S.W.A.T. December 2007 - McKeesport Police Department

cern now has a few after-market gunsmith
fixes; the second has been covered
by improved 9mm loadings and a wider
variety of calibers offered; the third?
Well, I was surprised, even encouraged.
For several years now, the phenomena
of Glock “kabooms” have been known
about and discussed. It seems the blame
was placed solely on reloaded or remanufactured
ammunition being used for a
considerable period of time.
Tueller addressed this as being, in his
view, at least partially due to tolerance
stacking. It isn’t just the specific round
or a fouled chamber or a dirty barrel or
being slightly out of battery; but rather,
generally, an unfortunate combination
of several factors coming together at the
same time.
It was the most honest answer I’ve
heard from Glock to date, even if it is a
few years too late.
There continues to be concern about
reliability and weapon-mounted lights
on the Model 22. Back six or seven years
ago, DEA and others noticed failures
to feed in Model 22s when there was a
weapon-mounted light attached. Apparently,
this also occurred with the Model
23s, though to a lesser degree. These failures
were traced to a combination of the
polymer frame flexing and the strength
of the magazine spring in terms of being
able to feed the next round.
The identified fix was to replace the
magazine spring in the affected weapons.
For a Model 22, you replaced a tencoil
spring with an eleven-coil version,
while a Model 23 would go from a ninecoil
spring to a ten-coil spring.
The last time I went through this
course, well after the issue was widely
known about, there was still a significant
degree of evasion by the instructor. That
was not the case during this class.
Tueller also mentioned that the user’s
choice of ammunition could be related
to the problem. He had not seen any issues
with agencies that used the original
.40 S&W load (180-grain bullet traveling
around 950 feet per second), but he noted
it appeared when lighter and faster
loads were used.
About two years ago, one large southern
California metropolitan law enforcement
agency began having issues with
some Model 21s (the large frame .45 ACP
pistol). For them, the Model 21 was an
authorized rather than an issued pistol.
These issues included light firing pin
hits and/or failures to fire.
Dennis addressed this with the class.
He told us some of the officers there initially
believed they needed to lubricate
all of the parts and areas on the Model
21 like they had to on their previously
issued double stack 9mm pistols. By lubricating
the firing pin channel and regularly
spraying it down with an aerosol
solvent, they created a paste that greatly
slowed down the travel of the firing pin.
Additionally, there were issues with
trigger bars and machining of the slides
in a very limited number of pistols—all
identified by serial number. Replacing
the trigger bars and swapping out the affected
slides have fixed all of the issues.
That agency again has the Model 21 in
use and is considering the purchase of
Model 22s for a duty weapon.
All too often, a Power Point program
becomes a crutch rather than a true teaching
aid for an instructor. Throughout the
day, Glock’s Power Point was displayed
on the classroom screen. It was appropriate
for the class and was well used.
According to Tueller, the Power Point
used in the class is just one portion of an
armorer CD now being sold by Glock
to graduates of the armorer class. After
a back and forth between their training
and legal divisions, the CD will be available
for $20.
All in all, my third time through the
Glock armorer’s class was a bit closer
to being a charm. The emphasis on the
realities of the street was encouraging.
I can definitely recommend the current
version of the class. §
SOURCE:
Glock Training Division
Dept. S.W.A.T.
P.O. Box 1254
Smyrna, GA 30081
(707) 432-1202
www.glocktraining.com
TangoDown
Dept. S.W.A.T.
1588 Arrow Highway, Unit F
La Verne, CA 91750-5334
(909) 392-4757
www.tangodown.com
GLOCK ARMORER’S COURSE
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