described by Shiloh I always spend the extra few minutes when cleaning it so I know it will go bang when I pull the trigger.

I also experience the "Glock-gestapo" when I mention that Glocks might not have been designed and miraculously created from On High and delivered to the gun store by a white dove. It is indeed true and has been for well over a decade now that abt 65% of U.S. LEO agents carry one. But, this is in large part due to copy-cat buying where cops see what "big city" agencies use and they copy-cat to be like the big-guys. The huge depts. are given sweet deals by Glock, like $200/pistol deals because Glocks are cheap to make and so they are not losing any money, or not much to do this. but more importantly, Glock knows that by giving these sweet deals they pick-up a lot more money from copy-cat buyers.

All guns have quirks. My old "Reviews" showed that. Glocks are plagued by the striker-fire issues. That is really all. Kahr, XD, Sigma, et. al. striker-fired guns will have this issue to some degree and the main thing to recognize is just that you need to never shoot lead, use top-quality factory ammo only - of the best-quality handloads, and simply be aware of the problem to look for signs.

As a Glock owner...Thanks for this info! I'll be sure to take extra care cleaning my old Gen 1 model 19. Thanks again!

You're welcome. It's all just a matter of knowing the quirks of our tools and accepting them responsibly.

Never owned a Glock, can't find any that feel good in my grip. I have had several Ruger revolvers and semi autos and now a Remington 1911 that all fit my hand better. I still hear from my Glock loving friends how Glocks are superior to any other handgun.

Is this firing out of battery something that develops over time or is it there from the start? Already own the Ruger Mark III, Ruger SR9 and SR22 and considering the SR45, but if the issue will develop sooner or later I am not sure anymore. Going through all of my old 9 mil brass checking for off center firing pin marks.

What is the impression/advice on S&W or Colt? I am about to buy a semi-auto but am not sure which one to focus on for target/home defense. The store is promoting Beretta, Sig Saur but did not see Colt or S&W or Glock. Are there any other reputable, North American, German or other makes that I should consider?

Springfield Armory's XD line, Ruger and Taurus!

All sriker-fired handguns I have come across can fire out of battery. This inlcudes the XDs, the Taurus, Ruger, Glock, S&W Sigma, Kahr, etc. It can happen out of the box depending on ammo if the case is a little too long, or the extractor claw doesn't slip ove rthe rim perfectly, or a bit of fouling in the chamber holds the case before the slide locks up.

Nothing wrong with these guns so long as you are aware of the issue. Like a car, there are quirks each car model has and it is patently wrong for the manufacturer to hide the quirks, and wrong for retailers that know of the quirks to fail to mention them to consumers. All I am doing is announcing the quirk. Buy what you like and learn all you can about the model you want to get and get. Personally, I like hammer-guns that almost cannot fire out of battery since the hammer impact is eithe rhard enough to slam the frame into battery just as the primer detonates, or is not strong enough to push the slide forward and detonate the primer meaning the gun doesn't fire period until the slide is engaged.

This is timely because I've been considering getting a striker fired compact. This hasn't soured me on them. I'll just be real careful about getting the right ammo. Thanks.

Just be sure and do a good job when cleaning your handgun after shooting. I always have a cleaning kit with me at the range and if there is abreak in the action I usually do a qucik field stripping and cleaning. I make sure that when I get home I do a detailed teardown and cleaning as well.