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The Annoyed Man wrote: Nah.... I was trying to say that Glocks aren't impervious to breakage: http://frostedbutts.com/images/kB/

Don't get me wrong. When I have had people who aren't enthusiasts ask me what pistol they should buy for home defense, I'll usually recommend a Glock or a revolver of some sort. My wife chooses to carry a Glock 19. I've shot the gun on a number of occasions, and it is a well made gun. However, they are NOT absolutely without problems. I have experienced a couple of jams over the past couple of years with my wife's Glock. I'm an experienced shooter, and it isn't likely that it was due to limp-wristing. It could possibly have been the ammo—which is usually shot using either WWB, Fiocci, or American Eagle standard loads for practice ammo. My son has also experienced at least one jam, and so has my wife. Granted, that is a handful out of easily over 1,000 rounds, but in as much as we keep this gun clean and lubed, you can't blame it on maintenance.

Who knows the cause? All I know is that even though I consider the Glock to be a very reliable and simple to use platform, it isn't perfect either—which is the claim thrown in the face of those of us who prefer to carry 1911 pattern pistols.

To those who drink the perfection kool-aid I have one thing to say: "Gen4"

Now for the explanation: My experience with owning a Glock is less than stellar, in fact I went into it knowing I could have problems with the gun I owned. That gun was a Gen4 pain in the rear. Brand new the gun was less reliable than my Broken Kimber, at least the Kimber would go Bang with every press of the trigger as long as it had ammo, I can't say the same for the Glock.

Due to the nature of the beast, I have decided that the only MIM part that will be retained is the grip safety. This is simply because the probability of a failure there is minimal and I do not wish to deal with having the radius for the grip safety modified. Replacements will probably be parts made from bar-stock and will include the sear, hammer, disconnect, trigger, and thumb safety. Additionally if the gun goes to Wilson Combat I will get their reliability package, and have the slide refinished. In all honesty this gun has seen a few thousand rounds fired though it, and proven itself worthy of an upgrade.. When something breaks on a gun there are two ways to look at it. First is "Oh no, my gun is broken" with the correct emotions for your personality and situation, while the second is "I get to upgrade my gun!" So, because of the way I am, I will drop the cash on upgrading this gun which has already paid for itself as my daily carry. Besides I now get to carry the most down to business 1911 I own (Its a compact). While the Covert is down I choose to carry this little gun because of its history of reliability and its weight.

Toadstone wrote:Well, if it had to happen, I guess you can thank your lucky stars it happened on the range and not in a more intense setting.
This goes to show that you should always be prepared to transition to kung fu.

Failures that put the gun out of action are one of the reasons why I practice transitions to another gun, which is always on me.

To be perfectly honest I am leaning towards sending the gun to Wilson Combat for new internals and upgrades, although I am open to suggestions for good smiths.

First off I am looking at an upgrade to the sear, hammer, grip safety, and thumb safety. I am also considering dropping the swartz safety then installing a heavier FP spring and titanium FP. I have a very serious maintenance plan for all my firearms, especially my carry guns, that I follow which involves a detail strip and cleaning on a regular basis based on usage or carry (This firearm was due for a detail strip this coming Friday. Springs get replaced in my carry guns (and regular shooters) so frequently that the post office thinks I own stock in Wolff. The thing to consider is that every time I have seen a sear failure its been on the crown, until this one. But this is one reason why I own multiple guns that I am willing to carry.

e-bil: Modern springs should never take a "set" (become weaker due to being compressed), but they do wear quickly on firearms that are used a lot (such as many of mine). My current primary EDC has eclipsed the 5k round mark a long time ago and continues to rock and roll with out any real issues, I wish the Covert II had done this as well.

While at the range Friday evening my normal everyday carry developed an issue with the trigger. The pull increased significantly and the trigger become "gritty". The gun continued to work, although it was not optimum. This is an unacceptable change in a carry gun so It went straight to the gun safe when I got home and stayed there until I had enough time to take it down and inspect it. Currently it's predecessor, a RIA compact 1911, took it's place in my holster.

So lets talk about the gun in question. It's a Kimber Pro Covert II, has around 2000 to 2500 rounds through it, and the failure is rather unusual. I had time today so I detail stripped the gun and as soon as I got the grip safety out of the way I could see the issue, the right leg on the sear had broken off. A careful inspection shows a clean break but it was defective when the part was given its finish as I can see bare metal on about 30% of the interior surface and the rest has the same finish coating that the exterior of the part has. This is the first time I have seen a failure of this type, and fortunately is the first time I have even heard of one. Things would have been completely different if the other leg had failed and the gun could have gone full auto in that case or even fired while out of battery.

Now I really don't want to hear "It's a Kimber so it's junk" or "Get a Glock" because even with the failure of a critical component this Kimber continued to go bang every time I pressed the trigger and I can't say the same about my former Glock. What I want to do is point out that parts do fail, and they do so regardless of the name brand. This is the first time I have seen a Kimber fail like this and I will consider the probable cause to be the manufacturing process as there is finish where there should be bare metal on the surface that should have been the inside of the part. I am looking into what I will do to get the gun back into service, however upgrades are in order.