Wayne Dobbs

kevin c, Did you get your pistol fixed and if so, what was the story?

If you can pull the slide lock down AND if you don't have the FP assembly in the gun when you can do that, then the recoil spring assembly is no longer "assembled" and has log jammed the slide and receiver together. If you want to try to get it apart, get a helper to hold the slide lock down and make sure the firing pin is either forward (fired position) or removed from the gun per the previous instruction. Take a rubber mallet and tap the slide off the gun. Wear eye pro since there is a possibility that the springs will come flying out when the slide comes off the frame. Or....you can watch the armorers at the match do it.... Wayne

Sounds like you have a recoil spring assembly that's failed. Can the slide lock be pulled down as if for disassembly or not? Wayne

CGR, Can you do the race cut on a Heinie that has the tritium installed w/o compromising the night sight capability? If so, I have a couple that I'd like to send you when I get home in a couple of months. Wayne

While conventional wisdom says that removal of the channel liner will damage it, I've found a way to do it that doesn't. Glock teaches in the Armorer's course to use a 5/16 bolt and to thread it into the channel liner and remove same, which obviously ruins it. As an alternative, try this. Using a slotted patch holder on a cleaning rod, thread a .38-.45 sized patch (dry) into the patch holder with about 2/3 of the patch to one side of the slotted holder. Wrap the short end of the patch over the top of the holder and carefully run this into the firing pin channel and well into the channel liner. When you get enough patch in there, withdraw it with the liner attached. The liner is still usable. As you may have guessed, I "found" this technique while cleaning a firing pin channel.

You should plan on removing the channel liner before doing any oven curing of your finish. Replace it after the refinish is done either with the original one or a new one. They're cheap at about $1 per part. Make sure the rounded/beveled end goes to the front on reinstallation. Wayne

I did a two day class with Jerry several years ago. We worked hard and I went through 2100+ rounds in the two days. He's very easy going and sees a lot of what you're doing and how you can be more efficient in your handling and vision related skills. The time he spent showing my buddy and I timing drills was worth the price of admission. Also, there are overnight rooming facilities on site that will save you some money over that of a hotel. I would highly recommend spending the time with Jerry.

What is the width on the CR Speed belt? WD

sslav, You can certainly try to push the rules envelope and you'll probably get by unless you have win or something like that riding on the gun being acceptable. Once you get caught cheating, you will stay in the crosshairs. I'm a left hander and a big Glock fan, owner of eight (I think that's right) and have launched many thousands of rounds from them and seen hundreds of thousands fired out of Glock pistols. I would suggest you do a technique change on your magazine catch management. Suggest you start using your TRIGGER finger for the following reasons: 1. It gets your finger off the trigger. I would bet that you're getting way too close to the trigger during mag changes by using your middle finger. 2. Your trigger finger is more dextrous and is stronger than your middle finger. 3. Messing with springs and especially the heat treat is asking for failure of said part. It will work until you really need it to work and at that point it'll fail. Try doing a software solution on this instead of a hardware one. Wayne

Dirty, The Iraqi Police suffer from more malfunctions of more types than your mind can conceive! But that's another subject. I tried to locate Pat Rogers' thread on another forum w/o success, but the malfunction described was one the NYPD was having with the G-19. I've seen it happen on one of the two G-19s I own personally at home and on several guns here, but not with enough predictability to where you can reliably troubleshoot it. The malf has a fresh round's rim partially under the extractor and on the way into the chamber with the previously fired round's case ALSO partially in the extractor and that fired case mouth against the back of the barrel hood. A tap/rack does NOT ever clear it...you must remove the fired case by plucking it out with your fingers. Glock dispatched a tech to NYC to make some type of modification to the breechface of the problem guns that reportedly alleviated the problem. Changing extractors/ejectors doesn't stop the problem on the guns either. I am a huge Glock fan and have been using them as service guns and competition guns since 1989 and have been an armorer and advanced armorer since 1990. I see 15-30,000 rounds a week from Glock 19s week in and week out here in the Cesspool. I think they're the best service pistol on the planet, but like all things mechanical made by the hands of man, some of them present problems.

Houngan, What kind of ammo are you shooting in this G35??????????? THAT is most likely the cause, because even a nasty, broke down Glock doesn't malf that much. WD

hf219, There are likely several possibilities on your malfunction and if anybody says they can fix your problem over the Net without seeing the pistol and watching you shoot it, then they're kidding themselves and you. With that disclaimer in mind, is this gun by chance a G-19? If so, you may be suffering from what a very well known defensive trainer calls the NYPD Phase 3 malf, which has never been completely remedied, but involved some modification machining to the slide. Next, how good are your MAGAZINE springs? The magazine's "stack" of rounds contributes quite a bit to empty case ejection. If you don't believe it, go out and shoot your Glock with just a loaded chamber and no magazine in place. Most of the cases will eject and come out the BOTTOM of the magazine well. Good magazine springs will alleviate some ejection faults. I would make sure that you have a good extractor depressor plunger spring, the proper spring loaded bearing and that those parts are properly assembled and properly inserted into the weapon (steel end against the extractor and polymer end against the slide cover plate). The extractor and ejector should be the proper parts and the extractor should have its hook area clean and intact with no chips, dings, etc. The channel that the extractor rides in should be clean and dry. Make sure the ejector has not been "tweaked" by the local gun butcher. Lots of folks will bend the 9mm ones straight even though they are supposed to have a bend and lots of folks will "polish" (AKA: GRIND) the ejector tip down to the point it doesn't effectively pinion the empty cases out of the ejection port. Did you have an extra power recoil spring installed? That can cause problems, especially if your ammo is a little underpowered, especially some lots of WWB and UMC. After all of this hardware is correct, I would next want to watch you shoot the gun. Are you providing a solid resistive platform for the weapon's recoil spring to work against or are you letting your index and grip go weak when firing occurs? Are you gripping the gun firmly or loosely (which allows lots of gun movement and bleeds off the energy the recoil spring is trying to store)? Are you impeding the slide's function velocity with your hands/fingers/grip? All of this and likely more can and should be considered in the problem solving process. Feel free to email me if you want to discuss this more. Best of luck to you! Wayne Dobbs

Mike, Unless that extractor somehow broke the hook off, I would be concerned that the extractor depressor plunger spring and/or the spring loaded bearing were the cause of your inadequate extractor tension. Consider replacing them also to keep your new extractor working. I've carried, armored (is that a proper term?), shot and trained a mid sized Glock equipped PD from 1989-2003 and am now in Iraq watching literally hundreds of G19s in action and have never seen a 9mm extractor go down the tubes (.40s are another story!), so I'm a little curious about your parts failure. Wayne Dobbs

You better check with TSA, but I don't think they allow the replica guns in carry on luggage. I can guarantee that when the scanning X-ray sees it when you go thru the Security line, there will be "interesting" times.... Wayne

Since I've started using Glocks for service pistols and in my experience training cops in the US and now in Iraq, here's what I've seen break: Trigger return springs (several) Trigger pins (about three or four) Locking blocks (in the .40s) Recoil spring assemblies (at the back end from improper reassembly practices - many) Extractors in .40 cals before the 5 degree cut was standard Connectors (not broken, just worn out) Trigger bars (same remark as connectors - about three instances) Slide lock springs (four in the past two weeks in our Iraqi Glock 19s) I've never had a striker fail and I've fired or seen fired 100s of thousands of rounds through Glock pistols. It sounds like there may have been a batch of strikers that weren't properly heat treated. Wayne

I would suggest NO reloaded/handloaded ammunition for carry purposes. There are potential legal problems for such a practice. Some of those will include red herring charges that you tried to make the ammo more lethal, etc. I'm not too concerned with many of those issues, but the ability to do accurate forensic reconstructions of your carry ammo will likely be difficult or impossible. Pick a good defensive load for your 640 (great revolver, btw) and date and initial the box of ammo you put into defensive service and lock up the unused rounds in the safe. When you change out your ammo for carry, shoot up the leftovers and do the same with another new box of ammo. If bad times come to you and some miscreant gets a "tune up" from you, you will have the actual ammo used for post-shooting forensic analysis by your defense counsel's experts and/or the State's experts. Current load suggestions, based on objective testing and/or field use: 1. Remington .38 Special +P 158 grain Lead SWC Hollow Point (Code R38S12) 2. CCI/Speer .38 Special +P 135 grain Gold Dot Hollow Point This advice is based on 25 years of big city police experience, both patrol, investigative and firearms training. Good luck to you, Wayne Dobbs

9x45, Contact Glock at 770.432.1202 and make arrangements to send the gun back. They will replace the slide at no charge. I cracked my G17 at about 55K and they took care of me very quickly. Wayne Dobbs