Check Your Gear!, by American Yeoman

I don’t carry small guns. I began carrying a pistol over 20 years ago and at the time the 1911 was enjoying something of a renaissance due in no small part to the magazine capacity restrictions of the Assault Weapons Ban. For nearly a decade I carried a 5” steel frame .45. The pistol was very accurate and reliable when properly cared for and fed. Eventually I transitioned over to primarily carrying Glocks. Along the way, I became a certified Glock Factory Armorer and will eventually take the Advanced Armorers Course. I do not consider the Glock to be “Perfection” but it is a very good pistol and does many things well. For some time, I carried a Glock 21 but even with a grip reduction I never could shoot one to my potential. I gave up on the 21 and eventually settled on a Third Generation 34 to carry daily for many years, the guns only modifications were a set of Warren Tactical sights and a grip reduction. I shot many classes with it taught by some of the best instructors in the nation, thousands and thousands of rounds. The gun never bobbled and I had complete confidence in it. I built two others exactly like it. During all the years I shot and carried it I replaced the recoil and firing pin springs (I always swap them as a system) nine times according to my records but that was the only parts replacement needed.
Awhile back I semi retired my old pistol and replaced it with a Red Dot capable Glock 17. I haven’t shot the old 34 for a long time. Recently my son needed to take a CHL qualification course and I pulled the 34 for him to use. I did so thinking it was a known, vetted, 100% reliable pistol. He did well on his qualification shoot but commented that he had three stovepipes and several light strikes while shooting. Out of 50 rounds, that was a red flag to me. At first, I brushed it off rationalizing the failures away as being due to the ammo which was some 20 year old Federal 115 grain ball from Walmart. That ammo is not known for being the best, it’s plinking grade ammo and not particularly snappy…… But, it gnawed at me. My old reliable friend that I had relied on for a long time to defend home and hearth was sick. So, I completely disassembled the pistol, looking for a reason for the malfunctions, and I found one-

I have no idea how the firing pin safety spring left it’s cup and ended up sideways in the bottom of it’s recess and bent to Hell and gone….. Likely, when I last broke the pistol down to clean it I failed to fully seat the spring properly and mashed it into place. None of that matters. The point of the whole thing is that I would have staked my life on that pistol. I KNEW that it would work if I needed it to….except, there’s a good chance that it wouldn’t have. The Lesson? Always check your gear and if something isn’t 100%, don’t just brush it off, start digging until you find the problem and fix it!

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About the Author: NC Scout

NC Scout is the nom de guerre of a former Infantry Scout and Sergeant in one of the Army’s best Reconnaissance Units. He has combat tours in both Iraq and Afghanistan. He teaches a series of courses focusing on small unit skills rarely if ever taught anywhere else in the prepping and survival field, including his RTO Course which focuses on small unit communications. In his free time he is an avid hunter, bushcrafter, writer, long range shooter, prepper, amateur radio operator and Libertarian activist. He can be contacted at [email protected] or via his blog at brushbeater.wordpress.com .

12 Comments

  1. Coop Willis July 7, 2021 at 04:16

    Thanks for this. If I am going to stake my life on my guns, which I do every day; I need to check them on a regular basis. I carry them for months and then shoot them twice at the gravel pit and they always work. Better start checking them more often.

  2. Anonymous July 7, 2021 at 05:36

    5

  3. BePrepared July 7, 2021 at 07:02

    I bought my first Glock back in the early 90s, a 21, and shot the hell out of it. Competitions, weekend blasting it did it all. Then all of a sudden one day I started getting the same problems. Stovepipes and FTF. Well I took it all down and cleaned it up never noticing anything wrong. As I was passing through ATL one day I stopped in at the Smyrna location. The armorers there were astonished it was still working and replaced the trigger bar, all the springs and a cracked extractor, didn’t charge me a dime.
    Glocks are not perfection, but still damn good tools for the toolbox. Still have a 21 but it has a few more brothers and sisters now.

  4. Rooster July 7, 2021 at 08:13

    Great piece! Mechanicals need maintenance and sometimes fail. If it aint broke, dont fix it. But if it is, darn well better get on it now.
    R

  5. JD July 7, 2021 at 09:42

    Good read. I too love and can shoot my Kimber, which takes steel down every time, unlike my 17 and 21, which I shoot poorly and can take a couple of hits on a heavy drop steel (at least at Front Sight competition event). Growing up pulling that fat, smooth trigger, feeling the corner touching the bend in my finger rather than straight pull back on the pad center (like it should be) just seems to work for me. And very hard to adjust to with the Glocks. Still, they have merit and are my usual go too except at church, where my CM9 Khar which has neither capacity or stopping power, but I can accurately shoot and easily carry with a finger extension mag.

  6. Anonymous July 7, 2021 at 13:50

    4.5

  7. Hipnecktacmedic July 7, 2021 at 16:44

    Great article! I myself have a 3 digit SN Glock 21. It has seen more than 100k rounds through it without hardly a hiccup. I keep it clean and still use it, although now it is my dedicated threaded bbl rig. Got a new gen 4 a few years back as my duty pistol, and it is as reliable and flawless as my other 4 glocks. I was so anti-glock in the old days-firearms were made of steel and not plastic! Once I shot a friends 17 in the early 90’s, I was hooked.
    Still have other handguns, but every glock fits and works like an old friend in the hand.

  8. Retired Cop July 8, 2021 at 14:00

    Have carried Glocks since the early 80’s. I was a fan of 1911’s till my Dept mandated a move to Glocks. I learned to reload on 1911’s, consisting of drop empty mag free, raise pistol to sight line so as to keep the threat in sight, insert new mag, thumb slide release and seeing slide return to battery then resume sight picture. With near 40 years of practice, I can accomplish this very quickly. Some of our SWAT guys are pushing that you never touch the slide release for fear of breaking it off. Has anyone heard of this happening?

    • NC Scout July 8, 2021 at 15:24

      Never touch a slide release?!???
      Oh no. Not sure who’s teaching that but, nope.

    • JD July 8, 2021 at 15:34

      Nope. Never. SF mag change procedure slightly different. Keep threat picture, weapon in “work space”. Barrel turns slightly off target to accommodate indexed mag transfer and slide release. Then back to work.

  9. hitman July 8, 2021 at 17:32

    Had a very early Glock 21. It started doubling on me soon after I got it.Glock fixed it though Definitely not the ticket for IPSC, The Polyganol rifling leaded terribly with cast bullets and the early magazines did not drop cleanly. Not to mention that the bottom of the slide ate the web of my hand and I bled every time I shot it. LOL, I have a gen 3 ported 21 ex cop gun now. Still feels like a brick and I I have it stripped down to get the slide Ceracoated and the frame cut down and re textured. In the meantime, I put a large frame Polymer 80 together, It feels so much better in the hand than the Glock with the grip angle of a 1911 and a molded in beavertail. Will take it’s place until the Glock is done.

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