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Own a glock 17, gen 4, which I love to shoot. Have owned the gun for about two years now and have put thousands of rounds through it. The gun still works fine, but was wondering after so many rounds, does it need to be serviced or rebuilt ? Just curious.


Chl holder since: 12/10/2010

I'd say that depends... On the condition of the existing parts.
Recoil and firing pin spring replacement and maybe a barrel is all that may need replacing. I've put close to 9k rounds through my 23 gen 3 and only replaced the recoil spring and firing pin spring. But I don't know how durable the guiderod/recoil spring is on the gen 4( my gen 3 needed replacing after 6k)

If you have more specific questions about what may need replacement check withan armorer or gunsmith.

Don't stop now - its just getting broken in! Maybe treat it to new recoil rod...

How many thousands? I have put tens of thousands of rounds through my Glock 19 and never done anything to it.

I took my CHL class from Captain McGraw of the Terrell Police Department. He stated that he had fired approximately 55,000 rounds through his Glock when it cracked, and he had to have it serviced. I don't recall for sure, but I think it was in the area of the grip that it cracked.

If you want to for peace of mind replace the spring/rod. I went over 12,000 rounds before I replaced the spring in my 27. Never jammed before but it is such a cheap part why not? My Glock 20sf was another story. I replaced it at around 5,000 just because the pistol takes so much of a beating and the spring/rod was starting to get to light and worn out from all the hot loads. I think my brother has over 15,000 on his 17. You will hear people say every 5,000 rounds but honestly unless your having problems going into battery or shooting a lot of hot loads it can easily go to 10K+. Barrel is fine. Don't buy a new barrel that would be a waste of money imo. My father bought an old gen 2 22 from a Florida LEO who said he must have had 50,000 rounds down range. My father changed the barrel even though the gunsmith said it was good to go and didn't notice any difference in accuracy or function.

Honestly if you actually wore out a factory barrel I bet Glock would replace it for free.

You could always go to a GSSF match and a Glock armorer will replace anything that needs replacing. There is a GSSF match the first weekend of May at Dallas Pistol Club.

Most of my Glocks are gen 1 or 2 and I don't believe I ever had to replace anything other than springs.

About 5 years ago, I had my late 80's vintage gen1 G17s inspected by a technician at the Smyrna plant. He came out and told me that the polymer had crystalized and the frames may fail. He demonstrated by attempting to twist the grip area while holding the trigger guard, and I was able to hear crackling.
He said not to worry, went back into the plant, reappeared 30 minutes later with both pistols reassembled with brand new frames. No Charge. 50k rounds through both, no other service beyond regular cleaning and maintenance ever performed.

With a Glock, my take on it is "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." They're incredibly high-service life pistols, with very few moving parts. The only things I've seen fail on a regular basis is springs from use -- and I'm talking about competition guns that see 10-15K rounds a year and countless thousands of dryfire cycles beyond that. Even then, it's just the occasional recoil spring and/or firing pin spring--usually reduced power firing pin springs don't last as long.

If it goes bang every time you pull the trigger, feeds and ejects smoothly, and doesn't leave a smudge trail everywhere you set it down, I'd run a bore snake through it, add a couple of drops of oil to the moving parts, and leave it be. Usually with Glocks, if there is a problem, it's obvious...not subtle.

The only problems I've ever seen with Glocks stem from modifications of various types (competition/light trigger work, weird combinations of springs intentionally put in service for specific purposes, etc.) and not from the standard "glock approved" mods like changing out trigger connectors and such.

I've seen Glocks "quit," but trust me, it wasn't "normal" wear!

My Gen. 3 Glock 30 has broken twice in the last couple thousand rounds ( I bought it as a police trade in so I have no idea how many rounds were fired previously), first time the slide stop spring broke and the slide stop walked out. Slide ended up nearly coming off. Second time, the slide catch spring broke. That was enough to inspire me to replace every spring in my 2 glocks ( other is 21 that has never given me any problems). Despite all of that, I still prefer Glocks. My 30 has never jammed, except when it broke.