There is a private company, NOT Glock, that set about to destroy a new Glock 23. The things that they put that gun through are unbelievable.  It WOULD really surprise me if ANY other semi-auto handgun made it through the first couple of stages of this test.

Here's what they did:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
They first shot a 10-shot group for accuracy right of the box. The very next thing they did was to fire 1000 rounds through the gun in 17 minutes. This was accomplished by 6 shooters and 25 high-cap mags. Anyone that wasn't shooting was loading mags. At about round 950, the rear portion of the guide rod melted and let the front portion shoot out of the front of the gun. This resulted in 6 failure to feeds. They removed the melted portion of the rod, put the spring back in without the rod and fired the last 6 rounds. No other parts were damaged by the heat but two of the shooters were injured in passing the hot gun back and forth. The gun was then immediately immersed in cold water to cool it enough to handle and be disassembled and inspected. There was no damage or wear noted. Now they shoot another 10 round group for accuracy which was twice as good as the first group (2"x2").

Next, they took the uncleaned gun that had alreay fired over 1k rounds and, to simulate excess lubrication, they submerged it in oil for 15 minutes. They ran a patch thru the bore for safety reasons and then fired 100 more rounds without a malfunction.

They then completey disassembled the gun down to the last pin and degreased everything with Gunscrubber then fired 100 rounds without a malfunction.

Next, they put it in a cement mixer with a primed case in the chamber and a mag full of dummy rounds and poured 15 gallons of gravel on top of it and ran the mixer for 15 minutes. Upon removal from the mixer, they tried to fire the primed case but it was so impacted with sand that it would not fire and the slide jammed so bad that it could not be cycled by hand and the mag was stuck in the gun. They put it a bucket of water until the slide could be operated ( about 30 seconds) and dumped the excess sand out of the slide, receiver and mag. With no cleaning or lube and just enough sand removed that the slide could be cycled by hand, they fired 100 rounds through it without a malfunction. It was then disassembled and inspected and it was found to have no damaged parts.

Then, grasping the barrel and using the back of the slide for a hammer, they drove 6-16 penny nails and 2-20 penny nails completely into a 2x4. Of course, the back sight was destroyed but it then fired 100 rounds without a malfunction.

Then they soaked in sodium hydroxide for 15 minutes which discolored the slide but it still fired 100 rounds without a malfunction.

Well, thus far they hadn't destroyed it to the point where it would no longer work so they hung it by the triggerguard with the top of the slide facing the firing line and they shot it 10 times with a Ruger 10/22 using American Eagle .22 HP's. NOW they caused a little damage. After 10 shots, one of the bullets penetrated the slide and actually dented the barrel. This forced the slide out of battery enough that they could not pull the trigger to disassemble so they beat the back of the gun on a rock enough so that the slide would close and they were able to take it apart. With a hammer and punch that one of the guys had in the trunk of his car, they beat the jagged dent out of the slide so it would clear the barrel. In the interest of time they machined the torn edge of the slide away but said it could have just as well been done with the hammer and punch. The barrel was constricted now and they were afraid to shoot it but they attached it back the jig that held it while they shot it with .22 and fired by attaching a lanyard to the trigger. After a few shots, and no kaboom, they decided to cut the 100 round test to 10 rounds for this test which it fired without a hitch.

Now they tied it to the back of the truck with a chain and drug it for 5 miles at 35 MPH over an asphalt road. The gun had a magazine full of dummy rounds to simulate weight and a primed case in the chamber to see if it would go off in the dragging and, if it didn't, to see if it would fire immediately after the test. The dragging ground off the front and rear sight and the slide stop (DAMN this gun was looking bad at this point!) but, it fired the case after the drag.

Next, they fired it out of a cannon. Yep. They strapped it to a plywood wad which was seated over the regular wad and then a 16 pound bowling ball was used as a projectile. The gun had orange flagging tied to it to make it easier to find and to photograph in flight. I would think that the gun would have considerable crushing pressure on it being between the 16 pound ball and the plywood wad. Anyway, they fired it and the gun traveled in a trajectory that carried it 300 yards away and reached about 300 yards in altitude. The gun had a primed case and a mag full of dummies in it to see if it would discharge on impact which it didn't but it did fire when they pulled the trigger.

After all this, they shot one last group for accuracy which measured 2.5"x2.5" and gave up on trying to destroy the Glock. That gun is still alive and well today although toting some vicious battle scars. Over the course of the test, they had to replace the guide rod (with an after-market metal rod, this wouldn't have happened), 1-slide stop lever, 2-front sights and 2- rear sights. Total cost of parts replacement, about $20.

I don't know about ya'll but I was duly impressed.

The company is Ptooma. The entire test is documented with very detailed pics in the Complete Glock Guide put out by the same company. They are pretty hard to find right now as Ptooma is having some legal problems with Glock over this manual and it has been discontinued for the time being. They are normally available through www.lonewolfdist.com/ among others. If you can find one, I strongly suggest that you get one if you are planning on getting a Glock. It is an incredibly thorough resource.

i was up on the  a while ago about this guide. It's the GLOCK bible in my opinion. Great source for info. I love my guide.


J

Damn! My 9 year old G19 just became more interisting.

see everyone knows a 1911/sig/hk would have held up much better than that

Quoted: see everyone knows a 1911/sig/hk would have held up much better than that

I'll believe you when you prove it!