P80 G19 slide issues

[23 Blast]

Hello all,

Working on a G19, using Swenson slide (I know, I know!) with an OEM Glock barrel (the Swenson barrel I purchased was garbage, way out of spec, and even generous sanding, polishing, filing, and prodigious profanity made the barrel only "okay." OEM barrel much better.

Anyway, the issue is the slide. It goes on the rails well, since I polished the hell out of them and lubed them well, but when racked all the way back, wants to stick there. The slide stop is not engaged. A firm tap with the palm of the hand gets it back into battery, but I'm having a hard time figuring out what is causing the hang up, as I don't detect any unusual wear or bashing of plastic when I take the slide off.

I've also taken off the slide, removed the recoil spring and barrel, and just put the slide by itself on the frame, and there's still that slight hitch. It's far less than when the barrel and spring are in, but still there.

[alexisjohnson]

Realistically, it could be anything.

You could have an out of spec slide...or out of spec rear rails, or even an a locking block/front rails.

Do you have a oem stock slide you can test? Try to find a slide and pop that on and see if it works. If it works...the issue is your rails (most likely rear ones). If not....then you have to do a process of elimination.

My advice for the future.....use as much oem as humanly possible.... It makes it much easier to figure whats wrong...

[ar15barrels]

Hello all,

Working on a G19, using Swenson slide (I know, I know!) with an OEM Glock barrel (the Swenson barrel I purchased was garbage, way out of spec, and even generous sanding, polishing, filing, and prodigious profanity made the barrel only "okay." OEM barrel much better.

Anyway, the issue is the slide. It goes on the rails well, since I polished the hell out of them and lubed them well, but when racked all the way back, wants to stick there. The slide stop is not engaged. A firm tap with the palm of the hand gets it back into battery, but I'm having a hard time figuring out what is causing the hang up, as I don't detect any unusual wear or bashing of plastic when I take the slide off.

I've also taken off the slide, removed the recoil spring and barrel, and just put the slide by itself on the frame, and there's still that slight hitch. It's far less than when the barrel and spring are in, but still there.

Do you suspect that the slide is machined correctly while the barrel from the very same company was not machined correctly?
The definition of crazy is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

Use a factory glock slide to check your frame rails.
Use a factory glock frame to check your suspect slide.

[23 Blast]

So after more troubleshooting, here is what I've discovered:

What appears to be happening when the slide locks back (without the slide stop being engaged) is that the barrel shifts slightly forward, which locks up the slide. Tapping very lightly on the front of the muzzle releases it and allows the slide to go into battery. However, this is only happening intermittently.

Per the handful of troubleshooting videos I've watched, it supposedly is due to the slide/barrel interfaces being too rough with each other, and the general recommendation is to lube the heck out of all contact surfaces and keep trying.

I've done that, even lightly polishing the rails, the inside of the slide, the hole in the front of the slide where the barrel sticks through, etc. So the entire mechanism is slick as snot now, and slides all together easily.

When I hold the gun with the muzzle pointed upward, and rack the slide, it slides back and forth with no problems, behaving like any stock Glock. In this case, the barrel and recoil spring guide remain parallel to each other.

When I point the muzzle downward, that is where the problem manifests itself. The barrel shifts slightly forward, IOW the muzzle and the end of the recoil spring guide are pointing slightly toward each other, instead of parallel. The slide locks up. As mentioned before, tapping lightly on the muzzle releases whatever is holding up the mechanism and the slide/barrel returns to battery.

[ar15barrels]

When I point the muzzle downward, that is where the problem manifests itself. The barrel shifts slightly forward, IOW the muzzle and the end of the recoil spring guide are pointing slightly toward each other, instead of parallel. The slide locks up. As mentioned before, tapping lightly on the muzzle releases whatever is holding up the mechanism and the slide/barrel returns to battery.

If your recoil spring is not able to keep rearward tension on the barrel when the gun is muzzle down, then the spring must be seated on some feature of the frame instead of the barrel.
The rear of the recoil spring assembly should be holding the barrel rearward.

[23 Blast]

If your recoil spring is not able to keep rearward tension on the barrel when the gun is muzzle down, then the spring must be seated on some feature of the frame instead of the barrel.
The rear of the recoil spring assembly should be holding the barrel rearward.

But then why does it behave normally when the gun is muzzle up?

As far as I can tell, the recoil spring assembly does not seem to be hung up on anything in its channel, but I still smoothed it out some.

[Gutpile66]

I bought a Korean Swensen (G19/2). Sent junk back. Striker channel was machined so tight the OEM firing pin wouldn't make it through the breech face. Broke 3 channel liners. And the finish was terrible.

Then I bought a Thompson Leh. Sent junk back. Extractor wouldn't seat. And the striker channel was too narrow same as the Swensen. Finish was nice though.

Then I bought a Steel City Arsenal slide and it works perfect. Channel liner comes installed. All OEM parts fit and function perfectly. Nice Armor Black Cerakote finish. Good stuff. Affordable too . . .

[ar15barrels]

But then why does it behave normally when the gun is muzzle up?

Gravity.