New Glock .40 S&W owner

[baraco01]

When I was deciding what one gun to carry, I was reading a lot of ballistic reports and tables. I love .45 ACP but the 1911 I own is not suitable for carry. I was reading how the energy delivered mid-range was comparable to a 175gr .45...nothing delivered what a 250gr does.

While I was looking at all this the first CHL shooting happened in Dallas at Mockingbird and Central. A 175# victim was being pummeled by a 400# Samoan BG and shot him once center mass with a .40 S&W and the big guy dropped like a sack of taters. That cinched it for me. The 23 offered decent capacity, reasonable accuracy, came in a good size and is freakishly reliable. I have literally fired thousands of Winchester white box, reloads (FMJ) and carry Speer defensive. I have never had a FTF, FTE or FTH (failure to hit) LOL.

The only mod I have made is a stainless steel guide rod as I was reading about the nylon factory rods could start to fail after a dozen years and a few thousand rounds.

a dozen years and a few thousand rounds I have yet to shoot this thing so I guess it will take me a long time to hit a few thousand rounds. Thanks for the heads up.
I am heading out in a few minutes to shoot at least 200 rounds of winchester fmj and 50 rounds of winchester pdx1 bonded that i use for carry.

I have seen a video on youtube where the guide rod melted after firing 1000 rounds continuously and still the glock fired another 100+ rounds w/ out the rod. Amazing isn't it? here it is... although its the second part already, check out 4:00 - that's when it happened
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyZxQfIBXDc

[mgood]

I wonder how many rounds will it take before it develops the pig nose syndrome My gen4 g19 started having the pig nose after around 800 rounds.

The way I understand it, shooting will not cause Glock to develop pig nose. It is either made that way or it is not. Some of mine have it, some don't. You would think Glock could make them all with out the dreaded pig nose.

Um, I didn't say that about the pig nose. That was baraco01, who posted right after me. I'm not even sure what pig nose you're talking about.

[mbw]

OK, so how did your new 23 do?

[A-R]

The only mod I have made is a stainless steel guide rod as I was reading about the nylon factory rods could start to fail after a dozen years and a few thousand rounds.

You likely need to replace the recoil spring anyway long before the nylon guide rod would wear out. The spring and rod are one assembly and available for about $8. So no reason not to just replace both - easy drop in replacement.

My G23 is 12 years old and I have no idea of the round count but it's way up there. I only replaced the guide rod/recoil spring assembly just this year. Gun was still running, but starting to have occassional fail to feed issues - about one per 100 rounds, then when it started doing one per every two or three mags I replaced the spring and it's back to shooting like brand new - no FTF since.

Thanks for that YouTube video by the way, another remarkable example of Glock's reliability.

To the OP, only other problem I've ever had with a Glock is Blazer aluminum case ammo caused some FTE problems (on my first CHL renewal, no less). So I never shot it again. I know others who've shot thousands of rounds of it with no problems - so YMMV.

But don't worry one bit about shooting ANY factory ammo in a Glock. It will truly eat anything. And most reloads are probably fine too, as long as you trust the person who did the reloads didn't screw up anything.

[baraco01]

so, I finally shot the g23. And I am impressed.... just like my 19.
I brought w/ me several boxes of different brands of ammo. I brought 2 100- round winchester fmj white box, 1 50-round fmj cci, 1 50-round fmj pmc, 2 20-round winchester pdx1 jhp. Just like my experience w/ my gen4 g19, my 23 didn't like the cci and pmc. I had several FTE w/ the 2 brands. As far as the winchesters, no problems at all. As far as the dreaded KB .... nothing happened. After shooting the 23, I switched it w/ my 19 as my carry piece.
I finally got over the internet hype of glock .40's going KB!
@austinrealtor, same w/ your experience w/ the cci blazers, I had FTE. Also I will keep in mind the guide rod. Thanks!

[maxlib]

I'll bite. What is pig nose syndrome?

[baraco01]

pig nose is what people call the front part of the frame (towards the muzzle) curves upward -- its like the front part of the slide and the front part of the frame is almost touching each other. Im sure the other members here who are more knowledgeable will be able to explain it clearly.
I don't know how to post a pic so I'll just include links where they have pictures of it:
http://www.glocktalk.com/forums/showthr ... 049&page=3" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.glocktalk.com/forums/showthr ... t=pig+nose" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[stash]

Sorry mgood - don't know what I did wrong - must have hit the wrong button or something.

Stan

[baraco01]

I have been seeing those pads that can be installed on the guide rod assembly of the glocks supposedly to reduce muzzle flip and prolong the frame and its components by reducing impact due to metal to metal contact. I've also seen vendors on the net selling the whole guide rod assembly that comes w/ that pad. Anybody tried these things before? Do those really work? Or is it better to just replace the spring on my guide rod?

[Dragonfighter]

The only mod I have made is a stainless steel guide rod as I was reading about the nylon factory rods could start to fail after a dozen years and a few thousand rounds.

You likely need to replace the recoil spring anyway long before the nylon guide rod would wear out. The spring and rod are one assembly and available for about $8. So no reason not to just replace both - easy drop in replacement.

I have never had an FTF or FTE even firing some dicey stuff, but why wait until I'm in trouble for it to happen? The stainless rod and spring assemblies I have found run a bit more than that, more in the $20-30 range. I paid a little extra for the type and because of who I deal with. No pig nose..just a little holster wear. I don't know the exact count either but I have owned it since 1996 or so (about 4 mos after my CHL was in hand) and the count has to be close to 1500. I started out practicing 2-3 times a month and firing 100 rd bricks each time. Now I'm down to 2-3 mos between practices but still run a hundred rounds at a time.

Not pretty, but I can't beat it for simplicity and reliability.

[baraco01]

@dragonfighter, have you ever fired those russian ammo - monarch? It either comes in brass or steel cased. Would the steel case be bad for the gun? The reason I ask is the owner of the gunshop where I bought this baby said that steel cased ammo will "harm" the gun. And that the monarch brands are crappy. How true is this?

[OldCannon]

I don't recommend steel cased ammo for pistols of any type. Monarch brass runs great in my Glocks, although it's a bit sooty (not that my Glocks have ever minded that :)

[baraco01]

I don't recommend steel cased ammo for pistols of any type. Monarch brass runs great in my Glocks, although it's a bit sooty (not that my Glocks have ever minded that :)

Thanks lkd!
Just a quick follow up question though.... why don't you recommend steel cased ammo for pistols? from my first pistol to my recent one (G23) I have never used steel cased. I just got curious when the owner of the gun store actually told me to avoid those when I purchased my G23.

[mbw]

It is really tempting to re-engineer a Glock, tinker with it like we do 1911’s. You can replace the guide rod with a stainless or even tungsten for added weight to help with recoil. You can add extended slide stops and mag releases. You can add weights and mag wells to the butt of the pistols. And more and more. There is a great company in Tomball that will shape the grip of a full sized Glock to fit your hand and they do very good job and the work is very reasonably priced-

http://www.gripreductions.com/index.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Do any of these things make the weapon more accurate or reliable? Probably not. The work from Grip Reductions I am sure helps competition shooters. I don’t think that it is suitable for concealed carry. I change 2 things out on all of my Glocks, the disconnector and I make sure that they have night sights. I go with the competition 3 ½ lb version. In my opinion that is the best single thing that you can do to actually improve the shoot ability of a Glock.

Spend your money for ammo, it will do you more good than anything else.

[baraco01]

@mbw, i actually should have bought a G23 w/ night sights... I totally forgot about it. Now I am looking for one. But it won't be soon since the wife wouldn't be happy if I spend again.
What night sights do you recommend as far as quality and something not that expensive? Or do you know of a good online store that has good prices? I've seen some stores but I really do not know how much those night sights are. Like this one brand I saw, one store was selling it for $125 while another is selling it for $100. If I remember it right, the brand is meprolight.