glock 17 gen 4 fixed

[t_kothmann]

I hope to document my experience so that others might be able to fix a similar problem.

I bought the gen 4 glock 17 around thanks giving to further my IDPA shooting (less recoil, cheaper ammo)

The moment I got the gun I noticed that racking the slide felt like it required the same effort as my glock 22.

I have slight paralysis in my right arm so the ambi-mag release, and lighter action (cocking effort) really appealed to me.

My first trip out of the box i had several FTE's. I figured that that that might be expected from a brand new pistol and to give it a while for break in.

Around the 750 round mark my wife and aunt where shooting it and it essentially became a single shot. Frustrated I held it as limp as I safely could and sure enough FTEs. Is this the guns fault? ehh, not really but my wife has shot a lot and this isn't a problem she has had with any other gun.

I also had 3 or 4 short stroke situations where the case was ejected but there was an empty bbl.

I also had the slide not lock back on the last round 5 or 6 times.

I got on-line to do a little research and low and behold there was a "Fix" by glock where they changed the recoil spring and said to shoot full power ammo. Another fix was to leave it mag locked to fatigue the spring a little (HA). I bought this gun to shoot cheap dirty ammo and expected it to run like my G22 that has never missed a beat. So I called Glock and they promptly sent me a spring marked 02.

I shot about 250 rounds without issue. Fast forward to a fairly recent IDPA stage where your at a card game and shoot the first 5 shots from one handed retention...

Single shot Glock. Racking the slide is not easy for me, nor does it conjure confidence in a RO to see me awkwardly paw at the slide. flustered I asked the RO to DNF me and went to the safe zone to see if there was anything wrong with my gun. Everything seemed fine.

So here I was with aprox 1200 rounds though my gun and about 30 failures (not counting my wifes). Was the mag release really worth the reliability?

I called Glock hoping that they would have come out with an even lighter spring. He said there was no such fix and to send the gun in and in 6-8 weeks they would call me back. sounds good right?

Note; I have also heard that the extractor could be part of the problem.

Then I got a Jager Captive steel rod, with a 13# spring installed. From the moment I put it in the gun I could tell a difference In the amount of effort it took to cock the gun. I was a little nervous to switch to a spring that light thinking the slide may not have enough spring to strip a round out of the mag and chamber it. I figured that I could always bump up to a 15# spring for a couple bucks more latter.

Took it to the ranch this weekend and put about 230 rounds through it.

%100

I am so excited that this gun is running now. the last two mags all I did was try and limp wrist it and I couldn't make it fail.

I really do think this gun is over-sprung.

From what I've read, with my internet grain of salt, the gen 4 17 and 22 started out with the same recoil spring (19#).

The 02 marked spring was supposed to be 17#.

My current spring is much closer to the gen 3 stock spring (15#)

I will update this post as the round count increases. 230 rounds isn't a whole lot but its more than this gun has regularly gone.

pics or it didn't happen, right?

Top stock spring

Middle "02" marked "fix"

Bottom JAGER

[JBP55]

My G4 G17 has been flawless for more than 17,000 rounds. The stock G3 G17 spring is 17# and all the G4 G17 springs are heavier than 17#. I read the original G4 G17/G4 G22 spring was rated at 22# and the current G4 G17 spring is rated at 19#.

[Roadkill751]

I had the same problem with my daughter's Gen 4 G-17. I thought that it may have been her limp wristing so I shot it and had FTE's. I was shooting WWB, Remington UMC and Federal American Eagle. I called Glock and was sent the 02 spring, more FTE's. So I ordered a 13 pound spring and all of the problems disappeared.

[double_r76]

My one Glock mystery... which engineer figured that the 9x19 and .357Sig required the exact same recoil spring??? Maybe I could give them a pass in the old days when the Glock was a "combat" pistol designed for the marginally hotter 9mm NATO load. However, fast forward 20 years to todays Glock for the masses with shooters of all ages and sizes shooting 115 grain WWB. FAIL.

All of my 9mm Glocks have 13lb recoil springs.

-Randy

[Postal Bob]

I bought my Gen 4 17, last Sept and have never had a problem with it using factory loads and extremely light reloads. It has the original spring, but I called Glock and got the replacement just to have on hand. But I never saw the need to change it. The secret is to shoot 124gr loads, not 115 gr. This gun was designed around the 124gr loads. People using 115gr loads have all sorts of problems like you described. After over 1,000 rounds, I've never had a single ftf or fte. And this shooting light reloads both single handed and weak handed.