Well, as I’ve already mentioned, all of my Glock pistols are third generation Glocks, and they’re going to stay that way too. If, however, somebody asked me to ‘upgrade’ a third gen Glock I would only make a few simple changes, AND one of those changes would be to the magazines.
As a ‘rule of thumb’ the very first thing I have always done with a brand new Glock magazine is to break the new polymer ‘heat seal’ on the magazine’s baseplate (all newly molded polymer tends to stick together, OK) and, then, I’ll insert the tip of an armorer’s tool through the hole in the center of the new baseplate in order to push the magazine’s interior floor plate up into the mag body and out of the way of the baseplate locking tabs by about a 1/4 inch.
Next, I’ll place the back edge of that new (and always tightly stuck) baseplate against the very edge of a table and give the magazine’s body a quick slap with my other hand. It only takes a couple of slaps to get a new polymer baseplate to snap forward and break free. After that first time, all subsequent baseplate removals will be much easier to complete with nothing more than using just the armorer’s tool.
The very next thing I do is to replace Glock’s outside contractor-supplied magazine springs (which, by the way, are always slightly different from one another) with more powerful, more resilient, and highly consistent Wolff +10% magazine springs. Just make sure the magazine followers you’re using will match up with the new springs. (Ask and Wolff, or whoever else, will tell you!)
On page #28 of the June 2019 issue of ‘Shooting Illustrated’ (the NRA’s official journal) there is a nicely done list of magazine maintenance products that you might want to take a look at. I’m a longtime user of Lucas Oil Products, and I know I’m going to be picking up a can of Lucas Extreme Duty Contact Cleaner.
I, also, do two other things with aftermarket parts on my Gen3 Glocks: First, I replace the factory’s plastic frame pins with ‘Squirrel Daddy’s’ nice ’n tight fitting stainless steel pins; and, second, (as I think I’ve already mentioned) I use Wolff Gunsprings non-captured stainless steel recoil guide rods—In experienced hands the perceptible difference in the rapid-fire recoil impulse is huge! Huge like this: (The ‘ROF’, here, was just as fast as the Glock would go ‘Bang!’)
Frankly I think that a well maintained, cleaned, lubricated, properly tuned, and time-proven Glock IN ANY GENERATION is as good for CQB self-defense as anybody’s handgun ever could be. Out of force-of-habit I keep all of my handguns clean and lubricated; and with the semiautomatics I regularly replace all of the springs. After this, mechanical performance always seems to, pretty much, take care of itself.
Well, I should say, ‘Almost takes care of itself’. Why? Because there are two particular caveats that need to be carefully watched on ANY GENERATION Glock pistol: These two principal wear/fatigue points should be routinely examined and, just to be on the safe side, changed periodically.
At somewhere between every 12 and 15 thousand rounds I’ll reach into my large ‘Glock Box’ of spare parts and install a brand new slide stop w/ spring arm (Brownell’s Glock Part #27), and a new slide lock spring—Don’t ever forget to periodically change every Glock’s all-important slide lock spring (Brownell’s Glock Part #20).
Why? Because this silly looking little spring is THE ONE KEY PART ON EVERY GLOCK PISTOL that continues to hold the entire slide and frame assemblies together—That is ‘Why’! If you keep your Glock pistol (and its all-important magazines) clean, properly lubricated, and well tuned then there is absolutely no good reason I can think of to have to buy up to a newer generation Glock; and, just between you and me, there are several valid reasons why I, personally, would not; but, hey, this is a topic for another thread.
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