Strange glock malfunction

P

Polinese

New member
So last night I go to dispatch a deer like I have plenty of other times. I fired and the round hit the deer, trigger reset as far as I remember and I holstered back up.

When I went back to my station to get a replacement round I pulled my mag out and realized it was still full... I pulled the slide back and found the empty casing still in the chamber...

I'm a bit more gun savvy than most of the guys on my job and I make a point to keep my weapon well maintained. I've never had a malfunction like this happen. Anyone have ideas on the cause? Weird powder charge maybe?
 
Holybat guano!!

Good thing it happened in such a benign circumstance.

Obviously the cycle of action was interrupted. It sounds to me like the slide did not move fully to the rear (short stroked) for some reason.

If the slide had come far enough to the rear to eject (whether it did or not) it should have attempted to pick up a fresh round from the mag. Causing a feedway stoppage (type 3 malfunction). Same condition whether the gun extracted the case or not.

That you remember the trigger resetting, indicates the slide moved, at least some.

Could the slide run into something that prevented full movement to the rear. A coat, your off hand, some part of the Deer?

Do you recall if recoil felt "normal"?
 
Yea I'm happy it happened during that and not something worse...

short sleeves, one handed (light was occupying the other hand) same as plenty of others. I can't for certain the trigger reset I wasn't paying much attention to it.

I was thinking some kind of short stroke too, which was why I thought maybe something was wrong with that specific cartridge. enough to get it out of the barrel and into the deer but not enough to cycle it? But at the same time I feel like if it has enough to punch through the deer's skull it should have enough force to cycle the gun.

I field strip/clean/oil it but that's it. No upgrades or parts swapping.

After I found the spent casing in the chamber I worked the slide a few times before I loaded it up. Everything felt smooth, no grit, no hang up
 
Added....

The FIRST order of business is to get that pistol on the range and run a cpl hundred rounds. See if the problem shows up again

Right now it could be the Gun, the Ammo, enviromental contidions, the Gods playing games with you (JK)

Test the gun and attempt to recreate the event. Only way to know for sure.
 
I doubt they'd pay for the ammo... can't even get practice ammo, and no one carries .45 gap because why should they haha.

I've never been a glock fan but since i've had to start using one for duty I've come to absolutely loathe them.
 
Sound like an undercharged round to me. Not enough to fully cycle the slide and the spent casing goes back into the chamber.
 
Polinese said:
I doubt they'd pay for the ammo... can't even get practice ammo, and no one carries .45 gap because why should they haha.



I've never been a glock fan but since i've had to start using one for duty I've come to absolutely loathe them.
Click to expand...


We don't know enough yet to blame the gun much less Glock in general (I do get personal preferences).

You have to find some way to run ammo through that gun to test it. Even if you have to order it online or call around to see if any store has some. I get that cost sucks but if your life could depend on that gun it's worth it. Do you know the manufacturer and specs of the ammo you're carrying?
 
Speer Gold Dots. I know it's not necessarily the gun and I'm more inclined to blame the cartridge but personal preference I can never find anything to like about them, and I've had more issues with my Glock than any other gun I've owned or been issued, granted the vast majority of said issues have been magazine related.
 
Polinese...

Your "Duty gun" malfunctioned ON DUTY!!! Go to your dept armorer and explain what happened. Demand the gun be tested and repaired if needed.

The acceptable failure rate for a Duty weapon is ZERO. Or as close as humanly possible.

That gun, having now shown a problem, must be tested and FIXED. No other option at this point
 
My experience with law enforcement is they are penny wise and pound foolish, with most departments not replacing parts when the time comes as necessary (i.e. magazines or magazine springs especially for Glocks are a cheap fix). In fairness often their budgets suck. People love to say they support law enforcement, but when the time comes to pay the piper they sing a different tune. The 45 GAP is also a solution in search of a problem IMO and when you factor in ammo cost and availability it baffles me that Glock got departments to adopt it.

Speer is generally good ammo. For it to be undercharged enough to not even cycle the slide is pretty hard to believe (and as you said it was able to dispatch the deer). Maybe if the cartridge was old and had been exposed to weather? But if newer production ammo that is pretty darn odd. As I said you really need to test it (or more so your armorer should and you should switch out to a different pistol if available).
 
I use speer off duty, and my last agency we used speer ammo in our rifles never had an issue.

My agency in particular seems to have major issues with anything safety related in my opinion. Budget issues are oft cited and do have credence but when you factor it all in together it's terrifying... I'll talk to guys from other depts and its usually a mix of shock/laughter/glad I dont work for them.
 
The OP says the cartridge fired and the bullet hit the deer, so that would seem to rule out ammo failure.

It is certainly possible for a slide to be blocked so that it doesn't move when the gun is fired. In fact, it doesn't require a lot of force and with the flat rear of the slide of a Glock or similar pistols, the slide can be held closed with the hand. So a body part, perhaps a hip or knee, or some part of the clothing, could have kept the slide from moving and the empty case from being extracted and ejected.

Jim
 
I've only had this happen one time. When I fired a Taurus PT-99, the slide never cycled and I had an empty shell in the chamber. It turned out that the locking block shattered, locking the barrel, slide and frame in the closed position.

I would examine your gun carefully and thoroughly test it.
 
I brought it home for the weekend and already disassembled it and couldn't find anything wrong with it.

As to the snag idea, we actually practiced firing them and blocking the slide as a means of disabling. That being said I was wearing short sleeves and doing a one handed grip as my other hand was holding my light, and i was in a grassy area, nothing I can think of could've blocked or snagged the slide.

I'm extra glad me and my partner decided to not look for the guy hiding in the woods on our domestic later that night haha.
 
What caliber? The only time I've had anything similar was when I stuck a loaded G19 magazine in my G-23 and chambered a round at the range. The gun fired, bullet went down range and hit the target, which was only at the 7 yard line. But it left the now fire formed case in the chamber.

It only took about .5 seconds looking at the empty case to figure out what I did.
 
How old was the ammo? From what your saying happened, its sounding like ammo to me.

Ive had rounds leave the gun, yet not cycle the slide before, which was an ammo problem. Where did you shoot the deer, and was the impact like you remember the others? Are you sure its dead? :D

You said the mag was "loaded". I take it youre loading +1? Possibly a combination of a "weaker" round and extra spring pressure on the slide?
 
I have had that happen on a Buckmark more than once. I had to pluck the casings out. Those shots sounded different than the others. The slide didn't budge.
 
I would carefully check the ejector and extractor. However, logically speaking, it's not likely that what you describe could be the result of either an ejector failure or an extractor failure.

An ejector failure with the magazine out of the gun could result in the empty being pulled out and then pushed right back in as the slide cycles. However, with a loaded magazine in the gun, there's usually enough upward force from the next round in the mag to pop the case out of the gun.

An extractor failure could result in the case never getting extracted, but if the slide cycled, one would expect the next round in the mag to try to feed and result in a double-feed jam.

Short-cycling the slide could cause what you describe, but I would think that you would notice a much weaker than normal round if it weren't strong enough to even pull out the empty.

Could someone possibly be messing with you?
 
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