Glock 20 Gen 4 NDZ Recoil Guide Rod Deformation

B

Boomstick300

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I replaced the stock recoil guide rod and spring with the NDZ 22lb Guide Rod Assembly Stainless Steel Adapter for Glock Gen 4 20 21 40 41. The Gen 4 Glock 20 fired 100 Underwood 220gr Hard Cast without failure and performed rather well. However, upon field stripping it to clean I noticed that the Guide Rod itself was marred and experienced deformation. The stock Glock recoil spring guide rod shows no sign of this excessive marring or deformation firing the same amount of Underwood Ammunition. My question in short is- 1. Is this normal? 2. Is this safe? 3. Is this guide rod reliable? As stated above- The guide rod and spring functioned flawlessly but I’m concerned by how it looked after firing the weapon.

R/S
Mike
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NDZ 22 lb recoil spring

I have the same spring with only 50 rounds of Underwood 200 and 220 hardcast and my spring looks just like yours. It has chatter marks on the end just as your picture shows.
I don’t think it’s unsafe but I am not happy with it. I have not called NDZ yet but I am going to this week.
 
I've said it before and I'll say it again, firearms manufacturers known their designs far better than your average aftermarket parts manufacturer who is constantly pushing new products which supposedly "improve" on said designs by addressing supposed weaknesses, and if they were really as much as an improvement as they're marketed as, then then they would be officially adopted, implemented, or integrated into the design.

In reality, these must-have aftermarket improvements tend to more often than not have issues which are outright detrimental towards reliability, performance, and function, sometimes even in ways which damage the firearm.

That's why I tend to stick with either stock parts, or otherwise aftermarket parts which are endorsed/approved by the manufacturer.

That being said, Please resize that image, it's way too large and is completely breaking the page. Use [ Resize=700 ] [ /Resize ] minus the spaces.
 
herb40 said:
I have the same spring with only 50 rounds of Underwood 200 and 220 hardcast and my spring looks just like yours. It has chatter marks on the end just as your picture shows.
I don’t think it’s unsafe but I am not happy with it. I have not called NDZ yet but I am going to this week.
Click to expand...


For what it’s worth:

This is the response via email I received by NDZ

“Good Afternoon,

Thank you for the pictures. It may mar up some but not too bad. Our guide rods have been proven to be very reliable. The marring will show up more on ours as the base of the guide rod is different from the stock one.”

As for going aftermarket-I was having failures to feed with stock spring with the Underwood. Typically, I most definitely favor sticking to stock. Unfortunately I was having failures.


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Are you using the stock gen 20 Glock barrel or you using an aftermarket barrel?
I shot 10 rounds of the 220 hardcast through the stock barrel and more than 50 through a KKM match barrel. I did not have any problems with either barrel but I did not use the stock spring in either barrel.
I did not see any lead build up in the stock barrel but the KKM barrel definitely shot a tighter group. I really like the 22# NDZ recoil spring I just hope it don’t deteriorate any further.
 
herb40 said:
Are you using the stock gen 20 Glock barrel or you using an aftermarket barrel?
I shot 10 rounds of the 220 hardcast through the stock barrel and more than 50 through a KKM match barrel. I did not have any problems with either barrel but I did not use the stock spring in either barrel.
I did not see any lead build up in the stock barrel but the KKM barrel definitely shot a tighter group. I really like the 22# NDZ recoil spring I just hope it don’t deteriorate any further.
Click to expand...


I shot the stock barrel with both stock spring and NDZ. the stock barrel shot great with both recoil springs in relation to accuracy and not tumbling. However, reliability with cycling suffered with stock spring. The NDZ preformed great but I was discouraged with the look of the recoil spring assembly. It was moderately galled. Stock spring did not experience this.... On a side not I have a KKM barrel on order.


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Having had pistols with all polymer guide rods as well as captured and non-captured guide rods, I think it's important to remember that even all polymer guide rods can do just fine. The actual rod doesn't bear a lot of recoil forces, it's the spring. As long as the ends are staying screwed on, you are good to go.
James Yeager (spelling?) did a torture test on Gen 3 glocks on Youtube firing something like a thousand rounds continuously until the pistol quit. The part that did give out was the all polymer guide rod, which had melted.

The blemishes aren't confidence inspiring, but I would actually rather have an accessory be of less hardness than the barrel or slide. Those would be more expensive to replace, and I'd much rather replace a guide rod (although I don't believe you will have to) It's possible that the ends of the aftermarket weren't beveled like a factory part so it will deform itself until the edges no longer bump against certain parts because it's the right shape now. Being stainless steel, if it were me I'd probably tape off the rest of the guide rod/spring with masking tape except that dented edge, sand off the bumpy edge with medium grit then higher grit sandpaper, then either polish with Mother's Mag or just be done.
 
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