Stress fractures in Glock slide

Let me get this straight. A 20-pound spring pushing a firing pin that weighs a few grams can do more damage than a hot .357 SIG round?

Plleeezzzz!

If the breech face is so weak that a firing pin, excuse me, striker, can break it, I don't want to be on the same firing line - ever!

The reason guns aren't dry fired is to protect firing pins/strikers, not to protect a breech face. ie: .22 rimfires, CZ52, etc.

The "line" about dry firing is just that - a line.

Overall, Glocks are pretty good guns. They excel at reliability and are reasonably accurate. They are better in both categories than most of their rivals in their price range.

But, there are many, many guns that are just as reliable and many guns that are more accurate.

Please don't start citing examples of Glock's accuracy. If they were that accurate they would show up on the firing line at bull's eye matches regularly. They do not.

Any attempt to blame dry firing for failure of the breech faces is a cover up of a known issue. If it were a true issue it would have shown up thousands of times in hundreds of other makes.

Since Glocks cost about $75 to 100 to make it is far cheaper to just replace the gun for the manufacturer. When the company has overextended it's commitments on contracts for new guns you get crap like "excessive" dry firing can damage the gun.

Let me get this straight. A 20-pound spring pushing a firing pin that weighs a few grams can do more damage than a hot .357 SIG round?

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I'm not arguing for or against, but the logic is the same as the 110 lb. woman wearing spike heels vs. a 300 lb. man wearing loafers. The woman will be the one who puts the dents into the wood floor, pounds per square inch.

I'm not arguing for or against, but the logic is the same as the 110 lb. woman wearing spike heels vs. a 300 lb. man wearing loafers. The woman will be the one who puts the dents into the wood floor, pounds per square inch.

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This could be a good point but when we look at the pics of damaged guns it's not the imprint of the "spiked heel" we see. What we see looks like something else.

tipoc

reetings,

I s/w Glock cust serv today. They are going to fix, rather give, me a new slide. The person I s/w seemed to know of this problem and right off the bat, mentioned that this gun probably had a lot of dry fires. I mentioned that the manual says it's ok to dry fire and he acknowledged that, but did mention that it would be a good idea to use Snap Caps.

Anyway, the gent I s/w was A-OK in my book and Glock is going to fix my pistol - woo hoo!!!

Will report back when I get the pistol back from them. Will be sending it out either tomorrow or Thursday.

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Hate to revive a Zombie thread but it makes more sense than starting a new one....
Just wanted to get an update on your slide Rauchman. How did the trip back to Smyrna end up? Did they fix it or replace it?

Dry Firing causing cracks?

Well if one shouldn't dry fire a Glock, then how does one remove the slide to clean it?
The manual says to be sure it's not loaded. Once certain check it again to be positive THEN point in safe direction and pull the trigger, as in dry fire.
The the slide can be removed etc...

Frank_Drebin said:

Hate to revive a Zombie thread but it makes more sense than starting a new one....
Just wanted to get an update on your slide Rauchman. How did the trip back to Smyrna end up? Did they fix it or replace it?

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My apologies for not getting back on this. Yes, Glock did right by me. I had to send them the pistol, and pay for shipping out there $50, but Glock did send the gun back to me w/ a new slide. They moved the night sights over from the old slide to the new slide. I now do use Snap Caps as I don't want this to happen again.

Use a New York reload ! [ carry a second gun !]

To remake a point others made...this is not caused by dry firing.

The area of the breech face is a weak points in the design of the gun. Here you have an area that takes a great deal of stress each time a round goes off yet it is quite thin. Not only is it thin but it has a rectangular hole in the center of it for the striker to emerge with small radius' at the corners, a shape that tends to facilitate cracking. A round or oval shape here would be stronger. If the heat treatment is a bit off in this area the slide will fail as you see it in the pics. Even with precise heat treatment, it is a weak point in an otherwise strong slide seems to me.

Glocks are strong guns but their standard service life is no greater than others in it's class. This is one area where they can fail over time.

tipoc

Too much Kool-Aide!

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How does Glock Kool-Aide taste?

These are not called 'stress fractures ' but properly are 'fatigue failures' ! Repeated stresses over time.

Caspian makes replacement Glock slides that address these problems by using different steels and very different heat treating.