For thirty years, Glock 9mm handguns have been nearly synonymous with reliability, but recently, many Glock owners have been suffering from erratic and sometimes failed ejection with their Glock 9mm pistols. Numerous theories populate the various Internet gun forums, but so far there has been no definitive answer from Glock as to the cause, or a solution. Glock Customer Service responses range from total denial, instructions to send the gun in for repair, or sending out replacement parts to local armorers.
It seems the erratic ejection issues appeared somewhere around the “M” serial number prefix in the Gen 3 9mm pistols, and possibly affect all Gen 4 9mm guns.
One popular “fix” is to obtain the latest Gen 4 9mm ejector (Part Number 30274), which for most people, seems to make ejection a little more consistent but doesn’t always solve the problem. Others recommend the HRED extractor plunger assembly by White Sound Defense, but this product did nothing for me.
10-8 Staff Instructor Joe Riedy hooked me up with a couple of the Gen 4 ejectors. So I swapped the ejectors out in both my 17 RTFs post haste. Hearing of my woes, our good friend Randy Lee at Apex Tactical sent out a pre-production prototype of their Glock extractor. The kit comes complete with a replacement spring for the extractor assembly.
The extractor and spring went in the gun with no problems, so off to the range I went. Shooting a variety of ammunition, including Federal 115 gr, Winchester White Box, and Winchester Ranger 127gr +P+, extraction was now consistent with cases going about 4-5 o’clock.
I decided to really push the extractor to its limits and shoot the gun with no magazine in the gun. This test is not designed to simulate a tactical necessity, but rather to push the extractor to its limit. When there is a magazine in the gun, it will help stabilize the empty case during extraction and ejection. Without the magazine, the extractor must do all the work by itself. In a Glock, this is not an issue since the feed lip geometry is designed to function in this manner. (In a 1911, this is a completely different story.)
If a pistol has an extractor can can reliably extract and eject empty cases with no magazine inserted, and reliably feed and function, this means it is at optimal function. Try this with your factory Glock and you will see it will not do this. I performed this test with the Apex Glock Extractor and it consistently ejected the empty case of every cartridge fired.
The folks at Apex Tactical believe in thoroughly vetting every product before releasing it to the market, and this one is still in the beta stage. I have about 350 rounds through my prototype and the gun has yet to malfunction. I have enough faith in the product use it in the Pro Am Match in Frostproof, FL next week.
When these hit the market, I will be buying a dozen!
Tim Lau
10-8 Consulting, LLC
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Any ETA on the Apex kits?
I hear they are in process of being machined now, so the answer is, “soon.” I am anxious for them to be made, too. I need a few more for my other Glocks.
Don’t have and answer about your extraction problems, however I would advise that you quit sweeping your left hand in front of your loaded Glock as extraction issue would be the least of your worries should you take off a finger.
The camera angle may be misleading but my muzzle never covered my left hand. Thank you for your concern!
Will this extractor work with the White Sound Defense HRED? I have that in my Glock already and it is helping, but I would like to give this a try as well.
I recommend trying the Apex extractor by itself and if you are not happy with the results, you can try it in conjunction with the HRED. However, I have a strong feeling you won’t need to…
Why are these pistols i.e. Glock, M&P 9mm having problems? I don’t get why these things are released when they don’t function correctly or are unacceptably inaccurate. Why is it necessary for companies like Apex to make parts just to get them running, much less enhance functional performance?
That being said, what is the 9mm to get? HKP30S? PPQ? Something that runs out of the box.
Most American consumers don’t shoot the guns they buy, so it is often cheaper to appease the customers than to make production changes. The P30S runs and is accurate, but I don’t like the ergonomics.
The PPQ is promising. I shot Larry Vickers’ PPQ when he was in town earlier this year and was impressed. I plan on getting one soon to evaluate for this site.
glocks used to work fine. I carried a 17 then a 19 since they first hit our shores. Now they go and dick it up. M&P is very promising, but S&W has known about the trigger issues and perhaps more importantly the accuracy issues for what, a couple of years now? They seem to make a token effort to correct the problems.
Perhaps what you say is true, so what the hell happened to American manufacturing? Why can’t a buy an American made (designed) 9mm pistol that shoots well out of the box and where after market upgrades are an option, not a necessity?