G30 FTF - in large fashion!

[Matthew T.]

So I'm back at the range after a couple of months of not firing a shot, having fun with my G30 and getting back in the groove. It's a good day for me, keeping most of my shots in or almost touching a 2" - 3" circle at 7 yards. I pull the trigger again and . . . click. I take out the magazine and wait a minute with the gun pointed downrange. Nothing. There's a round in the chamber, but no strike mark on the primer. Weird. The same scenario repeats itself two more times. I take my pistol out to the Glock armorer behind the counter, he disassembles the slide and points out the problem. I've only put around 3,000 rounds through this thing. Still love the gun, though. Glockmeister, here I come again.

[Matthew T.]

You can see the broken firing pin a little better in this shot.

[Rawny]

Wow... What kind of ammo do you shoot most? Too many hard primers?

[Matthew T.]

I put a couple hundred rounds of Wolf through it a few years ago. Aside from that, it has been primarily reloads using Federal primers.

It was factory refurbished about four years ago after suffering an accident which separated the frame from the slide, bent the slide rails, etc., but I don't see how this would have affected the firing pin since it was safe inside the slide.

[Terminator]

The good thing is its a simple fix that will take about 10 seconds.
Dont worry bro.

[Matthew T.]

I'm not worried, just a little dumbfounded. These little pieces of steel cost $35! But what else can you do?

[BadLight]

My friend had the exact same thing happen on a G22! Never had anything but out-of-the-box new Federal FMJ through it. Fortunately I had a spare in my range bag (don't ask), 10 minutes (had to let it cool down) later we were back to having fun. :)

That was about a year ago, no problems since then.

[Rawny]

Originally posted by Matthew T.
These little pieces of steel cost $35! But what else can you do? Get it somewhere else, for less than half the price (http://www.cdnninvestments.com/gl10fipinnew.html). ;)

[Matthew T.]

Thanks for the tip, Rawny. I have placed my order.

[Matthew T.]

I was stripping the slide a few minutes ago, and a couple of pieces of twisted metal fell out of the firing pin channel. I don't know if this is what caused the pin to break, or if the fragments are the remains of the firing pin.

[S. Kelly]

Maybe the accident that separated the frame from the slide and bent the rails had something to do with it. Maybe the stresses that caused that problem damaged/weakened the firing pin. Was it a round that detonated in the chamber? If so, I could see the FP getting damaged, since it had to have been in the round at the time.

[CCV]

Send the broken firing pin to Glock and I'm betting they replace it, free.

[ED_P]

I've read here that Glock 30 slide lock springs are somewhat prone to breakage, sometimes causing damage if the slide comes off.

I am by no means a Glock expert, but just from what I've culled here from G-30 owners having slide lock springs break, I'd wager that's what happened to your G-30 when the slide flew off.

I replace the slide lock spring on my G-30 every 1500 rounds. It's less than $2 to replace.

[Matthew T.]

The slide didn't exactly fly off of my G30 and a round didn't detonate in the chamber. A few years ago I inadvertently duplicated the part of the Glock torture test which involves driving over the gun.

I always seemed to have problems disassembling the gun on the first try, even prior to its accident and subsequent factory refurbishing. This problem went away after I replaced the slide lock and spring.

The new firing pin works fine. The trigger spring probably needs to be replaced, though. The trigger feels a little spongy.