Paul Harrell Would Slap Me

I’m going to tell on myself.

I cranked out a bunch of 10mm rounds today, and then I decided to shoot a few and see if they blew my hand off. I took the Glock 29 and the new Glock 20 to the pasture. I had 11 Hornady factory rounds. I shot those from the new gun because shooting reloads would void the warranty. I don’t care about voiding the warranty on the old gun, because I know it was okay from the factory. The major parts have no defects. Whatever goes wrong from here on out, I can probably fix. If it turned out the new gun had a giant crack in the frame or a ringed barrel or something, I would want to find out while I still had a warranty.

Glock is a real pain about warranties. They void you if you shoot reloads, which seems ridiculous. I guess most people lie, but I prefer not to.

The Hornady rounds shot fine, but three of the first 11 handloaded rounds failed to fire because of light primer strikes.

That’s a pretty high ratio of duds to viable rounds.

The second magazine only had one dud. That told me the cartridges were probably okay. I rounded up the cartridges that failed, ran them through the gun again, and they fired.

My conclusion? Somebody let lint gum up his firing pin.

I can’t even remember the last time I cleaned the gun. I never shoot it. Evidently, Glocks will suck up lint and become useless. It may be because I have an Uncle Mike’s pocket holster, which sheds little fibers until it’s broken in.

Man, it would have been unpleasant if this had happened with my carry ammo on a bad day. “RELAX, LADY, I’LL SAVE YOU!” “Click.” “SORRY! BEST OF LUCK! WORK THE JAB!”

I brought the gun inside, and for the first time since I’ve owned it, I disassembled the slide. It only takes a second. I went through it with swabs and alcohol, among other things. I went online and ordered 220 pipe cleaners to ream out the deep holes in the slide. I cleaned everything with Powder Blast, which is brutal, and I also used Hornady One Shot. I used a tiny bit of Mobil 28 grease on the slide when I reassembled it.

They say you should not lubricate anything on a Glock but the slide, and they recommend oil, but I can’t resist trying out my super-duper Mobil 28 grease in the special made-for-gunsmithing skinny syringe. Since I’m the one who has to clean it, I figure I’ll do what I want.

I was not happy with the way the gun acted when I put it back together. It has a Lasermax guide rod laser, which I never should have bought. The laser replaces the guide rod and spring, and it doesn’t feel great. Also, you have to install a Lasermax slide lock, which can actually fall out. And the batteries die fast, unlike those in a Crimson Trace.

I decided to reinstall the original rod and spring. Then I got them out and noticed they had separated from each other. This is something that happens with Glocks, but this was the first time I had seen it happen to a spring that wasn’t used. The manufacturer, unbelievably, considers the guide rod assembly a disposable part, so they don’t make them very well, and they come apart. This would be fine if you could predict when it would happen, but you can’t. It looks like my original assembly fell apart under the stress of sitting in a box in a closet.

This is at least the second Glock spring failure I’ve had.

I can’t deal with this. Personal safety is important, even to a guy who doesn’t clean his guns. I’m getting a Wolff spring and rod, and I will never buy them from Glock again. As if I planned to. I’m also getting a Crimson Trace.

The new Glock has a horrendous trigger. I don’t know why it would be different from the old ones. That will have to be fixed.

The ammo appears to be fine. It shoots very accurately, and it cycles when you actually hit the primer correctly.

I’m getting a few boxes of factory ammo for the new gun. I’ll shoot it up, and if nothing breaks, I’ll go ahead and void the warranty. I’m not going to be stuck with factory defensive rounds for $45 per box just so I can have a warranty.

The funny thing is that what happened to me today has happened in a number of dreams. I pointed my gun at someone, pulled the trigger, and got nothing. It’s as though God were trying to warn me about my gun. But I’ve always assumed those dreams were about cleaning up my act so I would have authority to cast out spirits.

Cleaning your carry gun really is important. I repent.