Glock 19 Stovepiping & Hitting Me With Brass

[William B.]

A few months ago I changed my primary from a SW1911PD to a slightly used Gen 3 Glock 19. So far I have 1300rds through the firearm. I've had 4 stovepipe stoppages. 3 of the stoppages were between 200 & 800rds and the last one was between 1200 & 1300rds. Most of the ammunition I've run through it is either Russian steel-cased ammo or plinking reloads bought from my local range.

In addition to the stovepipes, the brass seems to have an ejection path of 5 to 6 o'clock. Brass is constantly smacking me in the face, landing on my head, and one casing miraculously made its way between my eyepro and my cheek. When I'm done shooting most of the brass that I sweep from the floor is against the back wall at about 5:30.

My first inclination is to figure out what I could be doing to cause this. I have a pretty high grip on the weapon and the web of my hand is fat enough that I get some decent slide bite after 100-200rds. Could this be causing enough resistance to induce a stovepipe or alter the ejection path?

It could also be the ammo that I'm feeding it, which is probably a little bit underpowered. I would like to think, however, that a firearm to which I'm trusting my life is capable of functioning with the ammo I have at hand and a less than perfect firing grip.

The research that I've done on M4C and the errornet leads me to believe that if the problem is with the gun it may be the extractor, ejector, and/or recoil spring. These are just my theories. Experts, please grill me and help me figure this out.

I've never returned a firearm to the factory before, either. If I contact Glock about this are they going to help me out or automatically assume that I induced the problem due to limp wristing?

Thanks in advance, guys. I'm all ears.

[skyugo]

i'd update all the springs first...
at least the mag springs and recoil spring.
i find that mags seem to have a pretty big impact on ejection path with this gun. I'm "lucky" enough to have a variety of generations of practice mags (0,4,5,6 followers, some ban-era LE/MIL only mags etc) seems the older crappier mags are more likely to huck brass at my head. Not sure why, that's just what i've observed.

i've heard glock will refurb mags for free if you send them in. It may be worthwhile to pick up a couple brand new mags for carry purposes.

is the gun clean and lubed? i know it's a glock, but everything works better when it's clean and lubed.

[Hound_va]

A good starting point for troubleshooting your issue would be to go out and get some quality ammunition for it. Trying to troubleshoot while using suspect quality loads or reloads is going to get you nowhere fast.

[rathos]

I agree with hound. Buy some quality ammo. At the academy we did have a lot of brass hitting people from their glocks in the first 500 or so rounds through the gun but most of it stopped after the first 500 or so rounds. I think if you use quality brass cased plinking ammo you will be fine.


A good starting point for troubleshooting your issue would be to go out and get some quality ammunition for it. Trying to troubleshoot while using suspect quality loads or reloads is going to get you nowhere fast.

[kaltblitz]

to a slightly used Gen 3 Glock 19.

Don't overthink this one.

Change the springs.

Swap out the recoil spring, the mag springs, the trigger return spring, the striker spring and the extrator spring with brand new FACTORY parts. All the parts should be available through Glock or Brownells and all will be fairly cheap. Swapping these parts are easy. There are plenty of guides online or find a Glock armorer in your area to do it for you.

This should solve your issues and give you a freshened up gun.

[William B.]

is the gun clean and lubed? i know it's a glock, but everything works better when it's clean and lubed.

I clean and lube it pretty regularly. Every 200-300rds or so.

Ok. Check. I'm going to look into a new spring set and try my luck with quality brass. I think I've seen it posted that Speer Lawman is quality plinking ammo. Any other ammo recommendations?

[Ak44]

I've had great luck with Magtech, WWB, Federal, and Remington. I've had problems with Fiocchi in 308 and 9mm 115gr. The fiocchi makes my friends glock 26 double feed and failure to extract. And the 308 casings expand in my remington 700 making it hard for the bolt to strip the round. Be weary...Maybe just a bad lot of fiocchi my gun range got but who knows...

[stifled]

New springs are the right move. Any gun I've bought used I replace the springs right away because usually when someone tells me they've fired 300 rounds out of a gun they're trying to sell me, I'm thinking 3000. I'd try some different magazines or get some Wolff extra power magazine springs if that doesn't work. I never had any weird issues with low power ammo with my Glocks, even at high round counts. I've only had a case come at me once, from a Glock 17. I was quite glad I was wearing eye protection--it put a dent right in the center of a lens.

[Business_Casual]

In my experience, Fiocchi has hard primers that striker guns don't like. Hammer guns, like the 92FS, don't have a problem with it.

In my experience, the best plinking ammo is Federal 124gr. FMJ. Then Lawman, then WWB and bulk packs. The worst is Remington FMJ or any lead-free range ammo.

Changing the springs can't hurt, but it sounds like cheap ammo is the culprit.

B_C

[Dave Berryhill]

Check the extractor hook and see if it's chipped.

[Crow Hunter]

Check the extractor hook and see if it's chipped.

This for sure.

Also, some G19s just seem to do that with low powered ammo.

I own 4 of them. One of them does it with WWB pretty regularly. Hotter rounds seem to move the ejection path further right. #1, 2 and 4 almost never throw brass at my head, #3 though, with WWB, seems to be on a mission to cook off my eye brows.:sarcastic:

Another thing you might look at is changing the ejector/trigger pack. Easy change, a slightly different orientation of ejector may hit the base of the brass at a different point and pivot differently off the extractor.

[William B.]

You guys are giving me some good information. Thanks. I'm going to start implementing some of these one at a time. Hopefully one of your suggestions fixes the problem sooner than later.

[D. Christopher]

Don't make multiple changes to the pistol all at once or you won't know what you fixed. Start by making sure the pistol is cleaned and lubed properly and have a qualified person inspect all the parts and assembly to make sure it is within spec. Then try some quality ammo to see if that is the problem first. Try both target ammo and self defense loads. Does it still have the problem? Does it still have the problem only with target loads? If the problem persists then move on to replacing the recoil assembly, then test.

You should start with a pistol that has been checked, spec'd, and lubed. Then proceed by changing ONE PART or ONE VARIABLE at a time and testing for proper operation. You're not just trying to fix the problem you are trying to UNDERSTAND what the problem is so you can fix it with your head and not your hammer! Good luck.

[skyugo]

i've run 500 or so rounds of wolf through my G19 with zero issues just FYI. the gun SHOULD run with wolf.

[William B.]

i've run 500 or so rounds of wolf through my G19 with zero issues just FYI. the gun SHOULD run with wolf.

That's what I think, too.