Will Glocks be worthless in 300 years?

[cchardwick]

Not that it will make any difference to us in this generation, but in about four or five generations everyone will get our 'hand me down' guns, and I'm just wondering it the plastic used to make Glocks and other polymer pistols will get old and brittle over time. Usually all plastic gets old and brittle, right? Almost all the handguns I have now are mostly plastic with steel slides and barrels. Will these all be worthless in 300 years? Or should I say, not worthy of firing a round? They may have value as collectors items but not sure if I'd want to shoot a 300 year old plastic gun LOL.

[Playboypenguin]

You don't buy Glocks and "heirlooms"...you buy them as reliable and durable everyday performers. If you are buying them to pass down you are wasting your money.

I have plenty of "pretty" guns to pass down. My polymer guns can be used and abused.

[cchardwick]

Yea, I bought my Glock because they say it's the most reliable in adverse conditions. I heard that they tested them by burying them in the sand and dunking them in salt water and they still would fire. I had a top of the line titanium knife that I just loved till one day I brought it to the ocean and one saltwater use and it froze in the OPEN position, not good to have a big open knife on a boat LOL.

[right winger]

I bought my Glock for here and now.

[ActivShootr]

They will be recycled and made into something else.

[Gatorhugger]

Is this question for real?
Who cares what will work 300 years from now.
If the gun exists, and hasn't been destroyed by nature or man, none of your decendants will have it. Nor will they know your name. Nor will that person 300 years from now want to shoot 300 year old steel.

[Water-Man]

Worthless? No. Worth less? Yes.

[gwnorth]

I had a top of the line titanium knife that I just loved till one day I brought it to the ocean and one saltwater use and it froze in the OPEN position,

Something mighty odd about your knife there. Titanium is specifically used in a lot of marine applications specifically because of its extreme resistance to corrosion. The frames and personal spheres of deep ocean submersibles like DSV ALVIN and DSV TURTLE were changed from their original HY-100 steel to titanium for that reason.

To the OP, I wouldn't worry about 300 years into the future. I doubt that current, conventional cartridges will even still be in production by then.

[jdc1244]

For some of us they’re already worthless.

It depends on how many there are, I suppose. But I don’t see gun collectors lusting after an ugly plastic pistol 300 years from now. Anthropologists and museum curators may be interested in them as an artifact from the late 20th Century but after being examined and catalogued they’ll be stored in a dark vault. The 1911s, however, will be on display behind force fields and guards armed with ray guns.

[kozak6]

How many 'hand me down' pistols do you have from 1708? How many of them are worthless? How many of them are worthy of firing a round?

It doesn't strike me as particularly mattering. Any Glocks still around in 300 years will be historical museum pieces.

[Tommy Vercetti]

I thought titanium like rust was chemically inert

[KChen986]

They will be recycled and made into something else.

Mmmmm. Recycled glock water bottles....

[Mike Irwin]

Let me jump into my time machine and move forward in time.

I'll be back in a few minutes.


I'm back.

WHOA! What a weird world!

Apparently in 2117 Gaston Glock was brought back to life by members of the cult (now a full blown religious movement in 2308, and the ONLY one allowed!).

Brother Gaston is now unchallenged supreme ruler of the Universe, he personally having led the wars of unification against Taurus Prime and Beta Minor (the only inhabited worlds in the universe).

Their technology was so far superior that it was actually a detriment to their war efforts. Their shields could stop nucleonic plasmogrification rays, but couldn't stop a 115-gr. JHP from the Glock 972 main battle rifle.

The end result is that EVERYTHING is now made out of polymer. Cars, houses, streets, even food!

And it's illegal, and punishable by death, to even mention John Moses Browning's name.

Oh yeah. Dick Cheney is vice supreme ruler.

And nook-lee-uhr is now the preferred pronunciation.

[deputy tom]

Like the Bic lighter,use your Glock and don't worry about it.tom.

[AZAK]

Since most everything these days is obsolete by the time it actually hits the shelves, when considering technology, perhaps everything is "worthless" in three-hundred years.

How many of us have anything usable in our homes that was manufactured over 300+ years ago?

[B.N.Real]

We'll meet in three hundred years and figure it out.

[Kreyzhorse]

Ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, Soylent Green Glock..........

[JohnKSa]

They'll be worthless to me...

[Alleykat]

Will Glocks be worthless in 300 years?

Waaay before 300 years, maybe within 30 years, the abomination that was slavery will have executed its historical poetic justice on the Americas, and there will be no more civilized existence on the North American continent.

Glocks will still be around, though.

[vox rationis]

Like others have said, they are not heirlooms...I see them more as a disposable pistol anyway. I wouldn't much care if the thing gets dragged behind a car really. That's one of its strong appeals. It is nice to know that you have a good reliable tool that if it gets destroyed or roughed up, you don't have to suffer over it and can get a [relatively] cheap replacement quite easily.

Maybe a mechanical/materials engineer can tell us how long it would take for polymer frames to become brittle.

[Swampghost]

There is truly no test except to wait 300 yrs. Exposure to UV light will certainly shorten it's lifespan as will exposure to certain chemicals, airborne or direct contact. We're still in the infancy stage of polymers/composites. Think about THAT the next time that you board a new jet.

Just a quicky. Did you know that the paint on many new cars is bonded in such a way that it is considered a single molecule? You probably thought that you would never see one and there it is, BIG.

[Mike Irwin]

"How many of us have anything usable in our homes that was manufactured over 300+ years ago?"

Me.

A number of items, actually, several of them VERY much older than 300 years.

[Swampghost]

300 yrs? Most of my family (the family name) came here in the 1690's. My mother still has some furniture and paintings from before then. Back in the '70's the last of my great-uncles died, keeper of the family firearms. We decided to donate them to the Smithsonian.

[HisSoldier]

Interesting post. This points out the differences between those who just consider a gun to be a tool and those who like the concept of intrinsic value in an object. The two are not mutually exclusive, many appreciate their guns as both tools and as works of art, but it's painful to watch them depreciate by the normal wear and tear of life. I tend to believe that glock owners are more likely the throw away tool types who don't particularly care about the art and technology of gunmaking. If it saves your life some day you might want to see that it ends up in the hands of your great great great grandson or daughter. (Assuming obama doesn't win.)

[NormOps]

if I spend six hundred dollars on a hand gun, I sure as heck care about keeping it in good condition...! plastic or not. beisides, the they sell metal frames for Glocks, so that should solve the problem. just get a rattle can and paint it to look like plastic...