"Glock Leg"

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JJ45

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Although AD/NGs can happen with any firearm this must happen often enough to have spawned it's own slang term.

What is the main cause?...the adage "safety is mainly between the shooter's ears" is indisputable but other than that, what is the main cause of this happening ??

I don't own a Glock and my only strikers are an XD9 Service and Xdm Compact 9mm, utterly reliable and sweet shooters but even though they have the addition of a grip safety, I am still a bit spooky in carrying them in condition 1 ....
 
My reading shows they are often caused by foreign objects inside the holster while holstering that snag the trigger and pull it enough to release the striker such as clothing, particularly jacket drawstrings and the like. Also caused by poorly designed or worn holsters that allow the edge of the trigger, but including trigger safety, to be pulled during movement such as sitting down. My striker fired pistols use all kydex holsters that completely cover the trigger guard to help minimize the chance of anything getting inside the trigger guard once holstered. I also take my time to check the holster carefully to make sure nothing is inside it that could cause a problem when holstering a pistol, it does not need to be a speed contest. Many like to put their pistol in the holster before putting the holster on the belt.

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adamBomb said:
Popularity + No manual safety + people with no training buy them = glock leg.
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That sums it up best. It all comes down too why is your finger by the trigger when holstering. That is how you get the “Glock Leg”. Most of the time it happens when the gun is being put back in the holster.


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As opposed to revolver butt or 1911 leg. As long as people have been carrying pistols they have been shooting themselves. It used to be real common to have cops shoot themselves in the butt holstering revolvers.
 
For a fair number of people who can only name one brand of pistol, the brand is Glock. (Piling on regarding popularity.) My SIL just bought an HK similar to the Glock 26 (VP-9 subcompact, maybe?). Its trigger is shorter and measures about a pound lighter than my G26. No way that is a safer trigger. Both, though, are going to fire if there is a finger or a drawstring or a fold of material or a corner of a dilapidated holster on the trigger when it is holstered. People who pay attention to such things, though, get neither Glock Leg nor HK VP-9 Leg.
 
I still remember when the Glock first came out and I thought to myself, no, that's not an actual safety. then some time later I finally got to hold one, felt the grip, realized it wasn't a "natural pointer", studied the trigger some more and said, um NO, just NO.

luckily some of the engineers that designed the Glock, along with several other engineers, went on to actually say and eventually make something better, improved on many levels and actually really safe and yet very fast-to-action as well.

I don't mean the Steyr, I mean the one made in Ulm.

still, it's reliable and practically given away to agencies so.. a gun is a gun.

just keep your finger off the trigger, right? RIGHT????
 
With the Glock safety system, the potential for error
is greater than with other designs.

The safest designs in autos are the SIG 226/220 and Beretta
92 series of guns, a hammer, a long DA trigger. And before those
in this country the Smith 39/59 system. The thumb safeties on
all these designs can be debated. But this whole family is the best of the
auto systems for expert/specialized/general skill levels.

Regarding the thumb safeties, they all should be decock only as in
the original SIGs.

The 1911 design is the next best level.

Even with the thumb safety feature, the military will regret
its decision with the striker fired SIG. And it will return within very
few years to the SA/DA mode. The holstering of these SIGs
will cause untold trouble for the military.
 
Even with the thumb safety feature, the military will regret
its decision with the striker fired SIG. And it will return within very
few years to the SA/DA mode.
Click to expand...

Don't hold your breath. If law enforcement can figure it out, the military can figure it out.
 
Even with the thumb safety feature, the military will regret
its decision with the striker fired SIG. And it will return within very
few years to the SA/DA mode.
Click to expand...

We moved away from exposed hammers on long guns over 100 years ago. No reason to continue using them on handguns.

SA/DA is the answer to a question no one ever asked, hopefully it is gone never to return. The 1911 style safety on a firearm is still the best option. The new Sig is simply a modern 1911 with a 1911 style safety. While it is classified as DAO in reality it has EXACTLY the same trigger pull weight as 95% of out of the box 1911's. You can get, or modify a 1911 to have a better trigger pull for target use. But out of the box the Sig M17, Glock, and 1911 all have 5-6 lb trigger pulls. All are eaqually accurate.

I don't have a problem with a Glock or any other striker fired weapon if they are used and carried correctly. Do it right and you won't have any issues. That said I still like having the option of having a 1911 style safety on them. I have one of the new Sig M17's with the safety. It may just pull me away from a Glock simply because of the option of a 1911 style safety.

The biggest cause of AD's with Glocks is improperly carrying them. When carried with a loaded chamber outside of a proper holster bad things happen. The most common that I see is when someone drops their gun and grabs at it trying to catch it and pull the trigger in the process. It is like when dropping a knife. You are better off to let it just hit the ground, then pick it up. Grab for either as it falls and you could bleed.

I don't like grip safeties, even on 1911's. They are more likely to prevent the gun from firing when you need it to fire than to prevent it from firing when you don't want it to fire. Back in the day when some people actually carried 1911's deactivating the grip safety was a common modification for just this reason.

Unlike all other striker fired guns the XD's are true SA with no safety. All of the others are DAO. This is why virtually all LE agencies don't allow them to be carried.
 
Rangers13 said:
That sums it up best. It all comes down too why is your finger by the trigger when holstering. That is how you get the “Glock Leg”. Most of the time it happens when the gun is being put back in the holster.
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It doesn't have to be your finger. Someone above mentioned "foreign object," and that's basically it. Glock's don't have manual safeties, they have that little thingie on/in the trigger. But anything that gets into the trigger window will depress that thingie and allow the gun to fire.

There was a case a few (or maybe by now more than a few) years ago of a guy who shot the seat and floor of his car in a store parking lot. I don't recall the specifics -- it may have been a gun-free store so he left the gun in the car. At any rate, he was reholstering, and his holster was an old, leather holster that didn't have a reinforcing strip around the mouth. The leather had gotten dog-eared and floppy, and a corner of the holster got into the trigger window and caused the gun to fire.
 
"SA/DA is the answer to a question no one ever asked...."

Apparently the German engineers at Walther lacked wit, and so did
the Swiss and Germans for SIG and the people at Beretta and
also at Smith along with the U.S. Army seeking such pistols in
the 1940s. And then of course along came the Czechs and
probably others.

As to hammers on auto pistols, they help control in the holstering
of the gun by feeling they are decocked and also help prevent
the slide from moving back in a tight holster.
 
Can you repeatedly strike a faulty cartridge with a Glock or any other striker pistol since they are all DAO ?....I don't own a DAO pistol but do own DA/SA weapons that permit a second squeeze on a faulty round, not that a cartridge will always fire when struck again (and again :) ) but the FP will certainly be struck, unless, of course, something is broken.
 
I was poking through some William Blake a long while back.
I think this was from "Proverbs from Hell"

It goes something like

"All attempts at Foolproofing are Folly
For the Genius of the Fool s infinite"
 
In the woods, I carry like an Israeli (condition 3 for you mall commandos) or with the hammer lowered or lowered and safe on.

Argue all you want about mall commando crap like “split seconds” and “one handed” but it simply comes down to training and then argue about how many condition 3 firearms are negligently discharged.

As for exposed hammers being obsolete in rifles for 100 years.... If you are not settled and prepared to shoot, open the bolt.

Nothing looks classier to me when meeting a fella in the field with his break action shotgun open as he strolls to greet, or his pump slid back.
 
JJ45 said:
Although AD/NGs can happen with any firearm this must happen often enough to have spawned it's own slang term.

What is the main cause?...the adage "safety is mainly between the shooter's ears" is indisputable but other than that, what is the main cause of this happening ??
Click to expand...
My reading over the years is that the majority were caused by officers reholstering with their finger in the trigger guard. Then there were some caused by the thumbreak on a leather holster getting into the trigger guard. Finally there are some caused by people pulling the trigger as they draw from the holster.

I watched a YT video of an officer shooting himself as he gave a safety presentation to a grade school class. In the first 10 seconds you could tell he was a bozo, but I think this was in NYC where firearm proficiency isn't very good.

I love Glocks! Pull the trigger BANG. Don't pull the trigger.........
 
I used to be in the camp that found striker fired pistols like Glock without an external thumb safety unacceptable. I now believe that they are perfectly safe when handled properly. There is no going back UncleEd. Striker fired, safe action pistols are here to stay in both military, police and civilian use.

Glock leg happens when good safety practices are not followed. It is the ubiquitous nature of Glocks that is the reason for the large numbers of negligent discharges, not the design.
 
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