Hello,
I've been having issues with the official Kriss 40 rnd Glock magazines coming apart when dropped in competition. I've also have the 33 rnd official Glock magazines, but of the 3 I've purchased 1 is defective and causes feeding issues consistently.
Any brands that are reliable and offer 40+ capacity?
I know the Magpul drums are popular, but my competition rig doesn't offer space to carry spares.
So I've owned a Vector SDP Gen 3 9mm for about a year now. I've had all sorts of problems with it, mostly relating to reliability and accelerated parts wear from improperly hardened parts.
My Gen 3 originally had issues with failures to extract, which seemed to be resolved with the fix of putting in a BCM enhanced extractor spring from an AR-15. The extractor then launched itself out of the gun to never be found. I replaced it with a stock extractor kit from Kriss, DID NOT USE the enhanced AR-15 spring, and the extractor disappeared again. Extractor number 3 held on until the next issue.
During this time I purchased a Duality Arms Rattler (FRT) to use with the Vector and a HuxWrx Flow 9k Ti suppressor. I have also had significant issues with that FRT. I have never been able to consistently get a long string of FRT fire while also having the gun function in semi. I have also had it frequently burst while in semi, and fail to burst while in FRT. The suppressor has been excellent, I do recommend it.
I then had a firing pin break, which prompted an RMA to Kriss. The firing pin had significant (in my opinion premature) wear that would suggest improper hardening of the parts. This was generously at 3000 rounds.
The bolt also appeared to have significant wear on the rear lugs. See images.
After reinstalling the stock trigger back in the gun, I sent the whole thing to Kriss who proceeded to replace most of the moving parts in the gun: the trigger group, and bolt carrier group.
Upon receiving it back, I began preparing for a major competition where I wanted to shoot the Vector almost exclusive in FRT, so I put, generously, 1000 rounds through it practicing, again with the FRT installed. Still having issues with bursts in semi, and no bursts in FRT, but I managed to get it good enough I felt confident to try it.
I also upgraded the recoil spring from the standard 9mm to a .45 caliber one. This is supposed to reduce the wear rate of components on the gun when being shot with an FRT and make the FRT reset more consistent.
During the competition I continued to have issues with the gun, mainly with light primer strikes and the official Kriss 40rnd magazines coming apart when dropped from the gun. The surface was hard packed dirt and gravel. At one point a Kriss magazine sheared in half while being inserted into the gun, causing all the loaded ammo to arc out onto the ground.
In an attempt to deal with the light primer strikes I swapped in a spare bolt. At the time, I though I had broken another firing pin. The bolt swap appeared to help, but due to a failure of the Rattler's 3D printed safety drum, which prevented me from putting the gun on safe, I ended up having to drop out of the competition completing "successfully" 6 of 8 stages. Overall about 400 to 500 rounds fired in the competition.
After the competition I took the gun apart, cleaned it, and found that the hammer was damaged, also likely improperly hardened. I believe this is the likely cause of the light primer strikes. I had a replacement trigger group on hand, which I have now swapped in.
The gun is still not running perfectly, but I can't determine if the issue is from magazines or the gun right now. I haven't put the FRT in the new trigger group yet, I might not at this point.
I mainly got the gun because of my love the Vector from various video games, but it feels like a strong case of don't meet your heroes. I've broken 2 extractors, 1 firing pin, 1 hammer, several magazines, and 1 (aftermarket) safety selector with at most 4500 rounds through the gun.
Edit: Clarified this is a 9mm Vector at the beginning.
So I may be having sex for the first time soon. Any tips for how to make sure it's enjoyable for both of us?
