Posted: 6/14/2003 8:17:57 AM EDT
| I just got a Glock 30 yesterday but when I got it home the slide wouldn't stay open without a magazine and wouldn't close with a magazine in place. It looks like the magazine is pushing up on the slide lock somehow. Anyone have this happen before? Is there an easy way to fix it or should I take it back? Thanks for your help. |
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You should be able to keep the slide back when a magazine is not in the pistol by pushing up on the slide lock on the left side of the pistol after pulling the slide to the rear. Of course innocent_bystander is correct, the magazine is designed to keep the slide back if the magazine is empty, most semi-automatic/automatic firearms work this way (except HK long guns and AK variants, off the top of my head). Let us know if that helps. |
| I can't get the lock button down with an empty magazine in place, haven't tried loaded (at range). Might go this afternoon and see. Why won't it stay open without a magazine then? Do you always have to manually push the button up to lock the slide open without a mag? I have shot Glocks before but they had been used and somewhat abused so things were a little more loose. Could the problem be that is it so new and needs to be shot some before it will work better? |
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Yes you have to manually push the slide lock up to keep the slide back if there is no magazine in the pistol. If there is an unloaded magazine in the pistol the slide will not go forward, if for some reason you want to close the slide with an empty magazine in the pistol, eject the magazine, close slide, reinsert magazine. You only have to let the magazine go down a tiny bit to be able to close it, you do not have to eject the magazine all the way from the pistol. If there is a loaded magazine in the pistol and you hit the slide release (or pull the slide back and release, which personally I think is preferable) then the slide will go forward stripping the top round out of the magazine and loading it into the chamber, resulting a pistol which will, of course, fire, |
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You really should try to avoid using the slide lock to drop the slide forward. It's hard on the slide lock, and gets you in the habit of use fine motor skills to release the slide. Reach overhand and grab the top of the slide and pull it backwards, then release and it will slingshot forward. This uses gross motor skills, where your less likely to fumble when under stress. |
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Overhand/slingshotting the slide works when the gun is loaded and unloaded, with or without a mag in the gun. The slide should not lock on it's own if there is a loaded mag in the gun, or no mag at all. The slide should lock on it's own if you cycle the gun with a empty mag |
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When the slide is locked to the rear with an empty mag in place, you have to overcome both the forward pressure of the recoil spring and the upward pressure of the mag spring against the slide catch to get the slide to close (go forward)...this is fairly difficult, especially with the puny little Glock extension. With a round in the magazine, there is no upward pressure being exerted by the mag follower, so you can release the slide catch easily by either pushing down on it or by the slingshot method. (When you pull the slide slightly to the rear, the catch will drop out of the way of the slide) With no mag in place, you must manually provide the upward pressure to get the slide catch to engage in the notch while holding the slide to the rear. Your gun is working correctly. Get some dummy rounds if you want to work with it at home. |