Good evening everyone!
I'll get right down to it - my brand new 4th Gen Glock 19 is having severe Failure to Feed problems and multiple Failure to Eject issues.
Background:
6th Glock I've owned, mostly own .40's. Carried a Glock as an LEO for 5 years, well over 20k rounds fired. I lost count, LoL.
Decided to try out the 9mm in the new 4th Gen design recently.
Range Report:
100 Rounds of Blazer 115 gr commercial ammo from the gun show= 17 failure to feeds, 3 failure to ejects. Extremely unhappy gun-owner.
Decided it MUST be the new mags or maybe the ammo because I've had *maybe* a dozen actual failure to feeds in my entire life with a Glock.
Purchased 2 generic mags, additional factory mags.
Range Report Day 2:
50 rounds of American Eagle FMJ,
50 rounds of PMC FMJ
50 rounds of Winchester Ranger NATO FMJ
20 rounds of +P Gold-Dots, JHP
Another 100 rounds of the lousy Blazer FMJ (brass jacketed).
I cycled these rounds through a variety of 6 magazines - fired some slow, fired some rapid.
I had FTF on just about every OTHER round for the AE and PMC.
The Winchester Rangers failed to feed on every 5th round or so.
The Gold-Dots had ZERO failures.
Blazer FMJ made me so angry, I stopped firing due to excessive FTF's and packed it up.
I also experienced numerous failures to lock the slide to the rear on empty across the spectrum of ammo, except the Gold Dots.
A Glock should eat anything you feed it; FMJ, JHP, 115gr, 147gr, defensive ammo, reloads, etc. Period. It's the AK47 of handguns.
I've read a dozen forums about the 4th Generation Glocks and how owners should "step up to a bigger round" or a heavier grain. I've heard that it's a rare problem. I've heard many 4th Gen owners have had zero issues. I've heard people with 800 rounds in their 4th Gen with the same issues as mine.
I've called Glock and left a message with Technical Support, so we'll see if that does anything...
Obviously, the newly designed (tampered with, more like it!) recoil/guide rod spring is the issue here. It was designed for the .40 and Glock stuck it in their 9mm 4th Gen's. I'm not willing to accept the remedy to this issue as simply, "You need to break it in" or "work the action, loosen it up." I purchase Glocks because I can open the factory case and stake my life on the first round. At least until now.
But after being a devoted Glock carrier for so many years and having fired them in so many different environments with different loads and quality of ammo, I am so utterly sickened by this problem that I would rather go unarmed than to carry this Glock. I am incredibly sad that Glock allowed this (seemingly small) production run to hit the market and cause so many issues with the unlucky gun enthusiasts who happened to buy them.
Has anyone experienced similar problems and do you have any PROVEN fixes? And I'm not spending a single dime more to purchase adaptors or kits or anything else that didn't come with my factory purchase.
Has anyone returned their 4th Gen to Glock or received a new guide rod/recoil spring from them? Any other suggestions?
- Kevin Hayden
UPDATE FROM GLOCK:
I finally got ahold of Glock today and explained the situation. They cut me off before I even finished, saying they had been receiving hundreds of calls about this issue and were working to resolve it. The Glock Rep advised me to move up to 124gr rounds "for the time being" and it should cycle properly. He told me to call back "sometime after the first of Decemeber" and they should have the new recoil springs available for shipment to owners having problems.
I replied, "So, you're saying I have to pay $1 per round until "sometime in December" if I want to shoot my new Glock? This is my main duty weapon now and I have ZERO faith in it to perform. That's kinda scary..."
He apologized a few times, stalled a bit... but ultimately had NO advice or rememdy other than "wait for the new recoil spring to come out sometime after the 1st of December."
I'll always be a Glock fan, but they lost some serious respect from me with this incident. It is definitely subpar for their usually-perfect product.
END RESULT: It IS the new recoil spring that is the issue. No lube job, cleaning or scrubbing will fix it. The issue only applies to the 4th Generation 9mm, and specifically the Model 19. The spring simply won't cycle fully with "target loads". However, my experience has been that it won't cycle even with $15/box Winchester Ranger NATO 124gr rounds with any sort of reliability. I guess we'll wait until the 1st of December.
I'll get right down to it - my brand new 4th Gen Glock 19 is having severe Failure to Feed problems and multiple Failure to Eject issues.
Background:
6th Glock I've owned, mostly own .40's. Carried a Glock as an LEO for 5 years, well over 20k rounds fired. I lost count, LoL.
Decided to try out the 9mm in the new 4th Gen design recently.
Range Report:
100 Rounds of Blazer 115 gr commercial ammo from the gun show= 17 failure to feeds, 3 failure to ejects. Extremely unhappy gun-owner.
Decided it MUST be the new mags or maybe the ammo because I've had *maybe* a dozen actual failure to feeds in my entire life with a Glock.
Purchased 2 generic mags, additional factory mags.
Range Report Day 2:
50 rounds of American Eagle FMJ,
50 rounds of PMC FMJ
50 rounds of Winchester Ranger NATO FMJ
20 rounds of +P Gold-Dots, JHP
Another 100 rounds of the lousy Blazer FMJ (brass jacketed).
I cycled these rounds through a variety of 6 magazines - fired some slow, fired some rapid.
I had FTF on just about every OTHER round for the AE and PMC.
The Winchester Rangers failed to feed on every 5th round or so.
The Gold-Dots had ZERO failures.
Blazer FMJ made me so angry, I stopped firing due to excessive FTF's and packed it up.
I also experienced numerous failures to lock the slide to the rear on empty across the spectrum of ammo, except the Gold Dots.
A Glock should eat anything you feed it; FMJ, JHP, 115gr, 147gr, defensive ammo, reloads, etc. Period. It's the AK47 of handguns.
I've read a dozen forums about the 4th Generation Glocks and how owners should "step up to a bigger round" or a heavier grain. I've heard that it's a rare problem. I've heard many 4th Gen owners have had zero issues. I've heard people with 800 rounds in their 4th Gen with the same issues as mine.
I've called Glock and left a message with Technical Support, so we'll see if that does anything...
Obviously, the newly designed (tampered with, more like it!) recoil/guide rod spring is the issue here. It was designed for the .40 and Glock stuck it in their 9mm 4th Gen's. I'm not willing to accept the remedy to this issue as simply, "You need to break it in" or "work the action, loosen it up." I purchase Glocks because I can open the factory case and stake my life on the first round. At least until now.
But after being a devoted Glock carrier for so many years and having fired them in so many different environments with different loads and quality of ammo, I am so utterly sickened by this problem that I would rather go unarmed than to carry this Glock. I am incredibly sad that Glock allowed this (seemingly small) production run to hit the market and cause so many issues with the unlucky gun enthusiasts who happened to buy them.
Has anyone experienced similar problems and do you have any PROVEN fixes? And I'm not spending a single dime more to purchase adaptors or kits or anything else that didn't come with my factory purchase.
Has anyone returned their 4th Gen to Glock or received a new guide rod/recoil spring from them? Any other suggestions?
- Kevin Hayden
UPDATE FROM GLOCK:
I finally got ahold of Glock today and explained the situation. They cut me off before I even finished, saying they had been receiving hundreds of calls about this issue and were working to resolve it. The Glock Rep advised me to move up to 124gr rounds "for the time being" and it should cycle properly. He told me to call back "sometime after the first of Decemeber" and they should have the new recoil springs available for shipment to owners having problems.
I replied, "So, you're saying I have to pay $1 per round until "sometime in December" if I want to shoot my new Glock? This is my main duty weapon now and I have ZERO faith in it to perform. That's kinda scary..."
He apologized a few times, stalled a bit... but ultimately had NO advice or rememdy other than "wait for the new recoil spring to come out sometime after the 1st of December."
I'll always be a Glock fan, but they lost some serious respect from me with this incident. It is definitely subpar for their usually-perfect product.
END RESULT: It IS the new recoil spring that is the issue. No lube job, cleaning or scrubbing will fix it. The issue only applies to the 4th Generation 9mm, and specifically the Model 19. The spring simply won't cycle fully with "target loads". However, my experience has been that it won't cycle even with $15/box Winchester Ranger NATO 124gr rounds with any sort of reliability. I guess we'll wait until the 1st of December.
