Glock's weak spot in my opinion with a video

[tercel89]

I have always thought that the small extension of the slide that captures the guide rod and spring was Glock's weak spot. It's thin and fragile. I have seen them break and bend from accidental drops onto concrete floors and such.  I was watching Hickok45 the other day and he was shooting a G18 and it's slide broke in the same location .  Now they are strong but they are very thin compared to my CZ , S&W M&P , Beretta 92FS , S.A. XD9 and a few other are way more beefier and have more steel there in that area.  Now the Glock 34,35,17L ,24 , and 48 are beefier in that spot , but the majority of the others are very thin in that area. Watch Hickok45 discover the broken slide at around 17:45 in this video.  Now I know this 18 cycles very fast putting extra stress on that area but it still would be nice for Glock to make it as big as the other pistols I listed above. There is plenty of room in there for Glock to do so. 

 

[Choatecav]

I watched Hickok's video the other day and thought it disclosed a weakness in the design.  Thanks for shedding even more light to the matter.  

[tercel89]

The Beretta/Stoeger Cougar is just as thin as Glocks. I like the Cougar VERY much, but the ring at the end is very thin too. It's weird to me these slides are very thick and sturdy yet the one part that needs to be beefed up , that is responsible for the whole assembly to recoil forwards and backwards , is so thin and frail.  Now like I said , I am one of he biggest Glock fans there is , I am just stating my opinion and some facts. 

[tercel89]

Check this out : from left to right is Glock 17 Gen 5 , Beretta 92FS , CZ75 , and Ruger P89. See how beefier the others are compared to Glock ? I'm just a nerd with OCD but I think it's very interesting and wonder why Glock doesn't reinforce that area . 

 

[leroy]

Remember this...

All machines have weak spots.  It's the nature of things.  Use em enough, and ya will find em.   Generally, the service life of most machines is far greater than the " practical " life if the machine. 

That said; i think there are basically two approaches to modern polymer pistol slide design.  The first (...and my perferred approach... ) is to make the slide light and the recoil spring strong... I think that is what Glock does and why they feel good in hand. 

The second approach is to make the slide heavy and lighten the spring. ALA the Springfiekd XD... They work well, but feel (.. To me, at least..) a bit top heavy.  Remember, most everything is a trade off of some kind. 

leroy...

[Jamie Jackson]

I've experienced this with my well worn G19 in 2015. 50K+ rounds at the time.

Glock replaced the slide in very short order.

It still ran fine, but my break wasn't as complete as the one in the vid. I didn't even notice it until I went to break down the gun for cleaning after a long range session. (Remember those...back when ammo was plentiful? )

And I still carry and shoot that sucker on a regular basis.

 

[Capbyrd]

On 2/2/2021 at 8:22 AM, tercel89 said:

Check this out : from left to right is Glock 17 Gen 5 , Beretta 92FS , CZ75 , and Ruger P89. See how beefier the others are compared to Glock ? I'm just a nerd with OCD but I think it's very interesting and wonder why Glock doesn't reinforce that area . 

 

Your picture just shows that those other guns have a dust cover.  There is some added strength but a spring can still blow out the pocket on each of those.   I'm sure that their actual material thickness in the pocket is pretty close to that of the Glock.   That's not to say that it isn't a weakness though.   

[ken_mays]

I agree... not only is the area itself thin, but the sharp square cuts where it joins the slide invite stress risers and cracks. 

In actual use I'm not sure how much of a problem it really is, unless you happen to drop the slide just right onto concrete. 

The Glock slides I've seen crack have always been at the left rear corner of the ejection port, which is another sharp corner.  I notice on the Gen 5s they've put a bit of a bevel or radius there.