Out shooting my Glock 26 a few days ago and I feel something weird after a shot. Noticed that the slide wasn’t in battery, took it apart and found this:
This G26 has less than 1000 rounds through it. Needless to say, I was a bit suprised as I’ve never had this happen in my G27 which has many more rounds through it and I’ve never heard of anyone else having this issue. I know the recoil spring should be replaced around 5000 rounds, but I wasn’t anywhere near that kind of round count with this G26 yet.
As near as I can tell (after comparing it to a new recoil spring assembly) nothing appears to be inherently wrong with the spring or the lip it sits against - it just seems that the spring slipped past the lip it sits on.
I would suggest taking it to a Glock armorer. While I believe you would be fine replacing the spring (if not just screwing it out until it was properly seated), if it was my gun I’d want a second, qualified opinion.
Out of curiosity, what kind of ammo were you shooting?
I was shooting a mix of some 147g Winchester RA9B, some 147g Speer Gold Dots, and some Federal 115g FMJ. I’m not sure what was in the pipe when this occurred.
Had something similar happen to my 27 back in '03-'04 timeframe, but it came off the front instead of the rear like yours. Glock replaced it for free when I called them and sent me an extra incase it happened again. I wouldn’t thing anything is wrong with your pistol, just replace the recoil spring.
I figured nothing is wrong with the pistol, as I think the issue was solely the fault of the recoil spring assembly failing, however, it didn’t give me any warm fuzzies, as the total round count through this pistol is only in the 900-1000 range.
maybe the recoil spring assembly got jacked up during cleaning/field stripping… or ya just got a bad one…
these things happen, one of the reasons that it’s important to clean and inspect your carry gun even if it’s one of the magical new polymer wonderpistols that can go 4000 rounds with no cleaning :o
I doubt it got damaged from field stripping\cleaning as the last time I had it apart to install some Warren night sights was before I ever fired a round. I was just wondering if this was a common occurance as I have never experienced it before with my G26\27s and neither have any of my friends who also own G26\27s.
Wow - tagging this one - have a G26 that is my main “shorts” carry gun and gets its share or time at the range as well. Must have 1500 through mine since Glock first released them, mid 90s I guess.
To put you in sync with the age it was released, my FFL at the time said “its smaller that a 5 1/4” floppy and will tak G17/G19 mags."
i believe the replacement interval on this spring assembly is actually longer than the G19/17 spring. The general rule of thumb on the full size springs is 5k rounds, i’ve heard 7500 on the G26 spring .
it is worth inspecting this part carefully on any carry guns as it’s more complex than the single spring guide rods.
The replacement schedule on the G26/27/33 and G29/30/36 is 7500 rounds. I’ve worked on 100s of them and have seen exactly 1 break.
I know several people including myself with thousands of rounds through Gen4s with out broken recoil springs assys. I’ve seen two broken one where the owner of the gun got all Mongo on the spring ripping it out of the frame upon disassembly. Early non counter bored Gen4 slides make it more difficult to remove the spring for field stripping.
About 6 years ago I was firing a range rental G33 (357sig subcompact) when the slide would not go into battery after I had fired a few mags. I returned the pistol to the employee at the counter and said it was broken. He said “yeah right”, and was surprised when it was clearly messed up. An hour later I asked what was wrong with it and he said the recoil spring or rod broke (I don’t remember which). I wonder if this was a similar situation.
Could you explain in a little more detail about this? My 2 Gen 4 17s do not have a counterbore and while the spring assembly is tight I remove the barrel first and then push the spring through. Is this bad?
