# A Mistake: Takedown with the Magazine Still In.



## northstar19 (Aug 11, 2013)

Last night, I made a foolish mistake. I was changing out the recoil spring on my Glock 17 gen 3.
Then I did some drills with a few snapcaps. 
Later, I forgot, and tried to take down the gun with the magazine still in.
Takedown was obstructed, of course, but I thought the spring was out of place (or something),
and I manipulated the slide until it came off. Did this a couple of times (trying to figure out what was wrong),
till I realized that I had to drop the magazine.
Naturally, I felt stupid, but then I began to worry that I had done some kind of damage to the Glock. 
It feels alright. Works alright. But I haven't taken it to the range since then. 
So--what do you think? Should I run it by a gunsmith for a check?
Thanks.


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## DJ Niner (Oct 3, 2006)

northstar19 said:


> Last night, I made a foolish mistake. I was changing out the recoil spring on my Glock 17 gen 3.
> Then I did some drills with a few snapcaps.
> Later, I forgot, and tried to take down the gun with the magazine still in.
> Takedown was obstructed, of course, but I thought the spring was out of place (or something),
> ...


If any one of the gun or sporting goods stores in your area has a Glock armorer on staff, you could make an appointment to have your pistol examined by the armorer. They could give it a good visual- and function-inspection, and even test-fire it if you'd like (assuming you can find ammo to do so).

I doubt the pistol would be seriously damaged enough by this type of incorrect disassembly to make it dangerous to fire, but sometimes unexpected things can happen, so I never say never. In my experience, the most likely thing that would be damaged is the magazine, probably in the form of gouges in the follower or on the exposed plastic/polymer near the feed lips. I'd recommend making sure there are no plastic shavings floating around inside the pistol or magazine, and that the recoil spring assembly (if you are still using the factory unit) didn't get chipped on the edge of the flared end. I suppose if the striker/firing-pin sear surface was caught and forced all the way to the rear multiple times, you might have damaged the spring or spring cups, but if that is the case, the pistols will just fail to fire at some point in the future, not explode.

Much more important, I believe, is the fact that you apparently did not correctly "clear" the pistol (magazine out first, then check and double-check chamber) prior to disassembly, which is a MAJOR safety violation. If the magazine would have had any live ammo in it, you probably would have fired a round when you tried to dry-fire prior to disassembly. Failure to follow known safety procedures EVERY TIME you disassemble or handle ANY pistol can cause property damage, injury, and/or death for yourself and/or others. You can't call back a fired bullet, and there are no do-overs, healing potions, or reset buttons to fix the problem if you kill someone because of a lax commitment to safety. Please take some time to reflect on this, and make a pledge to yourself to never cut corners on safety procedures again.


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## northstar19 (Aug 11, 2013)

DJ Niner. Excellent answer all the way around. Thank you. And yes, it was a lesson to me in more ways than one. Safety, safety, safety. Always. I had cleared the gun and then loaded it with the snapcaps. Having ejected all those dummy rounds, I must have felt (without thinking about it) the gun was unloaded. So I skipped the step of clearing it again, before disassembly. No excuse. My fault.


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