Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns Glock 40 cal question

Excellent observation. No gun is perfect, so it's good to educate yourself on the weak points of the pistol of your choice and learn to deal with or mitigate the weaknesses.

[quote=RoninPhx...You can pretty much tell when it went through a glock [/quote]Which ought to tell you that brass is getting worked pretty hard.

I have seen a 19 blow from reloads.

I would agree with your statement, I do make some serious coin.


Travis

My bad...


Travis

I have reloaded for the glock but in this case it was a 10mm. I had no issues. One thing I won't do is shoot lead bullets in my Glocks. They use a polygonal rifling which can lead to excessive leading in the barrel and cause a dangerous situation. I would have no problem reloading a glock 40 S&W but would advise against using max loads to be on the safe side. I personally use Longshot powder, or Unique powder for reloading Glocks. Esox357.

A friend has shot way over 50K of Valiant 125gr cast pushed by, IIRC 4.3gr of WW 231 though the same Glock 17. He de-leads the bore by shooting a mag or two of jacketed through it. I'm not saying this is a great idea, I'm just sayin'.

I have bought a couple of revolvers lately that looked like a lead lined pipe inside.
Uses a bronze brush with parts of a brasso pad stuck in the brush. Doesn't hurt the barrel and you get a nice little pile of lead chips.
One of my projects lately was using a .432 sized bullet, 240 grain in both a marlin 44 lever, and a model 29. Leaded the snot out of the 29. The lead bullets were also 23 on the hardness scale. They ain't going back in the 29, had to remove a lot of lead as above described.

Lew's Lead Remover (brass patch) is the old tried and true. I've found that H2O2/white vinegar mixed 50/50 in a plugged barrel dissolves it nicely.

So we went up to the emporium that advertised the LE Glock 22 trade ins for such a low price, and guess what...they blew out all 60 in a day and a half. They did, however, have a like-new Glock 17 in the pre-owned case. From the looks of the barrel and the breech face, it hasn't even been broken in yet. It was fairly priced, and we had a 10% off coupon. It also had a set of custom competition sights, probably a $60 value.

He's happy with it, so I think he's set for a little while. If he decides he wants night sights or even the stock factory sights, that can be done later.

Thanks to everybody for the lively conversation, and for the benefit of your experience.

I'm down to about 1K rds of the 2,500 rds I kept of the 3,500 rds I loaded all with Montana Gold 155gr bullets and titegroup powder and I can tell you the Gen 2 police trade in gun never hiccuped a lick!

I just sold it to a coworker because i got a good deal on a Gen 3 trade in gun because the locals are going to Gen 4's.

I'm a converted Glock hater and put another hundred rds through my Gen 3 .40 and Gen 3 Model 30 .45 yesterday! For dead nuts reliabilty, standardization among different models in different calibers you can't beat them!

I too have a threaded Lone wolf barrel in 9mm for the Mod 22 and it works like a champ.

Mike

also have a Model 23 as a truck gun


Mike

Kevin I did read the article some time back. I do not deny that Glocks have blown up but I can find you a bunch of pictures of many different guns that handloaders have blown up.

I do not actually own a Glock. I have Xd's and 1911's in 40 so my experience is not first hand, but shoot with a lot of guys who reload for the Glock. I just finished a batch of 40's on the progressive (around 500-600 I think, maybe more) and ran each thru a chamber checker for Glocked brass and had about 10 that would not pass. I thought that was pretty good performance for my dies. I will shoot those thru one of my 1911's as it is on the sloppier side for the chamber. Of course I am shooting a lead bullet with a reduced load for PF 165. I really have never been one of those max velocity loaders anyway.

Thanks for the words of caution. I have a G34 in my future for the wife and kids to compete with one of these days, but it too will shoot lead and not so fast...

Let's go to the board.

You have pards that reload for the Glock, yet you know of "Glocked brass". Ten reloads were so bad they wouldn't chamber.

In your opinion, this is all A-okay?

Well I had 10 loads that did not fit in the chamber gauge, I called them Glocked brass because of talk of the unsupported chamber. I do not shoot a Glock, so perhaps they are some random Glock brass that I picked up on the range (very likely as I am a brass slut).

In your opinion, what should I think?

Glocked brass is also know as brass with the Glock smile - a half moon shaped bulge near the case head corresponding to the unsupported section over the feed ramp. Picked .40 S&W and .45 ACP brass gets double checked for the Glock smile and tossed if it has one. Even with a full length re-size the brass has been weakened and increases the chance of a case failure. The worst-case scenario is a reloaded round chambering in the same orientation with the weak spot over the unsupported area again.

Any suspect reload is better fired in a handgun with a tight chamber, not the loose one you mention. A suspect round needs more support, not less. If in doubt pull the bullet, dump the powder, WD-40 or pop the primer, and toss the brass. It ain't worth it.

Speaking of picking brass, a Glock smile is so prevalent on .40 S&W around here that I only buy new brass nowadays, and I'm careful about picking up only my own. If I were determined to reload for a Glock .40 S&W, .45 ACP, or 10mm I would pick up a Lone Wolf (or better) barrel and eliminate any concern.

I just dragged the box out and there are 6 out of 600. The pistol that I would shoot them in does not have a sloppy loose chamber just not as tight as my match chamber. No smiles visible they seem to be uniform in there fat little bases.

There's a scrounger aspect to reloading where we go for cheap and I'm right there with ya. I try to buy or trade in bulk from my local sources and then we brag to each other later over who was screwed the worst.

The crap I see out there for .40 S&W range brass is one of the exceptions. I buy new.

You buy new 40 brass? Do you mean you just buy factory ammo or you buy the brass to reload? How many times do you reload it for a Glock?

Yep, I buy new .40 S&W brass - generally Starline. I have loaded for a Glock 23 in the distant past, soon switched to a Storm Lake barrel, and then sold off the G23.

I generally get 4-6 loadings before I lose them.

Sorry Im late to the party but I have a G35 with over 40,000 rounds thorugh it, probably 99% are once fired, Winchester Ranger t brass. Cannot say I put 5000 through it this year but average is probably about 6-7000.

Standard load is 155 montana gold over 6.0gr titegroup. Give me about 1200fps. The only problem I have ever had is my Dads loads for his .40 STI were slightly to long to run in the Glock magazines, he shortened his so we now run the same load to prevent any problems. The problems were not pressure related at all, they would start to hang up on the magazine and give a failure to feed. I even run a limited amount of the 200LBT double tap ammo as a wilderness load but scrub the heck out of the barrel and would not run a bunch of that through the gun from a leading standpoint.

I do like most of the glock family (despise the smallest ones though) but think the MP is a better overall gun. I could easily switch out to the MP but being in California I stick with the Glock because those are the last high cap magazines I can access. With all of the ammunition components getting more expensive everyday my Advantage Arms conversion kit gets more use than ever. If AA comes out with a MP kit I would probably go with the .45 MP to make the most of my 10 rounds and live happily ever after.