Glock Owner..........Again!

Joined
Feb 28, 2003
Messages
11,977
Location
Cajun Country, La.
Hello all.
Lately I have been looking for a 45 ACP pistol. I had it narrowed down to a LE trade in FS 1.0 M&P or a LE trade in Glock Gen 3 G21. The MP was $329 and included 1 magazine, and $25 shipping. The G21 was $339 with 2 mags and FREE shipping. I chose the G21. I had seen these G21's on this site a month ago for $399. It had just recently been reduced, so I guess it was perfect timing.
The only other Glock I have owned was a Gen 4 G17. I sold it after owning it for 3 weeks because I couldn't get used to the grip angle. I have shot my friends Gen 3 G21 and liked the grips on the Gen 3 much better.
The G21 has night sights, which I don't know if they are good or bad. It also comes with 2-13 rd. mags. Is there anything to look for in particular on/in it when I get it this Monday? Any advice/help you fine members can add is greatly appreciated.
Also, is it true that if you send a Glock back to the factory in GA. they will Nitride the slide and barrel and replace any worn parts?
THANK YOU!
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Well congratulations! I have a lot of experience with Glock but have never shot one in .45. All my 45s are 1911s. Have fun, I think the Gen3s are probably the best Glocks ever built.
 
I've shot and enjoyed the G21. It's an excellent pistol if you're looking for a high-capacity .45 ACP (and let's face it, who isn't looking for one...
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). It's the same frame/size as my G20, which I really like.

Excellent reliability, great capacity. What's not to like?

All tritium sights wear out in about 15 years. It's the nature of tritium, with a half life of 10 years, you've got half the illumination at 10 years, and about 1/3 by 15. Glock sights are among the easiest to change out if you want new ones. You drift, or push, the rear and the front sight is screwed on. They aren't super-expensive, since they're so common, I think about $100 for a set. My 8 year old G20 night sights are still pretty good. Take a look at yours in the dark and determine if they're good enough for you.

Glocks are pretty hard to mess up. LE trade-ins tend to have lots of holster wear but few actual rounds through them. Great choice if you're looking for a shooter.

I would clean it thoroughly, replace the recoil spring/guide rod, and then don't worry about it. Even though yours likely has only a few rounds through it, I always change the recoil spring on a used gun. Glock guide rod/recoil springs are cheap. You can upgrade to a steel (or even Tungsten) guide rod, but it's not needed. I did that on my G20 to be able to have more consistency when shooting full power 10mm. But with .45 ACP, you're fine with the stock weight of recoil spring. I would just replace it with stock.

I've done the "25 cent trigger job" on mine, and it makes a modest difference. Basically, you're polishing the connector, safety plunger, and other trigger surfaces that slide against each other, in order to reduce friction. Trigger pull weight is about the same, but it's much smoother and more crisp when you're done. Big point is to keep the surfaces in the same shape/profile, but remove the stamping marks. It's a polish, NOT a modification, which could mess up the gun and its safeties...

ZEV and others make a nice trigger, I've tired out a couple of Glocks with teh ZEV and they're nice, but I've not bothered on mine. If you chose to modify it, then have fun, Glocks are easy to work on. A few pins, and a few springs. With the ease of modification and the number of available parts, they're like the small block Chevy's of the gun world - common, easy to modify, and fun.

I would get another magazine for it. 3 is my minimum number. Genuine Glock always work well. They're not expensive and they're readily available.

One final note - I don't shoot reloads in any of my Glocks.

The owners manual will caution you against this. The reason is the chamber - it's slightly unsupported, meaning that just a bit of the brass wall in the cartridge is not surrounded by chamber. That's why Glocks feed so well and are so reliable, that relieved chamber. If you get a reloaded case, that happens to have weakened a bit, and that weakened spot ends up unsupported, you can get a pretty good failure - which leads to firearm damage.

Lots of guys will argue this point, but I follow Glock's recommendation on reloads.
 
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Good deal! Very interested to hear what type of condition it is received in. No doubt serviceable but how clean or how rough... Kind of wish I would have scooped up a trade-in G17 or G22 when they were still in stock.
 
Originally Posted by buck91
Good deal! Very interested to hear what type of condition it is received in. No doubt serviceable but how clean or how rough... Kind of wish I would have scooped up a trade-in G17 or G22 when they were still in stock.

There are BOO KOO G17/22 all over the interweb! Man, the G22s are like rabbits, they just keep coming/appearing!
GOOGLE "LE tradein guns" and hold on.
laugh.gif

I bought my G21 at officestore.com
They have FREE shipping on everything $99 and higher. It's a police supply store. They have a lot of LE trade ins.
 
Originally Posted by BlueOvalFitter
Originally Posted by buck91
Good deal! Very interested to hear what type of condition it is received in. No doubt serviceable but how clean or how rough... Kind of wish I would have scooped up a trade-in G17 or G22 when they were still in stock.

There are BOO KOO G17/22 all over the interweb! Man, the G22s are like rabbits, they just keep coming/appearing!
GOOGLE "LE tradein guns" and hold on.
laugh.gif

I bought my G21 at officestore.com
They have FREE shipping on everything $99 and higher. It's a police supply store. They have a lot of LE trade ins.



Most agencies are switching away from .40 to 9mm, that's why they are all over the place. We just finished swapping ours out last year.
 
Originally Posted by hatt
I wish I could find a couple of these mythical $100 Glock 22s locally.

$100? When you find them let me know. I want a few for myself!
 
Originally Posted by Astro14
One final note - I don't shoot reloads in any of my Glocks.

The owners manual will caution you against this. The reason is the chamber - it's slightly unsupported, meaning that just a bit of the brass wall in the cartridge is not surrounded by chamber. That's why Glocks feed so well and are so reliable, that relieved chamber. If you get a reloaded case, that happens to have weakened a bit, and that weakened spot ends up unsupported, you can get a pretty good failure - which leads to firearm damage.

Lots of guys will argue this point, but I follow Glock's recommendation on reloads.
From everything I had read it is the polygonal rifling that is the reason for Glock's warning about reloads especially when cast bullets are used.

The rifling can clog with lead and over time if not cleaned can develop high pressures which can lead to a catastrophic failure.

Early Glock .40 S&W pistols had unsupported chambers which led to the infamous "Glock bulge" and subsequent failures of the brass.

I have capped at least 40K reloaded rounds in 3 Glock pistols with no issues, but that is not an endorsement to ignore Glock's warning, it is just what worked well for me.
 
Originally Posted by ctechbob
Originally Posted by BlueOvalFitter
Originally Posted by buck91
Good deal! Very interested to hear what type of condition it is received in. No doubt serviceable but how clean or how rough... Kind of wish I would have scooped up a trade-in G17 or G22 when they were still in stock.

There are BOO KOO G17/22 all over the interweb! Man, the G22s are like rabbits, they just keep coming/appearing!
GOOGLE "LE tradein guns" and hold on.
laugh.gif

I bought my G21 at officestore.com
They have FREE shipping on everything $99 and higher. It's a police supply store. They have a lot of LE trade ins.



Most agencies are switching away from .40 to 9mm, that's why they are all over the place. We just finished swapping ours out last year.



I looked at "officestore.com" and it was, well an office store. Paper, pens and pencils...no cop stuff, no guns.
 
I'm pretty sure every big gun manufacture has the standard disclaimer about using handloads. Something interesting is that Starline doesn't recommend using their 9mm cases in S&W Shields with near max loads. .40 doesn't mention anything. I put a little more weight with Starline's recommendations, and I load for the Shield.

**NOT RECOMMENDED FOR USE IN S&W SHIELD PISTOLS WITH NEAR-MAX OR +P LOADS, DUE TO POORLY SUPPORTED CHAMBER CONDITION**
 
Originally Posted by BlueOvalFitter
Originally Posted by hatt
I wish I could find a couple of these mythical $100 Glock 22s locally.

$100? When you find them let me know. I want a few for myself!

I will. All I hear about is .40s being given away. I will rehome a couple.
 
I purchased my LEO trade-in Gen 2 Glock G22 (15 years ago) with brand new Trijicon night sights for $349 with 3 mags and no taxes. I have never regretted it.
Originally Posted by BlueOvalFitter
.The only other Glock I have owned was a Gen 4 G17. I sold it after owning it for 3 weeks because I couldn't get used to the grip angle.

Yes... I sanded the grip on mine considerably to get to where I felt it was comfortable.
 
Originally Posted by ammolab


I looked at "officestore.com" and it was, well an office store. Paper, pens and pencils...no cop stuff, no guns.


It's officeRstore.com
 
Good deal... I have a Gen 3 G21 (SF) too... I thought of selling it after I got a G41 but just haven't been able to let it go. To check the recoil spring, first make sure the pistol is clean and properly lubricated, then take the UNLOADED pistol with no magazine and pull the trigger and hold it to the rear... now point the pistol up and retract the slide all the way and ease it forward (up) slowly and see if it goes all the way back into battery... if not, it's time for a new recoil spring. Holding the EMPTY pistol with an empty magazine in your shooting hand, point it toward your weak hand side and using the weak hand, quickly rack the slide and let it go when it gets to full travel... this will tell if the mag springs are weak and / or the magazine's follower is worn if the slide doesn't lock open. Sometimes the mags just need cleaning... so starting with clean mags will give the truest results.
Glock will replace whatever is worn in the pistol and will replace the magazines... but won't automatically redo the slide unless it's showing corrosion ...and won't redo the barrel, but will replace it, if it's defective. They will also replace the night sights at a good price if they're burnt out. You just have to pay shipping to get it to them if you're not in their neighborhood... a friendly FFL dealer can help with that cost as they can utilize the postal service for lesser cost than FedEx or UPS.
Enjoy !
 
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