Glock 43 Fires Out-of-Battery

[Lilhigbee]

Jeannie bought a new Glock 43 and decided to use it for our class at Cerberus. On Saturday she fired about 125 rounds without any noticeable issues. These were the first rounds through the gun since new. I didn't inspect the brass because there weren't any noticeable problems. We cleaned it that night and proceeded to shoot about 400 more rounds the next day. Towards the end of the day she had four failures-to-fire. They were not consecutive, not even out of the same mag load, but probably over the course of an hour or so; we didn't really note the time. She picked up a couple of them and tossed them in the range box and I got the other two when we were picking up brass at the end of the day.

Upon inspection to see what happened I noticed that the primer strikes were way out of center on the four rounds (see picture, only three rounds, can't find the fourth.). Got some time this evening to look through the rest of her brass and found another twenty or so that are also out of center, though not nearly as bad as the FTF's (See second picture). The third picture is a small group of the rest that I would consider normal. Tonight after clearing the gun I tried to get it to dry-fire out-of-battery and it will. If I push the slide back until the barrel drops about .030"-.040" the gun will still fire. I then tried a G26, G19 and G27 and they all do it as well, though maybe not quite as far out-of-battery.

A test of four models of Star, a Kimber, a PA-63 and a Walther P-1 showed that none of them would fire once the slide and barrel had separated even the slightest amount. A couple of the Stars would drop the hammer but the slide had moved enough that it interfered with it reaching the firing pin.

She purchased this intending for it to be a carry gun, but a 1% FTF rate is certainly unacceptable for that.

I don't think it is far enough out-of-battery to be hazardous so we intend to test it further and keep close track of the brass and see if we can learn anything more.

For those that may ask; yes they are reloads. Range brass, Tula primers (both nickel and brass; a subject for another thread), 6.4 gr HS-6, 124 gr. X-treme plated bullet, loaded on a Dillon 550.

My questions are;
Is there anything besides out-of-battery that would make some of the strikes out of center??
Anyone else with a G43 have this problem??
Is there anything I should try to do to fix it??
Any other thoughts or ideas??

Long post, thanks for reading!!

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[Medic!]

My only Glock 43 problem so far.

The new 43/gen five triggers have changed.
There is a small polymer guide rod used in the new trigger group spring design. It has a slight bend [Dog leg]. And will go in two ways. Dog leg up. Or down.

According to my research the Dog leg should be up?
Put it in upside down and get intermittent problems with trigger reset.

Trying to find a reliable source as to the correct way it installs was no easy task. Glock is not so forthright with this information in there literature.




It's this little part. [Shown here upside down?].

 

[Medic!]

I went back and changed the tune on my earlier post from telling how it fits. To asking.
I don't want to pass on bad info.

I'm not sure now which way is up on this part? I keep seeing different things on different videos.
Anybody else know?

I do believe it's dog leg up.
And my gun has been 100% since installing it this way.








Update/Edit: This is a picture sent to me from a ''Dan'' at Glock just minutes ago. He said it shows proper installation. And the dog leg is up.

 

[Member 34319]

Did you get to witness this happening? IE, did you see the slide not enter full battery when your wife was shooting?

Did this happen at all with factory ammo?

I know you mentioned that these were reloads, but this is the first ever problem I have heard of with a Glock 43, and I would be hesitant to blame the firearm.

 

[Certaindeaf]

Are you using a Lee factory crimp die?. looks like some of those are not chambering all the way.

 

[Medic!]

Did you get to witness this happening? IE, did you see the slide not enter full battery when your wife was shooting?

Did this happen at all with factory ammo?

I know you mentioned that these were reloads, but this is the first ever problem I have heard of with a Glock 43, and I would be hesitant to blame the firearm.

Good question about ammo. I wonder if it's just a 1% failure rate with what ammo.

Heck I bet If I tried my hand at reloading I could give that Glock at least a 50% failure rate.
That's if I didn't get it to go Kaboom!

 

[MrMillspecer]

The top two FTFs look like light primer strikes. And too far off center . Yikes !
The bottom a bad or not seated primer, possibly.

My subcompact has off center primer strikes but they are consistent and it hits hard. But if yours is not consistent then I would look into the firing out of battery. That sounds dangerous. They should make parts to fit one way only. Good luck hope it's a simple fix.

 

[Medic!]

A limp wrist is a sure way to slow a slide. And prevent it from going fully into battery.

 

[bbbass]

A limp wrist is a sure way to slow a slide. And prevent it from going fully into battery.

That was my first thought. But the off center primer strikes are not an acceptable situation. The striker should NOT be moving around like that. So something is not being held in place correctly.

My Glocks have all been Gen2 and Gen4... didn't know the Gen5s were so different in the trigger group.

 

[Medic!]

That was my first thought. But the off center primer strikes are not an acceptable situation. The striker should NOT be moving around like that. So something is not being held in place correctly.

My Glocks have all been Gen2 and Gen4... didn't know the Gen5s were so different in the trigger group.

I here you. But don't think the primer strikes are off center. I believe their high on the primer.
This is from the slide not being fully forward.

Glocks will release the striker with the slide not quite fully forward.

In this case the high primer strikes did not fire. And that makes sense, since the striker pin protrusion is only so long. And doesn't look to have been able to cause ignition.
If this is insurance against firing out of battery then it worked.

The problem for me is not the high light primer strikes.
That's just an indication the slide is not going forward all the way. That's a problem!

So what happened?

End of day. Was she tired and limp wristing?
Was the gun dirty enough to slow slide speed and prevent good lock up?
Was it the ammo dimensions? Maybe to tight in the chamber?

 

[bbbass]

Good thinking!!

 

[Joe13]

@Kruejl was having issues similar to this with a brand new gun.

I can't remember exactly what he had to do to fix it though and don't want to toss out misinformation.

Maybe he will have something to add.

 

[bbbass]

I think he is taking a jonbailey time out.

 

[Kruel J]

Nah, my G26 wasn't doing that at all. It was leaving the spent case sitting on top of the next round in the mag and jamming. I replaced the recoil spring assembly, the extractor and the ejector. Cheap and easy fix. It has been 100% reliable ever since. I'll bet mine was made on a Friday afternoon.

 

[Kruel J]

I don't even know which part was the issue as I replaced them all at the same time. But again, it was cheap and easy.

 

[Lilhigbee]

In order;
No I never SAW the slide out-of-battery, but I can't think of any other way the primer strike can be out of center sporadically. Jeannie has the Tap-Rack-and-Go drill down to where it is second nature. She never looked to see why it had F'edTF.

Haven't tried any factory ammo in the gun yet. That will be part of the next session. Since I don't see a likelihood of catastrophic failure we can test the gun and ammo further, but until I can find what is wrong and fix it or get it fixed the gun will NOT be her carry piece.

Die set is a complete Dillon one. Jeannie has loaded and shot hundreds of rounds with this same setup without issue,
except for the nickel-plated Tula primers, which I hope to get to in another thread. Guns include a Glock 19, 26 and Walther P-1, probably others.

Please look again at the second picture. Those are some of the ones that fired while out-of-battery.

Jeannie shoots quite a bit and doesn't exhibit limp-wristing problems with her other guns, but a possibility.

The gun was as dirty as can be expected from a day of shooting. The first FTF was probably less than three hundred rounds into the day.

Ammo dimensions should be the same as they have been for the last few years of loading with this setup, but again a possibility. We "plunk-tested" a number of them along the way for QC purposes. No FTPs (failures to plunk). There are still a few hundred from this loading session we can plunk test.

 

[Kruel J]

Unless she was REALLY mag dumping the thing, it shouldn't fire out of battery unless its just not going fully into battery. Those primer strikes though........

 

[bbbass]

We "plunk-tested" a number of them along the way for QC purposes. No FTPs (failures to plunk). There are still a few hundred from this loading session we can plunk test.

I plunk test every single round of my reloads... you'd be surprised what you find. For some reason I have yet to figure out, some range brass won't pass muster after reloading. I usually don't have that problem with brass I shot myself. I use Dillon dies too.

 

[P7M13]

@Lilhigbee , glad Jeannie is OK and no KB happened with these. I think it's a good call on the "out of battery" firing test.
The highly off center, light primer strikes would make me scratch my head.
Do you have a case gauge for your 9mm reloads? My experience with limp wristing was always, if it extracted properly and didn't stovepipe, then the slide would return to battery and you were GTG.
Learned early in my reloading days about the plunk test - had a Steyr M4 and HK P7 that would not fire if the slide was out of battery in the slightest (visibly imperceptible). Wasn't seating the bullet deep enough. Micrometering the rounds told the story.

In some situations, I could see where firing while out of battery to a degree would be beneficial, but not under civilian conditions.
1% FTF is unacceptable, even if it's ammo and not the gun.

 

[Kruel J]

Have you tried some factory ammo, just for giggles?