Glock 21 Gen 5 Reports (Also weird jam with mine)

[PNWTO]

ETA: I agree Glock will likely discontinue the Gen 4.

On another forum, a guy “in-the-know” said that his organization was told that Gen 4 production has begun to taper off; goal being to eventually maintain the bare minimum Gen 3/4 production needs for LE and Gov contracts.

[JonInWA]

Glock did offer for me to send the gun(s) in for inspection. The guy I was talking to was very nice and it didn’t seem like there was some known issue with the G21 Gen 5. Considering how many rounds it took for the stoppages to happen with each gun, I doubt they would find anything if I sent the pistols to them.

I’m still kind of iffy whether I want to blow another thousand rounds to see if it will do it again. My minimum round count requirement without a stoppage for carry/defense is 1000 rounds. My HK45C passed it in less than a week, with one range session sending over 500 rounds through the HK at one time.

I really like the Gen 5 G21 and the way it shoots. I want to have one I can trust. Those were some weird stoppages, though. I still have a spare Gen 4 G21 I haven’t completely vetted yet, and I’m wondering if I should just stick with Gen 4 (though I do wonder if Glock will discontinue it now that the Gen 5 is online).

I strongly recommend just hitting the "Easy" switch and send the gun (and all of your magazines) to the Mothership in Georgia for them to examine; they'll probably do that on their dime shipping-wise, and will thoroughly go through the gun, ideally eliminating any potential or actual causal factors. THEN you can expend a thousand or so rounds.

I like my Gen 3, and it's going nowhere, but I think the Gen5s are an improvement in terms of both performance and ergonomics.

Best, Jon

[SwampDweller]

Is Gen5 in the first part of the post supposed to be Gen4?

Are you shooting 5,000+++ rounds per year in each gun where you expect to be needing replacement parts that badly?

ETA: I agree Glock will likely discontinue the Gen 4.

No, I meant to say Gen 5s.

Nah, I don't expect to need to frequently replace parts, but I do like having them on hand for peace of mind. At this current time I have three Gen 4's and two Gen 5's. (One Gen 4 is a PD trade in I use as a dedicated trainer)

[RevolverJIM]

Strangely I have recently had similar stoppages with two of my Gen 5 G17s, none so far with the gen 5 G21 but only about 200 rounds through the G21. Never a stoppage through my Gen 4 G21.

My G17 stoppages were about half way through the fully loaded Glock mags.........call me confused

Edited to add: My S&W revolvers don't suffer from stoppages of any kind

[45dotACP]

And thus Glock has become the 1911....

[SwampDweller]

On another forum, a guy “in-the-know” said that his organization was told that Gen 4 production has begun to taper off; goal being to eventually maintain the bare minimum Gen 3/4 production needs for LE and Gov contracts.

Any word on Gen 3 in particular? So far, Gen 3 has remained in production for the public while Gen 4 has been discontinued to the commercial market and only sold to LE/gov

[SwampDweller]

I see that the Speer Lawman 230gr ammo is advertised as 830 FPS, which is a bit less than their duty load at 890 FPS. I wonder if the somewhat weaker Lawman load could've contributed to the stoppages. American Eagle is listed at 890fps.

[Joe Mac]

I see that the Speer Lawman 230gr ammo is advertised as 830 FPS, which is a bit less than their duty load at 890 FPS. I wonder if the somewhat weaker Lawman load could've contributed to the stoppages. American Eagle is listed at 890fps.

For what it's worth, our PD range had a recent lot (or lots) of Lawman 124 with occasional underpowered cartridges -- not full blown squibs, but clearly softer, with some attendant malfunctions. Could be that QC has slipped recently for some reason.

[RevolverRob]

Try this:

Unload the gun - bring it up in your firing position and press hard with your grip and look at where your index finger is in relation to the frame - is it close to the slide release?

Now loosen your grip a bit and see if the gun can move around so your index finger gets close enough to brush the slide release.

Here is my hypothesis:

Later in your shooting sessions your grip is relaxing a bit due to fatigue. It becomes acute as you get towards the bottom of a full magazine. The ambi slide release on the Gen5 now can be bumped, causing a very slight drag on the slide. That drag slows the slide just enough to disrupt the feeding process.

If you find you're able to drag the ambi slide release. I would buy a Gen5 slide release and grind the right side (left hand) side down flush with the frame. Install it and shoot 500 rounds, I bet it doesn't happen again.

I'd be willing to place a small wager that the solution is your grip and not the gun. Or rather a combination of the two, you never noticed it with previous G21s, because they don't have ambi slide releases.

[SwampDweller]

Try this:

Unload the gun - bring it up in your firing position and press hard with your grip and look at where your index finger is in relation to the frame - is it close to the slide release?

Now loosen your grip a bit and see if the gun can move around so your index finger gets close enough to brush the slide release.

Here is my hypothesis:

Later in your shooting sessions your grip is relaxing a bit due to fatigue. It becomes acute as you get towards the bottom of a full magazine. The ambi slide release on the Gen5 now can be bumped, causing a very slight drag on the slide. That drag slows the slide just enough to disrupt the feeding process.

If you find you're able to drag the ambi slide release. I would buy a Gen5 slide release and grind the right side (left hand) side down flush with the frame. Install it and shoot 500 rounds, I bet it doesn't happen again.

I'd be willing to place a small wager that the solution is your grip and not the gun. Or rather a combination of the two, you never noticed it with previous G21s, because they don't have ambi slide releases.

That would make sense. Handling my G21 Gen 5, it's hard to imagine my finger touching the slide stop enough to push it up against the slide, but I suppose it is possible given the position of my finger. Maybe I should try a vetting process where I don't shoot more than 250 rounds at a time.