I read somewhere on one of the internet forums (probably this one) that you once shot 200k rounds through a Glock 17 before the barrel was shot out. If true, that is impressive by any standard! Would you mind posting about that experience with some examples like how many malfunctions you had, how long it took to reach 200k rounds, etc?
Thanks for taking time out to answer questions. By the way, I always enjoyed your contributions to Tactical Arms and Tactical Impact!
Malfunctions- I honestly don’t know. Just the normal stuff like when you break trigger springs and slide release springs. I think there was one squib round in there, the rails had to be replaced a few times, a number of extractors, etc.
Time- just over 4 years.
I still got the girl. I sent it to Glock after it wouldn’t hold a group and they replaced everything for free and sent it back. I asked them to not touch the trigger because even though it is stock, it has so many rounds through it that it’s like some sort of perfect custom job. I haven’t shot it since I cleaned the Hackathorn this past summer, I just rock my 19 nowadays, which is for sure more difficult to shoot at 25 yds, but hey, it’s good for students to beat me sometimes :). ….Now that 19……that’s a gen 1 single pin with no grip indents……
That is extremely impressive! Thanks for giving me the scoop.
By the way, is there any particular reason you aren’t shooting that (or any) Glock 17 anymore and are using the Glock 19?
Kyle, that’s very impressive. Right now I’ve recently purchased the only Glock I have any significant round count with, a Glock 34 Gen 4. You mentioned a lot of miscellaneous parts replacements, at what round count would you recommend replacing the misc. parts (trigger spring, extractor, etc). I’m at about 6,000 rounds now so I figured I might be closing in on at least one part’s life.
Honestly, I just shoot til something breaks. I carry spare normal stuff with me to fix.
One note to all Glock shooters (and I apologize if this has been posted before)- if you’ll put one drop of oil on the trigger return spring when you oil the connector, you’ll almost double the life of that trigger return spring.
I do alot of cc stuff nowadays, also I find the 19 harder to shoot at distance, so it’s more of a challenge. It fits me better because of my hand and body size.
Did the plastic guide rod even wear out? If so, is this a part you’d upgrade or just replace?
Thank you for taking the time and answering our questions and providing a good sorce of information. There is more bad regurgitated information out there than good and unless you already know the SM, there is no way to decipher between the two.
Much respect,
While not Mr. Defoor, a g19 of mine (up to around the 20k mark) broke a guide rod on the breech end at around 4k. It cracked half the circle that rests inbetween the locking block arms above the slide lock.
I should probably get a spare then. Advice: Plastic or metal?
That’s a unicorn right there. My dream is to stumble into some out of the way pawn shop and find one of those. The equivalent of a barn find Ferrari.
Thanks for the tip on the trigger return spring. That’s the first time I’d heard that.
It is an assembly wiht the spring. Throw it and the spring both away and replace at recommended intervals. Keep spares on hand, it is a cheap part.
Also, make sure you seat the assembly correctly when re-assembling the pistol, forcing things not properly seated tend to cause the break a poster above described.
Kyle, you mentioned broken rails, do you mean a broken locking block or are you talking frame rails?
A good indicator that the recoil spring is going is poor extraction. Assuming everything else is working good you’ll start to get double feeds/failure to extract. Most folks miss diagnose as an extractor issue but in my experience it is almost always a bad recoil spring. It causes a failure to extract because it’s so weak it can’t cycle fully.
Yes, frame rails. Those metal inserts and the plastic rails will both wear over time. A good indicator of this is a loose group at 25 yds. I’ve seen people miss diagnose this as a “shot out barrel” , but when the barrel is truly gone it will appear completely smooth when you put it to the light. Even with just chamber wear near the feed ramp almost completely smooth, it will still hold a group at 25 with rifling in the last inch of barrel. 19s are worse though because they are already shorter.
How many frames did you go thru in that 200k period? Doesnt replacing the rails require trashing the frame too?
two frames.
I don’t know if they can replace the metal inserts without getting rid of the entire frame or not. Obviously, the plastc portion would have to be part of the frame, and I’m not sure which they meant when they said they repalced it. From looking at one , it appears that you could replace those metal inserts without replacing the entire frame if that where the only problem.
If this helps, it came back from that with the same serial number.
I believe the inserts are molded in at the time the frame is injection molded and they would most likely have to replace the whole frame along with them. I can’t see a non-destructive way of removing that particular part.
I suspect they gave you a new frame with the old number.
After handling a G17 with 230K+ rounds through it, I was also able to inspect one with 700K+ rounds fired. One of several rental range guns that had frequent high volume shooters use it. Wear items included recoil spring assembly, magazine catch and magazines. Barrel still had some accuracy to it and wear was present, but not excessive. The range representative claimed to have one other with a higher round count.
Unless I missed something and this was already answered, at what approximate round count did you have to decide the rails were worn out the first time?
Around 100k