Bardstown police replacing Glocks after cracks found

[88E30M50]

I wonder if guns today are designed like cars of today. In other words, are they designed with an expected useful life and anyone running them after that point, does so with an expected level of failure higher than what would normally be acceptable. A 1955 Chevy will run forever if maintained well, but a 2015 BMW will certainly be in a scrapyard in 2035 due to it being well past its intended life expectancy.

 

[VERT]

I wonder if guns today are designed like cars of today. In other words, are they designed with an expected useful life and anyone running them after that point, does so with an expected level of failure higher than what would normally be acceptable. A 1955 Chevy will run forever if maintained well, but a 2015 BMW will certainly be in a scrapyard in 2035 due to it being well past its intended life expectancy.

I can't say I agree with this. Cars today have a longer life expectancy. I don't see that many 1955 Chevys being driven on a daily basis. Same for guns, they are machines and eventually wear out. These Glocks will get refurbished and resold. A new Glock for a department is probably $400-$500. Let's say the old ones are worth half that then it makes sense to get rid of the old guns and buying new.

 

[BE Mike]

I didnt mean to dispute whatever failures they may have, I don't doubt they have legitimate problems. My point was that I have personally had and have known many others who had, they exact same models and they have faced far more use and abuse and still have a long life ahead of them. I would be curious if this was another situation of there being a bad lot of guns that was all delivered to the department, as its happened before, or if there is some other still unknown factor that is contributing. Im definitely a Glock fan, so perhaps my opinion is biased, but Ive also got 3 Glocks with over 100k rounds through them and never had any type of issue. There is no viable excuse for guns with this low round count and age to be breaking in such extreme fashion.

I'm just curious. What calibers are the Glocks you own with 100k rounds each through them?

 

[churchmouse]

I'm just curious. What calibers are the Glocks you own with 100k rounds each through them?

And at what power levels??????

Just curious.

 

[OutdoorDad]

I was interpreting 3 pistols with a total 100k count. So 33k rounds per. Roughly.

Which is a pretty good amount.

 

[Mike Elzinga]

No, I've got 3 9mms that have over 100k each, and I had a 10mm that was in the 50-60k range when I sold it.

 

[Leo]

I do not know how much a person can blame lack of maintenance. What maintanence can be done of a slot molded in a plastic part? My gen 1 model 17 spit the slide tab out of the frame when it got old enogh to start getting brittle. It had a bunch of rounds through it, but I am sure that was no where near 25,000. It did not wear out, it just got old. That is just the nature of the product. Plastics continue to cure and age even after they leave the mold. Laboratory data suggests steel does too, but it is over thousands of years, not dozens. They were designed to serve a reasonable service life, and do it pretty well, after that they need replaced. Sounds like the service life is slightly south of 15 years. That is reasonable for a generic service pistol used by peace officers. If in the future, the department sets replacement up on a 12 years schedule, that is a pretty cheap cost per year. Say $600 per pistol with a 12 year life that is only $50/year per issued weapon. By then, the night sights lose their glow anyway.

 

[phylodog]

Failure to replace the RSA for extended periods of time will cause a high round count Glock to wear out. The problem is that they don't typically stop running when the RSA is due to be replaced. Replacing the RSA is easily dismissed when administrators start pinching pennies and deciding what to spend money on and what can wait if the pistols are working. Glock frames flex under recoil, they flex more under recoil with a worn RSA.

 

[Drail]

Why would anyone expect a dept. to take care of and maintain their equipment when they can just buy new shiny ones at the taxpayer's expense? I also find it VERY hard to believe that a police dept. "wore out" these guns from use in 15 years. Most depts. only qualify maybe one or two times a year. How many rounds are they firing during day to day patrol work? I would love to know how many actual rounds have been put through these guns. We're not getting the whole story here.

 

[phylodog]

Why would anyone expect a dept. to take care of and maintain their equipment when they can just buy new shiny ones at the taxpayer's expense? I also find it VERY hard to believe that a police dept. "wore out" these guns from use in 15 years. Most depts. only qualify maybe one or two times a year. How many rounds are they firing during day to day patrol work? I would love to know how many actual rounds have been put through these guns. We're not getting the whole story here.

[video=youtube;YTGnh0rcQsc]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTGnh0rcQsc[/video]

 

[kramer5702]

When I was on reserves for a small town we carried the G22. We went to the range about 2 times a year with the local sheriff's dept. Every time they pulled up their truck and dropped the tailgate it was like Christmas...a big plastic tote over half full of brand new 40 cal rounds...we shot them all Lol. About 8-12 of us and we all had blisters on our hands and smiles on our faces.

 

[Deet]

I don't care if it is a Glock, I just think that 15 years is not a long time in terms of wearing out a pistol. I think there is a whole lot more to this story.

 

[BehindBlueI's]

I don't care if it is a Glock, I just think that 15 years is not a long time in terms of wearing out a pistol. I think there is a whole lot more to this story.

Years are irrelevant. Rounds fired are. I love Sigs, but you can wear them out. Glocks too. Just the way machines work.

Train and you're wasting tax money. Don't train and you're not taking public safety seriously. Someone complains regardless.

 

[joe138]

A 1911 without routine maintenance will fail, an ar 15 will fail, a Honda, Toyota etc.. As said earlier, the RSA on the G22 is recommended to be replaced around 3000 rounds. My issue G22 when we had them was maintained properly, and was shot a lot. I broke the trigger pin twice. The G22 was is the same dimensionally as the G17, on which it was based, but it was tweaked to fit the .40. The .40 beats up G22. Fifteen years is a long time for a duty weapon in my opinion.

 

[Robjps]

Failure to replace the RSA for extended periods of time will cause a high round count Glock to wear out. The problem is that they don't typically stop running when the RSA is due to be replaced. Replacing the RSA is easily dismissed when administrators start pinching pennies and deciding what to spend money on and what can wait if the pistols are working. Glock frames flex under recoil, they flex more under recoil with a worn RSA.

This without a doubt, clearly they weren't inspected or maintained in those 15 years or they wouldn't have one day woke up with all their pistols broke at once.

 

[BE Mike]

Why would anyone expect a dept. to take care of and maintain their equipment when they can just buy new shiny ones at the taxpayer's expense? I also find it VERY hard to believe that a police dept. "wore out" these guns from use in 15 years. Most depts. only qualify maybe one or two times a year. How many rounds are they firing during day to day patrol work? I would love to know how many actual rounds have been put through these guns. We're not getting the whole story here.

Yes, those pistols should last longer than 15 years. How dare they want new ones, just because they are broken? If they switched from live ammo to dry firing for qualifications, it would save the taxpayers a bunch of money.

 

[BE Mike]

This without a doubt, clearly they weren't inspected or maintained in those 15 years or they wouldn't have one day woke up with all their pistols broke at once.

I'm thinking that paying someone to maintain the pistols would cost much more than buying new ones when they wear out.

 

[M67]

This without a doubt, clearly they weren't inspected or maintained in those 15 years or they wouldn't have one day woke up with all their pistols broke at once.

How would "proper maintenance" prevent a slide from cracking? Replacing springs (which they might have done) would have reduced stress, but if a slide is going to go, it's going to go.

 

[phylodog]

The frames were cracking, not the slides

 

[M67]

The frames were cracking, not the slides

Gotcha, haven't slept a lot lately and forgot what the article said

Damn plastic.


Again though the same could be said, how could the frames be prevented from cracking? Recoil springs could be replaced but polymer can only be flexed and abused for so long before it goes. Glock could have just had a "bad" batch of polymer (15 years isn't bad and I'm quite sure they would warranty them)