The last G19 I had was pitiful. I had decided to give it another go with Glock. Bought a new G19 and decked it out with all my favorite parts. Basically an LAV edition, before there was an LAV edition, with a "-" connector. I was excited, because it seemed perfect to me! But it quickly started showing problems. Failure to eject, brass to the face, etc. It threw brass directly to the 6 o'clock, so hard that it drew blood on my forehead. I left the range one day with four bleeding cuts and a pile of frustration. It also shot high, no matter what I did. I like my sights set up to either "shoot the dot" or impact on the top edge of the front sight blade. The G19 shot 2" over the front sight.
I had to take a day off work to drive to Smyrna. They replaced every small part in the slide. The real issue was the extractor. But by replacing everything, they could avoid admitting what the real problem was. I specifically asked them what was wrong and they basically dodged the question. This is what I like to refer to as waving the magic Glock wand. Fix the issue quietly and don't admit to a problem. The replacement extractor was clearly of a different design.
Part of the reason people love them is because they are accessible. And as a result, they've built a reputation for great service. But that's only true if you live here or if you participate in GSSF. Shipping a gun in to them is a different story. And I've heard both good and bad stories from guys in other states.
But they did in fact fix my gun. Good extraction & ejection. Unfortunately, by that point, my opinion of the gun had soured and the POI was still high. I ended up selling it to a guy out of state. He still has it, 4 years later. He shoots alot and he's still very happy with it.
Glock will probably be the king of defensive handguns for a long time. Partly due to an earned reputation, partly due to marketing and public perception and partly due to their dominance of the LE market. And the M&P will always play second fiddle to an extent for many of the same reasons. Not because it's a lesser gun, but because it's not what everyone else shoots.
And the M&P did have some early teething issues, like the dead trigger problem and erratic accuracy. The dead trigger was fixed years ago with a spring change. The accuracy issue improved with a couple of barrel redesigns. And the trigger has improved significantly over the course of several design changes. But we all know how hard it is to overcome old reputations in the gun industry. For someone who is starting from scratch, try them both and pick the one that works best for you. Because it's kind of hard to go wrong with either.
Thank you for providing such excellent and thorough responses...they are helpful to me and anyone that might stumble on to this thread through google.
On that G19...did your mods have anything to do with the problem or was it entirely an extractor issue?
