Glock Barrel's

[Jon Merricks]

I have seen several pictures of Glocks blowing up and have seen one myself. I have a G35 and was going to start reloading for it, but I now have some reservations about doing so. It appears that most of the problem is with glocks chamber not being fully supported (or am I wrong). Is there any after market barrels that may help avoid such a problem?

[38supPat]

I suspect some of it has to do with (at least in the one case I saw) shooters taking data from 1911 loads and shrinking the oal to fit a Glock. Bad juju dude! Anytime I've seen or heard of a problem it could be traced to the operator.

Pat

[Flexmoney]

Jon,

I recently starting reloading for my G35.  At least I will be when I get my new dies.

The 40 has a fairly high amount of pressure associated with it, and, as you said, the Glock barrels have a more generous chamber without support of the case at the 6 o'clock postition.  So there is a potiential for blow outs.

That being said...I think Pat is right on...operator error is by far the most likely cause of Ka-bambs.  

Reload with care.

A GM shooter that works for a national bullet company suggested to me to load practice rounds to a lower power factor, 155 I think.  Easier on the gun.  That might give a different feel than your competiton rounds.  I say try it.  Variation is good practice.  Just practice with your major rounds before shooting a competition.

The folks a Sierra say not to try and get a true "full-length" resize on the brass (with straight walled cases & carbide dies).  Trying to make it look just like factory brass can lead to excessive resizing of the brass.  This would lead to more "working" of the brass, which weakens the brass and shortens case life.

It is also suggest to load Glocks with a slower burning powder.  Also, make sure you have the proper crimp.

The G35 , with its longer barrel, will be able to make major with a little less pressure than Glocks with shorter tubes.  You can load a little lighter and still get velocity because of the longer barrel.

There are plenty of after-market barrel makers for the Glock.  The two that I see most often recommended are KKM and Barsto.  An after market barrel will have a tighter, more supported chamber and it's conventional rifling will allow the use of lead bullets.

OK, I think you hear about the Glocks blowing up because there are just so many of them out there.  The only other pistol that gets this much attention is the 1911.  Most 1911's are in 45 caliber.  It is a little more forgiving for reloading.  

Sorry if this post sounds like a ramble.  I am in a hurry to get to the range...leaving in three minutes.

(Edited by Flexmoney at 5:02 am on May 27, 2001)

[bird]

Barstow makes a good bbl but the wait is kindof long.

Check out http://www.ccfa.com

I believe he has aftermarket Glock barrels.

[Duane Thomas]

The polygonal rifling in Glock barrels was designed with jacketed bullets in mind. Lead bullets will swiftly coat the barrel with a thick coat of lead. This of course raises chamber pressures immensely.

You tend to see the K-Bs with .40 Glocks. This makes sense if you think about it. Glock was the first company out with .40 S&W pistols, even before Smith & Wesson. The redesign of the basic Glock platform to .40 S&W was a real rush job. The G23 and G22 are in essence simply rebarreled G19s and G17s respectively. The 9mm and .40 Glocks even use the same recoil springs! Not having performed a major redesign to turn their 9mms into .40s, the only way Glock could get the .40 to feed was to radically open up their chambers, thus the lack of support problems. A few years ago SAAMI *lowered* their maximum safe chamber pressure recommendations for .40 S&W, and they cited detonations in Glock .40s as the reason.

I think a lot of people have the attitude that the .40 S&W, being a "big bore" cartridge, must be a pretty mild number, with low chamber pressures, like the .45 ACP. Nothing could be further from the truth. Standard pressure .40 S&W loads churn out circa 35,000 psi chamber pressure, in other words, the same as the .357 Magnum. Also the .40 has a very fast pressure spike. It's worth nothing that the 9mm Parabellum also has chamber pressures in the 35,000 psi realm, and you never hear stories of 9mm Glocks going K-B, or the .45s and 10mms either. I feel the .40s' propensity to going K-B, and the 9mms, .45s and 10mms lack thereof can be directly traced to the .40 Glocks' suitability for IPSC shooting, and IPSC shooters' tendency, at least in practice, to fire lead ammo for cost reasons. The 9mms, thought they operate at chamber pressures equivalent to the .40s, don't make Major and thus are rarely used in IPSC (I wonder if we'll start seeing 9mm Glocks K-B now, if Production class really takes off). The .45s operate at much lower chamber pressures than the 9mms and .40s. And although the 10mm can be a pretty ferocious number, (a) it's not a very popular IPSC cartridge, ( most IPSC shooters who do use this cartridge download it somewhat for greater controllability, and © both the 10mm and .45 Glocks have grips too large for most people's hands so they're rarely chosen for a venue as dependent on fast gun handling as IPSC.

That leaves the .40 Glocks as the only Glocks that can be loaded to make Major, albeit barely, with decently sized grips that allow the guns to handle well. IPSC shooters fire their lead bullet reloads through those polygonally rifled barrels, leading occurs, pressures begin to rise inside those unsupported chambers....KA-BOOM!

[Jon Merricks]

I hate to sell any gun. I feel like Im going backwards when I do. But dont be suprised if you see my 35 in the classifieds

[Flexmoney]

jeeeezzz Jon.  Don't get rid of your Glock.  Just don't shoot lead.  Don't let all the 1911 guys scare you off.  The Glock goes bang every time.

Before you sell spend some time at the Glock Talk forum.  Check out the Reloading section there.

http://glocktalk.com/

[Nik Habicht]

Jon,

If you are planning on shooting the 35 in production the only power factor there is 125.  The 35 should handle any mild handloads easily ---- and make that power factor easily.  The rub will come if you decide to shoot it in any other division if you decide it must make major.  If you do ---- make sure it's with jacketed bullets and follow Pat's advice about not duplicating 1911 loads and making them fit by seating the bullet deeper.  Oh, the polygonal rifling should also buy you a few feet per second in the velocity department.  Good Luck.

[Bill]

Jon,

I shoot lead through my G22 at 148 - 150 p/f in production, and there is some lead build up but clean it after every 100 rnds or so to be on the safe side. I have tried some major loads at around 172 p/f using 200 grn Teflon coated lead(sorry Kyle forgot to mention that before!) with good results and minimal leading. I would only use teflon coated lead if I shot major reguarly (Jacketed not an option here In Oz at approx $35 per 100)

Rgds Bill

[Jeff Gonzales]

Hey guys...

I just wanted to poke my head in hear and say hello.  I am the new moderator for the Glock Forum.  

If I may suggest you hold off on selling you G35.  There is plenty of good advice available on adjusting your load.  Take some time to dig it up and if you are not happy then reconsider gettting rid of it.

Later,

[Jon Merricks]

Welcome aboard Jeff and thanks for your input.

[Patrick Sweeney]

We have a few Glock shooters at our club, and since we are all too cheap to use jacketed bullets, have worked out a few methods of getting lead through plastic.

The easy way is to switch to a cut-rifling barrel.  My G-22 has a Wilson barrel for use with lead, the 17 an Olympic barrel.  The harder but less expensive way is to scrub the bore between stages.  A couple of our guys use regular brushes, one other has the new boresnake, and uses it in the Safe Area after each run.

Harder lead bullets don't help much in the factory barrels.  I suspect that lube would be a more significant variable than hardness.  Also, stay away from fast-burning powders, as they will melt the bullet base and increase the leading problem.

Patrick

[Duane Thomas]

"OK, I think you hear about the Glocks blowing up because there are just so many of them out there. The only other pistol that gets this much attention is the 1911. Most 1911's are in 45 caliber. It is a little more forgiving for reloading."

Actually I think the reason the Glock blow-ups get so much attention is it's just so darn IMPRESSIVE when a casing lets go inside that polymer framed gun. I've blown a casing twice in a steel-framed 1911. In both cases the magazine was trashed, but other than that nothing at all was damaged. No big deal, just pound the Pachmayr's back flat, stick a new magazine in the gun and drive on. I've also been lucky (?) enough to be there at a training class when a shooter blew a case in his Glock. It was MOST impressive. The gun was totally trashed - the frame split all the down the mold seam, from the front of the dust cover, around the trigger guard, and down the frontstrap, and the trigger blew out of the gun. Wow!  

[Jon Merricks]

I bet his hands were sore, and his pants dirty.

[Duane Thomas]

The funny this is, the guy was firing a Glock 21 .45, with handloads his brother had thoughtfully made for him. After blowing up his Glock at the first day of training, after class he went to a local gunshop, bought himself ANOTHER Glock 21 and brought it to class the second day. I sidled up to him and said, "So....you still using your brother's handloads?" Apparently the answer was no.

[Jon Merricks]

I went to shoot my 35 for the last time today. I was nailing pins at 40 yds and hitting A/B head shots at 25 yds with ease (thats good shootn for me). I guess Ill keep it for now. But still need to work on the splits.

[38supPat]

I think most of it has to do with the pressure spike in a large (for the frame) chamber. I have always prefered the Glock in 9mm. Now that we have production class I hope we'll see more 17 users and the problem will fade. I've seen only a few K-B's with Glocks, all were either the .40's (22, 35) and one .45 (21). Never seen a 17 go up, fired maybe 50,000 rounds through my own before it got turned into a rental gun where it fired maybe 1/4 million round. Had three origional Glock 17's at one range I worked (one was even pre-frame mounted serial #) for rental  and each one had to have 1/2 million round through them. Never saw anything happen. Also the gunsmith who did my Glock work at the time (one of the early pioneers) used to teach IPSC qualification courses. He'd loan out his pet Glock to students. Soon it had no fewer than three squib loads fired out of the barrel, three squibs, three rings in rifling. Gun never stopped, gun was still fairly accurate.

Pat

[Jeff Gonzales]

Pat...

Now that is impressive.  I had an old G19 and sold it after about 25K.  I thought that was a lot.  Of course, I just upgraded to a newer G19 w/ utility rails.

Later,

[38supPat]

The three rental Glocks did actually have to have the slides replaced, they cracked just at the front of the ejection port. Interesting note: all that happened,(and how we figured out something was wrong) was that when the slides cracked the guns still functioned perfectly they just shot about 10" to 12" to the left at 10 yds!

Pat

PS My own glock was the gun I had when I first read Brian's book. So I went out and practiced and practiced. I worked at a range and had all the ammo I could shoot. Once shot over 1000 rnds in one session. Boy was I tired after that. Shot many many matches with it including '92 North Americans, and many level III's. What a great gun to learn on!

[Austin Hemphill]

Jon, one of my buddies is shooting a G-35 in limited class, and kicking butt while doing it.  He had some reloads using Hodgdon's HS6 and HS7 that made major and where extremly relible.  If you use common sense, loading for the glock is no big deal.    

[Jon Merricks]

Thanks

[steve horsman]

Greetings Guys, I have been shooting the Glock since 1989, and had an original G22 in 1990.  I have shot alot of reloads through it, back before I knew any better.  My first Desert Classic was in 1992 and I was shooting a load of AA #5 with a 155 Lead Semi Wad cutter.  It made major and that was out of stock barrel.  Like I said that was before I knew better.  In around 1993 I had a KB with the same gun, but shooting a 165 jacketed bullet with Win 231 powder.  No major damage to the gun, but I did learn some things.  The cambers are very large to allow reliable feeding, the brass had probably been reloaded 6-8 times and blew out at the base of the case.  Since then, I have been shooting a G35 since they came out.  I put a KKM barrel in mine and when the PF was 175 I loaded a 180 grain bullet with VV 3n37, but since it come down to 165 I have been using VV N320.  You need to only use your brass for about 4 reloads, then pitch it.  Load the round as long as you can and still have it function, it will usually get stuck in the mags as they are feeding up in the tube.  Good luck and stay with it.  I have had some good success with my Glocks, and with all the stuff on my G35, it still costs me under 1000 bucks.

STeve