How do you vet non oem parts?

[JCS]

With the gadget coming soon I've really pondered thus question. In the past I've been foolish and haven't vetted stuff properly.
When talking about upgrades to your carry gun how do you do it?

I only have glocks. So if I vet a gadget in my g34 for x # of rounds and determine its good. Can I install one on my 19 and 26? Or should I do it for each one?

Is the vetting process different for say an extended mag release versus a recoil spring? I would think so but I'm curious.

There's so many upgradable parts on a Glock it just makes me wonder what's the appropriate way to do it? I've seen people talking about upgrading ejectors and striker springs, recoil springs, the list goes on and on.

For the record mine are all stock inside except a ghost connector in the 19. I put it in back before I knew better and after 100 rounds called it good. I'm now up to around 4000 without a failure so I'm not worried but I'm curious about how to vet things like the gadget.

I don't necessarily want this to be a conversation on should I put non oem stuff in my gun, rather just how to make sure I can trust it.

Thanks for putting up with all my questions!


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[okie john]

I'm a late adopter for non-OEM Glock parts. I prefer to vet them by asking about them on a place like this. Someone somewhere has run the latest and greatest thing to failure, and someone here will know that person and will have developed pretty solid insight into both the problem and the solution.

I realize it's probably not much help, but my rules of thumb are

1. Use quality, full-power ammo.
2. Clean and lubricate my pistol every once in a while.
3. Understand the actual issues with Glock pistols (crappy sights, BTF, feed issues on 40-caliber pistols with WMLs, etc.) and avoid the imaginary ones.
4. Focus on the relatively few OEM parts that cause those issues (sights, ejectors, extractors, various springs, etc.) and understand the options for addressing them.
5. Leave the non-problematic parts alone. Focus on developing software skills that address my (perceived) issues with them.
6. Find the simplest possible solution, like doing a 25-cent trigger job instead of installing a match trigger.
7. Either avoid the Glock models that are problematic under certain conditions, like a Gen3 G22 with a WML, or avoid creating those conditions if I choose to use that model.

Okie John

[farscott]

My approach is fairly simple. I try to think about what failures can occur due to the changed part, and I devise tests to see what happens. For example, a new magazine release may release the magazine in the holster, may not release the magazine when pressed, may need more or less pressure to activate, may cause the magazine to drop during recoil, may make the magazine hard to insert/remove, may cause feed issues on the first/last round, may be released by the grip, may come out of the gun, may break in two, etc. Then I try to test (some cannot be tested as one cannot prove a negative) each possible failure mode with a few rounds. It is about me being confident with what the new part does for me. To get there, I need to put some rounds through the gun, carry the gun around my property, and see how the new part changes what the gun does.

I really like the Glock OEM fire-control parts. The Gadget is the only aftermarket part I am considering right now due to the positive safety advantages it should offer.

[L-2]

Stock parts can break, too, often without a good way of prediction.

IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER, but what comes to mind:

-Is the part and any associated manual of arms safe to me.
-Round Count. This is difficult to test with any assurance. "MTBF" is mean-time-between-failure and product manufacturers may have somehow statistically measured or evaluated this. We're typically only doing our own evaluation with a sample of just one, our own firearm. FYI, with my Glock 9mm Gen3 guns, I never replace the recoil spring assembly at Glock's recommended 5,000 round interval. I'm seeing my 9mm Gen3 RSAs going for at least 10,000 rounds, but I do start doing Glock's RSA test each time I clean after shooting.

For most, how long will an aftermarket part, or even a stock part, hold up?
-All this is subjected to my normal environment, i.e., if I clean with Simple Green, Breakfree CLP, rubbing alcohol, MPro7 LPX; sunlight; temperature; rain; does the part somehow get ruined?

-For a carry gun, can I be reasonably assured I can get through my carry gear of a mag+1 and one spare mag?

I believe frequent shooting of one's firearm is the best way to have a confidence level in one's hardware, and it's good for one's shooting ability, too.
The folks on 10-8Performance.com when referring to the 1911 platform had a goal of 200 failure free rounds to ensure a level of confidence in that 1911. I suspect that's based on their personal observations and it's a convenient round number.
This all sounds well & good, unless the gun is doomed to fail at the 201st round and the next time you need to use your gun, it breaks. You've just used up 200 rounds by testing it toward its failure point.

Mag Catch. Round count isn't quite a factor. It's more number of mag insertions and removals.
RSA. Round count and number of slide cycles is the factor for that part.
The Gadget. I don't know and don't know anything about that "upgrade".

[EVP]

I don't necessarily want this to be a conversation on should I put non oem stuff in my gun, rather just how to make sure I can trust it.

Thanks for putting up with all my questions!


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I think you are making it more complicated then it needs to be. If you are wanting to vet a specific part for reliability then that is what you will need to test for. Which means rounds down range plain and simple. Consider how a simple high school or college science test is performed. The more accurate you want your results to be the more you need to account for your variables and testing procedure.


The fact is nobody can tell you how many rounds you should run through when trying different parts or gear. Everyone has a different threshold for the trade offs that they are willing to accept. Same with the actual parts that people will run on their carry guns.

You are going to be the one carrying it so you are the one who should have the confidence in it. You seemed to test and conclude that the connector you installed gave you satisfactory results for reliability. Do the same for the gadget.


Also your probability to have a issue with your ghost connector is higher then a gadget when the round count starts to increase during your testing.

[OnionsAndDragons]

I'm pretty much in the okie john camp.

I like to keep as much as possible OEM on a carry gun. There are always things some of us will favor enough so to decide to stray from stock. That's cool, I'm not a purist. I stick to parts from reliable manufacturers, and try to find good crowd-sourced testing.

[Nephrology]

I don't really see the need for non- OEM parts in carry guns, aside from sights of course. Pretty much every popular, well made centerfire handgun is eminently shootable as-is - Glocks are no exception.

That said, I did recently throw White Sound HREDs into my old carry gun (gen 3 19, replaced by a gen 4) because I had noticed that it was throwing brass at my face with increasing regularity. I won't carry it again until I have at least another 500 rounds down the pipe and a box my carry JHPs. If it can go those 550 rounds without failure, I'll be comfortable carrying it again.

[Josh Runkle]

I shoot an OEM GLOCK, with the exception of The Gadget.

My rule of thumb, though, because I've swapped a lot of parts in the past, is to always have a copy of your carry gun. Make modifications to the copy.

[pr1042]

I have 2 identical G17s, soon to be 3

When I want to try a new part, I shoot my training gun with it until it's deemed worthy for carry. For me, this is usually over 1,000 rounds without any issues. At that point, I will add a new part to my carry gun, temporarily move the trainer to carry duty, test for a few sessions, and then switch back

[JCS]

I shoot an OEM GLOCK, with the exception of The Gadget.

My rule of thumb, though, because I've swapped a lot of parts in the past, is to always have a copy of your carry gun. Make modifications to the copy.

My hope is to get a training 19 to match my carry 19. But until the funds appear I just have my carry 19 and other glocks. I don't plan on doing anything else to it besides adding the gadget.


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