How To Disassemble A Glock

Polymer-framed with Austrian mechanical efficiency, the Glock is a favorite among novices and handgun enthusiasts alike. With its easy-to-use style, seamless fire rate and exceptionally simple disassembly and care methods, it's a staple of law enforcement and hobbyists across the world. If you've recently purchased a Glock, one of your most important tasks as a responsible gun owner is to safely break down and clean your firearm, and we're going to show you just how to do that.

Disassembling a Glock

Whether you're breaking it down to clean it, ship it or store it, a Glock's small number of moving parts make it a breeze to disassemble. A gun that's not taken care of will eventually break down, so it's imperative that you practice good upkeep and some simple run-throughs of this process will ensure that you're quite capable of keeping your Glock in good shape.

Make Sure the Glock is Empty

The first step in disassembly is to make sure it's not loaded prior to doing anything. Start by pushing down on the magazine ejector and carefully extracting the magazine. Place the magazine away from the gun and then rack the slide back and visually inspect to make sure there are no rounds chambered still. Even with the magazine out, it's entirely possible there's still a chambered round and that could still cause injury, so take a few extra seconds to make sure that there's not visible bullets.

Additionally, use your finger to physically inspect the chamber to make sure there are no rounds. This is just as important as visual inspection, not just because it double-checks but it also ensures that you're not skipping this most critical part of disassembly.

Finally, rack the slide several more times, just to be certain. Once you're absolutely certain the gun is empty, move on to step 2.

Removing the Glock Slide

Pull back the slide until the sides line up with the body, and then depress the trigger. Pull down on the levers to remove the slide assembly.

Disassembling the Barrel

First, make sure you've got some manner of protective eyewear - the barrel spring is under a lot of pressure, and if it snaps back at you it can cause serious injury. Push the spring forward slightly and carefully lift it up and away from the barrel itself.

Grasp the barrel by the extrusions and lift it away from the slide, pushing forward slightly to clear the back end. From here, you can clean and reassemble your Glock so it stays in good working order.

Cleaning your Disassembled Glock

In order to reduce usage damage, your Glock needs to be cleaned every 3 trips to the range. If you don't fire it much, every 3 months will do as well.

Begin With the Barrel of the Glock

Using a gun cleaning solvent, moisten a cleaning patch and run it through the barrel with the cleaning rod. Rotate it as you bring it forward and back, taking your time. Push the cloth past the breech and out through the muzzle, and repeat this process a few times to make sure you've gotten it well taken care of.

From here, use your bore brush to scrub the inside of the barrel until you've removed all debris and scuffs. You don't need to be able to eat off of it, but it should shine when inspected.

Next, Move on to the Slide

Using a dry brush or one with very little solvent, scrub the slide around the breech and extractor. The reasoning for using a dry brush or as little solvent as necessary is you don't want solvent or oil fouling up the firing pin or the channel. A clean gun is nice, but if you make it not function in the process, you've defeated the purpose of regular upkeep.

Using patches and your brush, complete the same actions with the receiver, ensuring all carbon deposits and gunpowder are removed as completely as possible. You want to make sure that you run dry cleaning patches through each component so that there's no solvent left behind.

Regular Glock Maintenance is critical

Whether you're a regular at the range or only go on special occasions, knowing how to break down, reassemble and clean your Glock is mandatory. Once a year it's also worth taking to a Glock armory specialist to break it down into it's absolute component parts and really deep clean it. With proper maintenance, your Glock should serve you for years to come.

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