Mine only shoots better because I now know how to rectify the magazine shortfalls. When it works, it's a nice little gun.
If I load it with only 8 rounds, and the right ammo, it always works. :shock:
I have written some reports on the operation of this pistol. I've lost track of where I've posted this, so forgive me if this is redundant.
Originally, this little Glock gave me fits. But from the outset, I also learned of its ammo preferences, and particularly, which ammo is more tolerant to improper magazine loading, which seems to be the cause of malfunctions. A feller might say, if the magazine is loaded improperly, why would you be critical of the pistol?
Well, maybe it's not quite that easy. If I handed this pistol, an empty magazine, and a box of ammo to an otherwise experienced shooter, and challenged him to load the pistol and fire all ten rounds, there would be a good chance he'd have failures, from the very first magazine.
What I've learned....
Even though this is a single stack magazine, the cartridges still do stagger, if ever so slightly. And since the stagger is so slight, it's possible to actually stack the rounds on one side of the magazine, and not stagger at all. This may only be a couple rounds in the magazine, but the effects are cumulative. When this happens, and when you load more than eight rounds, the top two rounds actually nose dive upon leaving the magazine. The bullet itself may hang up on the integral magazine ramp and stop all further chambering motion. Or it can bounce off this magazine ramp and misfeed while chambering, locking things up tight, or even stove pipe with a loaded round.
Some ammo is more tolerant of hitting the magazine ramp. Round nose bullets come to mind. Even with the magazine misloaded, I've found there's more of a chance of round nose bullets recovering and still chambering correctly. Mini Mag Hollow Points were the least tolerant of such a condition.
So when I say I know what makes this pistol work, and what makes it fail, mostly it's careful loading that makes it work. You cannot always see when two or more rounds are not staggered in the magazine, but you can definitely see the nose-dive condition of the top (9th or 10th) round, indicating you have a not-staggered condition in the magazine. Then, the corrective measure is pulling down the follower and letting it snap the cartridges to the top. Do it enough times, and you'll easily see the top round finding its way to the correct position in the magazine for chambering.
I have also discovered, it takes a fairly stout loading, and/or a heavier bullet to make this pistol operate. We all know that there can be quite a difference in powder charges or priming charges, even in what we think is quality ammo. I find this even with Mini Mags, far more than in the olden days. Just the slightest blooper can make this pistol misfeed. So, part of my solution is sticking with High Velocity ammo, and even better, Hyper Velocity ammo. Stingers always work. Red Box Winchester Hyper Velocity ammo always works. And Hyper Velocity Aquila always works.
I can now go to the range, using my preferred ammo, and taking the magazine loading precautions, I can fire 200 rounds with zero malfunctions. If I get lazy or careless loading a magazine, I will expect failures.
With the frustrations with this little Glock, I also bought the Taurus TX22. The Taurus is superior.
I cannot speak for others. The peculiarities of my pistol may or may not be isolated to my pistol, but I'd bet money, what is causing failures with my G44 is what likely is causing failures for others.
