Took the G19 to the range today and had to call my practice short because the gun had eight failures to eject in just 300 rounds. Needless to say, I left the range in a very cranky mood. Before sending nasty angry emails off to everyone I know at Glock, I took a closer look at the gun and immediately realized exactly what I’d done to cause the problem.
A free pistol-training.com hat to the first person who figures it out:
(click any image to see the full-resolution photo)
And before anyone asks, no, this is not the 2011 endurance test gun. It’s my own personal Gen4 G19.
Good luck…
Train hard & stay safe! ToddG
Extractor spring is in backwards. The small plastic end should be in contact with the slide cover plate.
The rod & spring unit behind the extractor is in backwards.
Either you guys are geniuses or this is a common mistake (i.e., I’m stupid).
I’m going with “you guys are geniuses.”
Mr. Anderson, email inbound regarding your prize…
Common mistake.
It’s actually called the spring loaded bearing and people put them in backwards all the time.
Second most common Glock assembly error is placing the slide lock lever in backwards. You’ll know when that happens because your slide will fall off when you pull the trigger on an empty chamber.
The most common mistake I see is the slide release spring going behind the top pin.
It’s not genius when you can tell from the picture.
The lesson here: 3am is the wrong time to be detail stripping your Glock.
Could you MAKE it the 2011 endurance test gun? Please?
It’s possible…
Yar!
Another vote for a G19 endurance test. I would love to see if your particular gun lives up to the hype.
it’s also possible that an elephant comes tap dancing through my house at 2:04AM during a full moon singing “cheek to cheek”.
I know the answer…..its not a H&K!
Add me to the list of people who would like to see the G19 go through your endurance test.
Come on Glock just do it!
Waitaminute… since when do you shoot Glocks on purpose outside of a test?
… or did you just have an extra P-T.com hat that didn’t fit on the shelf?
I’m trying to wrap my head around you detail stripping a gun, at all. What were you, drunk?
My guess is that Glock doesn’t have the balls to let you do an endurance test on their product (hint, hint, prove me wrong, Gaston… )
I was going to say extractor spring was in backwards but I suppose it’s far too late to do that and seem clever now.
What sights do you have on that gun and do you like them? I need new sights for a Gen4 Glock 17 I’m getting.
Jesse — They’re Warren Tactical 2-dot night sights. I’m actually looking forward to trying the new Trijicon HD sights when they start shipping.
There was an East Texas sheriff’s deputy shot and critically wounded (with an AR15) several years ago during a domestic violence incident. She got one shot off before being wounded and her G17 failed due to the same reason: improperly installed extractor depressor assembly. Big lawsuit…
Todd I admire your honesty in posting a mistake that might actually save a Glock users life. Many instructors prefer to exude the illusion of constant perfection.
KW – +1 on that.
Todd – I admire your honesty as well.
I vote for the Gen4 G19 as the endurance test gun. Heck, I’ll be happy if mine makes it through your AFHF next month. That will be a WIN for me.
Hey Stephen, I’ve trained with Todd for a couple days and I can attest that his gun handling and shooting skills are as close to perfect as it gets. Turning a mistake into a learning experience is what makes a perfect instructor. OK I’m done ass kissing 😉
Just out of curiosity…
Why were you detail stripping it for?
Thats easy! Even I can see that put the cartridges in backwards. Remember, the bullet goes in the front, primer towards you!
This is what happens when you switch away from a family of weapons that are so reliable that they don’t care if the ammunition is loaded backwards.
Hey Glock! LOOK at what’s being posted here and let’s make the Gen4 G19 the next 50K test gun for pistol-training.com!
@James V
Could you elaborate?
“The most common mistake I see is the slide release spring going behind the top pin.”
When you reassemble the lower, make sure you insert the locking block pin before you insert the trigger pin and slide stop lever. That way the slide stop spring is below the locking block pin.
Isaac:
For more details see GlockUAM, page 16:
“Remember the locking block pin is the first pin to be removed and the first pin to be reinstalled. If you install the locking block pin after you install the slide stop lever, you will bend and damage the slide stop lever spring.”
(http://www.halfzware.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2006/03/GlockUAM.doc)
Todd:
Please, could I use photos of your failure in our (non-english) forum for prevention purposes?
Of course, full link to article and PTC courtesy will be also mentioned.
Todd,
An idea that just came to mind, if you were to do this as a training exercise it could give you more of a real world double feed clearance drill.
You would not know when in the course of fire the Mal was coming.
Obviously you would have to make sure you “fixed” the gun before you left the range and confirmed it worked properly.
Thoughts?
yarco — Absolutely. You’re more than welcome to use the photos.
Prdator — That’s not a bad idea!
Very interesting. Never, and I mean NEVER had a FTF in my G19 in the 5+ years that I’ve had it. It’s not a Gen 4 though.
Gen 4 G19 for 2011 test.
I think if you take it to a vote it will be a landslide.
Gen 4 G19 for 2011 test would be great.
Screw the Glock, I’d rather see a Walther PPQ endurance run, personally.
I kinda want to see Todd use a CZ75B or Kimber Warrior, actually…
I’m with gtmtnbiker98; test the new Walther PPQ!
Ha, another way of thinking about it is that the Glock 19 Gen 4 successfully extracted 292 out of 300 times despite the extractor string being installed backwards. Glass is half full and all that.
Thanks Yarco and Jody H. I was confused because I thought he was saying that the slide stop lever spring was supposed to fit in between the locking block and the locking block pin, which wasn’t making sense to me. So I was just making sure I got it right. Plus one on putting the slide lock lever in backward, did that the first time I reassembled and realized that the slide locked up about a millimeter to far forward on the frame. Took me a second to realize what the problem was.
I’d really like to see some classic design like a CZ75B for example, prove it’s not your friend Todd! 🙂 You don’t need 50,000 rounds. If it is not good you’ll break it much sooner!
Other than that, a Glock 19 4gen.
Another vote for the Gen 4 Glock 19 for the 2011 endurance test!
Another vote for the Walther PPQ!
I have hand written notes in my Armorer’s manual. I quoted what the Instructor said. “Metal on Metal. Polymer on Polymer.”
It is directly linked to this issue.
Todd, You get a ton of respect for posting a simple mistake that could have been catastrophic.
Jack
While we have four Gen 4 Glock 9mms (17×2 19×2) and each is an early sample of each model with original 01 and 03 spring wts they have all run well – combined 11K rds with not a stoppage yet – I was thinking that a 50K test of a Gen 4 19 will tell us much we don’t already know. One good running gun won’t mean much to the Gen 4 detractors. A durable Glock 9mm won’t tell us fans much.
OTOH – I would REALLY love to see the FAST times that could be clocked with a Gen 4 19 in such a trial!
Another vote for the Gen4 for the endurance gun! I picked one up in November, cleaned and lubed it well and have been doing the “2000 round challenge” with it since. So far no issues, I am 1275 rounds, including 400 rounds through a Vicker’s regional instructor class. Love the pistol – and it would be awesome to see you test it out.
I’ve seen this wort of stoppage several times when folks totally forgot to place the spring loaded bearing onto the back of the spring before reassembly.
Just thought I’d add one more way you can F up your gun while doing a detail strip and reassembly at O’ dark 30