Polymer 80 thread - complete guns, serialized frames, and 80% builds

[backtrail540]

Anybody out there running any version of the polymer 80 stuff currently?

Earlier this year I put together a full size gun using a serialized frame. I've been enjoying it quite a bit and it fixes issues I have with stock glock frames (undercut, texture, grip angle particularly) while giving me some of the better features (commonality of parts and simplicity) including gen 3 parts which I like, namely the mag button and trigger.

My setup is a serialized 17 sized frame with the following -

Centurion arms slide with 509t cut
oem slide internals
gadget
oem frame internals (extended mag button)
kagwerks slide release
kkm barrel
sandstorm precision magwell (until I find a plug that works well with the p80 frame)
holosun 509t

I'm just rolling over 500 rounds, so not much to say about reliability yet. I did have an issue with user induced early lockback caused by my strong hand thumb pushing up on the kagwerks. I'm going back to an oem extended release though the kagwerks is pretty nice from a performance perspective.

What are you running and how has your experience been thus far?

[Grouse870]

I have a full size one. Just finished it (mostly just need a red dot and some better sights) it is mostly Glock parts except

Aim surplus rmr cut slide and threaded barrel

Agency arms syndicate trigger.

Isle mag well

It’s like 99% reliable it has some failure to eject that I’m still diagnosing. Only have like 100 rounds through it. Waiting on a comp and the sights to really put it through its paces. But it was a fun project. I may do another. It’s a fun excuse to try new parts

[Catshooter]

Full sized frame in .45 ACP. I love it.

All Glock parts, except what is OEM to the P80. I made the silly mistake of using the plastic trigger housing pin instead of the one supplied by P80. That lasted exactly one round. Once that was fixed it needed about 75 rounds to break in. You could tell it as it shot. Started out a bit hit and miss and then got smoother and smoother as the round count went up. Round count is still low at about 350. Used it in competition with a friend on 3/4 human silhouettes at 90 yards and it did well.

The feature I like the most is the way they made it small enough for my freak hands. My palms are almost 2X while my fingers barely make medium. The front two frame corners on the G21 rest on bones, not knuckles, very uncomfortable. The P80 is just small enough that my knuckles hit the frame corners perfectly. Very nice.

[backtrail540]

Had a very fun and interesting session with my p80 today. I warmed up with a cold run of a modified Triple Nickel, triple nickel but using b8's essentially. I had a poor reload but that was just a matter of not prioritizing them in dry practice and general practice for some time, not any fault of the gun as they reload as easily as a normal glock.


5.30 modified triple nickel

Then a run of the old Bakersfield PD qual. First time running it. 96 due to putting one high on the final string. Everything else was in an 8" circle. It is a nice little skills check.



After that warmup I got to the real fun. After recently listening to the @jlw podcast (That Weems Guy) episode with @John Hearne about shooting with a cognitive load (Everyone is Wrong About Everything) I was excited to work with some of this. What I decided on was to take the 5 target array from the triple nickel setup and shoot them like the Casino drill (1 gets 1, 2 gets 2, 3 gets 3, and so on but with 3 mags containing 5 rounds) but the person running the timer calls out the starting point and which direction to go just before the beep. As a control I ran the straight version, heads only, 1-5 in 10.99.

We used variations from randomly loaded magazines for surprise reloads, the forementioned partner calling out starting target and shooting order, 1-5 but single shots and transitions (1-5,2-5,3-5,4-5,5 with reloads mixed in), and the potentially hardest variation was odds got their number to the body/evens got their number to the head with partner calling out shooting order/starting target. It was very interesting seeing the difference between a fairly skilled/seasoned shooter vs my shooting partner who is far less experienced/skilled. I made some mistakes here and there but generally shot the right order/number of shots where he got complete vapor lock at one point and sat there staring at the target for nearly 3 seconds while thinking then dropped a mag before slidelock and engaged wrong targets. The open vs closed motor skills discussion came to mind.

Here is a run of the odds getting body shots and evens getting head shots (mags loaded 5-5-5) where my partner called 3 (starting point) up (shooting order) for the string.



After 150 rounds of this even a dirty Casino run had me fall apart. I forgot the normal Casino Drill targets at home so I made a scratch version that I dubbed the Underground Casino with 3x5 cards and wrote the numbers on.

https://youtube.com/shorts/ApQz36yEGLk
Here I forgot to give the 5th shot on the 5 after the reload and went straight to the 6th, leaving a round in the gun and thus having to go back to the 5. Despite an order that i have memorized and the reloads are essentially planned, I still managed to lose track of where I was at the end. Good stuff.


The p80 ran fine without any issues using blazer aluminum 115. I have only 580 rounds through this setup so far. I dropped the kagwerks release as I was causing premature lockback with it (while the lever is up and out of the way, the extension is exposed and I hit that fairly frequently) and the factory extended release seems gtg for me.

I'm liking the centurion slide combo enough that I plan on getting a 19 slide from them at some point and duplicating this setup on the compact frame. Glock simplicty and commonality (except holsters) with better ergos in the grip. I plan on running this most of the rest of the year (i'm certain other shiny things will catch my eye and I can't help myself) but it will be my focus.

[John Hearne]

After that warmup I got to the real fun. After recently listening to the @jlw podcast (That Weems Guy) episode with @John Hearne about shooting with a cognitive load (Everyone is Wrong About Everything) I was excited to work with some of this.

It was very interesting seeing the difference between a fairly skilled/seasoned shooter vs my shooting partner who is far less experienced/skilled. I made some mistakes here and there but generally shot the right order/number of shots where he got complete vapor lock at one point and sat there staring at the target for nearly 3 seconds while thinking then dropped a mag before slidelock and engaged wrong targets. The open vs closed motor skills discussion came to mind.

Glad someone is listening and another person believes that I'm not making this sh*t up.

[jlw]

Just be sure to have a sub-second draw, and everything will work itself out.

[backtrail540]

I have a spare gen 5 trigger group floating around and decided to tinker with the p80/centurion/509t gun and see if i could get it to work in there. It was mostly drama free. I had to clip the ears/extensions at the bottom of the trigger housing so that it would seat low enough to get the pin through. Otherwise it was trouble free. I put a gen 5 slide plate on the slide as well. The slide will go on until flush then I had to pull the trigger forward to get it on. So obviously not a solution for a serious gun but it ran trouble free for 150 rounds of various drills and tests today.

Are there any safety concerns that i am missing? It runs and resets fine at sub 20 splits and the gun didn't have any malfunctions but i'm not an armorer either. It made for a decent setup today and i prefer the gen 5 trigger to other glock triggers. This particular one is an overwatch shoe and bar with ghost connector. Not my favorite from a feel perspective but it performs well enough.