Is a 1911 Tougher than a Glock? Ultimate 1911 vs. Glock Torture Test | Ep.1

[westwall]

• A Glock 17 was documented to have been fired over 365,000 rounds by one user, with the only significant parts replaced being the recoil spring, trigger/locking block pin, and slide lock spring. This was discussed in a forum thread on Glock Talk where users shared their experiences with high round counts.
  Highest Round Count?
• Another mention from Glock Talk includes a Glock 17 with 230,000 rounds fired, where the owner reported replacing the recoil spring a few times, along with the trigger/locking block pin, and the slide lock spring.
  Highest Round Count?
• A Glock 19 was reported to have a round count of 150,000 rounds before the rear rail broke, which was then repaired by Glock, and the gun continued to be used. This was shared on The High Road forum.
  Highest round count in a single gun?

I'm sorry, but anonymous people making claims on forums are not credible. I would want to see evidence to support those claims.

 

[toobfreak]

Go to any small town in the desert, take a picture.
Count the objects. How many are plastic?

They are rife with recycled plastic in Asia, the stuff is piling up, they don't know what to do with it all because every time you recycle it, it degrades. Soon the stuff is crap and unusable and they don't know what to do with it. Now they are using it for fill and in construction parts for housing construction and such. Steel is endlessly recyclable. Steel always remains steel.

 

[DonGlock26]

Gee which is tougher???

View attachment 1065761

View attachment 1065762

Just don't drop it.

 

[westwall]

some discoloration is not my main concert, hey killer look my frame is slightly off color

glocks are like a timex, they just keep on working and that is what I want, I don't give a shit about superficial blemishes, my life is on the line I want what works and is reliable and so do the police hence no 1911 are used by anybody, they are a collector item now, simple as that

If you have to keep replacing parts then no, they aren't like a timex.

I have a Colt Single Action Army model that was made in 1878. I personally have put over 10,000 rounds through it. I loaded them myself. I still shoot it regularly, and have had to replace nothing. Whenever I see these claims made of enormous round counts on guns I get real skeptical. The sheer cost of the ammunition is one aspect.

That 365,000 round claim, even shooting the cheapest ammo out there you are still looking at 73,000 dollars.

 

[toobfreak]

glock has only been around since around 1986 so that would be impossible to have a 80 year old glock

Right, so the oldest Glocks are about 40 years old. Go find a 40 year old Glock and look at it. Now just imagine it in another 40 years, especially one well used.
Do you think a police department will give an officer a 40 year old Glock? Or keep rebuilding it? No, they will simply replace it after a time, they are basically a disposable gun.
I can find Civil War guns worth owning and still work. Do you think there will be any 150 year old collector Glocks some day?
Glocks are fine. I personally don't like them, but they work well for what they were intended: a lighter, cheaper, service weapon with a reasonably life that can be easily fixed or rebuilt as needed. But they are plastic and you simply cannot match the durability of any plastic against good steel.

Also note: the key parts of a Glock, the barrel and the slide are still steel, are they not? Why are they not made of polyamide too? You know the answer.

 

[westwall]

They are rife with recycled plastic in Asia, the stuff is piling up, they don't know what to do with it all because every time you recycle it, it degrades. Soon the stuff is crap and unusable and they don't know what to do with it. Now they are using it for fill and in construction parts for housing construction and such. Steel is endlessly recyclable. Steel always remains steel.

I have spent decades in the deserts of the world. I rarely see plastic. All kinds of metal objects, but never plastic. I even found an old Sharps 4 barrel .22 once. The wood grips were dry as hell, but after I cleaned it up, it shot just fine. Who knows how many decades that thing had been there, laying in the Sun.

I ended up giving it to a friend who was a Sharps fanatic.

 

[westwall]

Right, so the oldest Glocks are about 40 years old. Go find a 40 year old Glock and look at it. Now just imagine it in another 40 years, especially one well used.
Do you think a police department will give an officer a 40 year old Glock? Or keep rebuilding it? No, they will simply replace it after a time, they are basically a disposable gun.
I can find Civil War guns worth owning and still work. Do you think there will be any 150 year old collector Glocks some day?
Glocks are fine. I personally don't like them, but they work well for what they were intended: a lighter, cheaper, service weapon with a reasonably life that can be easily fixed or rebuilt as needed. But they are plastic and you simply cannot match the durability of any plastic against good steel.

Also note: the key parts of a Glock, the barrel and the slide are still steel, are they not? Why are they not made of polyamide too? You know the answer.

No, police departments get rid of their Glocks after 10 to 20 years, depending on the department.

 

[toobfreak]

actually there are documented cases of the 17 having over 100K round through it,

What takes most of the punishment in firing a round? You got it, Glock or not, it is the STEEL BARREL.
Go find me a nylon gun with a nylon barrel.

 

[JGalt]

If I need a handgun now to defend my life I am not looking at some heirloom to pass on 50 years later, I want something quick, higher capacity and reliable
glock is the pinnacle of that right now, 1911 not at all that is why NO LE anywhere uses them

it's a classic handgun, it has it's place in history but history has passed it by, now it's collector item

progress and innovation, that's how it works, who knows what the next "glock" will be, maybe carbon fiber?

Especially since once you have to use that weapon to defend yourself, the police are going to take possession of it until they determine if the shooting was justifiable.

 

[toobfreak]

some discoloration is not my main concert, hey killer look my frame is slightly off color
glocks are like a timex, they just keep on working and that is what I want,

Yep, like I keep saying, over the normal life of a single user, they keep working, but the discoloration isn't a blemish, it is a chemical deterioration, a compositional change. There will be few original Glocks passed from father to son. If they are, they were little used, not very old, or have had partial rebuilds to keep them like new.

I'm not attacking them, you don't need to defend your use of them to me, I'm just telling you the reality that a plastic gun has a limited lifespan built into it, extended by the use of steel parts at critical locations.

The tests in the video can only show durability and operational comparisons between guns over a tiny fraction of time.

 

[DonGlock26]

I'm sorry, but anonymous people making claims on forums are not credible. I would want to see evidence to support those claims.

The late Todd Green tested many pistols and reviewed them.

Gen4 Glock 17 Endurance Test: Month 16

71,260 rounds 19 stoppages (+1 w/non-LCI extractor) 0 malfunctions 3 parts breakages It’s been a slow month ending with a difficult choice… The Glock suffered one stoppage: the casehead…

pistol-training.com

Springfield/Warren 9mm 1911 Endurance Test: Report #30

57,257 14 stoppages 0 malfunctions 4 parts breakages Lots of mechanical goings-on with the SACS/Warren gun since the last update and I am now officially moving into the realm of kitchen table 1911 …

pistol-training.com

 

[DonGlock26]

Yep, like I keep saying, over the normal life of a single user, they keep working, but the discoloration isn't a blemish, it is a chemical deterioration, a compositional change. There will be few original Glocks passed from father to son. If they are, they were little used, not very old, or have had partial rebuilds to keep them like new.

I'm not attacking them, you don't need to defend your use of them to me, I'm just telling you the reality that a plastic gun has a limited lifespan built into it, extended by the use of steel parts at critical locations.

The tests in the video can only show durability and operational comparisons between guns over a tiny fraction of time.

You can get a metal frame for a Glock, if you wish. Perhaps, that would be the ultimate pistol?

 

[westwall]

The late Todd Green tested many pistols and reviewed them.

Gen4 Glock 17 Endurance Test: Month 16

71,260 rounds 19 stoppages (+1 w/non-LCI extractor) 0 malfunctions 3 parts breakages It’s been a slow month ending with a difficult choice… The Glock suffered one stoppage: the casehead…

pistol-training.com

Springfield/Warren 9mm 1911 Endurance Test: Report #30

57,257 14 stoppages 0 malfunctions 4 parts breakages Lots of mechanical goings-on with the SACS/Warren gun since the last update and I am now officially moving into the realm of kitchen table 1911 …

pistol-training.com

That seems very credible. I hadn't heard of the man but just a cursory look of your link is interesting.

I will take some time and read through some of his reports.

Thanks!

 

[westwall]

You can get a metal frame for a Glock, if you wish. Perhaps, that would be the ultimate pistol?

Aluminium frames break too. Sigs wear out in about 50,000 rounds if they are used hard. That one guntoober broke his FN 10mm while testing his suppressor. Broke the frame off completely right in front of the trigger guard.

Gun still worked though!

 

[DonGlock26]

That seems very credible. I hadn't heard of the man but just a cursory look of your link is interesting.

I will take some time and read through some of his reports.

Thanks!

He did a great job. You might like the forum that I believe he started. They have a ton of info.

Semi-Auto Pistols

 

[toobfreak]

No, police departments get rid of their Glocks after 10 to 20 years, depending on the department.

I would expect that. After 10-20 years of service use, I would begin to worry about trusting my life to it simply because as you already said, compositional delamination. A part may look fine and work OK one day, then you might go out, get into a gun fight on the street and have a sudden failure of a part due to loss of structural integrity which begins at the molecular level. By the time it is visible to the eye, the part is already junk.

Steel usually wears in, or slowly develops a stress crack which can be seen before total failure.

It would be interesting to see manufacturer specs on MTBF for various models. Almost certainly, I would expect that Glocks carry a service life for various parts rated to be serviced/replaced after every so many firings or years.

 

[DonGlock26]

Aluminium frames break too. Sigs wear out in about 50,000 rounds if they are used hard. That one guntoober broke his FN 10mm while testing his suppressor. Broke the frame off completely right in front of the trigger guard.

Gun still worked though!

They do.

 

[toobfreak]

You can get a metal frame for a Glock, if you wish. Perhaps, that would be the ultimate pistol?

That would be my choice--- why go with a poly frame if you can get an aluminum one? My guess is they are 6061-T6 (aircraft aluminum), real strong stuff, and only adds an ounce to the weight, and as the video points out, weight only helps damp out recoil.

 

[toobfreak]

View attachment 1065794

I might also point out some troubling concerns looking at that picture. From the granularity of the break, that does not look like milled billet steel but cast steel, or steel that was improperly quenched.

 

[Zincwarrior]

1911 vs Glock? This is a conversation from 1980.