Issue with my Glock 17 not holding open

[m.a.barr]

So recently when I've been firing my Glock 17 gen 4, my slide hasn't been holding open after my mag is emptied. Not always, but enough to raise concern. It's relatively new, as I only bought it back in December. To my understanding, this problem can be caused by one of two things, either my mag follower isn't activating the mechanism to latch the slide, or the mechanism itself is faulty.

Something I was thinking of, my magazines when I got them were next to impossible to functionally load to 10 rounds and still seat them in the pistol, so while not in use, i would keep the mags full. As to weaken the spring. Been doing that for a few months and they fit ten rounds now without any hassle, but I wonder if my doing this, the follower don't have enough force to repeatedly activate the slide stop.

Any thoughts?

 

[Silverado]

Is this problem present with all mags?

I had one mag in which the tiny tab on the follower that activates the slide stop lever had broken off. Check that.

Otherwise, Glocks are dead easy to strip and examine. The problem should be obvious.

Mag springs don't weaken from being left loaded. They weaken over time from numerous stretch-compress cycles.

 

[fenceline]

Or you are riding the slide catch.

 

[m.a.barr]

I made some markings on my mags so I could differentiate which ones were problematic. I did strip and there is no noticeable damage to any of the parts.

Now I have been working on my grip lately, and I hadn't thought of that. I may very well be riding the slide catch! Thanks for the tip, I'll keep that in mind next time i'm shooting and see if its something i'm prone to doing.

 

[L1911]

+1 (you may not notice it when shooting, but it does not take much for the thumb to ride the slide)

Or you are riding the slide catch.

 

[m.a.barr]

Yeah, it makes sense. Recently i've been trying to work on drawing from my holster and shooting, so with that, I may not be getting the best grip. Just going to have to work on it is all.

 

[D-BOMB]

When I switched to a glock gen 4 I had the same issue, I was riding the slide release.

 

[Silverado]

Or you are riding the slide catch.

You know, it's funny sometimes. I often lecture my staff to not look for zebras when hearing hoofbeats, and lo-and-behold, that's just what I did there!