Sunday, May 17, 2009

Broken Glocks and Revolutionary Repair Techniques

So, in my usual pattern, I haven't blogged for over a month. I have two problems: A. I really want to have a popular, well read blog and B. I'm too lazy to consistently write a blog.



Those two things work in opposition.



Also, I cannot find the charger to my camera batteries, so I can't take new pictures. But moving on.......





The Mighty, Untouchable, Unyielding, Perfected, Flawless Glocks failed me. And they failed me hardcore. On a day of shooting with an old college friend, My Glock 17's slide began to fail to lock back after the last round was shot. Thinking it was a magazine problem, I began cycling through my various magazines to find that every single one had the same problem.



In the meantime, my friend was trying out my Glock 23 and had several stovepipes. Now, I'm not one of these "Glocks are perfect, they never fail ever!" kind of guys. I know that every gun is susceptible to failures. They will likely all malfunction or break at some point. Glocks are no different, and while I own and shoot them, I think there are superior firearms. These just happen to be paid for.



But I'm telling ya, mine just never have failed. I know they can, they just haven't. But suddenly, I have 4 stovepipes in about 15 minutes on my G23 and my G17 is being fussy too.



After find that every mag on my G17 had the same failure, I decided it was not a magazine problem. I gave up, and began to shoot my G23, which then also experienced the same failure- the slide does not lock back after the last shot.



In frustration I stepped back to gather my thoughts. What could be wrong here?



1. All the mags I'm shooting are quite new, so I don't think I'm having a catastrophic coincidental failure of 10 magazines.



2. Double checked my grip- not limp wristing, hiting the slide release, etc.



3. Inspect guns- appear to all be in good working condition- no obvious broken parts as it pertains to the mag/slide lock.



4. I was shooting a new kind of ammo. Winchester Win-Clean Brass Encased Bass. Okay.....this could be something. I switched back to the ammo I've always used- same problem. Doh.



5. To my knowledge God is not angry with me and playing a joke on me.



So I give up, pack up, and go home a bit puzzled.





Then, it dawns on me.



An idea so crazy, so revolutionary, so fresh that it just could be the solution.



The light bulb lit up over my head as I thought, "You know, I haven't cleaned those guns in a long time......I've shot hundreds of rounds since the last cleaning".



At about 10pm I set about at my garage workbench and cleaned up my guns.......





.....The next morning I ran by the range before work.........





Hallelujah its a miracle- they work just fine. Amazing what a little cleaning will do. So for all the "Glocks never fail, never rust, don't need cleaning, can survive nuclear fallouts and then make a super baby with a penguin and start a new planet in another galaxy" people out there- bad news. Glocks are mortal.



And, prefer to be clean as it turns outs.

2 comments:

Home on the Range said...

I'm doing a post later in the week about them. No gun is perfect, but some are certainly fun to have around.

Anonymous said...

I put about 900 rds thru a G27 as a torture test over about a year in a half without cleaning it.

Zero malfunctions.

I was going to continue the test until the thing started failing, but I just couldn't go any longer without cleaning it. It's a mortal sin to leave a gun dirty. :)