Ohioans For Concealed Carry Discussion Forums

So I have a little egg on my face today....

At Fun and Gun, I was having problems with missfires, or so I thought. Came back from the TDI, cleaned my Glock 17 real good, like always. I was at the range today, and same thing. Missfires. LOTS of them. With different ammo.

Today was really cold. Fun and Gun was cold as well, but my gun stayed warm at Fun and Gun because it spent a lot of time in a holster. Today, it was sitting outside at the ~35F ambient temperature, so it was cold as well and just would. not. work. correctly.

My friend took it apart and promptly diagnosed the problem as a clogged firing pin channel. I got home and took the whole slide assembly apart. Removed the back plate, pulled the firing pin assembly and ejector, everything.

The firing pin assembly and channel were...shall we say....disgusting? Yeah.... it was really dirty with gunk. I went through 50+ q-tips getting that firing pin channel clean.

So, let's this be a lesson: DO NOT OVERLUBE GLOCKS!!!! The only things that need to be lubed on a clock is the rails. That's it. Do not attempt to lube the firing pin channel. That hole that's in the slide? IT IS NOT FOR LUBE!

It was cold in Medina but where in the heck was it 35 below??

djthomas wrote:It was cold in Medina but where in the heck was it 35 below??

Bianchi? wrote: Today, it was sitting outside at the ~35F ambient temperature,

Enlarged to make it clear that he used a tilde (meaning "approximately" in this context), not a minus sign.

Most striker-fired handguns really don't like much lube - if at all - in the striker channel or components.

Lubricants that will not slow the operation of the firearm is a necessary precaution for shooters like us, who live in cooler areas. This goes beyond just the striker/striker channel, and applies to the entire firearm.

Quack, for example, purposely used Slide-Glide "Lite" on a couple of his 1911s in a class that was held just above freezing and in some rather cold rain, and he experienced persistent problems. A change to light oils eliminated the problems. ( REF: http://www.glocktalk.com/threads/slide-glide.1304103/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; )

I use wheel bearing grease on my AK's in the warmer months but switch to synthetic motor oil in the winter.

None of that expensive fancy stuff.

Any semi-auto handgun can build up lube and dirt in the firing pin channel, and create the same issue.

Although I've found that Hoppes 9 gives a good clean but leaves behind enough protection to keep the channel from rusting (speaking of older-style guns here where the channel may not have a super-great coating), if you want to use lube, toss the bottle in the freezer for a few days and the pull out and squirt. If it has thickened up, it will do that to your gun in the cold. I've found some do and some don't.

Oh-oh The seeds of a dreaded "best lube" discussion... "I use ______ [insert personal choice] and it works great for me, best in the world".

No lube in the firing pin holes for Glocks - actually no lube needed in any of the slide parts.

CCIman wrote:Oh-oh The seeds of a dreaded "best lube" discussion... "I use ______ [insert personal choice] and it works great for me, best in the world".

No lube in the firing pin holes for Glocks - actually no lube needed in any of the slide parts.

Not meant that way from me, just a suggestion. But I do have 10s of thousands rounds out of Glocks in all weathers treated that way...so I didn't just read it somewhere on the Internet.

Some folks find that if they use a more aggressive cleaner than Hoppes 9 (or similar), and don't lube it, that the gun will rust as the aggressive cleaner strips everything and anything off the metal. Obviously, it really depends on the type of coating applied to the gun.

First time I saw that level of fubar from a clogged firing pin channel was with a guy's EDC handgun, believe it was a Glock model 21, .45acp. He'd decided to get some trigger time with it at a bowling pin match. Fortunately for him the pins do not shoot back or even charge forward with knives, bludgeons, etc.

The gun's owner had been visiting our area on a job site in a not so good neighborhood. He looked a little green around the gills until we diagnosed and fixed the problem.

We just told him to spread the word, and maybe save somebody else's hide in the future.

Mr. Glock wrote:

CCIman wrote:Oh-oh The seeds of a dreaded "best lube" discussion... "I use ______ [insert personal choice] and it works great for me, best in the world".

No lube in the firing pin holes for Glocks - actually no lube needed in any of the slide parts.

Not meant that way from me, just a suggestion.

Me neither.

I don't care what people treat their firearms with or how they accomplish it - as long as they understand the whys.

There's so much good stuff out there.

And there's also so many ways to screw it up.

BTW even new from factory Glocks will often have oil inside the firing pin channel from the manufacturing process. Depending on how it is shot and carried (lubed), it probably is worth a complete teardown evey once in a while to clean the dirt out. Try that with any other handgun. Just imagine if this were some other non-Glock handgun. The Glock depth of internet community experience, and how-to, and the sheer simplicity of the tool design makes it easy for the simplest man/woman.

Backing away from what I said earlier, having oil or lube inside the channel does not increase or decrease the amount of blowback dirt, lint dust, that gets into it. Having some oil may help it run longer when it otherwise would have completely failed- also keeps the metal parts from galling if there is any moisture in there. In this scenario by the OP, other factors (cold temperature) came into play.

CCIman wrote:... Depending on how it is shot and carried (lubed), it probably is worth a complete teardown evey once in a while to clean the dirt out. Try that with any other handgun. Just imagine if this were some other non-Glock handgun. The Glock depth of internet community experience, and how-to, and the sheer simplicity of the tool design makes it easy for the simplest man/woman.
...

The "tool"?

Is that something that comes with the gun, like an M&P?

Because if you have to BUY a SEPARATE tool to make the firing pin removal easy, that would suck.

But at least you don't have to pull the trigger to take down the...oh, wait...that's the M&P also.

Never mind.

MyWifeSaidYes wrote:

CCIman wrote:... Depending on how it is shot and carried (lubed), it probably is worth a complete teardown evey once in a while to clean the dirt out. Try that with any other handgun. Just imagine if this were some other non-Glock handgun. The Glock depth of internet community experience, and how-to, and the sheer simplicity of the tool design makes it easy for the simplest man/woman.
...

The "tool"?

Is that something that comes with the gun, like an M&P?

Because if you have to BUY a SEPARATE tool to make the firing pin removal easy, that would suck.

But at least you don't have to pull the trigger to take down the...oh, wait...that's the M&P also.

Never mind.

Handgun = tool.

Correct, I was referring to the gun =tool.
Ever try tearing down a M&P to its component parts? -- yeah, that little butt-plug tool is not going to help you much. but it works on the Glocks.

There are some dry lubes on the market...I've used the Liquid Wrench variety, but can't really tell if it is better than a wet lube. WD40 has their variety also and claims to be better than the others on bearing and pressure tests:
http://wd40specialist.com/products/dry-lube/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The advantage of a dry lube is that it is a surface application, and is not affected by cold temps, good corrosion shield, and acts like a surface coat like PVD or teflon or NiB.

I'd prefer to use a dry lube over a liquid in the channel.