Posted on 04/17/2009 10:58:26 AM PDT by Last Dakotan
MILWAUKEE -- The Milwaukee Police Department found that there is a serious problem with its guns.
Officer Vidal Colon was injured over the weekend in a shootout, in which his gun jammed.
The police chief has known about the problem for a year, but he is now taking immediate action following Saturdays shooting.
The chief sent a memo to the entire police department about the weapon problem.
On Saturday, Colon responded to a report of a man armed with a gun near 36th and Scott streets.
Colon fired his gun 13 times, and the suspect, Louis Domenech, shot back six times, refusing to drop his weapon, said police.
Both men were hit, and police have been investigating the shootout. They learned that one bullet casing had stovepiped, or jammed, in the officers weapon.
(Excerpt) Read more at wisn.com ...
8 out of 13, after being hit, is downright respectable, I’d say. Especially in the heat of the battle like that.
It was a .40 caliber. Perhaps the perp was armored?
Exactly so, I have a Beratta .22LR and a 32ACP and neither has an extractor as such, they rely on residual gas pressure to "blow" the spent cartridge out of the action. Without doubt the third law force is present as well, it would take a "free body diagram" and some calculation to determine which is the major contributor to function.
Yes I did forget the Desert Eagle, but I can add the Wildey which is the grandfather of them all. I really don't consider the AR-15 a pistol with that ugly buffer tube hanging out the back end, to me it's more a short barreled rifle of very limited utility.
Regards,
GtG
Glocks are notorious for loose and unsupported chambers. This enhances feed reliability. It also decreases case life if you are a reloader. Otherwise it is not an issue. If it is an issue for you, you can purchase an aftermarket barrel with a tighter chamber with better support. But doing so usually hurts feed reliability.
I have a glock 10mm.
But auto pistol jams are usually easy to clear. Revolvers can jam too, but those are a cast iron Hillary to clear. Fortunately they are also much less frequent.
The problem is with mostly recent production, only 40cal Glocks. It effects the Model 22, 23, and 35 when mounted with a light and sometimes without a light. The issue is that the 40 cal round is powerful and causes alot of slide velocity. The GLOCk frame needs to flex to ensure proper feeding of the next round. With the light mounted on the frame, the flex is changed or minimized. This causes the weapon to malfunction, usually the next round nose dives and doesn't feed.
The fix that GLOCK is currently recommending is that you get a generation 8 mag follower, an 11 coil magazine spring. Also, keep on top of replacing your recoil spring assembly (its a very cheap part). The recoil spring assembly should be replaced about every 3-5K rounds. This is the way that GLOCK recommends minimizing problems with feeding when using a weapon mounted light. Keep in mind, however, that if you call GLOCK customer service they will likely blame the light and tell you to use their brand light (which sucks). however, these problems have also appeared in weapons carrying the GLOCK light.
Topeka (iirc) KS PD and also Indiana State Police all got rid of all of theri GLOCK 40's because of issues in their reliability. The ISP guns were not even using lights. The TPD guns were some with and some without lights.
My best suggestion, carry a GLOCK 9mm if you can. With modern ammo there isn't that much difference between good quality 9mm defensive ammo and teh same in 40, however, GLOCK 9mms are unbelievably reliable. 40's, not so much. I recall reading something that said this issue is only with relatively recent (since the frame redesign in 12/05) guns only but rumor is that the newest ones have the appropriate follower and mag spring.
If I had to guess (and I do ‘cause I don't have the stuff to measure it) I'd say it's well over 6 lb. And I dunno maybe it just needs a good internal cleanup and relube but it doesn't seem all that catchy and I think it needs at least a lighter spring. Not too keen on the idea of squirting in Bon Ami & hoping it all washes out.
I would rather they didn't deform at all, but so far it hasn't been a problem.
the problem is with the 40 cal glock itself..it is the companys most malfunction prone caliber.
I concur..get yourself a good glock 19 or a 26 and get some good personal defense 9mm loading that the model likes and carry that.
It’s a great gun for concealed carry (I have the .40 compact.) The trigger is short and crisp, I much prefer it’s trigger to the M9/ Berretta 92.
First time I fired it I put two magazines into a 3” circle shooting about as fast as I could at 35’ without really aiming. It just seems to aim itslelf and after each shot drops right back on target. I’ve shot hundrends of rounds through it and havent had a single jam.
I have smallish hands so it fits me well, some of my friends who have bigger hands only shoot it with the extended magazines.
It’s a really good deal too, I got mine new for $400 and SW has a life-time warranty.
Just going by what the range master told me, Joe...
He may have exagerated a bit, but these weapons were useless....
Don’t reload currently, but I was considering it. I would need to get all the stuff to do it and I just don’t have room right now. This is good to know, so I will keep the information in mind. I’ll also take a look at my casings more closely next time I shoot.
When I purchased the weapon, the guy that sold it to me showed me how to field strip it - seemed pretty darned solid to me, but what the heck do I know... I’m really not that up on all of the technicalities of it.
I suppose I could always get the aftermarket barrel and see how I like it (sometime in the future), and always revert back if it causes me problems.
I think you are getting confused by “loose chamber”. That doesn’t mean the parts fit together loose and sloppy. It means the hole the bullet case slides into is oversized and the bullet case can wiggle around when in there.
Try this:
Take the barrel out of your gun. Hold the barrel in the vertical position with the muzzle end pointing straight down. Now grab a live round(unfired) and drop it nose first into the chamber end of the barrel. look all around the barrel and you should notice that the feed ramp is cut into the chamber a ways and you can see part of the side of the cartridge case. This area is what they are talking about when they say “unsupported chamber” or “unsupported cartridge”. When you fire the gun, the part of the cartridge case that is unsupported will bulge out due to the high pressures generated by the burning gun powder.
All semi auto pistols have some slop in the chamber that allows the cartridge to wiggle around some. Glocks have a little more slop than most. They do this on purpose to make the gun more reliable. All semi autos have a feed ramp that leaves part of the cartridge case unsupported. Glocks have more metal cut out for a bigger feed ramp than most because this makes the gun more reliable. But it also makes the cartridges bulge out more when you shoot them.
Thanks for the info, I will definitely try this out when I strip my gun next.
I had some other posts in mind regarding this, so yes... I was a bit confused. I believe someone claimed Glocks were sloppy right from the factory and hence no break in period of FTEs and FTFs like may be seen occasionally for the first few hundred rounds on some other American made guns.
My experience is that my particular Glock .45 doesn’t appear to be sloppy in its fit.
I had a Colt .32 auto that jammed constantly.
Found it to be bad after market clips.
Bought new Colt ones and the pistol is still in one of my vehicles for protection.
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