| 40,936 rounds | 8 stoppages (+1 w/non-LCI extractor) |
0 malfunctions | 1 parts breakages |
Proving once again that cleaning guns is bad, Friday night I stripped my G17 and discovered that the extractor was chipped. While the pistol continued to function normally, a chipped extractor is an official Bad Thing and it was replaced. As you can see from the photo above and the photo at right, the chipped extractor had a significant number of wear points. Luckily, I had a spare extractor on hand. Now I just have to hope it works.
The Glock, for all its troubles early on, went farther than any other endurance test pistol before it had an actual broken part. The M&P had a trigger spring break at 37,427. The HK45 came next, breaking a trigger spring at just over 35,000. The P30 broke its first trigger spring around 19,000 rounds… that was before I wised up and began replacing the spring every 12.5k instead of the official recommended 25k (which I did for the HK45, as well).
And for those who like to keep track, the G17 went 9,608 rounds since the last time it was cleaned.
Regarding the great self-ejecting magazine mystery, my hope of finding a guinea pig to run the magazines at last weekend’s Aim Fast Hit Fast class went unfulfilled. I’m getting together with some shooters this weekend and hopefully one or two of them will step up to the challenge.
Otherwise, last weekend’s class in Salt Lake City was a great opportunity to test the new Glock 9mm ejector. A few of the students, the ROs, and I got to stay late on Sunday and get in some extra shooting so I went through almost 500 rounds during the class weekend. In addition to playing on the plate racks (hey Scott… keep practicing and I’ll give you a rematch next year!), I also gave JJ Racaza’s 3-per-target version of the Triple Nickel a try. Suffice to say, I am not JJ Racaza. I scored a 5.13 and missed one shot. Or, in Triple Nickel terms, I failed. On a brighter note, I did turn in a couple of sub-5 clean F.A.S.T. runs during class.
I played around a bit with the New York trigger return spring again this week. While it was manageable for most things and made my press-outs feel better, it was noticeably slower and made critical shots — especially one-handed — more difficult. It might be something I could just adapt to over time, but my current setup of a dot connector and standard trigger return spring still gives me a trigger pull a bit over five pounds. I prefer the heavier takeup of the NY spring, but wish it could be mated to a lighter overall break in the ~6# neighborhood. The gen3 guns with a minus connector and NY1 spring are perfect. Lacking that, I’ll stick with the stock setup on my gen4 guns.
Friday night I had a good run of F.A.S.T. scores. The first three are with the NY1 spring, then I swapped it out and ran the rest:
- 4.79 (clean): 1.65, .47 / 2.04 / .21, .21, .21
- 4.70 (clean): 1.62, .48 / 1.95 / .23, .21, .21
- 4.85 (clean): 1.52, .81 / 1.91 / .22, .20, .19
- 4.99 (clean): 1.61, .58 / 1.95 / .20, .24, .41
- 4.53 (clean): 1.46, .47 / 1.94 / .23, .22, .21
- 4.51 (clean): 1.56, .55 / 1.80 / .22, .19, .19
- 4.38 (clean): 1.47, .46 / 1.82 / .21, .21, .21
- 4.57 (clean): 1.61, .49 / 1.85 / .22, .20, .20
- 6.38 (-1 Head): 1.45, .54 / 1.81 / .20, .19, .19
There are some interesting things to note. My first shot with the NY1 combo, and my reload, were both slower on average. That was definitely a result of having to work harder on the press-out, though again that was probably more a matter of familiarity than anything else. The press-out feels better with the NY1, it just doesn’t work better at this point. Also, the stronger reset of the NY1 was definitely something I got used to quickly. If you look at the body splits for the first run I tried after going back to the standard trigger spring, you’ll see I got a case of trigger freeze before the last shot and turned in a wild 0.41 split.
The progression after changing the trigger return spring was also interesting to me. On the first run (#4 above), I stayed at the pace set by the previous runs with the NY spring. Then I got back on track with the initial shot but was still a little cautious with the press-out from the reload and the body splits. On the third run after the switch (#6) everything came back together.
This weekend, as mentioned, I will be spending some time on the range with a group of very accomplished shooters. Hopefully, it will provide a chance to get some decent video for next week’s update. Assuming the new extractor works. Wish me luck.
Train hard & stay safe! ToddG
Previous Glock 17 gen4 Endurance Test posts at pistol-training.com:
- Week 29
- Week 28
- Week 27
- Week 26
- Week 25
- Week 24
- Week 23
- Week 22
- Week 21
- Week 20
- Week 19
- Week 18
- 25,000 Rounds with the G17 gen4
- Week 17
- Week 15
- Week 13
- Week 12
- Week 11
- Week 10
- Week 9
- Week 8
- Week 6
- Week 5
- Week 4
- Week 3
- Week 2
- Week 1
- 99.8%
- It Lives
- Week Zero
- When Will It Stop?
- Announcement
Given your infrequent cleanings, maybe you should say the Glock went longer before you ‘noticed’ the parts breakage. 🙂 Thanks for sharing all this information, so few people have both the willingness to shoot through this many rounds and the stubbornness to record every single round!
It’s my theory that rounds don’t always seat properly with the extractor when chambered. Rather, I think they sometimes come in ahead of the extractor, which then slams into the round and around the lip of the brass to seat (similar to what happens if you stick a bullet into the chamber and then slam the slide home on it). My 3rd gen G19 has wear on the front of the extractor claw that would support this.
If you insert a magazine and slowly ride the slide forward you can observe that often times that the moment the bullet leaves the magazine completely it will pop up into the chamber in front of the extractor. Now, at full speed this may never be the case but I suspect that it *sometimes* is.
Just a few random thoughts…
Todd,
I noticed from the triple nickel society website
that law enforcement would only be eligible to
receive their coin.
I’m glad to see that you don’t discriminate with
your fast coins.
On the NY1 spring, try removing the actual spring in the middle to see if it gets you to the weight you’re looking for.
So how did the new ejector work?
Well Todd, you have definitely proven the Gen 4 has ALOT to be desired.
I’ll stick to my HK P30
What is this new ejector you speak of?
Emanuel — I’ve played with that in the past and didn’t like the mush feeling it produced. I know quite a few folks who run that way, however. You just need to keep an eye on it because once the plastic takes a set, it no longer provides the resistance necessary to run the gun properly.
Sean — Worked out great so far.
Chuck — Info on the new ejector can be found here, with a tip of the hat to Gear Scout for his awesome photos and typical before-it-hits-the-street information.
Todd,
You might try the NY Trigger and the Dot Connector, Ive been playing with it and like it better than the (-) connector and NY trigger.
Prdator — That’s what I was talking about, the dot/NY combo is what I used this past week on and off. The -/NY works great in gen3 or earlier guns but not in the gen4.
Eric R makes some valid points. You see the same issue with 1911s when the magazine springs start to get weak and causes the rounds to jump ahead of the extractor, snapping the tip of it off.