Glock Extractor Issues Gen 4 - Gen 3

[DAVID RICHARDS]

Sorry to say so but yes. After having 5 replacement Glocks in the past 2.5 years (2 GEN3 G19's, 4 GEN4 G19's) I decided to give up on Glock trying to fix them. And yes I tried every parts change mentioned in every post on how some folks got their Glocks to work. Two of the guns did not work right out of the box. The others worked from a few hundred up to 2000 rounds. So I decided to give Randy a chance to work his magic.
Let me say that Randy and Apex were great to work with. I spoke with Randy personally while he worked on my gun. I tried the APEX FRE set up and non-LCI spring loaded bearing. No go. Randy fit one to the gun for me. It worked for awhile. Still not good, sent it back. Tried another hand fitted APEX extractor. No go. Had the ejection port lowered as a last resort. Still being hit by brass. Noticed brass marks on the followers ridge down the center of the gun.
Gun returned to Randy. He stoned the follower ridge to get it to fit and replaced the dual recoil set up with the GEN3 adapter and steel guide rod. I now have 600+ rounds of 12 different kinds of ammo through it. I have not been hit in the head or face by any of these rounds. But I have had two brush up against my right shoulder and one hit my right elbow. The rounds are ejecting much harder now.
In a mag most of the rounds will eject between 3:00-4:00. With a few going between 5:00 or a little further. Randy also worked on the barrel and feed ramp of this gun. Steve at APEX told me this was the most difficult gun they had ever worked on. Again I have only good things to say about Randy and APEX. They only charged me for the parts they replaced. I was only charged for the original extractor none of the replacements. Randy spent many man hours and much ammo working on this gun. They paid for shipping. The gun was just an F'n wreck.
I had the most problems with Monarch Brass from Academy Sports. It was weak as hell. In fact my range owner hit a clay pigeon dead center with it and all it did was put a neat 9mm hole in it. I've never had 9mm not make toast out of clay pigeon. Strangely with the Monarch Steel the gun ejects perfectly to 3:00 every time.
It's as fixed as it's going to get. Before I completely trust it It's going to go through a lot more rounds. I've just been through too much with G19's made over the past couple of years. And I've seen way too many guns beaning people in the head at my range. It is not a small problem. Lots of burned and cut heads. I agree with Grant. I teach shooting classes and am a high volume shooter. Lots of new people have bought guns since the scare of the past year. Most never get past a couple of hundred rounds.
Hell some of them don't even know their guns should not be hitting them in the head! I have a half dozen older Glocks. One twenty and the another 17 years old that have never given me any grief. Got half dozen screwed up ones in a little over two years. So yes their are some that are so out of spec the APEX FRE alone will not fix them. Randy never claimed it would fix all the guns. But he bent over backwards to help me get mine working. I think most are fixed with the Apex FRE and the 30274 extractor. But some (a small number I would guess) are so out of spec they basically have to be rebuilt as custom guns to work.

[samuse]

... when a Glock runs like it should people aren't going online and posting about it...

Huh? In every thread, there's guys crying about: "My brand new Glock went 140 flawless rounds! You must be limpwristing/using weak ammo/too much lube/not enough lube/etc"...

[CrazyFingers]

Sample size of one, so take it with a grain or two of salt:

As posted earlier, my Gen3 G19 with test-fire date of Oct 2011 was throwing brass-to-face 3-4 times/magazine, with 4 stovepipes in ~800 rounds, and brass that does eject cleanly flying randomly up, forward, sometimes even to the left, and dribbling out over my arm.

Installed 30274 ejector, Apex FRE & spring, and Glock non LCI spring loaded bearing. I test-fired 45 rounds yesterday of mid-power reloads and Winchester White Box (yes, piss-poor test but it was all I had time for). All 45 cases ejected strongly up and to 3:00-4:00 with no stoppages, no brass to face. This was a marked improvement from the stock Glock parts.

Total cost of parts: $70.97 + 15 minutes work.

[Hmac]

Sample size of one, so take it with a grain or two of salt:

As posted earlier, my Gen3 G19 with test-fire date of Oct 2011 was throwing brass-to-face 3-4 times/magazine, with 4 stovepipes in ~800 rounds, and brass that does eject cleanly flying randomly up, forward, sometimes even to the left, and dribbling out over my arm.

Installed 30274 ejector, Apex FRE & spring, and Glock non LCI spring loaded bearing. I test-fired 45 rounds yesterday of mid-power reloads and Winchester White Box (yes, piss-poor test but it was all I had time for). All 45 cases ejected strongly up and to 3:00-4:00 with no stoppages, no brass to face. This was a marked improvement from the stock Glock parts.

Total cost of parts: $70.97 + 15 minutes work.

Exactly my experience too. Fortunately, Randy Lee was able to cobble together some parts that made up for Glock's lack of quality control. There must be other problems with the pistol, however, Gen 3's apparently more than Gen 4's, since the Apex FRE doesn't fix all of the defective pistols. The FRE seems to work more often in the Gen 4's, less predictable in the Gen 3's. Fortunately, it fixed mine. Here's a "before" picture/video (click image for the video).

[CrazyFingers]

There must be other problems with the pistol, however, Gen 3's apparently more than Gen 4's, since the Apex FRE doesn't fix all of the defective pistols.

I've read that too. I do wonder if these users also installed the 30274 ejector, since Apex recommends replacing both on Gen3 pistols for best results. However, as at least one user here posted, replacing both is not a guaranteed fix. If I remember, he had to have his ejection port lowered to finally get his Glock to run like...a Glock.

[Hmac]

I've read that too. I do wonder if these users also installed the 30274 ejector, since Apex recommends replacing both on Gen3 pistols for best results. However, as at least one user here posted, replacing both is not a guaranteed fix. If I remember, he had to have his ejection port lowered to finally get his Glock to run like...a Glock.

Based on my experience, the Glock in my video above is running like a Glock.

[jerrysimons]

Exactly my experience too. Fortunately, Randy Lee was able to cobble together some parts that made up for Glock's lack of quality control. There must be other problems with the pistol, however, Gen 3's apparently more than Gen 4's, since the Apex FRE doesn't fix all of the defective pistols. The FRE seems to work more often in the Gen 4's, less predictable in the Gen 3's. Fortunately, it fixed mine. Here's a "before" picture/video (click image for the video).

Great pic, I am eager to see the video. "Play back error" displays when I click the picture, the video is also not listed in your video uploads on your profile.
Fixed now.
WOW that is terrible!

[danpass]

Sample size of one, so take it with a grain or two of salt:

As posted earlier, my Gen3 G19 with test-fire date of Oct 2011 was throwing brass-to-face 3-4 times/magazine, with 4 stovepipes in ~800 rounds, and brass that does eject cleanly flying randomly up, forward, sometimes even to the left, and dribbling out over my arm.

Installed 30274 ejector, Apex FRE & spring, and Glock non LCI spring loaded bearing. I test-fired 45 rounds yesterday of mid-power reloads and Winchester White Box (yes, piss-poor test but it was all I had time for). All 45 cases ejected strongly up and to 3:00-4:00 with no stoppages, no brass to face. This was a marked improvement from the stock Glock parts.

Total cost of parts: $70.97 + 15 minutes work.

Well I've ordered the ejector. We'll see what that does.

Then perhaps splurge on the extractor lol. Would be nice if Apex could also offer a complete package.

[sparky-kb]

Noticed brass marks on the followers ridge down the center of the gun.
Gun returned to Randy. He stoned the follower ridge to get it to fit and replaced the dual recoil set up with the GEN3 adapter and steel guide rod.

Maybe I missed it, but what's a "follower ridge" and what do brass marks on it have to do with BTF? I did a quick google search for it but your post in this thread is the only mention of it I've found.

[wl518]

Went to the range today with 30274 ejector and apex extractor installed and my gen 3 g19 ran smoothly with no erratic ejections or stovepipes. Shot 50 rounds of Tula brass and 50 rounds of federal fmj. I also shot some 147gr +p HST and no problems whatsoever.

I was so confident before I even walked in the range that I took off my prior temporary fix to the extraction issue.... a surefire hat!

I know guys.... I'm just that edgy......