Posted: 9/7/2008 10:23:41 PM EDT
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Putting some rounds down range today with a G19, I had a failure where the slide failed to fully return to battery. I tapped on the back of the slide and it went forward. I decided to check out the round to find out why the slide didn't go all the way forward, and I couldn't retract the slide, it would retract about a 1/4" and then lock up. I struggled with it for awhile and was unable to retract the slide. I tried to remove the slide and no go... I went down range to make sure all the previous rounds were accounted for, and then reluctantly fired the round. Cycled fine after that. No issue with the case after inspecting it... The ammo was my own reloads, and have never had an issue with them, but this could have been something I missed. I recently purchased a case gauge to check my rounds, but haven't used it on any of my current reloads. Anyone have an idea what may have happened? Thanks! Dave |
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Sounds like that particular round was "out of spec". Maybe not fully resized or something. Or maybe the mouth of the case had a slight deformity. You reload on a progressive or single stage? But, you said you were able to inspect that case, right? Or perhaps the bullet was seated somehow beyond max OAL, and it was jammed into the rifling of the barrel. Gotta be somethin' like that, because what you experienced means that round was somehow stuck (I know, I'm Captain Obvious  ). It only extracted when fired, with all of that force pushing the slide.I've experienced something similar with an aftermarket barrel, LWD. Just too damn tight. Locked up on me just like with you, a couple of times. Caused extraction failures too. I reamed out the chamber, problem solved. But I digress.................. |
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As for the press, its a Dillon 550... If there was a deformity, it could have been blown out during firing and looked fine afterward. I had just never seen a slide locked up so hard, and was thinking it was something mechanical, but what you are saying about the case being out of spec makes a lot of sense now that I think about it... I will have to check what I have loaded with the gauge, and see if I find anything out of the ordinary. Thanks! |
| Be careful reusing brass after it's been fired out of a Glock a few times. Since they don't believe in fully supported chambers the brass gets a weak spot right where the chamber is not. I have seen the brass blow out there numerous times. As for your sticky round it was probably not fully re sized as sometimes they will stick hard. |
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I've had my Gen2 G19 lock up twice like this. I was using factory loads both times. A bit disheartening to say the least. I have over 10k through the gun and it's been pretty reliable for the most part. The second time it happened was shortly after I got my carry permit and was working in a bad area. I went and got myself a USPc.45 as my new carry gun. How old is your G19? Mine was built in 1994 and I got it in 1996 used from a friend who only shot it a few hundred times. BTW, I love Glocks. I don't have nearly the round count through my other Glocks, but I've never had any problem even remotely close to a full lock up with my G21SF, G27 or G29. Needless to say, my G19 has been retired to the safe. I've thought about sending it back to Glock since I think it is eligible for some updates. |
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I am not a master reloader (just a smartass / but I did stay at a Holiday Inn last night, etc etc), but I would first look for: * As others have said, check for bulges in the case web. Also look for any sort of crease, that might have needed some force to get in the chamber. * Check for excess case lube still on the loaded rounds. It might have got melty in there and started accumulating firing gunk in the chamber. * Check for any splits at the case mouth... especially stuff that might have bent a little bit somehow and bound up on the chamber wall. * Check for gunk under your extractor. (On the theory that it might have been binding up from not seating under the extractor / being pushed down a little bit.) * Check for high primers. (Same theory) * I've had this one happen, and it's subtle... How thoroughly does your powder burn in that load, in that gun? What happened to me, when testing out .45 loads, was that some of my powder wasn't burning all the way. *Most* of the time, the residual unburned powder got blown out the muzzle, just making some smoke and little black specks on the firing bench. But once in a while, some of the unburned powder would just land in a heap in the chamber. This takes up space in the chamber, thus binding up the round right after it. This, in fact, was the only thing to ever cause a stoppage in my HK USP Tactical, for any reason. * Same theory as above, checking for proper, consistent crimp. * Same theory as above, have you ever noticed any inconsistencies in the oomph of your load? "pop BANG bang pop BANG"? Like sometimes it's not using up all the fuel you've given it? |
Negative. Most of my pistols are Glocks. I reload for all my pistols. Never had a problem with this. Thousands of rnds of .40 and 9mm. No problems. I've gone to 13 reloads with a batch of .40 cases. No problems at all. Tossed 'em just to be safe. Gone to 16 with some 9mms. No problems. |
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As for the age of this G19, its only a couple of months old, and I have about 500-600 rounds through it without issue, mostly reloads. Currently running 6.2gr of Power Pistol behind some 115 gr FMJ's, the same load I had issue with. Its been a very clean round and see very little unburned powder or accumulation of carbon. I also reload without lubing the cases, using Dillon Carbide dies, so that rules out a buildup of case lube. No issues noted to any previous loads that may have indicated an undercharged or overcharged load before or after, and this round fired normally as well. I would have to guess it was an error on my part, the fact that I had to tap the slide forward for this particular round indicates there was some issue with the case or OAL. I wish I could have extracted the round without firing it, so I would have a better idea of what happened. I purchased the case gauge to check my rounds just to avoid this kind of thing, but I guess I have to actually put it to use to get any benefit...  Thanks for all the input! Dave |
At last, sanity. You had a piece of brass that did not get fully resized and it jammed in the chamber. Case gauge your ammo or use the barrel to gauge the ammo and you will catch this before shooting. It's possible you may have gotten a 9mm round that came out of a 9mm Major USPSA Open gun and that's why it was so blown out of specs. I try to cull brass like this during sorting. There are other ways to ensure this doesn't happen too. An EGW undersized die is specifically made to resize lower on the brass than other dies and resized to .002" amaller than average for more reliable chambering. I use them for all of my USPSA reloads. I also use a Lee Fractory Crimp Die. It's a bit of overkill after using the 'U' die, but it's insurance for my competition ammo. As for 'Glocked brass', yes 40 cal can be an issue if you are reusing it in a tighter 40 cal chamber (like a LWD or KKM aftermarket barrel, STI, Schuemann, etc), but this has never been the case for 9mm Glock brass. Even the 40 cal Glocked brass can stand a dozen reloads before going bad as long as the reloader is staying within specs. |
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My buddy had a 9x18 makarov for a few short months and during that time he somehow left one round on the table and his brother with a 9mm springfield XD loaded up his mag on that same table and some how ended up with that one 9x18 loaded up in his mag. Well when he finally got to that one random 9x18 round in the mag and it DID EXACTLY what you described your glock doing except it wouldn't fire when he wanted to pull the trigger to get it out. Your round for sure was somehow slightly out of spec. |
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Sounds like an out of spec case. I've got a different problem, I reloaded about about 2000 rounds of mixed commercial cases. No problems. I then acquired a bunch of once-fired WCC military 9mm cases. My first trip to the range was a nightmare. It turned my Glock into a jam-o-matic. I can't get a magazine to run through my pistol with out several failure to extracts. I'm running a LWD barrel in a G-22 with the 9mm extractor in place. I had no previous problems with the commercial cases, but when I switched to the military cases my problems started. I have three 1911's in 9mm, I am going to see if they can eat this stuff. |
May be due to the extremely tight chamber on alot of LWD barrels. Had the same type of problem with the 9mm barrel in my G23. I had to slightly ream out the chamber, made it as loose as a Glock barrel. Works flawlessly now. I too use the 9mm extractor. And no, to the naysayers, I've put alot of brass that's been reloaded alot of times through it, no KB. |