Did glock ever sort out their FTE issues since the Gen 4 release?

Status
Not open for further replies.
H

hogwiley

New member
Glocks used to be a gun you could buy knowing it would function perfectly out of the box every time. I was 3 for 3 with glocks in that regard, and everyone I knew personally had their 9mm or .40 glocks function perfectly out of the box.

Then came the Gen 4 and everything changed. Whether it was the new recoil springs, glock retooling their production for the design change and to meet demand, going to mim extractors, changing their ejectors, or just a general decline in quality, the fact was that glocks manufactured during the introduction of the gen 4 suddenly began experiencing extraction issues.
Supposed solutions were found, and yet the problems kept occurring.

I experienced this personally with a gen 4 9mm and a gen 4 glock 23 and saw others with the same problem, so I know this wasn't simply internet rumors, it was very real.

So are glocks produced NOW still experiencing these issues? Were the causes ever definitively determined? I'm considering purchasing a glock 19 but have no patience for the shenanigans I experienced with the last 2 gen 4 glocks I owned.

My questions are this.

Are current glocks back to being reliable out of the box? Is there any difference in reliability between the gen 4 glock 19 and gen 3? Is there a gun that is more reliable now given the issues glock has had?
 
I had a Gen 4 around the time they were first released and a number since then. It was my experience, both personally and other people I saw with the issue, that extraction was less of a problem than erratic ejection. I feel like the recoil assembly change solved the extraction fairly early, while the ejection issues continued for some time. As to the cause of the erratic ejection, people have blamed both the ejectors and the extractors with newer variants of each and aftermarket companies producing their own extractors as well. My experience with the last Gen 4 I owned, 2 months ago, was that the issue seem to be resolved on the most part. Reports I've seen online seem to suggest the same.
 
I bought my first Glock a few weeks ago, a Gen 4 Glock 19. It does seem to spit brass brack in my face or down the front of my shirt as compared to other pistols that I own. Other than that minor issue now and again, I really, really, like it.
 
For the past year I had owned a 17, 19, and a 34. All gen 4. Never a single malfunction out of them after a few thousand rounds. My 17 would throw brass in my face occasionally, no big deal. All of a sudden my 19 starts beaming me every other shot. Brass on the arm, in the face, in my pocket, down in my shirt. I refused to spend $200 on apex extractors to fix all 3 of them so I got mad and sold them all. But reliability, yes definitely good on that end.
 
My G20 spits empties to the moon. I know this doesn't help you but it is Gen 4 and seriously they are hitting the ceiling. Maybe I got lucky? Thought i would report...good luck. My G19 does fine too but it is Gen 3 so no consolation to you.:o
 
>Are current glocks back to being reliable out of the box? Is there any difference in reliability between the gen 4 glock 19 and gen 3? Is there a gun that is more reliable now given the issues glock has had?<

I can tell you that the G19g3 I bought new in Aug., 2015, has had some stoppages. All of them are FT feed, nose up. Eight out of 1100 rds. fired. The first 3 were in the first 21 rds. fired, then all went well until I was around the 500 level, and I had 5 more FT feeds. Both mags had FT feeds, and the stoppages occurred using 3 different brands of ammo.

All of these were w/ 115g rds., and when I called Glock and talked to a tech, he told me that 124g would probably cure it.

I have 2 other 9's, a B92 and a CZp01, and have had no failures with either in around 1700 rds., so it's not me casuing it.
 
Obviously, I can't speak for "all" Glocks of recent manufacture. I have 1 Glock & only 1 Glock, a Gen4 G19 purchased in ~May of 2013. I have ~1500 rounds through it. I've hand a handful (5-8?) of FTEs, all using 115 grain ammo (TulAmmo BrassMaxx & Perfecta, mostly). I've had zero Brass-to-Face events so far.
 
I can tell you that the G19g3 I bought new in Aug., 2015, has had some stoppages. All of them are FT feed, nose up. Eight out of 1100 rds. fired. The first 3 were in the first 21 rds. fired, then all went well until I was around the 500 level, and I had 5 more FT feeds. Both mags had FT feeds, and the stoppages occurred using 3 different brands of ammo.

All of these were w/ 115g rds., and when I called Glock and talked to a tech, he told me that 124g would probably cure it.
Click to expand...

I would have tried to make Glock take it in for a warranty check. Sometimes they're pretty adamant about not doing it, but that's too high a rate for my own liking.


On my end, I have a 2013 Gen 3 G19 that I use for the range and classes. It smacked me with brass regularly (the ejection issues aren't restricted to Gen 4, happens with newer Gen 3s too). I swapped out the 336 ejector for a 30274 and it helped a lot. I tried swapping out the extractor for an APEX extractor as well. I found while the ejection geometry was better at times (better arc), the extractor didn't hold the cases tight enough. So when everything worked right the ejection was better. But quite often the cases were lose and would bounce out of the slide. When this happened the brass would eject even more erratically than when I got the pistol. I also found I could get failures to extract with the APEX extractor by limp wristing the pistol, even slightly. With the stock extractor I didn't have that problem. This would set up a "double feed" that was a pain to clear (I first noticed it in a course, then played Legos with my Glock parts to figure out the issue). I think the APEX extractors can work, but I've had 3 of them now and I honestly think they need some hand fitting and aren't true drop in parts (there's a pad on the extractor they mention filing to help with holding the cases).

Honestly, these days I look for older Gen 3s. It sounds like an old wive's tale I know, but the older Gen 3s I've owned have been stoppage free and while the ejection isn't perfect (Randy Lee at APEX has a good read somewhere online about Glock ejection and how it's never been as good as others), the ejection cases are usually no where near the face. I also prefer the older surface finish Glock used. My older G19 and G26 have been great. I use the following guide:
http://looserounds.com/2014/09/30/buying-le-trade-in-used-glocks-what-to-look-for/
 
I own a number of Glock pistols, and I usually purchase a couple of new one's every two years or so. When the Gen4 was rolled out, I had purchased two of them, a G22 and the G17, the .40 was a masterpiece, the 9mm a disaster, its only, but significant problem, was it spit brass right between my eyes, I went through a few of the RSA upgrades and then I flatly told Smyrna to replace the gun altogether, which they did do, a Gen3 17 which promptly did exactly the same thing!

The issues with the Gen4's were not restricted to Gen4's, suddenly every Glock I was handling and shooting was doing exactly the same thing, and let me tell you something, .45 ACP brass right between the eyes isn't funny! Many people suddenly were experiencing this ejection issue, including professionals who happen not to look favorably upon the prospect of toting a firearm that has a 50/50 chance of spitting brass into their eyes in a gunfight!

It was my first hand experience that the following models all displayed the same erratic, unpredictable ejection, it spanned the gamut of generations,

G17/19/26, G21/21SF/30/30SF. Many folks also complained about the G22/23 .40's, but mine were flawless from the box, and have remained so!
 
>>I can tell you that the G19g3 I bought new in Aug., 2015, has had some stoppages. All of them are FT feed, nose up. Eight out of 1100 rds. fired. The first 3 were in the first 21 rds. fired, then all went well until I was around the 500 level, and I had 5 more FT feeds. Both mags had FT feeds, and the stoppages occurred using 3 different brands of ammo.
All of these were w/ 115g rds., and when I called Glock and talked to a tech, he told me that 124g would probably cure it.<<

>I would have tried to make Glock take it in for a warranty check. Sometimes they're pretty adamant about not doing it, but that's too high a rate for my own liking.<

The Glock tech told me I could send it in and they would go over it - and eventually I might do that, the warranty has some more months on it. The thing is, I have little confidence that they'll figure out and fix what's wrong. I bought 2000 rds. of 124g and I've been running mostly that along w/ some 115g, and the last 550 rds. have gone fine, so I don't know what to think.

Wait, I do know what to think - the Glock "perfection" thing is just marketing talk.
 
So it looks to me like the answer is NO, glock never did sort out their FTE issues since the gen 4 release, and I guess they never will. What used to be the most reliable pistol out of the box ever made is now totally hit or miss.

This basically ruins glock for me. My guess around the gen 4 release they retooled and reengineered for a level of mass production and cost cutting that went way beyond what theyd done previously, and the results is quality has totally gone to crap.

Its a shame, because I love the size, feel and capacity of the glock 19, but the problems are so widespread that its like buying a 1911 now, you may have to mess with it to get it to work right with no guarantee it will ever work right, or you might get lucky, its a coin toss.

Glock likely doesn't care, they are probably raking in record profits with a cheaper speedier production process. They'll just live off the reputation they built before their reliability dropped off a cliff.
 
The very early S/N Gen4 G-22 40S&W I had used to launch brass straight back at me, the replacement of the 336 ejector for the 30274 did seem to fix this. A lot of the early Gen4's also needed to have the Recoil Spring Assy. (RSA) replaced, but this one already had the upgrade RSA.

My newer S/N Gen4 Glock 21 45ACP never had the BTF problem, and I shoot a lot of aluminum and steel cased ammo with this gun, so I believe the newer production Gen4 Glocks should be OK.
 
So it looks to me like the answer is NO, glock never did sort out their FTE issues since the gen 4 release, and I guess they never will. What used to be the most reliable pistol out of the box ever made is now totally hit or miss.

This basically ruins glock for me. My guess around the gen 4 release they retooled and reengineered for a level of mass production and cost cutting that went way beyond what theyd done previously, and the results is quality has totally gone to crap.

Its a shame, because I love the size, feel and capacity of the glock 19, but the problems are so widespread that its like buying a 1911 now, you may have to mess with it to get it to work right with no guarantee it will ever work right, or you might get lucky, its a coin toss.

Glock likely doesn't care, they are probably raking in record profits with a cheaper speedier production process. They'll just live off the reputation they built before their reliability dropped off a cliff.
Click to expand...

I don't think the situation is quite as bleak as you paint it here. This is far from the first thread we've had about the Gen 4 Glocks, and if you do a search you'll find more responses that are positive. Negative experiences are more memorable than positive ones and after a while we get topic fatigue on the forum where for what is essentially the same question people stop responding. People with negative experiences are more inclined to keep commenting. I've owned four Gen 4 G19s and the last one had no real issues and the one before that wasn't bad either. I do think it has gotten better.

In 70 pistols covering pretty much every manufacturer I have seen problem pistols from everyone, including Glock, SIG, S&W, H&K, Walther, Colt, the list goes on. Ejection was a problem in most of those problem cases. I honestly don't think there is any company I could guarantee someone that would work perfectly right out of the box all the time. As I mentioned, even my older Gen 3s from the "Golden Age" of Glock still eject in a haphazard fashion at times, but at least not to the face.

But if you are that concerned then you could try looking for an older Glock in a hope that your chances of problems would be less.
 
Last edited:
Of the 4 glock pistols that my family owns none have had an issue. All are gen 4. Two glock 42s, g19, g26. I guess we could have gotten lucky but I assume its a small % of gen 4s and/or glock has secretly worked out the issue. I know they replaced things on the g42 over the last year but didnt create a new version of it.
 
How long have Gen4 Glocks been out now? There were some very early issues that were immediately corrected. The idea that there are still issues is totally over blown and unwarranted.
 
Don't get wrong, I still love the G19 I bought. Shoots like a champ. It just blows brass back at your now and again. I can live with it as it is not a deal killer to me.

I would highly recommend the G19 and I am not really worried about it. :)

I don't want to say it is a terrible problem, but I have noticed it.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top