It’s mostly in the ejector. Gen 3’s and I think 4’s come to a fine point, which in theory could make them weaker too. Most 9mm guns I’ve seen have more of a flat front to the ejector. Only other I can think of with a point to it, is my friend’s old Colt 1911 in 9mm. It snapped because of how little material it had on it.
Gen 5 Glock’s finally changed ejectors to one with more of a flat front, and they are angled a bit to eject more to the side rather than up and back. There are two different 9mm ejector numbers in the Gen 5’s now, but they’re mostly the same.
Shot my Dagger well past it’s break in, and I had about 12 of my casings inside my jacket’s hood afterwards. Most didn’t end up there though, because of my optic and the comp. It slowed the slide down enough that they would end up ejecting forward. Swapped to a Gen 5 ejector and it rarely happens now, even with the OEM extractor. Tried a Gen 5 LCI extractor and it didn’t make much of a difference.
I think break in is less in the spring, and more in the slide and frame wearing in to each other. People that have the ejection issues like stovepiping out of box, have not played around with their gun at all before going to the range. Neither of mine had a break in period because I rack my slide a lot and play with the gun while at home for a while. I also did polish all the internals after a little while too…
Also even older Gen 5’s can do it. New ones now have a breech face cut that grabs the rim of the casing. So it’s harder to eject, and when it finally does, it flings them out with authority.
No kidding!!! My Gen 5’s with the breach face cut (particularly my G34 before I sold it) would huck brass 20 to 30 FEET in a somewhat random pattern between 2 and 5 o’clock. They also held on to unspent rounds with such a grip that ejecting an unspent round to clear the weapon required the slide had to be pulled back with as much velocity and force as a 6 ft 250lb guy like me could muster (and my wife literally could not do it, lacked the hand strength). I actually developed the habit of pulling the slide back till the round touched the ejector, then pushing it down from the top and letting it fall through the magwell. It solved the ‘sometimes ejection is weak’ problem though, I’ll give it that, LOL
I ordered mine over the weekend, and they’ve slapped a shipping label on it. When I get it should I mount the optic right away, or shoot it some 1st? I’d hate for brass to fly back, and bust my burris ff3. I’ve never owned a glock, or glock clone. I’ve worked on nearly every gun I’ve owned, so I’m not opposed to upgrading a part if necessary.
When I had a Vortex Venom on my G34.5, the front of the optic glass got dinged up from brass/alum/steel/whatever I shot. My current Holosun’s have no issues with brass hitting them. Not sure how durable the Burris will be.
But I’d start out by shooting with the optic. Mine came without the optic cover plate on, so all it is, is two screws and you’re set. No fooling around with removing a plate, putting another on, then the optic. And if you have issues, it’s just removing the two screws as well. I definitely see the advantage to direct mount even if it limits options.
If you want some extra protection on the optic, get some of the soft plasticy flexible ipad screen protectors. Cut out a section to fit the front of the optic and carefully apply it so it doesn’t mess with the sight picture at all. Did that on my Vortex for a while, helped a bit. Works great on flashlights and many other things too.
The Gen5 ejector will help without an optic, but I’ve found that with one, I get forward ejection with mine, which I assume is from the casings getting smacked forward by the optic. Ejection changes a bit from the weight change. My friend’s OEM Gen 3 Glock does the same thing with an optic. Only similarity we have there are the optics being attached.
It is centerfire so when dry, the striker channel itself stops it. Hard metal on metal impact. Gen 1-4 style strikers have a thinner spade like tip on them, so in theory they seem more prone to breaking or getting weakened from dry fire. My Gen 5 which uses a newer one has lasted forever and is still working. Round type pin with more strength. That said, my Dagger gas been going strong for much longer than a premium Rival Arms striker I used.
I don’t have any science to back it up but I do believe the firing pin hitting a primer is going to be a lot softer on it.
Not necessary unless a gun manual explicitly states it really. FN509’s definitely need them. Glock’s? Never had issues. I used to buy snap caps, but I kept losing them, and they are pretty pricey, so I stopped. Didn’t make a difference to me.
An empty case would already have an indentation in the primer, so even if it did cushion the striker, it would only be a few more times until it was pushed in too far to matter.
Far from a clone. A pale comparison, perhaps. Most real shooters consider Taurus to be a bottom feeder pistol. Honestly assess the issues with Daggers and ask yourself if they’re even as good as a Taurus.
Broken strikers
Ejectors galling the striker lug
Short throats
Stainless steel, not nitrided
Sketch ejection patterns
Wobbly magazine fit
Mags falling out
Mags not dropping free
Triggers not resetting
Trigger fins too far to the right
Front sight shoot loose
Guide rod ends unscrewing
Mag release springs too stiff
Trigger pins walking out
The good:
Takes Glock mags
Metal sights
Better grip shape
Cheap, until one has to fix all the shortcomings by installing replacement parts.
I’ve been a PSA AR15 proponent for a long time. But this is a worse quality control launch than their PA10, which also had a lot of issues. These are 80% pistols that require an FFL transfer. PSA, you need to do better. Or stick with what you can do reliably. Right now with the Dagger you are way out of your capabilities. Your supplier quality engineers, if you have any, need some training, or some authority to do their job. Only PSA insiders will know the real situation.
And I’ve had exactly 0 of these issues. I had a out of spec connector, which I’ve also seen on OEM Glock’s before. I could have warrantied it but I had a spare. 5 minute fix tops. I wanted to swap the ejector on my other one with a Gen5 that I had. Not necessary, but I wanted to. The ejector in that one was actually stuck in place. All minor things.
Regardless of any issues they have, they are still Glock clones. They take Glock parts, and all the internals work the exact same as a Glock. Even OEM Glock sights can shoot loose or shear off eventually, since they are typically plastic. ejection looks the same as OEM to me, disregarding Gen 5’s.
In terms of function, my two Dagger’s have been flawless, even when I shot them with muddied up mags and no cleaning last weekend.
I’m not denying they happen, but how many of these issues are occuring vs how many sold?
They dont just take Glock parts, they NEED glock parts. The more the better, it seems.
PSA should sell empty plastic frames with just a locking block and two roll pins for $25.
Just read about a cracked slide. Same cut as mine. Terrific. Now the top end cannot be trusted either.
So what good is this pistol to me now? A range gun? At $0.40/round Im going to spend time with a range toy with demonstrated unreliability? Isnt my time better spent practicing with the guns Im actually willing to use for defensive carry?
I was excited to have a couple Daggers. Id have done better to buy a grader blade for my old tractor. Money spent and nothing to show.
Twos frames, identical nonconforming trigger bars. Could hold my Glock slide at half rack by squeezing the trigger. Dragged so bad the triggers wouldnt reset. So absolutely WOULDNT work with a Glock slide.I
Bullet seated 0.060" shorter than SAAMI spec and STILL locks up slide tight if chamber one. Bullet jammed into rifling. Was sent a replacement. Exactly as bad. Nothing my $80 couldnt fix with a throating reamer.
So a trigger that wont reset and a throat so short it either locks up your gun or worse, jams the bullet in deeper and blows it up. Minor issues, I suppose? No, dimensional defects that cause very dangerous conditions. No excuse, both features are trivial to measure but werent. Or were known defects that shipped anyhow? What do I know. Except Matt and Anthony are probably dealing with this crap all day and night long.
well, my front sight did come loose. And so did my guide rod screw. I understood the front sight maybe. No Loctite for some reason. I was a bit put off buy the guide rod screw though. It had a healthy amount of Loctite on it but it didn’t hold it. I think it wasn’t degreased enough. But issues got a good cleaning and Loctite and I haven’t had an issue since.
sketchy ejection patterns? yeah, that’s a Glock thing too. Mine seems to be getting better as I shoot it more.
Me personally, I don’t like the striker type trigger creep but that’s a Glock thing too right? But other than that I don’t have any of the other issues. I like my Dagger, might not be love but a strong like. If there was some way to take up some of that creep it just might be love. Yeah, I’d say it was the creepy trigger that keeps me from loving it. My Ruger has a trigger I could love on the Dagger… but that’s a hammer not a striker. Kinda like apples to oranges.
Try an Overwatch DAT. Its a pretty good trigger. Shorter reach, short reset, pretty good feel so far as striker guns go. My DAT with Dagger disconnector is actually lighter than I prefer, but given my lack of confidence in the Dagger it probably won’t get carried.
