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Excel Shooting Cedric Glock on Thigh

The recent horrific shooting in Kansas has drawn national attention. Before his untimely demise (far too late), the shooter posted this picture of a GLOCK on his Facebook page. If you look closely you can almost read the entire serial number. The serial number on the slide and the barrel appear to match, but they seem to be mismatched to the frame . . .

As best as I can make out, the serial number is BC 2475. The first character is a best guess. It is not very clear; the other five can be seen on the barrel as well as the slide, and are much better defined.

Looking on the Internet, it appears that nearly all six character serial numbers are of the first generation. From a discussion of GLOCK Serial numbers on Glocktalk:

AZ – G-17 – December 1986 – 1st Gen. – has Austrian markings
BA – G-17 – December 1986 – 1st Gen. – has Austrian markings
BB – G-17 – December 1986 – 1st Gen. – has Austrian markings
BC – G-17 – December 1986 – 1st Gen. – has Austrian markings
BD – G-17 – December 1986 – 1st Gen. – has Austrian markings
BL – G-17 – July 1988 – 1st Gen. – has Austrian markings

This is speculation, of course. The records I’ve seen are not encyclopedic; it’s possible that special runs of GLOCK pistols were done for Gen 3 models, with two alphabetic characters to start, followed by four numeric characters. In at least some models, the letter characters are said to follow a code indicating the month and year of manufacture.

I spoke with a GLOCK trained armorer. He said that mismatched slides and barrels with frames are not unusual. They are pretty interchangeable in models of the same frame size; it’s not unusual for slides and barrels to be placed on frames that do not match.

Excel Glock Facebook Thigh

This close up shows the serial number a bit better.  At some point, night sights were installed on this slide.

I suppose that authorities somewhere have done research on this serial number. I can’t be certain of the first character, but there are limited possibilities. We don’t know if this pistol was used in the infamous crime, or if it’s another.  It would be interesting to know if it were stolen, or purchased from legal channels. From dailymail.co.uk:

It has been reported that the mother of the suspect’s children has been charged with one count of  Sarah Jo Hopkins, 28, of Newton, Kansas, legally purchased an AK-47 type semi-automatic rifle and a Glock Model 22 40-caliber handgun and gave them to Ford, despite knowing he was a convicted felon who was banned from possessing a firearm, an affidavit claims.

It seems likely that the GLOCK pictured is the one reported to have been purchased from a pawnshop. Without police reports from Hesston, Kansas, we can’t know for sure. It would be interesting to know if the serial number on the frame matches the serial numbers on the slide and barrel.

I do not have the authority to make official inquiries about the serial number, but there are many who do. I am sure that due diligence will be followed. If you come across information on this issue, please let us know.

©2016 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.

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42 COMMENTS

      • Compare and contrast the killing of Sarah Kelly (born 18th June 1861) by her husband James Kelly in 1883 with the killing of Reeva Steenkamp (born 19th August 1983) by her so-called boyfriend Oscar Pistorius in 2013.

        Answers should be a minimum of 2000 words and not more than 5000.

    • “AND what possible relevance does this have to the murderer?”

      Because if Dean had access to the Blade Runner photo enhancer he would have been able to better determine the actual serial numbers on the gun. Dang, can’t we have just a little fun with this stuff? Does EVERTHING have to be so serious?? It is the interwebz after all.

  3. Doesn’t seem that big a deal to me. More than once during a cleaning frenzy, I’ve mismatched slide and frame between g19 and g23 also g22 and g35. It happens.
    But it opens the possibility of a multi gun owner in the past or other odd scenarios.

  4. Glock slide assemblies are sold on auction sites; Glock frames are sold as well at aution ,I have a G30sf frame with a mismatched slide from a G30Gen4 a G20sf frame with a G20C slide assembly not offered as an option by Glock… so?

  5. “…Sarah Jo Hopkins, 28, of Newton, Kansas, legally purchased an AK-47 type semi-automatic rifle and a Glock Model 22 40-caliber handgun and gave them to Ford, despite knowing he was a convicted felon who was banned from possessing a firearm, an affidavit claims.”

    How’d that background check work out?

    Ahhhh, whammy! Well, maybe we just need more. And, only people who like big butts will be allowed to buy guns, because they cannot lie.

  6. I thought that Glock put their serial numbers on a metal plate embedded in the polymer on the bottom of the frame, forward of the trigger guard. I don’t own a glock, and haven’t handled one in a few years, but I seem to remember the serial number being there.

    Don’t all polymer framed guns have to have a setup like that? Any Glock owners care to opine?

      • Thanks ROHC,
        Th e only plastic gun I own is a Walther P22 and the # is buried in the frame. I think it would be very easy to unintentionally rub down the # if it was just carved into the plastic, which could lead to some nasty legal consequences.

        As best as I can guess, it probably says, Glock Inc-Smyrna GA there. or wherever the importer was located back in those days..

    • You are absolutely correct, the serial number is on a metal tab in front of the triggerguard; the serialized tab IS the serial number of that arm regardless of the numbers elswhere on the arm…

    • They do. The serial is on the frame plate insert, slide, and barrel. Of those, the legal serial is the one on the frame.

      • They only serialize their barrels and slides so that OCD people can’t mix and match parts. That’s why I love M&Ps. Except for the damned 9 and 40 stamped on the slides.

        • We might be going off on a tangent here, but why in God’s name must it be so hard to get a factory 9mm barrel for the M&P Compact? Yes, I have an M&P40 Compact, yes, I want to get the 9mm barrel and some mags, NO, I can’t find one.

          Tom

        • No, the serialize slides and barrels because in the rest of the world, the frame is not the regulated part.

        • Good call, Elvis. I was shocked when I found out about this many years ago, while talking with a European firearm enthusiast. I believe the barrel was the part that needed a serial number in the country where he lived.

          Heck, even here in the U.S., a pistol’s grip-frame may not be the serialized part. See: Ruger Standard .22 Auto, MK-I/MK-II/MK-III, where the tubular upper receiver/barrel combo gets the number.

  8. Probably the original owner swapped slides for the night sights..,. Probably the firearm was “hot” when sold to the pawn shop…. Probably they couldnt stand the plastic pos n just wantd to fck with it. Neener neener

  10. “If you come across information on this issue,”

    What “issue”? That somebody took a picture of a Glock with mismatched serial numbers?

    Really dumb article, guys.

  11. On the subject of Glock serial numbers…

    Early Glocks had a 7-digit alphanumeric serial number that started with two letters, and ended with three numbers and the letters “US” appended on the end of the serial number (only on the frame serial number, not the slide or barrel). Once all the 2-letter combinations had been used, they changed the serial numbers to three letters and three numbers (and “US” at the end, again, only on the frame serial number). I think it was somewhere around the FED### serial range (2002) that they dropped the “US” suffix; at that point, the serial numbers were three letters and three numbers, and the same on the slide, frame, and barrel.

    A couple of years ago, Glock finally used-up all of the three-letter serial numbers, and switched over to two different 4-letter, three-number serial number series. AAAA### was used for USA-manufactured pistols, and BAAA### was the new staring point for Austrian-manufactured pistols.

    There have been exceptions to these serial number “rules” for police departments (who sometimes want a serial number linked to the department name (such as SAPD for San Antonio Police Department)), and other special cases such as commemorative pistols, pistols that had frames replaced at the factory, etc.

    On the Glock pistol in the photograph:

    That is a Gen3 pistol, indicated by both the fingergrooves in the frame (barely visible due to the angle) and the type of extractor (LCI). The LCI extractors were not used on this model/frame size until the E-series (E**###), so that means the serial number probably does not start with “B”.

    My guess is the serial number is ECZ475, or perhaps FCZ475 or PCZ475; the “E”, “F”, or “P” are all similar in shape to a “B”, the “Z” is similar to the number “2”, and all those serial numbers fit the range for the LCI extractor use in that model (ECZ is a bit early, based on the list I have, but probably still close enough).

    • You, sir, win the internet. Also, it seems to me, that when the Gen 3 was in production they utilized at least 2 different vendors for night sights. So if that is a Gen 3 (looks rigjt to me with finiah and extractor) then the sights could very well be OEM.

      Basically, nothing to see here, folks.

      • Correction, I know Gen 3s are still in production. I meant, before the introduction of Gen 4s.

        • Spanning just the range of Gen3 Glocks, I know I have personally bought pistols with night sights installed at the factory that were made by Meprolight, Trijicon, and Glock (Glock-branded, I’m not sure who actually made them).

      • Thank you for the kind words. Now, on to the useless subject at hand!

        One additional observation I have made since the detailed post, above. The frame has a single line of manufacturer’s information, which is a bit unusual for this model. Early Gen3 pistols will normally have two lines of info on the frame; first line “MADE IN AUSTRIA”, second line “GLOCK, INC., SMYRNA, GA.”. Later, the new factory in the US began making frames, and matched them to imported slides/barrels from Austria. These new frames had only one line of info: “GLOCK, INC., SMYRNA, GA.”. The pistol shown seems to be one of these latter pistols with one line of info.

        I’m not sure exactly when this single-line of info began to be used, but the only examples I am familiar with were much later in the serial number range than what we were originally discussing. One that I have owned was serial number L**###. The difference in production years is 2001-2002 for the E**### pistols, to 2007-2009 for the L**### pistols.

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