Built Glock Tough

T

TBeck

New member
An incident occurred several weeks ago that strengthened my like for Glock.

I was doing some rapid fire shooting with my Glock 21 using ammunition from one of the smaller ammo companies. I had a failure to eject, which had happened twice before with this particular lot of ammo. You get what you pay for. At the time of the jam I didn't notice any particularly weak recoil impulse. I cleared the spent case and fired another shot. The gun kicked, hard. The slide was stuck in the retracted position and would not move into battery.

I took the gun over to the gunsmith. He finally got the slide off and showed me the nice big bulge in the middle of the barrel. GULP!

I had experienced a squib round. The bullet was lodged in the barrel. When I fired the second shot the resulting overpressure bulged the barrel and locked up the pistol. The barrel was clear when the gun came apart so the second round blew the first one clear.

I contacted the ammo manufacturer about the problem. He had me send him the gun and remaining ammo. He forwarded the gun to Glock for evaluation and repair. Glock just sent it back to him with a new barrel and a stamp of approval. A bulged barrel was the extent of the damage.

There have been recurrent threads on this board about the fragility of Glocks and how they explode in overpressure situations. In this particular overpressure situation the gun held up completely. Nothing exploded or even ruptured. The barrel bulged, that was it. Just another anecdote to go with all the others.

PS, I haven't mentioned the name of the ammo manufacturer on purpose. The president of the company went to great lengths to make good on a defective product. Out of respect for his integrity I won't smear him on a public forum.
 
I had a similar incident with "no name" reloads fired through my 9mm. The barrel bulged just forward of the chamber, close to the locking lug(ring) of the barrel. I got it apart myself and sent it to the manufacturer for a onceover. All was OK, and I was charged for a new barrel. That was fine, as it was not the pistol's fault. The gun: a *&* 469.
 
Glad to hear you're OK. A squib isn't the same thing as a Kb, however.

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So many pistols, so little money.
 
A couple of years ago, I had read that Walther tested their P99 in such a fashion. They purposefully obstructed the barrel and then sent another round thru it. The article stated that the P99 showed no outward signs of damage and the barrel did not show any bulging. Don't really know for sure if this is true, but if so, that's one heckuva pistol!

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For God so loved the world that he gave his onlly begoten Son...
 
I think you all suggest a good tip. If something doesn't feel right, check your barrel to make sure it's clear! Something I'll start doing.
 
Two of our local L.E. blew up! their 40 Sigs from squibs!

(Same day, duty ammo [NOT MINE])

Only squib I ever experienced was in my Woodsman, stopped before I dropped the next round..........whew! (1980 (?), CCI ammo)

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"All my ammo is factory ammo"
 
I've seen similar incidents on three separate occasions, all with 1911s. On two of those it was squib loads that left a bullet in the barrel. Result was bulged barrel, magazine blown out of the mag well and in one case the wood grips split. The third incident involved a double charge of WW231 (something over 10g). That one didn't bulge the barrel, it bulged the slide and frame. Also blew the mag out and the grips off. Left some nasty bruses on the shooters hands.

To me the lesson to be learned from all this is that: (1) all handgun makes and models can KB, and (2) low pressure cartridges like the 45 ACP have an advantage over those that run at 35,000 psi like 9mm, 40 Short & Weak, 357 SIG, etc. A double charge in a 40 could give you something like 70,000 psi. Unpleasant things start happening at that kind of pressure, no matter what gun you are shooting.

Dave T
PCSD Ret.
 
I'm an instructor for an NRA Pistol and Presonal Protection course. Along with the course, on range day we also have a non-NRA round-robin, where the students can fire (without cost) many different types of guns, from .22s to a semi-auto UI, to shotguns. We had had some very bad rain in a prior class, and last month, at the class we had several squib loads. (the ammo for the round robin is in a ammo can next to each gun, and there's an instructor stationed at each gun to help the student fire it...obviously, lots of rain got into the ammo cans.) After the class had gone to lunch, several of us were shooting up the "suspect ammo." I was shooting the UZI, and sure enough, a squib load (or shoud I say "wet load" (YUCK!) Anyway, I'm glad I caught it, I don't even want to know how much an UZI barrel costs! The UZI hardly kicks anyway...it was the smoke pouring out that tipped me off that there was a squib.
 
Glad you are safe. I find these things to be better left to controlled lab situations, not for me!!! Note to self, no cheap ammos...

Albert
 
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