[lkbenson]

Tried to field strip G23 gen4 and had a really hard time getting the slide off. When I finally got it apart this is what I found.

I was shooting warm loads, Winchester Ranger 160 gr (RA40TA) at 1134 fps but don't think they should beat the h... out of this spring. Any suggestions?

 

[VolGrad]

Yikes. Call GLOCK. They will likely send you a replacement ASAP.

Have you shot the pistol yet ... before this happened? Have you ever field stripped it before?

 

[TheLaw]

I was going to suggest calling GLOCK but wanted one of you armorers to reply first. My concern would be if something was wrong with the gun/frame that caused this in the first place. Very weird.

 

[lkbenson]

I have had this pistol apart prior to shooting yesterday and it is my 6th Glock since the early 1990's. Never had anything like this happen before.
P.S. The gun functioned perfectly while shooting using 5 different types of ammo. No FTF, FTE, no nothing except bang, bang.

 

[VolGrad]

No problem. Just feeling out if you were a GLOCK noob or an old hand. That is a really odd thing though. I've never seen anything like that but personally only have 1 Gen4 gun but have owned several previous generation sub-compact models with a similar recoil spring assembly.

 

[Don Glock]

i've seen a few images of this issue online, and once at my local shop when my buddy took apart a gen4 g17 and bent the rod plate. some of the gen4's take a little bit of struggling to take apart like the OP mentioned. during the "fray", the recoil assembly can become bent.

the reason being, the recoil assembly is out of place which causes the disassembly problem in the first place. glock will send you another assembly. your gun is fine


in the future, just pop the slide back into place and start over if gentle tugging doesn't get the slide off

 

[__jb]

Tried to field strip G23 gen4 and had a really hard time getting the slide off. When I finally got it apart this is what I found.

I was shooting warm loads, Winchester Ranger 160 gr (RA40TA) at 1134 fps but don't think they should beat the h... out of this spring. Any suggestions?

I agree with Vol, TheLaw and the Don... a call to Glock is in order.

When you call Glock, ask to talk to Technical Support and explain the problem to them. The 4th gen 9mm Glocks have had some similar issues. Glock designed a new recoil spring assembly for the Glock 17 to stop this problem... Maybe they have something similar for your Glock 23.

 

[cyberwolph]

Mine is slightly loose on my 30. But not bent.

 

[tedbeau]

I am not a glock expert by any means, and I do not want to insult the OP, but at first glance my first thought was that the face plate of the spring assembly is supposed to be set down all the way into the half moon notch of the barrel. I believe half moon is the term the glock manual even uses. It would seem to me that if the spring jumped out of the notch when the slide was assembled then when you fired this is what would happen. I know the first time I reassembled my glock I did not have the spring all the way into the notch. I was being extra cautious though because it was my first time so I removed and redid the spring until I wa sure I had it right.

This is from the "unofficial" manual on the internet:

"Reassembly Note:
When installing the recoil spring tube and recoil spring, be sure that the back end of the recoil spring tube rests
in the half moon cut in the bottom of the front barrel lug. If it is not properly seated and you reassemble the
pistol, the recoil spring tube may be damaged."

 

[Rowdie]

I agree with Vol, TheLaw and the Don... a call to Glock is in order.

When you call Glock, ask to talk to Technical Support and explain the problem to them. The 4th gen 9mm Glocks have had some similar issues. Glock designed a new recoil spring assembly for the Glock 17 to stop this problem... Maybe they have something similar for your Glock 23.

I agree. The spring in the OP photo is an "03" spring. That could very well be the problem. Or not.

 

[blackr_ah64d]

I am not a glock expert by any means, and I do not want to insult the OP, but at first glance my first thought was that the face plate of the spring assembly is supposed to be set down all the way into the half moon notch of the barrel. I believe half moon is the term the glock manual even uses. It would seem to me that if the spring jumped out of the notch when the slide was assembled then when you fired this is what would happen. I know the first time I reassembled my glock I did not have the spring all the way into the notch. I was being extra cautious though because it was my first time so I removed and redid the spring until I wa sure I had it right.

This is from the "unofficial" manual on the internet:

"Reassembly Note:
When installing the recoil spring tube and recoil spring, be sure that the back end of the recoil spring tube rests
in the half moon cut in the bottom of the front barrel lug. If it is not properly seated and you reassemble the
pistol, the recoil spring tube may be damaged."

You spoke my mind. I pulled my slide off the day that I got it because I watched the salesman not seat the spring correctly when he put it back togather. He is a "glock guy" too. Easy to do if you if something else is catching your attention. I've seen damage to a PPS spring due to inproper seating of it as well. Like I said...easy to do I'm sure.

 

[__jb]

You spoke my mind. I pulled my slide off the day that I got it because I watched the salesman not seat the spring correctly when he put it back togather. He is a "glock guy" too. Easy to do if you if something else is catching your attention. I've seen damage to a PPS spring due to inproper seating of it as well. Like I said...easy to do I'm sure.

Quite likely correct...

If he calls Glock, they'll probably send him a new replacement for free...

 

[voyager4520]

Call Glock, tell them what happened, and request a replacement. I think what might've caused it is not fully seating the guide rod before reassembly from field strip. The base of the guide rod pops out of its notch in the barrel lug when you field strip it. The guide rod base needs to be re-seated into its notch in the barrel lug before reassembly, even if you didn't take the guide rod and barrel out of the slide. On the old plastic guide rods part of the base would break off if not fully seated before reassembly.