I have a gen 2 G23 that I bought 12 years ago. After about a year of shooting it, I noticed something I was not comfortable with so I bought a Wilson guide rod and spring. It was a non-captive spring, and quite a pain in the ass, so a couple years ago I switched to a captive Lone Wolf SS guide rod and an 18lb flat spring from springco.

Now, the "something" I was uncomfortable with was that I could put my thumb on the barrel where the ejection port is, and unlock the gun just by pushing down on it. I have tried this with every other handgun I have handled, and it has never happened except with some Glocks. Usually they are the 9mm and .40 cal Glocks. Not every Glock, but a few of them.

ETA: When I noticed this problem, I had only put about 1500 rds through the gun. I mostly shot the 9mms I owned at the time. There was also a significant amount of case-bulge on the brass from firing my g23 with the factory guide rod and spring

I still have my original factory captive unit. Here it is compared to the captive LW rod with the 18lb spring, the LW is the bottom one:



Now, I have unloaded the gun, and installed the factory unit. I hold it with my thumb on the locking part of the barrel like so:



I push down with my thumb, and now the action is unlocked:




The Wilson rod I initially installed to correct this problem was excellent. It was impossible to do the same thing with it in. My G23 ran flawlessly for the next decade with it in, and when I decided to get a captive unit I found out the Wilson rod used an 18 lb spring. This is the reason I went with the 18lb spring for the LW rod. No case-bulge for the most part.

I haven't had any problems with my G23 with the LW unit either.

I am posting this because someone mentioned that there is no need to replace the factory recoil rod, and I guess thats true most of the time.

I still recommend that people purchasing a Glock perform this simple "thumb test" when they purchase one.

To each his own, I suppose.  

I've never done this "test" on my Glock, and I've never heard of anyone else doing it, either.  

Quite honestly, I don't see how it makes a difference.  I'm sure some people have Glocks that will do this, but they still run fine.

I feel like if this were a bigger issue, I would have heard about it by now, and I haven't.

The general rule of thumb I use when checking a recoil spring is:

1. Check and double check the gun is clear
2. Pull trigger
3. With the gun pointed straight up, and the trigger back, bring the slide all the way back, and "ride" it forward all the way
4. The gun should go back into battery while facing straight up if the spring is good. If it gets "stuck" or doesn't seem to have enough energy to go all the way back, I'll change the spring.

I haven't heard of anyone doing it either.

The facts are that since I experienced this more than a decade ago, I have tried this with every handgun I've handled since. The only guns I've experienced this with so far have been Glocks.

I'm no engineer, but it would seem that this would indicate some sort of premature unlocking that may have been responsible for the case-bulging I experienced. The bulging was all around the case, and not simply in one small part of the case.

Since I initially switched out the assembly I have never experienced the case bulging.

My G23 is my all-around defense gun, and I simply did what I needed to to address issues with my gun.

Like I said, I started this thread because someone stated in another thread I posted in that it was unnecessary to replace the stock guide rod and spring.

In my case, it solved the issues I had with my glock a decade ago.

Also as I stated, my Glock has always been utterly reliable the entire time I owned it. I simply solved some issues that I saw as potential failures, failures that may have been of the kaboom type.

Given all the Glocks out there seeing hard use with factory guide rods, when would this ever be an issue?  Are you concerned that a bad guy is going to grip your Glock and render it inoperable or are you concerned that the gun is going to suddenly unlock while you are shooting it?

I don't wait for problems to happen.

Wow.

Why do guns explode sometimes? It isn't always ammo.

This is not GD. I posted a particular problem that my Glock had, and what I did to correct it.

If you want to act like a retard, go somewhere else with your troll shit.

Since you have no idea whether your "test" has any merit or not, it would have made more sense to start a thread saying that a heavier recoil spring eliminated your case bulging.  Now you're going to have a bunch of people running around pushing on their barrels and buying potentially unnecessary parts.  Stop feeding the hysteria.

I addressed all that in my OP.

Did you read it?

doesn't appear you did.

Do you have any pics of the fired cases with and without the factory recoil spring assembly?

Derailed