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Is there a 14-lbs ISMI recoil spring? (10-round glock mags suck)


matto6

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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.  🙄
 

Edited by matto6
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I'd get everything back to stock configuration, fire some factory ammo and see how the gun runs with those 10 round mags. 

 

Make one change at a time and verify operation.  

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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. 

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8 hours ago, matto6 said:

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. 

Right on...IMHO doing a reload with a 10 rounds stuffed tight in the mag, and on round already in the chamber is asking for a malfunction. 

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There has to be more to this story.  The window between "enough stored energy that the gun doesn't go into battery" and "so stiff the slide short strokes" is not that narrow.

 

I suspect you have some friction somewhere else.

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