Polymer versus Steel/Aluminum drop durability

[Cowboybebop]

I recently watched a Glock torture test where a model 17 was hung from a porch and hit with a baseball bat. The result was surprising to me: the polymer frame cracked in half.

I couldn't help but wonder, had that gun been a 1911 (steel frame) or a Beretta 92 (forged alloy) would it have suffered the same fate? My guess is probably not.

So the question is:


When dropped onto a hard surface by accident are polymer frames not as durable when compared to steel and aluminum frames?

I'd especially like to hear from folks who have dropped their guns before and can speak to damage incurred.

 

[jmr40]

Everything I've seen says plastic is more durable for this. The plastics will usually flex, but return to their original shape. Aluminum is more likely to crack from the same impact. Steel won't break, but any impact great enough to break a plastic or aluminum gun will bend steel enough to make it unserviceable.

This guy has abused his Glock about as much as possible. It is still working.

http://www.theprepared.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=90

 

[Impureclient]

I'd be more worried about when it explodes and not if it is dropped.

Metal framed guns do not do that.

 

[JN01]

Metal framed guns do not do that.

With a severely over charged cartridge, sure they do.

 

[benzy2]

Metal framed guns do not do that.

Yep, clearly only a problem because there was a polymer grip.

 

[GLOOB]

Darn, I wish I'd seen that video before. I'm definitely going to replace all my Glocks with steel framed guns.

But maybe I'll just use the Glocks until they break, first......

 

[Impureclient]

I meant to post pictures to prove my point even further but nice job, benzy2.
Of course you put up long guns and even further with wood which are not handguns as the OP is asking about. We are in the autoloader subforum after all.
It still looks like the long gun trigger guards are intact pretty well considering if the metal down there was plastic instead, the owners of those guns probably wouldn't have much left for fingers..
Look at the frames on all those metal guns where the hands grips the gun and look at most if not all plastic gun explosions pics.
Which one would you want to be holding after if it came down to it? I'll take the metal, thanks.

 

[benzy2]

I wouldn't have wanted to have any form of an aggressive two handed grip on the revolvers. I'm betting a thumbs forward hold on that 1911 would leave a digit or two short. A thumbs forward grip on any gun with a barrel obstruction is going to hurt at best. Same for the rifles. I wouldn't want to have a hand on the barrel where the rupture happened. A kaboom in any platform is likely to cause serious damage. Thinking a steal gun will save you is incorrect. What is the rate of rounds fired to catastrophic failures these days, steel framed or polymer?

 

[JohnKSa]

I recently watched a Glock torture test where a model 17 was hung from a porch and hit with a baseball bat. The result was surprising to me: the polymer frame cracked in half.

I'd be interested to see the video, do you have a link?

 

[Cowboybebop]

I couldn't find the exact video online, but here is a similar one where a G23 is hit with a bat and it seems to be destroyed as well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCgQDJ4Dnyg

I don't know, something in my head tells me that my 1911 would be just fine if you did that to it. But I'm not going to try it.

 

[sauer1911]

WHY? Its a weapon for built for self defense.

It is not a baseball. :banghead:

I WISH I had the cash to think I could waste it like that.

be safe.

 

[Kiln]

Exactly.

Every moron on the web will be doing the baseball bat test from now on to check durability.

You can bet that the majority of guns will cease to function after a grown man gives it a couple of whacks with a bat. It's like testing how well glass keeps out drafts by smashing them all out with rocks.

 

[45_auto]

had that gun been a 1911 (steel frame) or a Beretta 92 (forged alloy) would it have suffered the same fate?

Not EXACTLY the same fate, but either one would be out of commision and require a new frame (you can probably get an entire brand new Glock for less than a Beratta or 1911 frame).

The plastic will flex then return to it's original shape (especially the magazine well) over a wider range of impacts that would bend the steel or aluminum out of shape and render them useless. At the point that the plastic breaks, the steel or aluminum frame would be bent into junk.

 

[Thompsoncustom]

Maybe a better way to figure this out would be to hang a glock 17 and beat it with a 1911 on a stick or something and see what one gives out first.

 

[Fiv3r]

I've never understood such silly amateur tests with no empirical measures or data taken into account.

I could see Glock or Sig or HK or FN or any other supplier of "operator" level firearms doing stress/destruction tests. However, this would usually be done with a machine that could simulate 4,000 6' drops onto concrete or the stress a 200lb body would have falling onto the frame from 6' (think of a misplaced tuck and roll during a firefight or some such thing).

Hitting any high precision machine with that much blunt force trauma is going to render it at least a little broken. It's like doing a crash test where you push a Toyota off a 150' cliff where it promptly bursts into flames and shatters over a quarter acre to determine that it couldn't survive a 35mph impact

I like polymer. I like steel. MAYBE my 1911 might handle that better than my polymer wonder nine, but the whole idea for me carrying either one of them is to not let a baseball bat wielding maniac get that close in the first place.

 

[The Lone Haranguer]

If you try hard enough, you can find a way to damage any gun and render it inoperable.

 

[Walt Sherrill]

This action (slamming a gun with the BB Bat) is important if you are a bad shot and you expect to be attacked by someone with a baseball bat. Otherwise, it's like the stuff said by the candidates during a political campaign -- interesting but meaningless.

 

[JohnKSa]

I couldn't find the exact video online, but here is a similar one where a G23 is hit with a bat and it seems to be destroyed as well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCgQDJ4Dnyg

If I'm understanding the narrator, the gun came apart when it was hit by a bat but was reassembled and appeared to be in working order before they continued the test.

He does state that after the tannerite "test" that one of the rear rails sheared off, but there's nothing in the video that suggests there was any damage from the baseball bat strike.

It is true that because the frame can flex, it's possible to create enough frame flex with a hard impact to allow the slide to come off the frame. That usually won't cause any damage to the pistol and also shouldn't cause a chambered cartridge to fire.

To be clear I am not saying that a Glock can't be damaged by a baseball bat strike. I would like to see the video in question to see exactly what happened.

 

[USAF_Vet]

Great, now MDA will be saying 'you don't need a gun to defend yourself against a gunnwieoding.psycho, just hit his gun with a baseball bat'.

 

[kokapelli]

What happens when you hit a baseball bat with a Glock?

 

[RetiredUSNChief]

Torture tests are typically, by their very nature, extreme, often to the point of destruction.

What should be gathered from such tests, however, is not the fact that the object breaks or otherwise fails, but how it failed, how it compares not to other similar objects, and how it compares to the expected environment it's designed to operate in.

For example, I challenge anyone here to hang any handgun in front of me and let me hit it with a baseball bat and see if they end up with a functional, servicable handgun afterwards.

Yes, some will be damaged more than others. However, the likelihood that ANY handgun will survive such abuse undamaged is virtually nil.

So the question isn't whether or not it'll be damaged, or even whether or not it'll be functional at all after such a "test". The question is, rather, "Is a handgun designed to be used in an environment where it's going to be the subject of a severe beating by baseball bats or clubs?"

The answer to that question is, of course, "no".

Is the handgun designed to be reliable and durable under normal use, such as high volume firing, some nominal condition of cleanliness, and reasonable wear and tear which may involve the occasional physical abuse, such as dropping from a nominal height? Yes.

Is the handgun designed to be reliable and durable under severe conditions, such as beating on it with a baseball bat, shooting it with a high powered rifle round, laying it across a train track in front of an oncoming train, or storing it in a vat of acid? No.

 

[GLOOB]

Three things Glock frames will not handle as well as steel or aluminum.

Extended exposure to direct sunlight/UV.

Extreme elevated temperatures.

Dogs.

 

[RetiredUSNChief]

"Dogs"!

HAHAHAHAHAHA! Never considered that at all!

 

[JDR]

I'll be careful not to swing a baseball bat near my Glocks!

 

[tarosean]

When dropped onto a hard surface by accident are polymer frames not as durable when compared to steel and aluminum frames?

My wife asked me just a couple days ago why there was a gun on our bedroom floor.. Seems my 19 slipped out of the gun rack on top of my dresser onto the tiled floor approximately 5.5' high. No worse for wear and no loud bangs. That was a slightly more realistic unintentional test. :banghead: