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What breaks on a Glock 17?


GIO

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I am new to Glocks and was hoping for some input.

I like having spare parts around for all of my firearms and would like to know what is most likely to break or need routine replacement on a Glock 17.

I know they are super reliable but everything has a weakness. Thoughts?

Thank you in advance

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just keep extra springs for the striker and the other trigger springs, also an extra guide rod and spring and extra striker and extractor, also if you use fiber optic front sight carry plenty of extra fiber a way to cut it and a lighter to heat up "bulb" the ends to make it stay in the front sight.

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just keep extra springs for the striker and the other trigger springs, also an extra guide rod and spring and extra striker and extractor, also if you use fiber optic front sight carry plenty of extra fiber a way to cut it and a lighter to heat up "bulb" the ends to make it stay in the front sight.

That about sums it up maybe some firing spring cups for that rare instance you have to change the striker spring. People have a tendency to launch them across the room when changing that. At the end of the day there isn't much thats going to break if anything, and I've see a lot of rounds come out of a lot of different glocks.

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In my experience of running Glocks for competition and carry, since 92, a couple of trigger reset springs, one time a chipped extractor, sheared a barrel lug off of a G21 after about 125K rounds, cracked 2 slides on a G17, but mostly due to running +P+ rounds more than 30K, recoil spring assemblies about every 3 years, had a trigger pin fall out once, firing pin springs get weak after so many rounds, couple of mag spring replacements, What I keep in my carry Glocks, shoved up under the butt plug, is a spare extractor and trigger reset spring. You can reset a broken trigger spring manually but a cracked extractor turns it into a single shot,

image37050.jpg

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In my experience of running Glocks for competition and carry, since 92, a couple of trigger reset springs, one time a chipped extractor, sheared a barrel lug off of a G21 after about 125K rounds, cracked 2 slides on a G17, but mostly due to running +P+ rounds more than 30K, recoil spring assemblies about every 3 years, had a trigger pin fall out once, firing pin springs get weak after so many rounds, couple of mag spring replacements, What I keep in my carry Glocks, shoved up under the butt plug, is a spare extractor and trigger reset spring. You can reset a broken trigger spring manually but a cracked extractor turns it into a single shot,

image37050.jpg

Dang! You must really be runnin those glocks! Great insight to what true heavy duty use can do!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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GIO, I'm sure there are lots of guys who have run at least as many rounds as I have. My oldest 2 pin long rail G17 just turned 200,000 miles, and another 200,000 thru all the other Glocks, still as accurate as day one. Now my first G19 didn't fair as well from the car fire. Slide got so tweaked you can't remove the barrel, and the frame is pretty twisted up also. New small parts and springs, 30 days with the frame in baking soda to get rid of the smell. It still runs but I don't use it anymore.

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Yeah me too. I've also had a trigger pin come out in two pieces, broken in half. Once I had the tip chip off an after market striker. I've seen a couple of broken trigger springs on guns and had one myself. Other than that, some new F.O. now and then, although I think I've only lost it once. If you install it right it usually hangs on pretty good. Overall they take a silly amount of abuse and keep running.

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From looking around I think there was a post similar to this and it seemed fairly reasonable to keep a stock of all the internal parts. $50 to have everything if I recall correctly.

Have extra springs

guide rod

Extractor

Etc

Or just get another gun? Seems like a good excuse to buy a new one. "Just in case"

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Brass shards and assorted crud will accumulate in the firing pin block and firing pin channel by the hole, over thousands of rounds it will eventually stop working, so clean it.

If you ceracoat the slide, most likely you will ruin the least known about part, the plastic sleeve in the firing pin channel.

Aside from that, not loc-titeing your front sight post will get you an unscheduled point shooting practice session.

Get involved in the GSSF and they have armorers that will change springs for you at the match for free.

The biggest problem with Glocks is that they don't deal with case head separations very well.

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Most guns don't deal with case head separation (not KaBooms) very well, but at least in a Glock it won't destroy the gun. KaBooms, on the other hand, tend to fair way better in a Glock, because it blows most of the guts down the down thru the magwell, unlike a 1911, that wants to send the hammer toward your face, from personal experience, as I've blown up a couple of each, along with a S&W 59 and an H&K P9 chasing Major 9mm. I haven't used thread lockers for more than 25 years, but rather use Permatex # 2B. It never fully cures, but is easily removable when you change sights from one gun to another. Over 300 sight set installs, and not one came loose.

For competition, the best spare part is another Glock of the same setup, 3 is even better. Yea, forgot about the little L shaped slide lock retainer spring, if that breaks, the whole upper will fall off. Early Glocks had a narrow version, the new one seems to last.

gparts1106-12.jpg

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Based on my experience and a few guys I shoot with, this is what I've seen wear out and/or break:

Recoil springs (wear out over time)

Trigger springs (break)

Slide release (spring wears out/breaks)

Slide stop (spring wears out and will no longer lock open on an empty mag)

Striker (tip breaks off)

Ejector (tip broke off - replaced the whole trigger housing)

Striker channel liner (as mentioned above, if the slide gets cerakoted this needs to be replaced)

Slides (cracked by hard use, breach face can break from dry fire)

An extractor is probably a good part to keep on hand as well. I've never worn one out, but I can see it happening.

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  • 5 months later...
  • 2 weeks later...
1 hour ago, polymerfeelsweirdman said:

Could just take the slide stop out and it would keep running (maybe the pins would walk though) 

 

I have taken the slide stop out of a 35, pins will walk so I tore a paster in half and put it over each side the pins. Made it through 5 stages and never had a problem.

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After years of shooting GSSF matches about the only parts breakage I've heard of in any numbers even approaching significance is the trigger return spring and that has still been a rarity. Now this is with Gen 3 and earlier models. I have virtually no first hand knowledge of the Gen 4 models. 

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  • 1 month later...

Things I have seen actually break and fail, rare, but have seen it:

Trigger spring

Striker

Extractor

 

Things I have seen wear on high round count guns:

All Springs - just like any other gun, they set over time and need replaced.  Keep a spare trigger, recoil, striker, and extractor spring on hand. 

Extractor

 

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