Recently, I traveled down to Smyrna, Georgia this week to the home of all things Glock for their eight hour armorers course. I had originally taken the course in 1996. It was an eight hour course then, and best I remember it cost $75. It was eight hours of assembly and disassembly. The course wasn’t much. As simple as the guns are, I never re-certified.
Fast forward to last November. I told my boss I wanted to go down to the factory and take the Instructor Workshop class, and he green lit me for it. A very nice lady from Glock Training called me back and informed me that I had to be a current armorer to be eligible for the class. So, I said what the heck, and added a day onto my trip. I drove down with a head full of questions, ranging from recoil spring weights to extraction issue questions to a whole lot of questions about the 17T (Simunitions pistol).
I’ll be the first to admit. I probably fouled the atmosphere showing up to Glock wearing an Apex Tactical polo shirt, and carrying an Apex Tactical Armorer’s block. Well, somewhat. Perhaps? The instructor, North Carolina lawman Alex Cobb, was ever so knowledgeable and carried the persona of someone you wanted to learn from.
Times had changed since I took the course in ’96. There were a lot of unanswered questions I had when I left the course the first time. This course was more than a disassemble/reassemble/your certificate is good for three years course. I enjoyed the technical detail that Alex went into on each segment of the pistol.
I know many folks are reading this article for the same reason I was chomping at the bit to take the class. To find out what the official word was on the 9mm extraction/ejection issues. It was covered when we discussed ejectors. The factory cure all seems to remain with replacing the ejector. I know some folks that have had mixed results with that as a fix. But in the same breath we were sternly warned that we were not allowed as armorers to install any parts other than OEM factory.
All in all, if you have the chance to take this course, I recommend it. The class has come along way since 1996.
I love my Glocks, but it is typical of that company to deny there is any issue with the 9mm guns failing to extract/eject. I am a big fan of the Apex parts when the factory solution, well, flat out doesn’t work.
Sadly it seems to be a recurring pattern with Glock to try and claim issues simply don’t exist or can be fixed easily using correct factory parts. I plan on attending a Glock armorers course later this year and I’m looking forward to it.
I really like my Gen3 FDE 17 but it had BTF issue really bad. I would love to get a gen 4 19. But i’m too afraid it will be a money pit like my first one. My gun ended up having to make a trip to Apex to get it running right.
The Apex FRE for the Gen 3 Glocks usually fixes the problem. It takes a little fitting but works like a charm when it’s all done!
OK, the course was 75.00$USD in 1996. That being 17 years ago with inflation ………..how much is my investment now?
$195 for the 1-day Glock Armorers Course