Two police departments in Michigan are trading in police guns for new ones.
The Valparaiso police department is trading in .40 caliber Glocks that are a few years old for 9mm Glocks that are new. The trades should happen this year, in 2018.
The difference between the 9mm and the .40-caliber guns, he explained, is one of cartridge ignition pressures. The 9mm has a long, low, smooth ignition impulse, while the .40 has a short, sharp, abrupt ignition impulse.There is no significant difference in pressure levels in Glock .40 caliber and Glock 9mm pistols.
That recoil caused cracking of the frame in the .40-caliber guns, especially ones that had been used often over four to five years, he said.
SAMMI pressure limits for the 9mm = 35,000. For the .40 cal = 35,000.
Given the abysmal ignorance of most reporters about firearms, it is possible the Sergeant was misinterpreted.
The Sergeant's information carries a bit of truth. Early Glock .40s used the same recoil spring as the 9mm, which allowed the .40 to recoil more sharply. The .40 caliber has more energy, so there is more energy in the recoil impulse. With high round counts, a small number of frames suffered hairline cracks.
The Sergeant may have confused internal pressures with external mechanics.
In the early generation 3 Glocks, starting about 1998, the frames were reinforced with an extra pin in the frame, that also offered a stress relief hole to stop the rare cracking of the Glock .40 calibers. As the pistols the Sergeant is referring to are only 4-5 years old, they are not subject to the cracking problem.
It appears there is a current trend to go from .40 caliber Glocks to 9mm Glocks. It may offer the opportunity to pick up some inexpensive, but excellent Glock .40 calibers as police trade ins.
Reinforced frames have 2 pins instead of 1 pin above the trigger, so they are easily noted. The Generation 5 Glocks have gone back to 1 pin, but are only offered in 9mm.
©2018 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.
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2 comments:
I believe you are making a big mistake by posting the maximum allowable pressures. Check the difference between the muzzle energy between the two calibers within the same manufactures. If they were the same, the recoil would be the same. As anyone who fires a .40 Smith and Wesson can tell, it has a unpleasant snappy recoil.
I purchased a LEO trade-in G23 about a year ago and love shooting it, far more than my G19s. I like the .40 so much that I just purchased another LEO _unissued_ trade-in, an FNS40 with night sights at a pretty amazing price, something like what S&W Shields were going for with rebate not long ago.
Only down side is ammo price and I'm going to get a set of dies for .40 to help take care of that.
Should they be retiring perfectly good firearms unissued or with a few years of wear? Their loss, our gain!
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