matto6

Someone asked me why I called Glock's 10-round design "idiotic". I figure I might as well post the answer here as well. 1. Reliability Whatever theoretical arguments may or may not exist, the reality is that the 10-rounders don't seem to work as well as the normal mags. Searching brian enos comes up with several threads on problems. And even outside of competition, there are several threads on glocktalk and pistolforums about them not working well with hollow points. Some say a new follower helps, others say the problem remains. Somehow the most reliable gun in the world has become unreliable. 2. Spring tension Fully compressing a spring isn't ideal for a lot of reasons. It wears them out sooner, it makes the magazine harder to load, makes the mag harder to insert into the gun, and most importantly - it makes the gun less reliable. The problem is the huge variation in spring pressure from empty to full. You know how the last round can be really hard to get in? Well the gun has to fight all that pressure when cycling. When you are trying to cram as many rounds into a magazine, this is a necessary evil that you have to deal with and engineer around. However when you have a 10-round limit, all of these problems are 100% avoidable!!!! There is no reason to compress the spring all the way!!!! The magazines from CZ, Beretta, Mec-gar are designed perfectly. The only change is that they have a divot in the shell that prevents the follower from travelling down past a certain point. But the spring remains the same. It's exactly the same as if you put only 10 rounds in a full-capacity magazine and the follower only compresses the spring 2/3 of the way. The reason this is so great is because now the spring tension is much more constant throughout the follower's range. The gun sees much more consistent pressure. Mag loading is easy, mag insertion is easy, and the gun sees more constant pressure when cycling. Oh and the springs last forever because they never get fully compressed. It's wonderful. 3. Change as little as possible I'm buying a Glock because I want it's legacy for reliability. Don't change ANYTHING that doesn't need to be changed. Even if Glock didn't want to use the brilliant design described in #2, they still didn't need to design a new mag. They could have taken a G26 mag and stuck a 1" baseplate on it. This is what Ruger does with their 10-rd SR9 mags. It's literally an SR9C magazine with an extended baseplate on it. This would have given me the legendary reliability of a Glock 26, and required almost no engineering. Cheaper AND more reliable. Instead, they spend the time to engineer a new magazine, that is less reliable. HOLY CRAP NO NO NO NO NO. I cannot buy the Glock that people think of as the most reliable gun in the world. The Glock I can buy is less reliable than most guns available today. It's a real shame. I will never carry a double-stack glock for self defense as long as I live in a 10-round state.

Unless someone has a better idea, I'll likely buy a Jentra Ultra Heavy Tungsten Guide Rod (JTGR-1) and a range of Wolf springs and hope for the best.

My Gen 5 Glock 34 functions perfectly - except when I have 10 in the mag and one in the chamber. The 13 lb recoil spring works almost every time, but it occasionally fails to fully close on the next round. The 15 lb recoil spring fails about 1 in 4 times. It closes much more solidly under normal conditions, but I think it's not getting back far enough to grab the next round properly when there's 10 in the mag. I guess I need a 14 pound spring?? ISMI doesn't seem to make one? Wolf makes 13, 14, 15 pound springs, but I think they are different diameter? I currently have this Double Diamond G34 Gen 5 Dxtended Tungsten Guide Rod. Will it work with Wolf springs? Or do I need to buy someone else's guiderod to run wolf spring? I wouldn't mind even heavier. I'm really loving this gun but it sucks to be close to the edge of malfunctioning on the first shot. Why did Glock have to make such an idiotic 10-round magazine, rather than do what CZ and Beretta did - block the follower from moving past 10, but let the spring go the whole path. It's just like having a stock mag partially loaded. You get a nice linear spring rate, etc. Ugh. If it's relevant, I have a 4.5 lb striker spring and I'm shooing 130 PF 147 grain bullets. Worst case I will have to use a stronger recoil spring and run a higher power factor to get the gun to cycle on the first shot. SIGH.

I'm late to the party, but I'd like to add... drop of oil on the locking block, and on the barrel where it interfaces with the locking block, and it might fix it. My new Gen 5 G34 did the same thing with a new 13 lbs ISMI spring. A little oil in the right place and it closed just fine, even in slow motion. The 15 pound spring worked with or without oil, but sometimes malfunctioned when I had 1 in the chamber and was using the brand new 10-round mags (NY). After they break in, and I use a slightly lighter striker spring, 15 might be an option again.

Interesting. I really dislike the rear sight on my shadow 2 and it's shaped kinda like that, with aggressively trimmed corners. Maybe it's just something I need to learn to appreciate. As my index gets better I won't need the rear sight as a crutch, and the improved visibility becomes a win.

Good to know. Maybe I just need to get used to it. It does seem there's some fundamental value in having multiple points for your eye to subconsciously pick up on though. Dunno.

Good point. But I don't mind some blood if it's for a good cause I'll give the rounded dawsons a try and see if I can get good with them. But I've been surprised how much those squared of edges seem to help me. For slow firing it doesn't matter, but when I'm trying to aim quickly and the rear sight is out of focus, the outside corners give my eyes more signals to pick up on to perceive vertical position of the rear sight. (I guess? I'm making this up. I just know I have a harder time aiming quickly and reliably without them. There's something about them that seems to help - for my eyes and brain)

Thanks. Does that work with backstraps? It looks like it might not? I also found these https://www.ndzperformance.com/glock-grip-plug-gen-4-5-with-backstrap-p/ndz-al9-blk.htm https://dawsonprecision.com/magwell-frame-for-plug-glock-gen-4-5-steel-by-dawson-precision/

I bought some dawson sights for my Gen 5 G34, but they have rounded corners. For some weird reason, my eyes pick up rear sights better if they are fully squared off, like this CZ Custom sight I have on my SP-01 Shadow. Does anyone make a rear sight like this for a Glock? I'm searching but failing to find anything

Does anyone know of a grip cap that will work on a Gen 5 Glock 34 when using the large backstrap? When doing quick mag changes I keep hitting the mag on that cutout. I feel like a sloped cap would out a lot when the mag alignment is slightly off, but I'm not giving up my backstraps! Is there anything that works while the backstraps are on????

Yeah I'm debating that too. Too damn many options at this point

Thanks everyone. Decided to just order a Tungsten guide from the glock store, made specifically for the gen 5.

I don't think so because the web page explicitly mentions installing it under the screw "The G4 Guide Rod Adapter must be installed in place of the guide rod washer underneath the end screw to function accordingly. These will not work when installed ahead of the guide rod assembly." They even show installing it here:

Bumping an old thread because I have the same problem and am confused. I have a Gen 5 Glock 34. I purchased NDZ adapter NDZ-G4-ADPT-BLK, which says "Turn our Gen 1-3 Guide Rod Assembly for Glock into a Gen 4-5 ready version" https://www.ndzperformance.com/NDZ-Glock-Gen-1-3-Adapter-Gen-4-5-Guide-Rod-Black-p/ndz-g4-adpt-blk.htm And tried to use it with their Gen 1-3 Guide rod NDZ-G17-G3-RPR which I was using on my Gen 3 https://www.ndzperformance.com/NDZ-RPR-Guide-Rod-Gen-1-3-Glock-17-17L-22-24-25-31-p/ndz-g17-g3-rpr.htm It's too short for the Gen 5 Glock 34. What am I missing? Their page says it will work, and people above me are showing picture of it working. (Yes I'll call them Monday, but I was hoping to shoot later tonight!)

Thanks everyone. Glad to hear folks are doing well with Berettas and it's not holding them back. What I'm noticing is that if I slip the magazine in about 1-1.5", the amount of play available is largest in the X5 Legion, second is the CZ, and the Beretta is last. It has the tightest tolerances in the bottome 1/3 of the grip. That extra play is room for error when trying to insert the mag. I'll give it some more time and see what happens.