So...about that.Originally Posted by TCinVA
I received my LW Timberwolf frame. I got the completely built one because Glock parts are in relatively short supply still.
I mated it to the top end of my Gen3 G17 with an LVU serial prefix.
I did this with no ammo because I wanted to ensure the combo was safe. Good thing I did, as it was horrific. That frame as built from LWD when combined with my slide/barrel assembly would have produced a runaway gun the first time a loaded magazine was put into it. On the occasions where I could actually get the trigger bar to catch the striker, the trigger would actually pull itself if ANY pressure was applied to the trigger. As in you touch it, you remove your finger, and then you watch the trigger go to the rear and the thing fires.
I took the frame apart and replaced the disconnector, trigger bar, and trigger return spring with the same from my Gen3 pistol and that improved things significantly. (I had to tweak the factory disconnector) It was no longer horrifically unsafe...but it wasn't perfect either. While it's better, if you cycle the slide while holding pressure on the trigger just right it will cause the gun to fail to reset. Thankfully it doesn't drop the striker, it just fails to reset the trigger.
The LW frame seems to sit the slide a bit higher on the gun than the factory frame rails which likely produces this sort of result.
I took it to the range and shot about 150 rounds through it. I didn't experience any function issues in live fire, including the aforementioned failure to reset. I've only been able to produce that in dryfire. I have no idea how that record will hold in the long run, but I plan to do more shooting with the gun in the near future to evaluate it.
It is not a configuration I would trust for carry right now.
As best I can tell, this combination of the LW frame and my slide assembly are not compatible with one another...which isn't a shock. Injection molding in mass volume requires significant technical proficiency and requires deep knowledge of how the molds being used perform over time. Every time they are used, the molds wear. Eventually they have to be replaced. Even tiny variations in the recipe of the polymer being used have significant impacts on the end product.
When you swirl all that together with a number of other QC related issues regarding dimensions and mass production, you get a shitload of variables that must be accounted for to result in a functional product. Glock knows what those variables are and how they change. Nobody else making various Glock bits does.
And that's how you get the problem I'm dealing with. The grip on the frame itself is fantastic. It vastly reduces the tendency of the gun to cut the shit out of me with the slide. It's really, really nice.
Unfortunately it is, like so many other aftermarket Glock products, reverse engineered from some subset of Glock pistols without knowledge of the dimensions on the literally tens of millions of Gen3 pistols Glock has manufactured over almost a quarter century. Which means it's always going to be iffy with a large number of pistols. LW's own parts in the frame are terrible with my gun and it flat doesn't work with other popular aftermarket fire control bits like the stuff from Apex. (Which is the only manufacturer I trust on striker guns)
I imagine this gun will become a range-only gun that I leave iron sighted for those occasions when I need to teach with an irons gun.
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