Glock 32 2,000-Round Wrapup

So, here's the Gen 3 Glock 32 after firing two thousand rounds of assorted ammunition without any cleaning or lubrication after an initial application of Lucas Oil to the factory recommended lubrication points...

You've got your typical discoloration around the muzzle end. Most of this was done a hundred rounds at a time, pre-loading the three magazines I have, going into the range, shooting up that initial 39 rounds, and then again & et cetera until the 100 rounds were gone. Of note is how the White Sound Defense guide rod protrudes from the muzzle end.

 Pretty grody on the inside.

Note the schmutz collected on the front rails. Part of the reason guns like this are less sensitive to dirt or lack of lubrication is that they just have those little metal nubbins keeping the slide flying in loose formation with the frame, rather than conventional frame rails.

The brass smear on the feed rail is notable as is the sheer amount of cack around the firing pin safety.

In the first three hundred rounds, the pistol experienced three failures to go completely into battery and three failures to feed, and then one more of each around the seven hundred and fifty round mark. It was at this point that I replaced the magazine springs with 11-coil springs from full-size Glock mags, in order to ensure that the next round was lifted into place fast enough to be picked up by the slide (despite the higher slide velocities, Glock 32 magazines use the same springs as 19 mags.)

I also replaced the factory 18# recoil spring with a CrSi flat wire IMSI 20# unit. Unfortunately, this meant having to use an aftermarket guide rod, something of which I'm not generally a fan.

Sure enough, the rear cap on the three piece Lone Wolf guide rod began unscrewing around the 1,300 round mark and the rod itself actually fell out of the gun, which I noticed because the gun failed to go fully into battery at round number 1,503. I knocked the slide off the gun with a rubber mallet, reassembled the guide rod, and fired off a couple magazines, experiencing a failure to feed with defective round of Remington ammunition. (During this test, I fired a total of 1,000 rounds of Remington FMJ .357SIG, two 500-round cases. Each case had one round with the primer wadded in sideways.)

Lone Wolf guide rod starting to unscrew

I replaced the bent Lone Wolf unit with the uncaptured White Sound Defense guide rod at the 1,629 round mark. There were no further malfunctions.

I'll note that, after the spring replacement, the only malfunction that wasn't caused by user error (me not making sure that I'd used thread-locker on the rear cap) or defective Remington ammo was the lone FTE at round #1,033.

So, that's a wrap. I think the 11-coil mag springs are the key, here, although the 20# recoil spring doesn't hurt.
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