The Truth about Glocks and Cast

[FergusonTO35]

Sounds good. Unfortunately I gotta make do with what I can find, all the W-W pistol powders are extinct here. Whenever I encounter any available pistol powder I go ahead an buy some so I can keep shooting.

[KYCaster]

I shoot ww alloy in my polygonal barrel and no lead buildup , i dont shoot soft lead this is what glock is talking about , they say hard cast is ok , not lead, aka soft lead , so cast em, water drop em with an alloy , should be no problem
using wheel weights and water dropped gets @ 20-22 bhn a good hard cast boolit . my 2c worth
oh my polygonal barrel is a 9 E. german makarov....

Glock doesn't allow ANY reloads, hard, soft or jacketed.

Check item #5 under "Limitations of warranty", here:
http://us.glock.com/customer-service/glock-warranty

I was chastised for drifting off topic earlier in this thread and you guys are turning it into a How-To-Alter-Your-Glock thread. The last two pages have very little to do with cast boolits in Glocks.

Jerry

[Catshooter]

Jerry,

2,000 fps is quite impressive from a G19.


Cat

[FergusonTO35]

In my quest to get a workable trigger on my 26 I ordered the Ghost Edge connector and installed it. From the first trigger pull I was amazed at the difference, even compared to the Ghost 3.5 that was in it. Just what I was looking for: a light takeup and then a short and smooth double action type pull. Gone is the abrupt break with lots of over travel to pull me off target as before. Best $22.00 I ever spent on a gun part, I would recommend the Edge to anyone!!

[Tom W.]

Got to go to the range today. Shot my Ruger BH with both the .45 and .45 Colt cylinders, as well as my Golcks, both with hand loaded cast bullets. They all three did really well, altho I was really out to see how the Glocks performed with the cast loads. I found that Red Dot smokes like hell, but I did get acceptable accuracy with the .45, and the 9mm was using a Lee 356-120-T/C bullet lubed with Johnson's paste wax, loaded with 4.3 gr. of Herco. I ran 100 rounds through the 9mm with nary a bobble, and while both of the pistols were dirty with powder residue, there wasn't a trace of leading in any of the guns. Didn't see any devils or evil things happening to either pistol, either. That load is a really easy -to- shoot load, it seems less intense than a factory hardball.

[FergusonTO35]

That Herco is a slower powder, which helps keep the pressure down. Will remember your good experience with it and the Lee boolit in a Glock. Mebbe I'll encounter some before I retire...

[FergusonTO35]

Finally got a Storm Lake barrel for the 26 and had a long range session today. The SL barrel beats OEM in accuracy with every slug I tried in it; FMJ, plated, and lead. The Ghost Edge connector takes some getting used to but once I got the hang of it I was making nice clusters. I can't understand why but factory Glock barrels have never been very accurate for me. A factory stock Glock pistol is a difficult gun for me to shoot. If nobody made replacement connectors and barrels for these pistols I probably wouldn't own them.

[FergusonTO35]

Don't know why it double posted...

[Love Life]

Wonderful!! Now shoot it until it breaks...if ever.

My Glock 21 is over 5,000 rds with no failures. This is using it and abusing it for load development, carry, blah, blah, blah.

My wife's Gloc 17 (Gen 1 like a boss)...well I can't really remember any failures in that gun and we bought it used years ago and have fired a whole bunch of 9mm through it.

Just good, solid, and fun guns.

Does your SL barrel require you to hit it with the juice like your factory barrel did?

[FergusonTO35]

Yep, it's a good feeling when you get a gun lined out the way you like it. The throat on my new barrel is a little tight, which caused some of my fat boolits to hang up chambering. FMJ and plated are 100%. I'll send it to Storm Lake and have them open it up a bit. This company has outstanding service after the sale and they turn it around fast. Better put a few more rounds through it first though! Love Life, what do you mean by "hit it with the juice?"

[Love Life]

Max charge or near it. I thought it was your gun that shot better with more speed/powder, but I may be pulling a Brian Williams and misremembering.

[FergusonTO35]

Oh I see. I find the Storm Lake barrels really like the Lee 356-120-TC at 1000 fps so thats what I stick with. I have no interest in anything stronger so never tried it. As far as OEM barrels go I have always found they shoot best in my shaky hands with light loads. I really dont know why I can't get along with fast twist 9mm barrels. They seem to magnify my shooting errors.

[Lefty Red]

[Lefty Red]

Just found this one funny!

[FergusonTO35]

Very funny although I think accessory rails, front and rear slide serrations, and skeletonized everything on a 1911 make about as much sense as a flintlock and a blunderbuss muzzle on an M16.

[Lefty Red]

Very funny although I think accessory rails, front and rear slide serrations, and skeletonized everything on a 1911 make about as much sense as a flintlock and a blunderbuss muzzle on an M16.

True! Ruins the slim slim lines of the 1911. But I have seen rails on a 1911 that are done right that add to the beauty of it.

[Jim..47]

Wow, Ken, you know how to stir up a hornet's nest.

First off, I'll say that I agree with you in principle, because I've read about the Metford rifling. Also, I recall that back in the really old days, there were square-bore guns (don't know if I'd call them rifles, since I don't think there was a twist, but still...). To cause even more trust in lead and Glocks, I can add my own experience with my first Glock. It was a 9mm G-17, and I purposely meant to test it's reliability and durability. I shot between 5000 and 6000 rounds of cast lead reloads (122gr LRN & 4.5-4.7grs of W231 in military cases, so it was pretty hot) without ANY cleaning over a period of about 8 months. There was never a pressure excursion or other problem with any of these loads.

On the other hand, I've been a member (and moderator) over at GlockTalk for about 10 years. There is a fellow member/moderator over there whom I respect greatly. He is a failure analysis engineer for a large firm and has examined ~35 blown-up Glocks under contract to determine the truth (whether that helped or hurt the clients). He also used his personal Glock 45 set up in a test with pressure-measuring equipment mounted to the factory barrel. He fired a fairly light lead-bullet load and was able to measure pressure increasing with EVERY round fired after a two to three dozen rounds were fired. He stopped the test before he intended to, because the pressure readings got dangerously high and he didn't want to blow up his personal pistol...

Then, you have the problem of Glock's TOP-SECRET-LEVEL silence on problems with ka-BOOMing Glocks. (I'm no Glock-hater, either. I'm a certified Glock Armorer; I've met, talked with, and supported the VP of Glock in charge of the US operation and several other Glock employees and functions; and I have an extensive collection of Glocks - over 25 at last count.) Nevertheless, Glock's abject silence is not helping this issue. They'd be so much better off to just come out with any analysis or information they have about this issue and put it to rest...



All that said, I believe the following:

Polygonal rifling is different than conventional and MAY cause a problem with leading FOR DIFFERENT REASONS THAN WHAT WE TRADITIONAL BULLET CASTERS ARE USED TO LOOKING AT/THINKING ABOUT. (Therefore, the things we usually work on to avoid leading may be counter-productive in poly-rifling.) This can then be compounded by the fact that polygonal rifling seals better than conventional, and therefore, when the leading DOES occur, it gets worse faster. Also, as opposed to the Metford system, powders have vastly changed since the 1800s, not to mention the composition of the lead bullets, style of priming, metallurgy of the cases and barrels, etc... So, I'm not convinced it is a terrific comparison.

Joining in on this thread, hope my questions are Ok.
I see this thread is 7 years old but still active?? I'm interested because I have a Glock 22 Gen. 4 I bought when O' won his 2nd term. I only ever shot jacketed through it but knew when I bought it I would buy an aftermarket barrel. I ended up with a Storm Lake barrel which has served me well, but I only 400-600 rounds through it, mostly 175 G. truncated wheel weight lead, water dropped with my own lube. I have a looked and looked but I never see any lead in it. Is that normal?

Also I did search on Lewis lead remover. Got mixed reviews from Ruger forum. They all said it works but expensive but doesn't 0000 steel work wrapped around bronze brush work just as good? This is what a Bench Rest gun smith taught me to use and it sure works well on custom 6PPC barrels with MV at 3500 fps +

I intended to read the whole thread (I hope, 25 pages now).


Personal note Page one done.

[Catshooter]

Jim,

It's results that count. If your load shoots the way you like and leaves no lead you're gold. Since you're (probably) hardening your boolits by water dropping them that may be why they're working so well. For my Glocks I have to water drop. I watch my alloy and make sure it's 20+ BHN after 48 hours.

A lot of us here use the copper mesh from a Chore Boy scrubbing pad to remove leading but I don't know why the steel wool wouldn't work too.+ I'm a bit more comfortable with copper in the bore than steel wool even though the wool is way softer than the barrel, the copper is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay softer yet.

By the way, I shoot both aftermarket and factory barrels with lead. Zero leading here also.

Good luck.


Cat

[FergusonTO35]

I think the fast twist has caused me more problems than the poly rifling. My Glock 19 with 1:16 Storm Lake barrel is the most accurate 9mm I've ever had, even more so than the German made Sig P-225 I used to have.

[Hanzy4200]

I was scared into this thinking when I purchased my first Glock, a 17 Gen III. I immediately bought a Lone Wolf barrel. From day one, I had issues with leading, from minor to very severe. After several months, I committed the heinous act of firing a mag through the factory barrel. SUPRISE! No leading! The Lone Wolf leaded far worse than the factory barrel. My G-17 now has approx. 10,000 rounds of cast through it. I have since added a G-30s and all it has ever been fed are cast 230 gr. RN and 200 gr. SWC. I have pushed the .45 up to 950 fps and the 9mm to 1,050. Zero issues.