New Atlantis Lost
Well-Known Member
Public service announcement regarding the installation of slide lock springs into your Glock frame!
Particularly useful for those building guns on 80% frames.
Whilst lower completion kits are sold in many variations, most are labeled as being compatible with multiple models of varying sizes. For the most part, they are. In my case, it was a full size kit for my “compact” P80 G19 clone (PF940CV1).
In fact, the only part that does NOT cross over from the 17 to the 19 is the slide lock spring. The full size one is significantly longer and will not work on a compact frame. I spent a very long time wondering why I couldn’t seat my spring down far enough, with it looking like a silver dingus poking up out of the frame!
I spent this much time feeling dumb because this incompatibility issue is not mentioned on the kit, even when the specific frame model was mentioned in the Q&A for the kit (Brownells). I assumed it must be my fault. I eventually found the answer on some other forum for a gun club in some northern state. So, I am passing this information along to any other weekend gunsmiths who might be in my same situation.
It is also notable to mention that these springs get changed slightly moving forward of gen 3 to 4 and 5 Glocks, should you be looking for replacements instead of building Gen 3 80%s.
The more you know...
Happy building!
Particularly useful for those building guns on 80% frames.
Whilst lower completion kits are sold in many variations, most are labeled as being compatible with multiple models of varying sizes. For the most part, they are. In my case, it was a full size kit for my “compact” P80 G19 clone (PF940CV1).
In fact, the only part that does NOT cross over from the 17 to the 19 is the slide lock spring. The full size one is significantly longer and will not work on a compact frame. I spent a very long time wondering why I couldn’t seat my spring down far enough, with it looking like a silver dingus poking up out of the frame!
I spent this much time feeling dumb because this incompatibility issue is not mentioned on the kit, even when the specific frame model was mentioned in the Q&A for the kit (Brownells). I assumed it must be my fault. I eventually found the answer on some other forum for a gun club in some northern state. So, I am passing this information along to any other weekend gunsmiths who might be in my same situation.
It is also notable to mention that these springs get changed slightly moving forward of gen 3 to 4 and 5 Glocks, should you be looking for replacements instead of building Gen 3 80%s.
The more you know...
Happy building!