Poly Frames pros and cons

[7br]

Okay, I get that poly frames are lighter and probably cheaper than steel. I do worry about lifetime of a poly frame on a fairly heavy caliber. Thoughts, pro's con's.

[ANeat]

Ive got a few polymer framed guns and like them. As for heavy caliber, depends on what you mean by heavy.

If I had to choose give me blued steel, luckily I can have both.

[S.R.Custom]

...I do worry about lifetime of a poly frame on a fairly heavy caliber...

So do I. At some point the plasticizers are going to evaporate, leaving behind a useless and brittle piece of plastic crap. You know, like the plastic door handle on a 20-year-old pickup truck.

Give me metal any day. It doesn't have to be steel; some of the lightweight alloys in the new S&Ws are pretty interesting.

[ANeat]

The last few Remington Nylon 66/77 and XP100's I seen were still holding up pretty well

[jim4065]

Got to agree with SuperMag - the poly frames are "consumeables", and I want a gun that will stay in the family. That being said - I just gave my (one and only) Glock to my son, because that's the one he liked best.

[jameslovesjammie]

They are cheaper for the manufacturer to make and still charge you the same price as steel because they are "new age polymers" and "ground breaking technology". Also, I like a heavier gun in .40 and up.

[jh45gun]

I just think they are damn ugly. I know a lot of folks like them but my feeling is if some one gave me one I would trade it for a steel frame.

[Trey45]

My full size HKUSP40 stainless variant 1 is going on 13 years old, with a round count in the mid 20k range. Aboslutley no signs of excessive wear or stress on the poly gripframe. Recoil spring was replaced about 2 yrs ago with a 13 pounder instead of the standard 12 pound.

[shooting on a shoestring]

Trey, Just to bust your chops a little, what does a poly gripframe look like the round before it cracks? (this coming from a guy who had a less than 2 year old .45 Colt Blackhawk grip frame crack and come loose during in firing)

[zt77]

my dad gave me a G19 that he bought in 1992. it is on its 3rd set of springs. no wear otherwise.

however I HAVE had steel frames stretch and get so loose it's a pita to shoot right.
I have to hand it to poly frames for longevity and reliability, even if my favorite handgun is a s&w m66...

[jh45gun]

I think Smiths are pretty reliable but didn't they have issues when that English Company owned them??????

[GOPHER SLAYER]

I just had to pitch my two pennies into this discussion. Concerning polymers,poly is a Greek word ,meaning many. I suppose that means the grip frames are made of many mers. Make sense? I did read someplace about a guy who had a Glock and it seems his dog got hold of it and thought it made a great chew bone. He did say it still seemed to function ok, dispite being somewhat chewed.. I picked up the grip frame of a friends pistol while was cleaning the barrel. I thought the polymer frame looked rather cheezy, with its little cast in pieces of steel to protect it from wear. I personally will not even buy a gun with light weight alloy frames. I think aluminun is for screen doors and airplanes. I can appriciate that various law enforcement and military personell like the lightweight and reliabilaty of polymer framed guns like the Glock,Sig, Ruger or whatever but I am not in either group so I will live with all steel or go back to golf. Okay, now lets hear the howls of indignation. I tell you, I love it.

[thenaaks]

i think polymer frames are just fine. they allow for lighter weight, and somewhat less user fatigue, since the frame absorbs some of the recoil. they are not made of ol' cheap plastic like some may think. and don't sit out in the sun, snow, and rain like a 20 year old truck. while they may not survive as many rounds as a steel framed 1911, they will withstand way more rounds than most people will ever shoot. and as far as price goes, it' all about name, not frame composition. my kel-tec p11 was $239 bucks. i've shot over a thousand rounds through that little piece of plastic. smith and wesson's new lightweight alloys...scandium must be worth more than gold!

[Mack Heath]

Since no one has mentioned it so far, when the Glocks came out people started keeping count of the rounds fired to actually determine the service life. Like many of the folks that have replied so far, they were skeptical. The last time I read anything from Chuck Taylor, he had over a quarter of a million rounds throu his Glock. And one gun shop that rented Glocks reported over half a million rounds through it, if I remember correctly. That was a while back and folks have stopped reporting the round counts because the polymer frames hold up just fine.

Pretty they may not be, but reliable and practical they are.

[9.3X62AL]

I'm not easily convinced, and it's even harder to change my mind--but my view of polymer-framed autopistols has come full-circle.

My agency added autopistols to the sidearm authorization list in 1987, then added both Glocks and the 40 S&W caliber in 1991. After about a year of having the glocks in service, I noted some very positive performance attributes of the pistols--they were utterly reliable, right out of the box, from Round One on. VERY few had defects or performance anomalies, and the maker made them right without a lot of nonsense. All but a few of the Glocks were personally-purchased by our deputies, so we didn't have re-issue capability. Glock turned them around at light-speed.

I still thought they were as ugly as mud bricks, but they worked and the company didn't turn warrantee/repair issues into Kabuki Theater. They took care of their customers/my deputies, that's what mattered. That is more than can be said for a couple other makers whose products we authorized, one of whose self-loading products had a longer break-in period, higher failure rate, and parts-shedding issues right from the git-go. I won't name names, but the corporate headquarters are located in Springfield, MA.

I thought that at some point, the dishwasher-safe service sidearms would melt--or crumble--or crack--or something. Well, not in any numbers worth counting. Glocks last. Glocks work. They're still UGLY, but ugly is as ugly does, and in that respect they're right handsome.

[7br]

My wife and I went to an indoor range on our honeymoon 16 years ago. We both shot glocks and neither one of us cared for the trigger pull. I was used to shooting my 1911 officers model (Darn, do I wish I had that back) Maybe my tastes have changed. Course I have the same wife and old habits die hard. Currently considering EAA Compact witness. I like the DA/SA, but wish it had a decocker. I have handled a Kimber compact and it felt really sweet, but not a big fan of cocked and locked. I have considered the tokarov and maybe a charter arms bulldog in .44 special. Heck, for a wild hair, how about a 4 5/8" blackhawk in .41 mag?

Hey ammohead, do you know where I could get one cheap?

[sqlbullet]

Plenty of early Glock 20's still out there. 10mm Auto is among the stoutest round you can commonly get in an auto-loader. The guys at 10mmtalk all like their Glocks for longevity.

7br, I have a full-size witness in 10mm that is my carry gun. I really like it, especially the lack of a decocker. Gives the option of condition 1 carry if I every decide I want too.