backward glock extractor plunger spring assembly

[breakingtime91]

Was field stripping my glock tonight to fix a broken slide release and noticed that my extractor plunger spring was plastic to Metal, not Metal to metal like it was supposed to be. I quickly fixed the issue but I am.honestly lost on how it occured. One note is that since the last slide take down I had shot close to 500 rounds and the gun never malfunctioned until the slide release lever broke.

Here are my questions:
-how bad was this for the gun
-is the slide release breaking related?
-I noticed that Todd has an article on pistol-training showing the same misTake. Anyone else do this before?

[JHC]

Back in the 90's I found I had done the same once and the gun had been shot an shot a lot. [shrug]

On another one back then I came up missing that little black plastic bearing for that plunger spring and so one of the guns had to live without it for awhile.
Gun ran great for a while until I replaced it.

[JV_]

-how bad was this for the gun

It's not a big deal. Early on in my Glock days, I made that mistake too.

-is the slide release breaking related?

Unrelated.

[BN]

Doesn't the H.R.E.D. reverse the parts? http://www.whitesounddefense.com/pro....E.D.-9mm.html

[Wayne Dobbs]

It can be a VERY big deal. I consulted a case several years ago in which an LEO was critically wounded in a gunfight (G-17 vs AR-15) and the extractor popped out of position 90 degrees to the axis of the slide, bringing that gun to a screaming halt. The extractor depressor plunger assembly was in backwards. Sometimes it matters and sometimes it doesn't. It mattered that time.

[JV_]

My comment about it not being a big deal was related to potential damage to parts, not the function.

[Jeep]

Yes they do--and they seem to work well in my limited experience.

[Jeep]

It can be a VERY big deal. I consulted a case several years ago in which an LEO was critically wounded in a gunfight (G-17 vs AR-15) and the extractor popped out of position 90 degrees to the axis of the slide, bringing that gun to a screaming halt. The extractor depressor plunger assembly was in backwards. Sometimes it matters and sometimes it doesn't. It mattered that time.

First a G 17 vs. AR 15 gunfight. Then the G 17 goes down? Hard for things to get much worse than that.

[breakingtime91]

First a G 17 vs. AR 15 gunfight. Then the G 17 goes down? Hard for things to get much worse than that.

For sure, that's awful. Pretty weird that it will effect some and not others

[Chuck Haggard]

My comment about it not being a big deal was related to potential damage to parts, not the function.

I would agree with that, I've never seen damage happen, just reliability being effected.