Glock 19 Feeding Issues

Hey all...first post here, kinda been lurking on the advice of a friend. I'm a pretty recent owner of a Gen4 Glock 19. I was a relatively avid shooter in my youth and I'm just getting back into it...now to the point.

I was at the range for the second time with the new pistol. I ran about 150 rounds through it the first time out and it shot flawlessly...I love this gun. (For the record, I'm firing Remington UMC Target..not reloads or anything.)

This time I went with my girlfriend, to try and get her comfortable with it. Now here's where it started to act strange. Everytime I'd fire through a mag, I'd bang through it with no problems. Nearly every other shot she'd fire, I'd have to tap or rack because either there would be a feeding issue, or it would (seem) to not eject the previous shell. I say seem because I'm not 100% exactly what happened, but when I'd rack it'd pop an empty casing.

I noticed that she may have had her thumb resting on the mag release, so I'm thinking this potentially could cause the issue. I'm assuming if she had it lightly pressed the bullets wouldn't spring in entirely correct. Any suggestions here? I tried to get her to correct her grip a bit, but I'm obviously not anywhere near being an instructor as I'm still trying to refresh my skills. (I'll probably be investing in some lessons for her in the near future. I don't want to teach her any bad habits while I'm trying to learn.)

One would think that your girlfriend is not providing a stable platform for pistol's cycling. The condition is loosely named "limpwristing", although nobody really defined it well enough for me. Essence of it is that pistol's frame should not be allowed to move backwards for slide to cycle properly. It doesn't matter where's weak spot - limp wrists, soft elbows, the entire arm is moving backwards. Glock 19s are famous for it online; I personally have never seen this with Glock. I have experienced it twice with 1911s, and one of them was very illustrative. My Dad, who doesn't shoot, went to range with me and he was shooting my 1911, perfectly timing a mild elbow bend with each shot. I guess he was trying to absorb recoil that way subconsciously. I noticed it and thought "he was going to have a misfeed soon"; "soon" was three rounds later.
I'd try to concentrate on having her to keep arms and wrists as rigid as possible for time being and see if this helps.
I have to admit, I've not seen failure to extract in such a way that spent brass stays fully in chamber.
My 2 cents.

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Originally Posted by YVK

I personally have never seen this with Glock.

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I've had it happen with a new shooter using a Glock 17C. He was nervous and not holding the gun anywhere near firmly enough and ended up with multiple FTEs until I helped him sort out what was happening.

The anecdote is made amusing by the fact that he happened to be gay and I didn't have the heart to tell him that the failure he was experiencing is known colloquially as "limp wristing" until a couple of hours after we'd left the range. :D

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Originally Posted by torrefaction

Hey all...first post here, kinda been lurking on the advice of a friend. I'm a pretty recent owner of a Gen4 Glock 19. I was a relatively avid shooter in my youth and I'm just getting back into it...now to the point.

I was at the range for the second time with the new pistol. I ran about 150 rounds through it the first time out and it shot flawlessly...I love this gun. (For the record, I'm firing Remington UMC Target..not reloads or anything.)

This time I went with my girlfriend, to try and get her comfortable with it. Now here's where it started to act strange. Everytime I'd fire through a mag, I'd bang through it with no problems. Nearly every other shot she'd fire, I'd have to tap or rack because either there would be a feeding issue, or it would (seem) to not eject the previous shell. I say seem because I'm not 100% exactly what happened, but when I'd rack it'd pop an empty casing.

I noticed that she may have had her thumb resting on the mag release, so I'm thinking this potentially could cause the issue. I'm assuming if she had it lightly pressed the bullets wouldn't spring in entirely correct. Any suggestions here? I tried to get her to correct her grip a bit, but I'm obviously not anywhere near being an instructor as I'm still trying to refresh my skills. (I'll probably be investing in some lessons for her in the near future. I don't want to teach her any bad habits while I'm trying to learn.)

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This is an excellent idea - in my experience it works much better because the relationship dynamic between student / instructor is not really compatible with the relationship dynamic between a couple.

Matt

Thanks for the advice here...other than the casings not really extracting, this seems almost certain to have been the issue. I saw some videos thanks to commandar which totally back this up. It looks like exactly the issue that was occurring.

@Matt, yeah...Even if I was good enough, teaching something as important as firearms and safety should probably be left to an impartial party.

Moving this thread to "Ask the Armorer".

In case anyone is curious, this is the video I sent him:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jh9JhCyFFxA

It's actually something I first came across a couple of years ago when ToddG posted it on PTC . Either way, good demonstration that Glocks do appear to be more likely to suffer FTEs from limp wristing than many other designs.

Is it just me, or does anyone else find themselves cringing at the number of times in that video that he ends up pointing a loaded firearm in the general direction of his own face with his finger on the freakin' trigger?

Particularly around the 0:48 and 1:15 marks.

FWIW, I've introduced brand new shooters to the shooting world with the Glock 17/19 platform, and getting them to employ a proper grip is paramount. This can be challenging, as many people who have never fired a handgun before seem to place their primary firing hand a bit low on the grip, and not all the way up on the tang.

OP,
You may wish to consider trying different ammunition, as UMC 9 is regarded as being a bit anemic, as well as ensuring those that you shoot with employ a proper grip on the handgun.

Just my very humble opinion.