Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Rethinking Glock, and Other Polymer Pistols

As I mentioned here, I was really impressed with Squeeky's Springfield XD. It was an eye-opening experience.

Having that under my belt shed some light on this video. It's not new, I've seen it and others like it for years now, but now I'm actually thinking (mark it!).

Putting almost 300 rounds through a pistol without a jam is pretty impressive. Doing it on full auto, only pausing to reload is freakin' amazing. That level of craftsmanship has nothing to do with appearance and everything to do with reliability. Put me on list of converts

I predict an addition to the gun safe in the near future.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Might wanna look at the handguns magazine on the ruger SR9 too... they put 6,800 rounds through it in one day... even had to pour water on it to cool it off...

ive got 400 error free rounds through mine and am adding another 300-500 this weekend...

Anonymous said...

I might humbly suggest a Browning pro 9, or a fnp-9.

Ride Fast said...

It's impressive what a good build can do. Auto-Ordnance ran 10,000 rounds through a M1928 without a jam or stoppage. They then took a picture of the gun atop the mountain of spend cartridges. It looked pretty cool.

Fletch said...

I'm approaching 1k rounds though my XD-9 with nary a failure. Great gun. There are a few extra safeties on it, (which can be a negative for some) but the deciding point for me vs Glock was that the XD's grip angle was the same as a 1911.

Anonymous said...

I am no Glock fanboy even though I own one, but I have never had a single jam with any Glock I've ever shot. Ever.

I've had a Squib, but that was my fault.

Ugly as sin, but when you pull the trigger they go pop. Every time.

The Duck said...

I'm still not going out of the house without my BHP, but 2 XD's have found their way in, as well as M&P, & a yet to be fired FNP

Eric said...

I have a Glock also, and have always admired their ruggedness and reliability.

However, I would assert that going 300 rounds (normally, not full auto) without a jam AND without a cleaning should not be remarkable -- probably should be the bare minimum for a good self-defense pistol. Most of my compadres who are serious about their handguns would set their minimums higher than that.

More than once I have fired my FN Hi Power for five hundred rounds without cleaning during training courses, and it has gone several thousand rounds (with cleaning) without a problem, as has my Glock of course.

If your current pistol can't go 300 rounds without a hiccup, I would suggest a different pistol or figure out what's up with the current one.

Rustmeister said...

I really need to shoot some more Tupperware.

Although I liked the XD well enough, I really should get familiar with everything out there.

Anonymous said...

Going to have to agree with Eric here... My 9mm Baby Eagle goes through 500 rounds a pop regularly at ranges, with nary a cleaning until I can get it home and properly disassembled, and in more range visits than I can remember (and my checkbook cares to remember), I can only recall about 3 jams, of any varieties. Granted, this gun (or, at least, the Jericho variety of it, which is more or less identical) is military-designed and -issued, so it might fall under a different category, but it still works like a champ (and could be used as a bludgeon if all else fails).

That said, I am seriously considering an XD or Walther Psomething for when I escape to a state wherein I can easily carry... The nether portions of my brain are still trying to come to terms with containing an explosion with the same thing my Legos were made out of (yes, yes, I know the barrel and slide and whatnot are still made out of metal... my nether brain does not listen to reason), but the rational sides cannot argue with the weight and design advantages.

Keep us posted on how the decision process goes!

Mike Gallo said...

I've got a different experience than anyone else I've ever met: The Glocks I've fired have had a fail to feed or a fail to eject within 20 rounds. All three times seemed to be magazine issues (Glocks seem to have VERY fast actions - must be the light stamped steel slides?) that were fixed by using different units, and no other issues came up after that for hundreds of rounds. A bit sobering, though, that my sister and brother-in-law carry two of those guns on duty, and would have had a malfunction either halfway through the first or second magazine had they needed to use them.

It just goes to show that a mag check is as important as any other periodic upkeep. In the case of my brother-in-law's gun, he had carried it off-duty for two years, including much house rehab and other dirty work, without cleaning or reloading it. It went bang for the whole first mag (and put some mighty interesting foreign matter out the business end along with the first few bullets), and then jammed for me on his spare carry magazine. I like Glocks for what they are, and I'll stick to my USP only because it's a lot prettier, not because it's functionally better in any measureable way.

AlanDP said...

When I first bought my XD, I put 500 rounds through it with one failure, and decided it had passed the test. The one failure was indisputably the fault of the ammo--it was a reload and the case had been bent slightly. The only semi-auto I have that can match it for reliability is my Makarov.

Since that failure, I have used only factory loads and have never had another problem.

Anonymous said...

Good Job! :)