Blow ups

[waco58]

Has anyone heard of 180 grain factory ammo blowing up withe Glock?   Or is that the reloads?

[waco58]

That is 40 sw

[jro45]

I've never seen a blow up and I shoot reloads. For a blow you would have to be very careless. Thats how I see it.

[jkir]

IMHO, i have never seen a blow up that wasn't caused by bad ammo, rarely is it the gun (cheap guns not withstanding).

In generally, blowups that I have seen are caused by:

1, double powder charges
2, squib round (no/low powder) and then firing the next one on top of it
3, bad brass that doesn't seat far enough to contain the discharge pressure in the chamber, but far enough that the gun's mechanism works.

For factory ammo, I would say it was a squib that cycled the next round but didn't exit the barrel and the next round pushed the 1st out, but still blew up the barrel in the process. I had this happen with a 45acp XD with UMC ammo. This is the one and only time I have had, or have heard of, issues with this otherwise fine ammo.

[CouchTater]

I had a few case failures in the early days of the .40 S&W. Federal had a run of bad brass used in their 180 grain Hydrashok ammo. High pressure round, weak brass, possible bullet setback from rechambering the same round, and less than perfect case support over the feed ramp. No damage to the gun or me, other than frayed nerves. Sent the gun in to Glock for a complete checkout. Federal offered to replace my remaining ammo stock, but of course offered no means of shipping it. Local UPS station refused to ship since I'm not a licensed hazmat shipper. So I'm out the $40 or whatever in unusable ammo. Haven't bought Federal products since.

Folks have had problems with reloads for a number of reasons. Mainly using cast bullets AIUI, the Glock barrels lead up pretty quickly and experience pressure spikes. Also, Glock chambers are made sloppy for feed reliability, that works the brass quite a bit. Brass shot in Glocks shouldn't be reloaded as many times as is typical for other handguns. 

[SHOOTALL]

A friend had a 10mm come apart , the round in the chamber let go as did the top round in the mag. it was with reloads ,
no one was hurt , we found all the parts , put the gun back togather and it worked . I guess ya have to admit Glock makes a durable gun .

[razdog76]

Glocks have oversized chambers much like British Lee-Enfields and SMLE's. 

This aids in reliability, but if you shoot reloads or reload this will put alot of stress on the brass.  If the brass comes unglued, then you will probably be unhappy.  Since the expressly advise against it, Glock will not provide much help if you end up with problems.

[specops]

See http://www.thegunzone.com/glock/glock-kb2.html.  Seems in the late 90s and early 200X there were some kabooms.  Most were in .40 S&W.  Several causes from dirty barrels, to hot reloads and factory loads as well as others.  Have seen similiar problems with other brands as well (1911s, M9s, Sigs, H&K, etc) so not unique to Glock. 

[Savage]

The Glock is a fine service pistol. One of the conditions that make it so reliable are the size/angle of the feed ramp. This causes a large section of the case to be unsupported by the chamber in the 6:00 position. Out of spec ammo and fatigued brass are contributors to case failures as well as the unsupported area. Couple this with the ability to fire when the slide is slightly out of battery which is usually caused by dirty chamber or ammo, and sometimes a weak recoil spring, and occasionalcase failures occur. I have carried and shot Glocks since the 90s, both as personal and duty weapons. I have seen, thousands more rounds fired on the ranges. I have yet to see a case failure. I know they happen, but have not personally witnessed one. Use good judgement in ammo selection and pistol maintenance and most likely you will never witness one either.
Savage

[poncaguy]

My Glock 22 40 looks like the chamber is supported, looks just like my Storm Lake 357 Sig chamber......am I wrong?

[Savage]

With the barrel removed, drop a loaded round in your inverted barrel. In the 6:00 area of the chamber, just above the feed ramp, you will see an unsupported area of the case just forward of the extractor groove.
Forty cal cases fired in Glocks frequently have a very noticable bulge in that area. Fatigued brass, or an overload due to bullet setback, or overcharge, results in case failure in that area. Thus the famous KABOOM!!
Savage

[specops]

Savage makes a good point.  For duty ammo I drop every round into the disassembled barrel of the weapon it will be used in.  I do the same for heavy duty reloads in revolvers.  Since I normally only carry commerical ammo in CCW it doesnt take very long and gives a comforting feeling to know it will chamber properly.  The problem with the .40 S&W is the higher chamber pressure stressing everything more.  I've never seen anything about a 9MM Glock having a KB.  Some early 21s had a problem which was partly Federal's case design but also led to the 2 pin Glock design or so I've been told. 

[GSD17]

You hear so much about it because:

A: GLOCK .40's used to have less supported chambers. GLOCK beefed up the top of the feed ramp a few years back.
B: GLOCK .40's are VERY popular in law enforcement AND civilian usage, therefor, more stories surface due to so many in use
C: Alot, if not nearly all damages from kB's (kaBoom is the term for a blown up pistol, haven't seen it used on this site yet) is from an overcharged .40 round. The .40 is already in essence a +p+ round, and cannot really be loaded "hot", its already "hot".

Combine the 3 and you have panic that everyone's G22/G22C/G23/G23C/G24/G24C/G27 is gonna blow up.

Fact is it happens to all guns, in all calibers. The mass hysteria just hears more about, and focuses more on the GLOCK in .40.

[specops]

I agree.  I've had Kbs in a S&W 52 (my fault) a Astra 600 9mm (another dummies fault) and a Colt 1911 (not sure who's fault).  I shoot a 19 and a 36 and I've run standard, +P and +P+ including some Israeli submachine gun rounds I accidently got in a batch of generic ball.  Neither gun was damaged or failed but you sure knew you had launched one down range, especially in the 36.  I've witnessed and seen the results of more in .38 special and .357 Mag revolvers than anything else.