Greetings,

I have a 2nd gen G19 that is having an odd problem.  I do a lot of dry fire practice on my Glocks and on this one, the gun does not want to let the slide retract.  I was able to retract it just enough to field strip, but the barrel does not want to come out of the slide.  At first I thought maybe the striker was sticking out too far, but I pulled the striker assembly out of the rear of the slide and the barrel still didn't want to come out.  I've looked down the barrel and I can see a little bit into the backside of the barrel when viewing the slide from underneath, but can't figure out what is going on.  The barrel tilts down about 1/8" or so, but doesn't want to move past that point for barrel removal.  Any ideas???

When you say it will not retract, Do you mean the slide will not lock back or not move? Have you shot it? If so did it cycle with no problems? When you field stripped it, what does the guide rod (does the rod have gouges aor the spring broken) and locking block look like? If the slide will not lock back, then check the slide lock for wear. Without looking at it or being able to handle it, my suggestions would be limited.

When in doubt get a competent gun smith or someone with experience to look at it.  No use in messing up something or take it to the place you bought it they should take care of you... You may have to pay for parts but they usually will take care of you.

Pics?

The pistol was bought used and have since put roughly 3k on it.  Pistol, prior to this problem, never ever had a malfunction of any kind.

The slide will move back just enough to field strip it.  It will not move back enough to cycle or reset the trigger.  I also have a 3rd gen G19 that i recently picked up and to look at the slides of the 2 pistols side by side, I can't discern any differences.  I think the problem stems from the barrel not wanting to drop down by the breach area.  Under normal cycling, the breach side of the barrel should drop down enough to release itself from the slide.  In this case the barrel is dropping down in the breach area only about 1/8".  It's not dropping enough to release from the slide.

Check to see if the locking block is broken.

If you have put 3K rounds through the gun, it works fine. There is a issue somewhere outside of the functioning. I would take it to someone who knows Glocks, a certified Glock armorer. Have him or her look at it. Being a second gen gun, there was some upgraded parts that may not be there, which could be installed. I would love to help you and be able to handle the gun. It sounds like a interesting challenge I would love to look at it and solve it. But you live in Jersey and I live in Florida.

I just can't give you a answer of why you can't remove the barrel, it should just come right out. Unless it is the wrong barrel to begin with and the previous owner jamed it in there. Do all three serial number match?  

Do a detail strip of the upper and lower using commonly available internet videos for assistance.
Check everything. Verify that it was not reassembled improperly the last time it was cleaned (common).
Check for a broken locking block (rare).
If neither of those exist, give it a little lube and try it again.
Let us know.  

Sounds to me like something is funky with the recoil spring.

Call Glock and let them help you - or - find a Glock armorer in your area.

This is about the only thing I can come up with.  Can't for the life of me picture what could be keeping the barrel from just coming out of the slide, even when the Firing Pin and Extractor and everything have been removed.  

Almost as if there's a severe burr, or broken or cracked part impeding it's movement.  Pics would be great, it just sounds like an odd, uncommon problem.

Exactly... And anything that weird, even though it could be something simple or easily resolved, might deserve a closer look at the entire pistol by someone really familiar with Glocks just to give it the once over.

Absolutely.

Heck, I'm curious now as to what the problem actually is, and what the solution will be.

Could it be this?  Stress Fractures in Glock Slide  You say you can field strip it, which I take to mean that you have been able to take the slide off the frame.  Assuming that's the case, if the locking block were broken, you'd see that.  It's really obvious when it happens, besides which, you ought then to be able to remove the barrel from the slide.  So, something on breech face has to be obstructing the barrel hood.  You should be able to see a little of the breech face with the barrel in place by shining a light up the feed ramp.  See if it's smooth.

Yeah, I was kind of thinking that too.  A crack in the breechface, and some metal is sticking out, holding the barrel in place, maybe.

Bingo!!!  

Am I totally f***ed or what?  It looks like the area in front of the firing pin was punched out forward into the chamber area.  It was sticking out just enough where the barrel wouldn't drop down.  I gently pried it w/ a screw driver and it came out.  Was really surprised to find this on a 9mm Glock.  I thought these pistols were supposed to be next to indestructable.  I'll be giving Glock a call this coming week and see what they say.  I think I need a new slide.  I've been doing a lot of dry fires w/out snap caps on this pistol.  I have to believe this contributed to the metal fatigue.  

Attempting to paste pix.




Ok, I can't for the life of me figure out how to get a pic on here.

Here is a link to the photobucket page.

G19 Breechface failure pics!

I see the red x, but lookin' forward to the pic.  

This happens sometimes....................call Glock, they'll probably have you send it to them.  Who knows, they might replace the slide for you.  Hopefully no charge, other than shipping.

After reading the attached thread, I wonder how common of a problem this is?  I believe all the problem Glocks referenced in the attached thread are 2nd gen pistols.  Does anyone know if this is as common in 3rd + gen guns?

For reference on my pistol -  I picked it up roughly 10 years ago used.  The serial # starts w/ BZK––-.  I've put about 5K in rounds on the gun, just about all of it was either Blaser aluminum or WWB.  I'm guessing I've put about 15K (probably more) in dry fire trigger pulls on the gun also.

I can't tell you how much this bums me out.  I love this pistol.  The trigger is totally stock, but really really smooth.  This was my go to gun for anything.  This is the only pistol I own out of 14 that I have 2 of.  The other is an Austrian proofed 3rd gen that I picked up in May or so.  This really raises a question for me as to the long term reliability of my other Glocks (the previously mentioned 3rd gen G19 and a 2nd gen G17).  I was planning my next 2 pistols being a G21SF and G30SF.

I always understood dry firing to be safe in Glocks.

It's funny as I write this, my wife is standing next to me, rather yelling at me as wives do, that I'm still writing about this.  She stands here saying, with a sarcastic voice, "Oh yeah, Glocks are great and indestructable, suuuuurrrrrreeeeee!.  Glocks suck and Sigs rule!!!". -  My wife the German made P226 die hard.

Don't let this change how you see Glocks being robust and reliable.  Though this is known to happen, it's not all that common really.  Your other Glock is good to go, for sure.

Hopefully Glock will give you some good news on Monday.

I'd bet serious money on Glock putting this right.

Thanks.

I have to believe Glock would make this right.   I'm sure they will.  If not, I'll worry about it then.

I wonder if this issue it specific to a certain serial # set or year of manufacture.

<Tyler Durden> Hey, even the Mona Lisa's falling apart.  </Tyler Durden>

Everything breaks eventually.  Tell your wife there are plenty of cracked Sig slides and frames out there.  It's pretty much expected if you don't replace roll pins on the stamped slide models every 5000 rounds.  

With the proviso that I don't really know what I'm talking about, and am just speculating, I suspect this and some of the infamous Glock "kabooms", stem from poor steel or poor heat treatment.  Glock buys steel, after all.  They don't make it.  I don't believe it's common, I'm very confident Glock will replace your slide without any fuss (I'd try to wrangle a FedEx sticker out of them), and I don't think dry firing with or without snap caps is the root of the problem.  It's surely no coincidence that the outline of the broken part of the breech is that of the case head, not of the striker.  I suspect the metal cracked from the front from the repeated impact of firing, not from the back because the striker kept slamming into the breechface.

Anyway, this is an unusual, and by no means inevitable failure.  I wouldn't discard my Glocks because of it.  There are plenty of much older Glocks that have been shot a lot more that haven't broken this way.  My first G19, for instance, GM###, made in 1989, which has at least 10,000 rounds through it, and an unknown but probably excessive number of dry-fire cycles.  I did break a locking block once, though.  Stuff happens.  Todd Green had some very insightful things to say about this:  Trust no one:  An Insider's Perspective

Is the slide release lever spring bent ?

You should dryfire with dummy rounds to protect the firing pin this can f up your gun if u dont do that and also if you are dry firing it to get the trigger pull worn in or to take down the pound pressure do a 0.25 cent trigger job its the besst thing you can do also do not dry fire with the mag in iy will cause youre glock some problems!

What problems will that cause?

Dryfiring with the mag in would cause NO problems.  Not sure what he's talking about.

That said, we don't dryfire with a mag in, as a general rule.  Just doesn't make sense to.  We have ALL ammo away from the gun when doing so, and just to be sure, even an empty mag doesn't need to be in the gun at that time.  

But having an empty mag in during dryfire wouldn't cause any kind of problem.  When we reset the trigger with the slide, we're only pulling it back a quarter inch or so.....................so the emply mag isn't going to lock the slide or anything.

ETA:  Anyway, at this point we're waiting to see what Glock tells the OP to do.

Greetings,

I s/w Glock cust serv today.  They are going to fix, rather give, me a new slide.  The person I s/w seemed to know of this problem and right off the bat, mentioned that this gun probably had a lot of dry fires.  I mentioned that the manual says it's ok to dry fire and he acknowledged that, but did mention that it would be a good idea to use Snap Caps.

Anyway, the gent I s/w was A-OK in my book and Glock is going to fix my pistol - woo hoo!!!

Will report back when I get the pistol back from them.  Will be sending it out either tomorrow or Thursday.

Thank you for that update.  That is awesome news.

It's always encouraging to hear about Glocks customer service, which most of the time seems excellent.  That is great to hear.

Hopefully they won't have to keep it too long.................but heck, even if it's a while, the fact that they're not making you pay for a whole slide is pretty cool in my book.

Great news.