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G.A. Heath wrote:

Napier wrote:Many thanks again to all of you who helped me understand what might be wrong with my new Glock 17 Gen 4. I got it back from Smyrna today, 12 days door-to-door. It was immaculate and neatly packaged. The packing slip noted only that before shipment it had tested out to Glock standards. So off to the range.

You know about the "Aha!" moment? Well, I had an "Ahahahahaha!" moment. My complaint had been that I want to standardize across all my pistols on Federal American Eagle FMJ and Hornady Critical defense JHP. Out of the box the Glock would feed, and sometimes eject, either one only intermittently. Gotta hand it to the techs at Glock. When they were finished tuning it, it wouldn't feed either AT ALL. That was the bad news. The good news is that it would feed and eject six other brands flawlessly. The exception was Winchester white box, which it choked on. Very tasteful of it. So goodbye Hornady and hello Corbon +P JHP or Speer Gold Dot. Also it liked Federal +P+ JHP, which I don't much care for, but I have a case.

But I will have my revenge. I am going to shoot the dickens out of it while still in warranty and drive Glock nuts returning it. Then I am going to buy a Ruger SR9. Cheers, Glock afficianados!

Uhm, your plan isn't gonna work. Glock has a lifetime warranty for the original owner...

So you're saying I HAVE to keep it? What fun I could have with customer service over my 15.48 year life expectancy!

On the other hand my Kimbers with thousands of rounds have had fewer malfunctions combined than my G19 with the first five, no make it the first two, rounds that I fed it.

TheGasMan wrote:Have you had anyone else shoot the gun? When Glocks first became available I wondered why anyone would buy such an ugly looking machine. It took a while and I finally caved and shot one. Before long they became my favored weapon because of the reliability. In fact I traded away two Kimbers because they were such finicky beasts. I've had several Glocks with several thousand rounds through them of just about every type of ammo I can think of. Everything from steel cased wolf and questionable lead bullet handloads (yes I know this is a no-no) to the primo stuff. I could probably count on my hands the number of FTF/FTE I've had. Never had to send one for warranty. WWB is one of the more accurate loads with my G22. I haven't shot a Gen 4 yet, so maybe there are some problems I haven't experienced yet. The thing I love about all of them is I pretty much know that it is going to bang. Either way, hope it works out for you.

Middle Age Russ wrote:OP questioned using modern "hot" ammo in the Smith 5906. Having had a second generation Smith 659 (the predecessor to the 5906), I can assure you that if the pistol is in good working order there should be no issue using any currently loaded 9mm commercial ammunition in it. Those things are built like tanks.

Best of luck with the Glock as well.

Katygunnut wrote:Please keep us posted on how this gets resolved. I have had exactly one failure with a Glock. I own 4 (G19, 21, 26 and 36), and out of probably 2,000 rounds, I had one bad primer that failed to fire (good center strike on the bullet), so not the guns fault.

I'm actually a bit surprised that customer service asked you that many questions. Glocks are usually immune to limp wristing, bad ammo, etc. I'm also more than a bit concerned by the problems with the Gen 4. It looks like Glock may have violated the cardinal rule of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". I guess I'll stick to my Gen 3's.

NoJustHappyToSeeYou wrote:A bit longwinded, sorry, but I hope it helped. I still think your problem sounds different from the "traditional" problems some Gen4 owners have been having. One other thing to try is different ammo to see if the problem starts and stops by ammo brand. Good luck.

NoJustHappyToSeeYou wrote:Glock owner here. There have been a TON of threads about Gen4 Glock issues over at GlockTalk.com during the last year. I don't claim to be a gun expert in the least, but I've been reading those forums quite a bit and can at least try to give you a synopsis:

o Gen3 9mm variants worked great, but Gen3 40S&W had some problems, particularly with lights attached to service pistols.

o With Gen4, Glock moved to a double, captive recoil spring (probably of greater tension) to address the Gen3 40S&W problems (successfully) and in the process created problems with the 9mm variants because initially both the Gen4 40s and the 9s shipped with the same recoil springs.

o The problems with the 9mms seems to be limited to light target loads -- they shoot service loads, or even NATO loads, just fine. Not everyone with 9mm has problems, either -- most people have been fine (just largely silent on the message boards -- too busy shooting). Also, the G26 subcompact (which just started shipping a few weeks ago) seems to be exempt from issues since it reportedly has the same slide and springs as the Gen3 version -- the problems have just been with the Gen4 G17 and G19.

o Glock has since come out with 2 revised springs for the 9mms. The latest (~45-60 days ago) spring is the "0-1-2" spring (those numbers are stamped on the end of the spring cap. Glock will send you one for free if you call them. The new spring seems to have solved almost everyone's problems, but admittedly it's still early (and most Glock owners never had problems to begin with).

o Some people have claimed that by cycling their slide a few hundred times and/or locking their slide back for several days the recoil spring has loosened up and failures have stopped. Others have speculated that Gen4 9s simply now need a breaking-in period like many pistols. There's no reason not to cycle your slide a bunch, lock it back a few days and run a few hundred rounds through it to eliminate these as possible causes.

o A few early Gen4s (early 2010) had bad extractors, but Glock took care of it, and I haven't read stories by anyone having any such problem since the first quarter of last year.

o Glock takes care of their customers.


All that said, the problem you are describing does not sound like the sort of problems other Gen4 owners have been having. The light target loads basically weren't strong enough to push back the new, tighter Gen4 springs (designed to decrease felt recoil, which by most accounts they do), resulting in FTEs and stovepipes. Your FTFs sound like a different sort of problem. I'd concur FTFs are usually magazine-related, but if the pistol and mags are both new, that would be unusual.


And lastly, all of this info is worth every single penny you paid for it!!! Glock will fix it -- call them.

PS: Oh, and to the person who asked, Glock Gen3 and Gen4 mags are completely interchangeable with Gen3 and Gen4 pistols, except that if you have a Gen4 pistol with the mag catch reversed you have to have an ambidextrous Gen4 magazine for it to work.

AndyC wrote:

Napier wrote:Sorry I wasn't clear, Andy. All the ammo fed properly when I racked the slide. Which to me suggested it wasn't a feed ramp problem. The failures were after firing the first round. The fired round extracted properly, it seems. But the next round got jammed in crossways with the nose of the bullet poking into the face of the barrel or nearby on the slide. Once or twice I also had a failure to pull the round out of the mag. I apologize that I am not a real knowledgeable gun person. To me they are like women. Incomprehensible, but fun. Any advice appreciated, on either subject.

No apology necessary - we all start somewhere.

Napier wrote:But the next round got jammed in crossways with the nose of the bullet poking into the face of the barrel or nearby on the slide. Once or twice I also had a failure to pull the round out of the mag.

Starting to sound more like a magazine issue - check the feed-lips for burrs and also make sure they're not bent - anything like that which could affect the angle of the cartridge when feeding. Also check the lower edge of the breech-face, the section which contacts the base of the cartridge-case during the push into the chamber - it should be flat and square.

DoubleJ wrote:sounds like a FTG (failure to Glock).

the problem arises from the thing not being dirty enough. You're spoda throw it into a puddle and drive over it a few times before shooting it!

I am, of course, kidding, and thusly will post all the required smilies to emphasize such:


sounds like the recoil rod assembly spring which I'm sure you're going to check out and get squared away. I, as well, have a shiny new G17, but ain't had no problems widdit.

good luck and good Glockin'!

AndyC wrote:

Napier wrote:I had 100% misfeeds on the ammo I mentioned.

I'm still unclear exactly what happened. Were these strictly failures to feed, in other words to feed from the magazine up the feed-ramp into the chamber? At what point in the feed-cycle did they get stuck?

lkd wrote:Glock will quickly fix the problem if it is persistent. Just give 'em a call. I've always found them to be extremely friendly and attentive. I'd speculate that the Glock Customer Support job is akin to the Maytag repairman job -- they don't get many calls, so they're always eager to talk to people

P.S. - The Glock owners manual tells you to not wipe off the copper lubricant :)

cubbyjg wrote:Dont over lube the glock. They only need a little in the 5-6 spots in the manual. If there is still the copper lube in the rails, try not to remove that either because it helps with the break in process.

cubbyjg wrote:If its a gen4 with the original springs, they say to shoot it with some hotter loads for the first 100-200 rounds to break the spring in (which annoys me since glocks have developed a rep for shooting anything). I would say it seems to be more common with the Gen 4 but most of the problems were related to the g19. None of my gen 3s have had any issues. Check out glocktalk.com and you will more than likely find a thread pertaining to your exact problem. I believe the new spring is numbered 02.

G.A. Heath wrote:If its a Gen4 model 17 look at the recoil spring. If it's numbered with 01 then it will not work well with 115Gr 9mm ammo. If your gun is a Gen4 with the 01 spring contact Glock and they will send you the correct part. I know the feeling, I paid good money for my model 19 Gen4 so it should work out of the box. But Glock will make it right so contact them if you need a different spring. Oh, and we need to see Pictures!