are guide rod upgrades worthwhile?

[mag360]

Is it prudent to upgrade the stock glock plastic guide rod to say the wolff springs guide rod while retaining factory spring weight? Worried about the plastic breaking and leaving the gun useless.

[ST911]

Is it prudent to upgrade the stock glock plastic guide rod to say the wolff springs guide rod while retaining factory spring weight? Worried about the plastic breaking and leaving the gun useless.

Nope.

[JTQ]

Worried about the plastic breaking and leaving the gun useless.
Remember, the whole frame is plastic too. The guide rod is a low stress part.

[WDW]

A plastic rod, to me, is actually less likely to break and the steel rod can bend, which really will render a gun useless.

[SAWBONES]

Is it prudent to upgrade the stock glock plastic guide rod to say the wolff springs guide rod while retaining factory spring weight? Worried about the plastic breaking and leaving the gun useless.

I've owned Glocks since 1989, ten of them to date.

ALL of them received steel guide rods, either with stock spring weights. or with slightly heavier-than-stock springs, from Wolff.

NONE have had any failures to function from this, and none of the guide rods have bent or broken.

The plastic OEM captured guide rods are definitely capable of breaking at the distal tip. (The older gen 1 and gen 2 guide rods weren't captured, and have never broken in my limited personal experience; I still have two of 'em, with the original 25 year old springs, and they all still work fine.)

The Glock torture test folks (PTOOMA, and YouTube vids) have demonstrated that the first thing to break on Glocks with extended firing is the recoil guide rod, due to its melting at the distal end. I'll certainly never shoot enough rounds fast enough at any one time to make that happen, but I still prefer extra "sturdiness" in a sidearm whenever I can get it.

I replace the OEM sights with steel ones too.

Gaston Glock is a polymer maven. He wants to make everything possible on his guns out of polymer, but polymer isn't necessarily the best choice of material for every single component.

[ST911]

(The older gen 1 and gen 2 guide rods weren't captured, and have never broken in my limited personal experience; I still have two of 'em, with the original 25 year old springs, and they all still work fine.)

You have a gen 2 Glock that shipped with the original non-captured RSA?

[HopetonBrown]

I have 13 lb ISMI recoil springs on steel captured guide rods in my 17s and 34.

[fwrun]

Depends on your use. For USPSA, I have an 11lb recoil spring on a ss rod. For my carry G17, it's stock, and not worth changing.

[mag360]

If there is no decrease in reliability I cant see why its not worth changing the part to a metal one.

[HopetonBrown]

If there is no decrease in reliability I cant see why its not worth changing the part to a metal one.

If there is no increase in reliability I can't see why it's not worth keeping the plastic one.

[SAWBONES]

You have a gen 2 Glock that shipped with the original non-captured RSA?


Yes.
Two of them, G19s, bought together at Don Streicher's Police Supply in '89.

[TiroFijo]

No doubt the RSA of the glocks work well enough, I kept them in most of the glocks I had. But I have seen damage in many of them, in the front end.

I'm a KISS kind of guy, I really like metal guide rods (I've never seen one bent or damaged enough to impair function) and non captive recoil springs. Never had a problem losing a recoil spring, and it is a simpler setup.

[Copabeat]

I agree with Sawbones and exactly for the same reasons. I prefer Non-captured guide rod with Wolfe slightly higher powered spring weights. I carry primarily +p ammo. I'll adjust down for ball ammo. Only disadvantage I find is the reassembly is slightly longer/harder, but like anything else the more you do it the better & easier it is.

[StraitR]

I've never had a Glock guide rod fail, so I've never felt the need to replace them with an aftermarket option. Here's a couple videos that show durability.

Not a Yeager fan, but the video serves it's purpose. 1000 rounds in 14 minutes. The guide rod melts and shoots out at 4:25, which was somewhere in the mid 900's but the gun keeps running...


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyZxQfIBXDc

And then there's this one...


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ub4OswUhLwo

[LittleLebowski]

Is it prudent to upgrade the stock glock plastic guide rod to say the wolff springs guide rod while retaining factory spring weight? Worried about the plastic breaking and leaving the gun useless.

No.

[JonInWA]

No. And for those citing guide rod meltdown, for at least 5 years Glock has replaced the original OEM polymer rod with one made with Zytel; these are noted by a number "1" on the guide rod's flange, underneath the part number. Zytel is a polymer that is notably stiffer and more heat-resistant; reportedly the priary impetus behind it was that there was a Southeastern US LEO who contract specified that their Glocks be capable of 1,000 rounds of sustained fire without degradation or component failure. I'm not quite sure what generated the need for such a requirement, as the last time I checked such sustained fire requirements were normally tasked to crew-served weapons, air or artillery....

Redundant/silly as it might be, it should assuage those of you overly concerned....simply replace your RSA with the updated one. I believe that the change occurred around 2008 or so. At this point, unit armors will likely only have the Zytel ones.

The Zytel RSAs are also reportedly more chip resistant, but the only chipping that normally occurs is when the RSA isn't properly placed in the crescent receptacle cut on the barrel lug.

Best, Jon

[TiroFijo]

Thanks Jon, that's good to know. I've never seen a glock OEM RSA fail (and I've seen a lot of ammo fired in glocks in IPSC competitions), but seen a lot of guide rods chiped in the front end. I don't know the reason why, but it doesn't give me a good feeling.

[Willard]

White sound guide rod seems to have a few unique characteristics that may make it worthwhile, mainly stand-off and the use of a hole that facilitates spring installation. I'm testing a couple:

http://glockparts.com/Detail.aspx?PROD=796475&CAT=737 YMMV

[NuJudge]

I recently replaced a guide rod on a Beretta with a much heavier Tungsten one, and noticed much less muzzle rise in recoil. I have seen aftermarket Tungsten rods for Glocks.

Somewhere, I saw a torture test video of a Glock, the guide rod failed, and the pistol kept functioning.

[Alpha Sierra]

I've replaced guide rods with aftermarket ones twice in the last 15 years

Glock 17 Gen 4 with the screwed up original RSA, replaced it with an aftermarket single spring RSA and used it that way without failures until the factory got it right

CZ P-07 Gen 2, came with a captured 20 lb spring and I wanted to try a lighter one. No choice but to buy a CGW SS guide rod to try aftermarket springs. Right now pistol is still equipped with the CGW non captured steel rod and a Wolff CZ 75 compact 16 lb recoil spring.

[JAD]

I had a G27 sometime in the late nineties whose RSA went TU after a few hundred rounds. It shut the gun down. I replaced it with a Wolff. I sold the gun, but I don't know if it was a thing or just a one off defect.