[Charlie Petty]

I'm really surprised we don't see more...

In fairness there are tens of thousands of Glocks sold every year and the number of incidents is small but you hardly ever hear about those from any of the other major makers. Glock always blames the ammo and sometimes that may even be true.

I have never seen a 17 fail but think about your question Sam. Why would you want to be so loyal to a product about which you have doubts?

 

[Charlie Petty]

Actually I think it was "Double Beagle"

When we talk about reliable autoloaders we shouldn't turn molehills into mountains...

While it is surely true that Beretta had problems with the first GI guns they fixed it. I had one of the very first Glock 40s and it wouldn't work for beans. It's favorite trick was rotating the fired case 180 degrees and sticking it back in the chamber but we never hear gripes about reliability with them anymore.

I certainly don't shoot every new model pistol that comes along, but I sure do my fair share and the simple truth is that reliability is rarely worth mentioning. Oh sure, sometimes you get a crummy magazine but true gun related reliability troubles are pretty much a thing of the past.

The 1911 is a great example. When I first started building them in 1959 even brand new Colts needed a lot of work to get them to run... let alone shoot... but now a garden variety Kimber will shoot around 2" @25 ( some of the $4k custom jobs won't do that). But basic guns from everybody work now without the need for gunsmith attention.

The issue should be whether or not you can shoot the gun comfortably and accurately. Most of the time we're the problem anyhow.

 

[Charlie Petty]

My recollection is: spontaneous catastrophic load induced disassembly or SCLID and I credit it to the worthy gunny... much as I would like to claim it for my own. :lol:

 

[Charlie Petty]

The short answer is no. To my knowledge no other .40 caliber pistol is having that type of problem.

It is true that Federal- and then everyone- made the web of their cartridge cases thicker. The reason they did is because of the less than adequate support of some Glock barrels. I did quite a bit of measuring and found that there was substantial variation from one barrel to another due- I suppose- to manual polishing of the feed ramp which removed more metal from some than others.

I think that reloaded ammo is a significant factor, but given the bulging that can be seen from new ammo fired in some pistols it makes me wonder if reloading ammo fired in Glocks is worse than others. Of course I also know that there are many more shooters who reload without incident than there are those who have kB events.

I haven't repeated this lately, but during years past I have measured the unsupported case area on a number of new guns at a local gun shop. As I said, there was variation, but my impression is that- overall- things were improved.

 

[Charlie Petty]

There's a surefire way to check this out for your guns.

Gather up fired cases from whatever factory ammo you like and examine them for bulging in the area of the feed ramp. You can determine the orientation of the cartridge in the chamber by the firing pin marks and then look for a mark made by the ejector which will be roughly at the 8-9:00 position on the rim. The extractor mark will be at roughly 3:00. With that known it's easy to measure with a simple caliper and see how much the fired cases have expanded compared to an unfired round. Some expansion is absolutely normal but if you can see a bulge at the 6:00 position or measure anything over 0.010" expansion.

As far as I'm concerned if there is consistent expansion over that measurement it's time for an aftermarket barrel.