A report about Glock firing pins breaking for the weapons issued to the Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office deputies bring out the “experts.”
CBS4 News showed the Palm Beach report to local gunsmiths and armorers, including Robert Hasmi, president of Absolute Tactical Solutions in Miami Lakes and a police officer in South Florida for more than 20 years.
“Remember these are all working metal parts rubbing against each other constantly, that’s how a gun works,” said Hasmi. “The slide rubs against the frame, the barrel rubs against the slide when it, when you form its actions. It’s metal rubbing against metal.”
Hasmi said the possible culprit is the type of metal Glock uses in its firing pin.
“If the metal is too soft that the manufacturer uses, that could also be an issue,” he said.
I know it has been decades since I walked through the halls of engineering academia, but I seem to recall that very hard metals are brittle and break under stress and/or effort while soft metals bend.
But I might be wrong since I am not an “expert.”
A show of hands, who has ever seen a 1911 have problems during an IDPA Match….
All that metal rubbing metal…..Oh, I`m in trouble now……. 🙂
Well, yes you are… and I am neither Glock Fanboi or 1911 acolyte. I have seen failures on both and likely because the owner had to screw with them.
That was my point Big Guy. One P.D. Department has a problem, someone messin around……. 🙁
o_O
Did a cop armorer just say Glock’s frames were metal?
Well the rails of the frame are metal right?
The whole things is bizarre.
Although the “hot” ammo theory is interesting, the anecdotal evidence seems to be piling up that that proper heat treating and QC relating to heat treating is falling by the wayside during this boom in gun demand. Although the alloy may be a secret, the Glock firing pin is probably steel. Firing pins need to be hardened…properly!
Things with moving parts sometimes break. Things with moving parts that are poorly maintained — and show of hands if you think these cops have high standards — break that much more often.
I’m no armorer, nor do I pretend to be… and, not especially fond of Glocks… but Heinlein’s Razor points to user error not manufacturer.
On a piece like that, if some got through QC after being improperly heat-treated, they’re going to go. Sooner or later, but they’ll go.