. . . If glocks are so perfect why was there a need for a gen2 of gen3 or gen4 or....?
Oh, don't get me wrong, jdh, Glocks are far from perfect. In my 40 years of shooting many, many different kinds of handguns, I have yet to find a
perfect one. Although I love my 19 S&W autos, they are not perfect. Let's not forget the 1st, 2nd and 3rd generation S&W autos.
I will admit that the Glock offers a chamber that has less support for the head of the case than many pistols. This is somewhat problematic, especially in the high pressure the .40 S&W chambering. I've been shooting .40 Glocks since 1992, mostly with reloads. However, through the 1990s, I would examine
all spend cases collected from my Glock (new factory or reloaded) and disgard any that showed
what I considered to be excessive bulging near the head of the case. I always reloaded FMJ bullets
under maximum and made sure the case was expanded
only enough to start the bullet into the case. It must be held tightly to avoid the bullet being pushed back (even slightly) into the case during chambering. I've never had any problem with my Glock.
For the past 12 years, I continue to shoot
my reloads in
my .40 Glock, but I only use once-fired brass from my non-Glocks.
I think those interested will find that the kabooms reported occur almost exclusively in .40 Glocks. I've not seen any reports of kabooms in .45 ACP or in 9mm (the round for which the Glock was
originally designed).
As an interesting aside, when the Glock was adapted to the .40 S&W, the Glock folks did not properly address how the the extra pressure of the round would effect the ejection process. Later in the mid-1990s, Glock redesigned the extractor and ejector. The ejector was lengthened to begin the ejection process earlier and the bottom corner of the extractor was relieved. This was done because the bottom corner of the .40 extractors were breaking due the extra stress cause by the faster slide speed and late start of the exjection process. Let's face it, the medium frame Glock was not originally designed for the .40 S&W.
