First let me say I don't know much about semi-auto handguns. I started shooting revolvers and fell in love with them a long time ago and never really saw the need for anything else. I know I'm in the minority but I think I've only shot semi-autos three times in my life, including last week.

A friend came to visit. My wife and I knew her as a little girl when she grew up next door to us. Since then we've both moved around and now she's a young woman living in a nearby town. She's really a neat person, loves all kind of outdoors stuff including guns. She has a new AR-15 she brought so I took her to the gun range. She brought her model 19 with her. She's had it a while, don't know how much she's shot it.

The thing jammed on her nearly every time. I took it and it jammed on me the first time (I've heard about what happens when you limp wrist a Glock), then I figured out I need to grip it more firmly than I'm used to gripping my revolvers. We talked about that, but she still couldn't keep it from jamming.

She's a slim little thing, maybe weighs 105 lbs when soaking wet. But she's wiry. While here she helped me load bags of top soil in the truck for a new greenhouse and she handled them like a man. She told us she goes to the gym every day after work and I believe it. And she enjoyed firing a S&W model 629 of mine with near-full .44 mag loads and enjoyed it. But she could not grip that Glock hard enough to keep in from jamming. Is this common? Is there any technique that could help her besides just holding the thing tighter? Are other semi-auto pistols as prone to this issue?

She bought this pistol for self defense but I hate the thought of her needing to use it until she can overcome this. My wife and I both suggested she get a revolver but that seemed to have no interest to her. Like everyone else her age I'm sure she thinks of them like I think of flintlock pistols, a relic of long ago.

Any thoughts?

What kind of ammo did she have?

I didn’t notice, she was loading the magazines. They were factory loads. I’m not thinking it was ammo related or at least not entirely. After my first try I ran off several consecutive rounds without a problem and she said that when her brother shot it that it never jammed on him.

That doesn't sound right. I'm an old guy, don't have big hands or a gorilla grip, and my Glocks are fine, never hiccup.

Something else must be going on.

What type of malfunction? That can help diagnose the problem.

It's hard to diagnose from a distance, but I'd say the problem is not as much the grip strength as it is the firmness of the wrists. When the gun can twist in the hand it can short stroke and thus malfunction. I'd increase the control group first and have someone familiar with glocks run a mag or two through it, just to see if the grip is really the problem. Remember: High up, firm wrists.

Glocks are certainly not limpwrist proof.

However, I was at the range when a smallish woman was first learning to shoot, and the man she was with had brought what he thought was a good variety of guns for her to shoot, but apparently the guy was a collector of vintage type guns, so Lugers and such were on the table, but nothing modern. I offered to let her try my Glock 19. She shot it just fine. Emptied the mag without a hitch. Didn't hit the target much, but no malfunctions.

It sounds like an ammo problem to me. I don't like Glocks, but I gotta say they usually work well. If she's not limp-wristing it, it's almost gotta be an ammo issue.

After firing the slide would move just far enough to partially eject the empty cartridge. Usually the spent brass would be stuck perpendicular to the chamber.

Common issue with Glocks. It's practically an antique design. A metal frame pistol would work better for her because it doesn't depend as much on her wrist strength as a Glock. CZ, Beretta or S&W are all good. Suggest a Walther if she wants plastic. PPS is great or they have the easy cocking models.

Sounds like ammo issue to me

We used to see this quite a bit in IDPA matches and practices. Smaller/lighter stature shooters (more frequently women that didn't have upper body mass) would end up with a malfunction every shot when shooting around a barricade or from an unusual position where they couldn't lean their entire body into the pistol with locked elbows in an isosceles stance. These were very accomplished shooters that could shoot very well when they could get their entire body behind the pistol, so they were very unhappy. As it turns out, the Glock pistol frame actually flexes when cycling and requires resistance to allow the slide to cycle its full length. Most of these shooters switched to steel frame 1911's to solve the problem until the S&W M&P came out. Eventually many of them switched to the M&P and had no problems no matter what the position. The difference is that the Glock has those separate small metal rail inserts molded in the frame whereas the S&W M&P has a full length metal insert for all four rails which keeps the frame stiff during cycling and prevents the frame from flexing. Over the past several years other makers have started producing similar pistols with full length metal inserts (such as the SIG 320 and 365 and 365XL series) and the problem has pretty much disappeared amongst the more practiced shooters. The fact that you could put a hard hold on the pistol and didn't have a malfunction suggests this is probably the issue, not the ammo. I would suggest she try to borrow or rent a S&W M&P (or a SIG 320 or 365XL) and see if the problem disappears using the same ammo she was previously shooting. I have shot/carried Glocks for 30+ years now and I love them, but technology has moved on and I think some of the new offerings are a better mousetrap. I am especially impressed with the SIG 365XL and a Holosun 507K red dot installed on top. Hope this helps!

Her shooting technique is not providing enough firm resistance for the gun to work against. This could be grip, wrist, elbow or shoulder. Somewhere in her form she is soft.

Thanks, that’s a lot of of information. That helps me understand, not sure what to do to help her. She doesn’t have a lot of money so buying another pistol might not be an option.

Are you Glock guys able to fire yours with one hand without problems?

Of course. If my Glock ever failed (least of all failed frequently) in odd shooting positions, I'd get rid of it. I practice one handed shooting, both left and right, whenever I shoot my Glock. It's part of my routine. Important skills to have with any handgun carried for defense.

Im not a Glock shooter and can't keep track of the model numbers. Daughter got a new 380 acp Glock before they made a new 9mm the same size. Brought it to the range on a kind of family outing. Jammed on her. I tried it, ran like a top. She had kicked a malfunctioning stroller earlier that day to apply some needed motherly alignment. I told her to treat the Glock like that stroller. Ran like a top for her too after that.

I agree that this is the most probable cause. Lock the wrists.

This is funny. You say the Glock is an antique design and then you name a bunch of much older models.

Sounds like ammo or the gun.

Even when trying, I can't seem to replicate the infamous limp wrist jam. My wife and MIL have regularly shot my G19s and G17... they're novice, novice shooters and they never have issues either. In fact, I probably have a combined ~25k rounds through my current G17, G19, and G19X and maybe have had a couple stovepipes. That's shooting mostly 124gr 9mm NATO and some 115 WWB / Federal.

Has the gun been disassembled and if so, how far down? I ask because the one exception to my experience with malfunctions was caused by me, when I accidentally put the firing pin safety spring back in sideways. It's tiny and easy to do without noticing. The gun jammed up constantly... hell even would let out an occasionally three round burst, with one trigger pull, and then jam up. I took it apart on the range, identified the problem, reassembled it and it shot fine after that.

Firing pin safety spring in sideways... trying to picture how you could do that?

My 5’ foot nothing wife shot my g30 & g26 well....

She likes the g26.

The lady shoots it good.

I will look for pics ......

We need pics of her to diagnose the issue correctly

That spring, as I'm sure you know, is really flimsy and super tiny. If you let off the spring tension or fumble around with the firing pin safety enough while trying to get the extractor in, the spring can bounce around in the slot just enough to get jammed up in there sideways. Even when jammed in sideways, it retains enough spring on the firing pin safety that you don't really notice it unless you're deliberately looking once the extractor is fully in place. I check now after reassembly... when it happens, you can see that it doesn't look quite right as it's making contact with the extractor, once assembled.

Yes, my wife and I both practice on a regular basis shooting both right and left hand only with our Glocks. My wife is of average height/weight and does not have problems shooting one handed as long as she can get "crush grip" (as taught by Massad Ayoob) and can lock her wrist, elbow and shoulder to get her weight behind the pistol. With that said, my wife is also abnormally strong for a woman and competes in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and has the requisite upper body strength and many years of practice/competition and world class instruction, too. I am much bigger than she is, but I can get a Glock 17 to stovepipe every round if I hold it loosely in hand with my wrist and elbow bent with no tension so the pistol does not have firm resistance/support in cycling. It is not necessarily technique-- it helps, but sometimes some firearms just aren't a good fit for a particular shooter.

I would ask around and see if you can find a S&W M&P for her to try and see if she likes it and if it works better for her with the same ammo. The market is crazy right now, but if she finds the M&P works better for her, she should be able to trade a Glock for an M&P as the M&P is cheaper when new. My wife and I would be happy to take her shooting if she happens to be near Michigan.

I have no idea why or how, but my Glock 20 would stovepipe very frequently with a particular FMJ load at the same round count in one particular magazine. I was getting frustrated. Finally my son pointed it out to me: it was the same count in that one magazine. It would do it almost every time with either of us, and I can assure you neither of us were limp-wristing it. I probably have 5 or six magazines for that pistol. I got rid of the problem mag and never had another problem with that pistol.

Problems are often traceable to a particular magazine.

Wifey has a 19, no issues with it at all, even with my hand loads. Wifey likes hell out of it.

My two cents (and I often get change back):

1. Have a good, experienced Glock shooter shoot the gun. If it runs for the good shooter, you're done troubleshooting.

If she won't/can't have a good shooter shoot it, then she's just chasing her tail with internet advice. All of the previous tips/ideas are on point, but without the gun in front of us, it's just guesswork based on probabilities. I will say this, however, I recently sold a Glock 19 and currently own 3 Glock 19's and one Glock 23 with a 9mm barrel in it. None of them are ammo sensitive. None have ever had an issue with a magazine (OEM or aftermarket). None have given anyone trouble when shot one-handed (strong or weak hand). None need special babying in regard to cleaning or oiling. All of them run with low book loads of HP-38 and a 115gr bullet (they don't need stout loads to make them run).

I say all of that, because I think that in this case it probably isn't the gun, the magazine(s), or the ammo. It's her. Before launching into the long process of "looking for a solution," have a reliable shooter shoot the gun.

Ammo?
Magazine?
Limp wrist?

A person would have to be living in a fishbowl to not know that Glocks are susceptible to limp-wristing. It's not her, it's the pistol - unless she have problems limp-wristing other designs.

I'll stand by my original comment. I offered it based on my own experience with 4 different G19's (gens 3,4, and 5) and a G23 w/ a 9mm barrel. Knowing how well most Glock's function, statistically, it's not the gun. She should start by having somebody else shoot the gun before going down the road of chasing issues that might not exist. If it is NOT the shooter, that's fine. She can then switch up her ammo (the 2nd most likely issue, and also an easy fix). Then she can try to isolate a particular magazine and then go from there as necessary.

However, she should eliminate the most likely and obvious issue first. There's no reason NOT to.

The OP stated the girls brother has shot the gun with no issues. I'll stick by my assertion the girls form isn't providing enough resistance for the gun to function. Again, that can be grip, wrist, elbows or shoulders. She needs to grip the piss out of the gun and push out HARD.

'xactly. Glock fanboys won't hear it, though. She just needs a better pistol.

Pretty good example of how not just glocks but most polymer guns can be limp wristed at will. I think it has more to do with technique than raw strength although im sure strength plays a part as well.

Check this out:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_Uqtz2asE4

I bought my wife a glock 42 when they came out, jammed constantly....when she shot it. I have heard from others they are very easy to limp wrist also. Thats the only pistol she ever limp wristed, she shot my lcp fine, my smith m&ps, even my glock 19. Her 42 never jammed with me shooting it or her father.

How many times did you shoot her father?