Posted: 1/31/2015 3:47:05 AM EDT
| Is anyone here using an after market tungsten or stainless guide rod/ recoil spring set up in their 19? Or I guess any model Glock? I have about 1,000 rounds through my 19 and haven't had any problems at all. I was just curious about the Tungsten Guide rod, and wanted to know if anyone uses one, and what they think, Thanks. |
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I could see people using them in their race guns, but not their defensive/carry guns. I agree, thats why an uncaptured 4140 hardened steel guide rod and spring from OST makes sense...its a middle ground of sorts...not the weight of the Tungsten but more accurate and reliable that the plastic OEM... http://www.onesourcetactical.com/suarez-international-steel-recoil-guide-rod---glock.aspx#.VM0KAy6LVX4 
Buy a springs set and get the recoil and firing pin spring as a set... http://www.onesourcetactical.com/glock-17-enhanced-reliability-recoil-spring-1.aspx#.VM0KVS6LVX4 |
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Quoted: How is it either of those things? Quoted: Quoted: not the weight of the Tungsten but more accurate and reliable that the plastic OEM... How is it either of those things? |
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Excellent question. Inquiring minds want to know how changing a guide rod affects accuracy. Quoted:
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not the weight of the Tungsten but more accurate and reliable that the plastic OEM... How is it either of those things? It does not change accuracy, it is less reliable tungsten rods have a tendency to shatter or fracture after some time. If you want a metal guide rod I recommed stainless it has better metal properties than the tungsten and the weight differences is nill. |
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Excellent question. Inquiring minds want to know how changing a guide rod affects accuracy. Quoted:
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not the weight of the Tungsten but more accurate and reliable that the plastic OEM... How is it either of those things? 1. Accuracy with the Glock system is greatly affected by the tightness in lock up 2. The polymer factory guide rod is often not straight, leading to inconsistent tracking of the slide 3. OEM guide rod failures do happen,( Glock Armorer since 1994 I have seen about 1/2 dozen) tungsten guide rods have failed as well. Often binding the action and downing the gun. 4. ANYTIME you can increase the "tightness" of the lockup between the slide, barrel you increase accuracy. When coupled with superior Wolfe springs the SI guide rod does so. 5. Its 4140 hardened steel and Melonited for lubricity...it is not going to break...period...do you want the driving force of your action to rely on a plastic part or one like this...now if you don't carry your gun CCW, as a duty gun, or as a war fighter...it may not matter to you...to some it does... 6. There are many parts of my guns I will not fuck with...TRIGGERS=OEM, FIRING PINS=OEM, CONNECTORS=OEM, MAGAZINES=OEM...I do notthink there are parts out there that are as reliable, better or durable as these...Slides=SI, BARRELS =STORM LAKE, KKM or SI MATCH, SPRINGS=WOLFE, GUIDE RODS =SI |
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Quoted: 1. Accuracy with the Glock system is greatly affected by the tightness in lock up 2. The polymer factory guide rod is often not straight, leading to inconsistent tracking of the slide 3. OEM guide rod failures do happen,( Glock Armorer since 1994 I have seen about 1/2 dozen) tungsten guide rods have failed as well. Often binding the action and downing the gun. 4. ANYTIME you can increase the "tightness" of the lockup between the slide, barrel you increase accuracy. When coupled with superior Wolfe springs the SI guide rod does so. 5. Its 4140 hardened steel and Melonited for lubricity...it is not going to break...period...do you want the driving force of your action to rely on a plastic part or one like this...now if you don't carry your gun CCW, as a duty gun, or as a war fighter...it may not matter to you...to some it does... 6. There are many parts of my guns I will not fuck with...TRIGGERS=OEM, FIRING PINS=OEM, CONNECTORS=OEM, MAGAZINES=OEM...I do notthink there are parts out there that are as reliable, better or durable as these...Slides=SI, BARRELS =STORM LAKE, KKM or SI MATCH, SPRINGS=WOLFE, GUIDE RODS =SI Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: not the weight of the Tungsten but more accurate and reliable that the plastic OEM... How is it either of those things? 1. Accuracy with the Glock system is greatly affected by the tightness in lock up 2. The polymer factory guide rod is often not straight, leading to inconsistent tracking of the slide 3. OEM guide rod failures do happen,( Glock Armorer since 1994 I have seen about 1/2 dozen) tungsten guide rods have failed as well. Often binding the action and downing the gun. 4. ANYTIME you can increase the "tightness" of the lockup between the slide, barrel you increase accuracy. When coupled with superior Wolfe springs the SI guide rod does so. 5. Its 4140 hardened steel and Melonited for lubricity...it is not going to break...period...do you want the driving force of your action to rely on a plastic part or one like this...now if you don't carry your gun CCW, as a duty gun, or as a war fighter...it may not matter to you...to some it does... 6. There are many parts of my guns I will not fuck with...TRIGGERS=OEM, FIRING PINS=OEM, CONNECTORS=OEM, MAGAZINES=OEM...I do notthink there are parts out there that are as reliable, better or durable as these...Slides=SI, BARRELS =STORM LAKE, KKM or SI MATCH, SPRINGS=WOLFE, GUIDE RODS =SI |
| The RSA has nothing to do with slide to barrel lock up and slide tracking has nothing to do with accuracy. Fitting a barrel to a slide is money well spent, if you feel the need to try and make your Glock more accurate. Some sort of barrel bushing would probably be worth looking into, too. Everything else you get from Salient, Suarez, Zev, Unity, etc. is snake oil. |
| Thanks for all the replies so far. Why wouldn't one want to use the metal guide rod for a carry pistol? I guess I can see the tungsten being brittle and not wanting that, but I would think that having a metal recoil system (stainless steel using factory spring weights) would be more reliable than plastic. That's why everyone ditches the factory sights for Trijicons or some other metal sight right? So they can stand up to the abuse of being a defensive pistol? Would it mess with the recoil of the gun, and cause failures to eject or feed properly, there by reducing its reliability? |
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Why wouldn't one want to use the metal guide rod for a carry pistol? There's no reason not to, but there's no reason to spend the money either. I hate to sound cliche, but Glock would have done it if it was necessary. As a side note, the Gen 4 RSAs have a steel end piece. I've been shooting Glocks for over 20 years and have owned a couple dozen of them and I have never broken a guide rod. I don't know anybody else that has broken a guide rod. It does happen, but it is so statistically insignificant that it's not worth losing sleep over. The military, LE, and gaming communities run stock Glocks hard enough that a need for change would have been apparent a long time ago. Metal guide rods rank right up there with grip plugs in the don't gotta have category. I've got 4 Wolff steel guide rods sitting in my parts bin right now and they've been in there for years. In fact, there's a handful of grip plugs in there, too. Just buy mags and ammo and shoot your Glock. |
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do you want the driving force of your action to rely on a plastic part or one like this...now if you don't carry your gun CCW, as a duty gun, or as a war fighter...it may not matter to you...to some it does... Yeah, yeah I do. I've heard of more issues with aftermarket RSAs than I have with OEM ones. And none of my guns are hobby guns; they are all defensive and that is the reason why I won't change the RSAs. Hell, half the reason that I don't like slide lightening like what Salient does it because it requires a different recoil spring/guide rod. |
I've got 14 mags between my two Gen 4 19's  Both with HD sights. (The only upgrade I have done to them.) I carry one of them daily and shoot about 100 rounds a month through it. The other is just on stand by in the safe but they are identical. Like I said never had a problem, just playing devil's advocate I guess, wondering what other people thought of the steel guide rods and how hard they have used them.
Yes I would assume that Glock would have moved to metal guide rods if there was an issue, though like many have said the failure rate of the stock guide rod is pretty much a mute point. But I would think they would have moved to metal sights as a standard issued component as well, but they haven't. I can't imagine it would cost much more for a factory to put a metal sight on a gun that is used extensively in LE/MIL and CCW worldwide. |
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But I would think they would have moved to metal sights as a standard issued component as well, but they haven't. I can't imagine it would cost much more for a factory to put a metal sight on a gun that is used extensively in LE/MIL and CCW worldwide. The general consensus is why ship a Glock with metal sights when more than likely the new owner is going to swap them out anyway. |
| I use a stainless steel guide rod assembly in my Gen 4 G17. The main reason I switched to the stainless one is the OEM guide rod just had a cheap feel to it. It's mostly plastic and it doesn't seem to sit quite flush with the bore. If you look at the rear part of the guide rod where it engages the barrel, it is real thin metal and seems kinda flimsy like it would flex and wear out after a while. I don't know that for sure, because I replaced it before I put near enough rounds through it for that to happen. I kept the original as a spare. It runs great with the stainless one I put in it. The only odd thing is if you pull the slide back just far enough to check the chamber, you have to give the slide a slight nudge to put it back into battery. This is never an issue when chambering a round or firing the weapon, as the action cycles more briskly. About 200 RDS +/- with the stainless guide rod and zero issues. I like it, but it may not be a must-have for everyone. |
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Yes I would assume that Glock would have moved to metal guide rods if there was an issue, though like many have said the failure rate of the stock guide rod is pretty much a mute point. MOOT Point. Most problems people have with the polymer guide rods come from running the spring assembly well past when it's replacement interval has arrived. The spring and rod are an assembly and should be replaced at least every five thousand rounds in the 9mm and two thousand rounds in the .40s.. The only reason I see for a metal guide rod is to run a stiffer spring. BTW, the above does not apply to the Gen 4 Glocks which have a much higher replacement interval and a mostly steel guide rod in the spring assembly. |
| I use a tungsten guide rod in the 19 that I use for our informal idpa group where nobody cares about that kind of thing. It helps balance out the gun a bit, and might help keep the muzzle down, but the difference is minimal. Not really worth the money or extra weight on a carry gun. |
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I'd like to have one just so I can take the spring off the guide rod to clean it. Drives my OCD nuts when I can't get the RSA clean due to it being captured.
If I had a yucky gen 4 I would definitely upgrade - the factory setup on those is pretty janky. Seen several come apart/jump out of the slide. |
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Care to elaborate yucky hanky and apart/jump..... Not GD ...tech forum come on that is pretty big if RSA's are coming apart (yet to seen one and I have had plastics go on me). Can you explain more in detail? I've got the RSA out of a gen4 G22 that came apart and launched downrange. Be glad to post pics of it little later when I can. The little metal disk that rests against the barrel half moon cut? Yeah it's held in the plastic guide rod by simple tension. If it lets go the whole thing comes apart. It's fairly common for the large diameter plug in the front to jump out of the front of the slide. The gen 3 subcompacts do it too, just not as bad or as often. There just isn't a lot of surface area that the front of the RSA can rest against inside the slide. The gen 3 RSA, nearly the entire surface area of the face of the recoil spring rests against the inside of the slide. The gen 4s, it's just a little lip on the very edge of the assembly. I'm a huge Glock fan but the gen 4 just isn't the perfection the older guns are/were. I'm the last guy you'll see post the exploding Glocks or other such GD nonsense, my dislike of the gen 4 is based on my observation of multiple guns having problems I've never seen in older guns. That and the godawful trigger. |