For thirty years, Glock 9mm handguns have been nearly synonymous with reliability, but recently, many Glock owners have been suffering from erratic and sometimes failed ejection with their Glock 9mm pistols. Numerous theories populate the various Internet gun forums, but so far there has been no definitive answer from Glock as to the cause, or a solution. Glock Customer Service responses range from total denial, instructions to send the gun in for repair, or sending out replacement parts to local armorers.
It seems the erratic ejection issues appeared somewhere around the "M" serial number prefix in the Gen 3 9mm pistols, and possibly affect all Gen 4 9mm guns.
One popular "fix" is to obtain the latest Gen 4 9mm ejector (Part Number 30274), which for most people, seems to make ejection a little more consistent but doesn't always solve the problem. Others recommend the HRED extractor plunger assembly by White Sound Defense, but this product did nothing for me.
10-8 Staff Instructor Joe Riedy hooked me up with a couple of the Gen 4 ejectors. So I swapped the ejectors out in both my 17 RTFs post haste. Hearing of my woes, our good friend Randy Lee at Apex Tactical sent out a pre-production prototype of their Glock extractor. The kit comes complete with a replacement spring for the extractor assembly.
The extractor and spring went in the gun with no problems, so off to the range I went. Shooting a variety of ammunition, including Federal 115 gr, Winchester White Box, and Winchester Ranger 127gr +P+, extraction was now consistent with cases going about 4-5 o'clock.
I decided to really push the extractor to its limits and shoot the gun with no magazine in the gun. This test is not designed to simulate a tactical necessity, but rather to push the extractor to its limit. When there is a magazine in the gun, it will help stabilize the empty case during extraction and ejection. Without the magazine, the extractor must do all the work by itself. In a Glock, this is not an issue since the feed lip geometry is designed to function in this manner. (In a 1911, this is a completely different story.)
If a pistol has an extractor can can reliably extract and eject empty cases with no magazine inserted, and reliably feed and function, this means it is at optimal function. Try this with your factory Glock and you will see it will not do this. I performed this test with the Apex Glock Extractor and it consistently ejected the empty case of every cartridge fired.
The folks at Apex Tactical believe in thoroughly vetting every product before releasing it to the market, and this one is still in the beta stage. I have about 350 rounds through my prototype and the gun has yet to malfunction. I have enough faith in the product use it in the Pro Am Match in Frostproof, FL next week.
When these hit the market, I will be buying a dozen!
Tim Lau
10-8 Consulting, LLC
Source:
http://www.apextactical.com
Any ETA on the Apex kits?
ReplyDeleteI hear they are in process of being machined now, so the answer is, "soon." I am anxious for them to be made, too. I need a few more for my other Glocks.
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