Glock durability

my advice, don't shoot your buddies. You are too young to get rid of all your friends so quickly!

Well, the HK VP70Z was made of plastic in the 1970s, and about 30 years on they show no sign of breaking down. After an atomic war, you'd probably find cockroaches armed with Glocks.

After an atomic war, you'd probably find cockroaches armed with Glocks.

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Fighting the other cockroaches with HK's or P99's.

I have a 15 year old beat up police trade-in Glock and it's ugly but shows no sign of deterioration.

I've seen plenty of mid-to late 80s police trade-in Glock 17s, and they were all still perfectly intact. The frames had plenty of scuffs from twenty years of police holster wear, but none of them were brittle.

The "plastic" parts on glocks are actually polymers.. so i doubt if they even can get brittle.

I have seen quite a few old Glocks with the frame as smooth as a river stone so this suggests some wearing of the frame. I have also seen a few with the mag well broken usually to the sides.

When I first thought of a Glock I wanted a 2nd gen. since I don't like the fingers grooves or thumb rest on the 3rd gen. but the wear seen on the frame and slide was too drastic..since we are on the topic of durability as well, I have also seen rusting Glock slides, I have seen a G17 slide with the breechface cutout by dryfire etc. etc. Not knocking Glock, but it ages just like anything else..

If Glock ever came back with a non-finger groove frame, I would be racing to the head of the line to get one..

And since Glock will gladly rebuild and upgrade the pistols as they need it they will indeed last for the duration of your lifetime.

I have heard it said that Glocks are built to last 3 lifetimes. Even if that is in dog years it'll outlast me.

You really won't know until it goes "ka-BOOM"

My buddy's 1987 G17 doesn't show any signs of breaking any time soon.

according to the Glock publication you can leave it in salt water, freeze it in a ice block or bury it in the mud, then assuming you have melted the ice they pick it up and shoot without any problems. Polymer would be tough to wear out and you can always sent it back to Glock. I have a baby Glock that I will keep for my life time. All the police around these parts use Glocks.

My Glock ka-booms every time I pull the trigger. Oh, wait, that's what it is supposed to do. I have seen Glocks with over 300,000 rounds through them.

GO FOR IT, it will last a life time. you will be able to pass it to your kids and they will be able to pass it onto there kids and so on and so on and so on .... well you get the picture

My advice, don't shoot your buddies.

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I've got a G17 from 1994 that has over 20,000 rounds through it. The only plastic part that broke was the mag release, and that was due to me using metal after-market magazines that chewed up the release. A local Glock dealer replaced the release in about 2 minutes for me for free. I would guess that it will still be going bang many, many years from now.

The "plastic" is actually some proprietary type of nylon IIRC.

The stuff doesn't get brittle like cheapo ABS plastics.

I bought my G21 in '95, since then, I replaced the recoil spring/ guide rod twice ( I'm not SURE it needed it, but each time I got a new set, I found it cheap at a gunshow.) I have had this Glock 10 yrs, and just in the last 2 months, I had put on a "extended" slide release. Thats it, it shoots to the same point of aim,(with the same CorBon loads) still chambers everything I feed it, and really looks not much different inside or out from the day I bought it.

And to think, I bought this Glock ONLY because the counter guy at a sport store really torqued me off.

If it was gonna' break for whatever reason, I think it would have by now.

The "plastic" parts on glocks are actually polymers..

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Plastic is also a polymer. It's all based on the nylon production which itself is a polymer.

I bought the very first Glock 17 that came into one of the local gun shops in the late 80's. I carried and shot it for a long time untill I saw the first Glock 19.

I sold the 17 to a local cop and I bought the 19.

Just recently I saw my old 17. The cop still has it. He shoots IDPA with it and it has been through thousands of rounds and so far he has replaced the plastic sights and a recoil spring.

He says it has never had a malfunction with factory ammo. I can believe that because the 26 I now carry has never had a malfunction in several thousand rounds including some Wolf. Most Glocks are very reliable.

The frame on the old 17 is still just fine. It had some wear marks from being carried and shot for all these years but shows no signs of ever giving a problem.

Goalie: Could you provide further info on Glock metal mags such as who makes/sells them, price, functioning etc. Thanks.

Sean, if I may, thanks for the new sig!

Have you seen the latest isue of HAndguns Magazine? Look at the torture test done on the Springfield XD-9. Its the old Glock test...and then some. That test ought to put to bed anyone's worry of whether or not the XD-9 is just a cheap Glock copy or a serious contender.

Be sure and look at the XD-9 before buying a Glock. I traded my Glock 17 for and XD-40 and have absolutely no regrets for doing so.

-Brickboy240