Glock 17 gen4 Endurance Test: Week Two

5,047 rounds

5 stoppages (+1 w/non-LCI extractor)

0 malfunctions

0 parts breakages

During the combined Speed Kills/Get SOM class in Seattle last weekend, the G17 had another extraction failure, this time with the “obsolete” extractor and companion spring loaded bearing. The stoppage occurred in front of the whole class near the end of the first day’s Dot Torture exercise. Ammo was 115gr Blazer FMJ. The pistol fired another 275 or so rounds after that without incident, but my faith in the “fix” was over.

As you can see above, I’ve called out that stoppage separate from the rest. I agonized over whether or not to count the stoppage with the older (“obsolete”) extractor against the gun. It’s not a current factory part. It wouldn’t be installed if the gun went back for warranty repair. But at the same time, all those rounds through the gun count, so the stoppage should probably count, too. In the end, I decided to detail the specifics in the weekly stats and let each reader interpret the data for himself.

After the stoppage, calls were made and a couple days later the Extractor Fairy delivered a few different extractors to pistol-training.com world command headquarters. Two were brand new current production extractors (one marked “1” and the other marked “3”), and two were older pre-LCI style. I dropped the “1” and “3” each into the slide to see which would fall out freely, and the “3” was the winner. Admittedly, there may also have been a little bias since this is now the third extractor the gun has tried in two weeks. I put that extractor in the gun and vowed that either the pistol would finally be reliable or I’d give up on the test altogether. I also installed a new (current production) spring loaded bearing, extractor depressor plunger, and extractor depressor plunger spring (i.e., the whole extractor assembly).

I’m happy to report that 1,631 rounds later the pistol has not had any stoppages. Ammo used has been Blazer 115gr FMJ, American Eagle 124gr FMJ, and Federal 124gr +p HST. The G17 hasn’t been cleaned or lubricated since I installed the new extractor and if all goes according to plan, it should finish the 2,000 Round Challenge by the end of this weekend’s Aim Fast Hit Fast class in College Park, TX.

While I had the gun apart to replace the extractor, I also installed the Glockmeister gen4 grip plug (pictured right) on the advice of my buddy JV. Instantly, my reloads improved… a lot. Without the plug I’d frequently get the mag jammed into the hollow behind the magwell requiring what seemed like an eternity to reorient and insert. This is not an uncommon complaint, especially with the gen4 guns.

Comparing last week’s “50 FAST” runs, I had eighteen out of fifty reloads fumbled at over two seconds with a worst of 2.82 seconds then. This week it was three out of fifty with a worst of 2.07 seconds. The improvement is obvious and substantial. The Glockmeister gen4 plug is a must-have as far as I’m concerned. (I am in no way associated with Glockmeister and I bought mine over the internet through their online store)

Full results of the “50 FAST” exercise:

	HK 45: 27-Oct-2010	G17: 24-Mar-2011	G17: 30-Mar-2011
Average (total)	5.46	5.50	5.12
Average (raw time)	4.50	4.66	4.30
Best run	4.14	4.21	3.92
Worst run	8.46	8.69	8.84
Head hits	80%	83%	83%
Body hits	98%	98%	96.5%
Draw (avg)	1.43	1.56	1.44
Head split (avg)	0.45	0.45	0.40
Reload (avg)	1.94	2.01	1.82
Body splits (avg)	0.23	0.21	0.21

Of course, only the first three F.A.S.T. scores in a day normally count. The exception is when I run more than three in a row that are clean under five seconds. Wednesday night I did four in a row:

• 4.53 (c): 1.59, .42 / 1.93 / .20, .20, .19
  
• 4.22 (c): 1.40, .37 / 1.86 / .21, .19, .19
• 4.37 (c): 1.51, .46 / 1.85 / .19, .20, .16
• 4.37 (c): 1.51, .44 / 1.81 / .22, .20, .19
• 5.49 (-1 body): 1.52, .40 / 1.94 / .22, .21, .20

Thursday night I had JV run the timer for me, and of three runs only one was clean (4.50). I had a 4.98 and a 4.14, each with one head shot missed.

I also played around a bit with the Hackathorn/i-dot sights some more. This week, I worked on determining where my point of impact would be for various distances given either a “dot” or top edge point of aim. Because I’m most concerned with where my carry ammo prints, I used the Federal 124gr +p HST and got the following results from five shot groups:

• at 50 feet using the dot as point of aim, all shots fell within the 6″ circle on a Q-PT target.
• at 75 feet using the dot as point of aim, all shots fell within the 8″ circle, clustered around the border between the 6″ and 8″ zones.
• at 100 feet using the dot as the point of aim, two shots were in the 6″, two were in the 8″, and one was about two inches above the circle.
• at 100 feet using the top edge as the point of aim, all shots were in the 6″ circle.
• at 150 feet using the dot as the point of aim, all of the shots went high and left of the circles.
• at 150 feet using the top edge as the point of aim, two were in the 6″, two were in the 8″, and one was about four inches to the left of the circles.

Between that experiment and shooting at the 3×5 out to 25yd, I’ve come to the conclusion that up until the big orange Hackathorn front sight completely obscures the target zone, the dot can be used as the point of aim. Once the dot is larger than the target zone, the top edge is a better choice. I’ve also determined that my rear sight needs a little tweaking to the right to compensate for about 2″ of windage at 25yd. Luckily, the Glock Sight Tool Gnome has one on the way to me already.

See you next week… hopefully.

Train hard & stay safe! ToddG

(Third Time’s A Charm graphic borrowed from ourstage.com)

Previous Glock 17 gen4 Endurance Test posts at pistol-training.com:

• 99.8%
• It Lives
• Week Zero
• When Will It Stop?
• Announcement