Broken Firing Pin

[rgt]

Two weeks ago, I shot 150 rounds through my G19 during a biweekly trip to a local indoor range. The next evening, the G19 was stripped down (including complete disassembly of the slide), inspected, and thoroughly cleaned. As is standard procedure, the gun has been dry-fired at least 40 times every day.

Another biweekly trip was made to the same range this evening, however no shots were fired. The tip of the G19's firing pin was discovered to be missing after attempting the first shot!

I'm really upset! I have no idea what caused this to happen nor do I know how many days I have been carrying the weapon in this condition for self-defense. My faith in GLOCK reliability has been shaken. How many of you have experienced broken GLOCK firing pins or know of someone else who has? (I'll be calling GLOCK tomorrow.)

[Roy19]

I have never had any problems with my G-19 and have been shooting and carrying it for over 10 years.

Just remember that your pistol is a machine and like any machine eventually something on it will break or wear out.

Be proud (most people don't shoot or pay attention like you) and thankful that you discovered the problem now instead of when you needed to defend your life.

A few quick questions...

1) How old is your pistol?

2) How many rounds do you think you've put through it?

3) What brand of ammo have you been using?

Let us know what Glock says.

[rgt]

Roy19,

The G19 is 10 months old. I've put 1100 rounds through it, but someone else had it before me for 5 months and probably put 400 - 500 rounds (maybe less) through it first. I've fed it a steady diet of Winchester white box ammo from WAL-MART (115 grain FMJ) with the exception of some occasional CorBon 115 grain +P JHP. The only other thing to note is that I do dry-fire it at least 40 times just about every evening.

A GLOCK technician in Smyrna listened to my story and made a couple of interesting comments. First of all he said he'd examined 30 - 40 guns per day for the 2 years that he has been with GLOCK and has only seen 1 broken firing pin. Since I dry fire so much, he assumed that must have been a factor in the breakage. I replied that I had always read/heard that it was safe to dry-fire a GLOCK and in fact had done so 40 times a day for 2 1/2 years with a G26 without any problems. In turn he said dry-firing is generally safe to do, but recommended using "snap caps" to be on the safe side in the future if I intended to continue with a high rate of dry-firing. He then added that he'd send a new firing pin free of charge to me c/o my local GLOCK dealer and would like to examine the old one.

FYI, another thing that came up in the discussion was cleaning. I mentioned that I cleaned the G19's firing pin and channel as part of my normal cleaning routine. He said that was a very good idea. We both agreed that it was an area where considerable carbon could accumulate if left unchecked.

rgt