Any reports of polymer-framed pistols suffering explosive destruction?

bandit86

bandit86

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Just got me a plastic steyr 9mm, nice little gun, anybody hear of any real reports of polymer-framed pistols suffering explosive destruction, any makes?
 
The chamber, barrel and slide are all still made from steel. Polymer-framed pistols are no more likely to explode compared to metal-framed ones than plastic-stocked rifles are compared to wood.

Just don't bake it in the oven.
 
If they discharge out of battery, which can happen to pretty much any gun.

I haven't heard of any modern, within the last fifteen years or so, quality polymer guns having catastrophic failures. All the important parts are steel.
 
Polymers guns do not blow up "Bad reloaders blow them up ;)"

Use quality factory ammo or make sure you pay attention when reloading your own ammo. "NEVER USE ANYONE ELSE'S RELOADS!"
 
Watched a Glock 21 fire a bad factory load. Round ruptured at the extracter groove. Blew the bottom of the mag out, broke the trigger assembly, slide stop, mag release and a bunch of other small internal components. The slide and "plastic" receiver held together and saved the shooters hand. Was very violent.

Would not heistate or worry about a Glock or other major brands polymer gun blowing up.
 
fenceline said:
Watched a Glock 21 fire a bad factory load. Round ruptured at the extracter groove. Blew the bottom of the mag out, broke the trigger assembly, slide stop, mag release and a bunch of other small internal components. The slide and "plastic" receiver held together and saved the shooters hand. Was very violent.

Would not heistate or worry about a Glock or other major brands polymer gun blowing up.
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What was the verdict, bad reloads?
 
Lots of urban legends surrounding pistols blowing up, I'm sure that in the real world any issues would be ammunition related..

A guy I shoot with always cringes when I'm on the line running cast lead through my G17, "It'll blow up!". But off course it never does, and nor does the barrel even begin to show signs of lead build-up. I'm sure the high pressure factory fodder he uses is harder on a gun.

I'm sure if you read the manual of any firearm manufacturer they with all warn against using handloads.
 
I doubt that you are at any higher risk of an exploding handgun with a polymer frame. If your gun is going to explode (due to the ammo, I assume we are not talking about what would happen if you strapped dynamite to your gun) it will not matter what your frame is made of.

What there is a slight risk of with a glock, is the guide rod and forward part of the frame melting, if you shoot it enough, quickly enough. That being said a glock should function with a melted guide rod and as long as the frame is intactfrom the front rails and back it should also not matter if the very front is melting off.
 
Glocks are specifically designed to direct any explosive failure down the magazine well away from the shooter's face and torso. In a proper shooting stance, there is no reason why a shooter should be injured, even if there is a true explosion in the chamber. If a reload fired out of battery, I suspect how it happened was a reload with the primer not seated flush to the primer pocket and the case so deformed that it wouldn't chamber properly. When the slide hit the primer that wasn't fully seated in the pocket, it detonated the primer, and therefore fired the round out of battery. Even in this case, the discharge should be out the ejection port (hopefully away from a right handed shooter) and down the magazine well. The magazine itself should forcefully eject in most cases as well.

The Glock trainers will tell you to never fire their firearms with your support hand under the magazine well due to this design.

I've been drinking the Glock kool-aid for years and have never seen a malfunction of this type, and have never seen a round discharge when the trigger wasn't deliberately pulled.
 
Would you believe: "Seen a g21 kaboom. Reload. out of battery?" everyone just murmured "out of battery" after it happened.
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More likely just a good ol' fashioned, run-of-the-mill, case head failure. They are fun to watch. Not so much if you're holding the gun. Glocks won't go 'click' OOB.

A guy I shoot with always cringes when I'm on the line running cast lead through my G17, "It'll blow up!". But off course it never does, and nor does the barrel even begin to show signs of lead build-up. I'm sure the high pressure factory fodder he uses is harder on a gun.
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As long as you clean the barrel frequently, you won't have a problem. But most of the time you don't notice the leading until it goes to pieces. My buddy that blew up his G17 with lead bullets recommends cleaning after no more than 500 rounds ;)
 
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