Speaking of spare parts….
The girlfriend shot a few hundred rounds through her G19 the other day and had disassembled it for cleaning. She laid the parts out on the tray table she was sitting at and prepared to clean. She bumped the table, knocking the recoil spring assembly and slide off the table. The slide landed on top of the recoil spring assembly and broke the plastic recoil spring guide. The usually captive unit was now non-captive.
Could the Glock work in this state? Yes. However, disassembly would be harder because the spring would have to be compressed to remove it from the slide.
So…OEM part is $5. There are four on the way. So then the question became one of:
Glock OEM @$5 vs. aftermarket steel assembly for ~$25
Here’s how I see it.
OEM parts are always the first choice in most cases. (Yes, there are exceptions like some AK, AR and 1911 parts but Im makeing a sweeping generalization here) The OEM assemblies will be used and extras kept on hand. Since they are OEM they should be 100% reliable as the previous ones in terms of gun functioning. However, if some circumstance arises that precludes getting replacements in the future, the steel one is available.
Why not use the steel one upfront and just not bother with the OEM ones? Because I think the reliability of the gun will be better with jen-yoo-wine Glock parts rather than aftermarket. I cant prove it, I just feel that way. Is the OEM part better than the aftermarket one? Probably not…it is, after all, plastic. However, this part didnt break in use…it broke when it was removed from the gun and subjected then to impact. ALthough Im sure it has happened, it seems less likely that this sort of breakage occurs in actual use.
Regardless……..
OEM parts for the Glock and a couple aftermarket versions of those parts in case the OEM’s become unavailable.
Resident Glock guru smjayman was nice enough to give his suggestions and I recommend he be heeded. Recap:
For Glocks, the parts that I see go down most frequently:
1. Trigger springs.
2. Slide stop springs.
3. Recoil assemblies.
4. Magazine springs.
5. Striker assembly plastic sleeve (as you mention).I’dconcentrate on those. Spare barrel, while nice, isn’t something I’veseen get mucked up, oh, ever. Maybe if you had a squib and then bulgedthe barrel. I would probably get some spring cups and put those in thekit, not because they go bad, but because they are easily lost duringdetail strip/reassemble.
He also mentions the takedown lever and spring in later posts.
Sources? http://www.lonewolfdist.com/ http://www.topglock.com/catalog/extras.htm
OEM parts are almost always the better choice in other things as well: cars and printers come to mind off hand.
(I’ve had to fix a few printers that used non-OEM parts, and regretted it)
Where did you find the recoil assemblies for $5?
http://www.lonewolfdist.com/products.asp?prod=65 has them for $4.95+shipping. And they’ll ship First Class Mail on the little stuff, so it’s cheap.
Thanks – I hadn’t thought to check them out. I’ve heard their 3.5# connectors are the best out there as well.
I couldn’t say…I got a new takedown lever and takedown lever spring (Glock OEM), and was impressed by the speed they got it to me.
I should definitely start stocking up on parts for my various different guns. I really need to sort out my ammo situation, retire the damaged ammo cans (damaged in the car crunch in January, but everything within them survived without incident), and have everything organized.
Having at least one spare of all the parts that commonly break would be fantastic.
That’s what I’m shooting for as well.
What Pete said. I first found them at Glockmeister for $7 each, but their site had firefox issues (for me) so I went to Lone Wolf. Since LW is closer to me I should’ve started there, but their navigation annoys me. Anyhow, they had them for $5 each. $5 shipping on the lot for priority mail.