Glock thread

[David]

Well, what is a firearms section without a Glock thread

Glocks...you either love them or hate them. Either think their beautiful or fugly. Like the grip angle or hate it. Like finger grooves or hate them. Not sure if their is another pistol, except maybe Hi-Point that engenders such strong feelings one way or the other. Fan-boy or hater, go to any gun forum and you'll quickly discover what camp a person is in.

My first Glock was a well-used Glock 17.2 that I purchased at a local gun shop. I became an instructor using that pistol and actually carried it off-duty for quite a long time. It is one (of many) guns that I regret selling/trading over the years. I should have held on to it. Had a lot of holster wear but it was balls-on accurate and never failed to go bang. I put a lot of rounds through that particular pistol. It was the beginning of my appreciation for Glock.

Now I'm no Glock fan-boy and can and have been vocally critical of many of their offerings for one reason or another. However, at the same time I fully appreciate the simplicity, reliability and durability of the platform. Glock really does set an industry standard and is often the platform others are compared to, even though relatively speaking, Glock is one of the new kids on the block. We've been using the Glock 21.3 at our agency for just a bit shy of 20 years and as I've mentioned elsewhere, some of our training pistols have over 300K rounds through them and they are still going strong. Hard to argue against that level of durability.

I've pretty much had every caliber of Glock except 10mm or 45Gap. Currently I have the G19.5, G22.4, G26.4 and the 19X. I have a 9mm conversion barrel for the G22.4 as well. Just don't have any complaints with any of them. I particularly like the 19.5 and 19X since they don't have finger grooves! I can tolerate Glock finger grooves on full and sub-compact platforms but for some reason they just don't fit my hand right on the compact platforms.

If they decided to come out with a G23.5 I'll be all over it! Always liked the G23 platform and carried one for years despite not liking the finger grooves on my G23.3. Finally had to get rid of it though. But if they come out with the Gen 5 version...sign me up.

So that is a start to the Glock thread

[Ronin.45]

Couldn't agree more. I started shooting competitions about 20 years ago and was a 1911 guy to start. I wanted steel guns in 45 because that's what all the old timers suggested.
By 2000 I had decided to try polymer and picked up two HK USPs in 45 and 9mm. While I appreciated the 9mm for ease of shooting and cheap ammo, the highly touted HKs left a lot to be desired. The triggers were not great, the mag release was awkward, magazines were expensive and hard to find, and holsters were custom order only.
In late 2002 I took the plunge on a Gen 3 Glock 17. The gun fit my big hands pretty well. I immediately took to It and loved the cheap/plentiful accessories available. My buddy somehow knocked the front sight off while shooting it so steel sights were added. I had the local gunsmith slick up the trigger and add extended controls. By 2005 I knew how to do all that myself because the Glock was so simple inside.
Since then I've owned about 15 Glocks and they have all been 100% reliable out of the box. That original 17 is still my main gun and has upwards of 70,000rds through it.
I appreciate the simple rugged reliability of a Glock, but i'm no fanboy. I am the first to point out their flaws. The bad idea to complicate the internals on the Gen 4 and later was a terrible idea. They took the world standard for reliability and turned it into a crapshoot whether you'd get brass to the face, failures to eject, failures to feed, etc. For a year or so, people were constantly upgrading recoil assemblies and extractors to find a combo that worked. Glock should have done the ergonomic upgrades and left the mechanical bits alone.
Some of the model choices have confounded me too. The 19x and 43x just don't make sense to me. They offer no shooting advantage of carrying advantage over other models.
Overall, I think Glocks are a very good platform with tremendous support in the marketplace.

[David]

By 2000 I had decided to try polymer and picked up two HK USPs in 45 and 9mm. While I appreciated the 9mm for ease of shooting and cheap ammo, the highly touted HKs left a lot to be desired. The triggers were not great, the mag release was awkward, magazines were expensive and hard to find, and holsters were custom order only.

Funny you mention the HK USP in 9mm. My buddy just picked one up last week, used but unfired. He shot it for the first time yesterday and the first 3 rounds were FTE. It feed flawlessly after that for the next 150 rounds but that first 3 were a bit of a slap in the face. I'm busting his chops over it now.

Some of the model choices have confounded me too. The 19x and 43x just don't make sense to me. They offer no shooting advantage of carrying advantage over other models.

I agree on the 43X and even the G48. If Glock is the main go-to pistol and you don't mind the mag non-interchangeability with other models then I can see them as being fine. But, imo, the micro-9mm and single-stack 9mm niche is not Glocks strong suit. And that's just because of their poly mag design. And IIRC, the 43X and 48 don't have mag compatibility? Or is it the 43X mag isn't compatible with the G43? I'm pretty sure the later which to me is really odd and a mistake. The G43, while a good gun, only has a 6-round capacity OEM. The ability to use a 10-round 43X or 48 mag as a back up would have been a nice plus. And of course if you don't mind the limitation of a 10-round mag the 43X and 48 is a solid pistol. I just have really gotten use to pistols like the G26 which can use any of the 9mm mags all the way up to fun sticks.

As for the 19X, I got it for my night stand pistol. So carry isn't a primary consideration. I liked the color, lack of finger grooves and the ability to have 20 rounds of 9mm on tap for bumps-in-the-night.

As far as aftermarket support, hard to think of a platform that is even close to Glock.

[David]

[Ronin.45]

For a pure prepper I couldn't think of a better gun than Glock. Especially a Gen 3 with frying pan tenifer. They last forever, you can build one from 100% aftermarket parts, and they are simple. There's an argument for a stainless revolver, but it's harder to shoot for most people and 38/357 isn't as common as it once was if you're scavenging for ammo.

[David]

I know there are differences between the generations but I'm not that familiar with any of them. I think Sootch00 had a couple of videos on the differences that I'll need to see if I can find and toss on the board for reference.

[Bmyers]

I'm a huge Glock fan. My wife was the one who actually turned me into a Glock fan. When she decided she wanted the G19, that is when I switched everything over to a Glock. We have our self defense firearm system based on the Glock pistol and we have PCCs that use the Glock magazines. So, everything is interchangeable. I have the parts to fix anything that could break on one of our Glocks. Very simple to work on.

[ratf51]

My first Glock was bought in 1990-- a Gen 2 G17. I was doing some part-time security work at the time and I bought it to use in the job. It was an ugly pistol but it ran and shot well. I really liked it. About a year and a half later I traded it even for a G22. I was no longer doing the security work, the 40S&W was new, and a friend on the security staff had bought it for his work pistol. Then the state started enforcing their regulations for security work which only allowed 9mm, .38 specials, and .357 magnums. I did the swap so he wouldn't have to buy another pistol and his carry rig would still work. At the time I didn't care for the .40 as a round and eventually sold it. Fast forward 14 years and no pistols later I came into some windfall money and decided to get a handgun. I decided on the .40S&W (ammo options being much improved along with a solid track record) and a gen 3 G22. And a S&W 686. At the same time. Couldn't decide between the 2 so I bought them both.

The G22 is my nightstand gun and a gen 4 G23 is my EDC. I may eventually shift to a 17/19 combo to shift from the .40 to 9mm. Glocks have never let me down and sooner or later I will have a few more.

[David]

I may eventually shift to a 17/19 combo to shift from the .40 to 9mm. Glocks have never let me down and sooner or later I will have a few more.

Just get the 9mm conversion barrels. That's what I have for my G22.4 and it works great. All you'll need to invest in is the conversion barrel and magazines. And technically speaking, you can shoot 9mm out of a Glock .40 magazine. It isn't 'recommended' as such, but yes, it does work. Several years back when I carried a G19.3 off-duty I had my annual qualification. I grabbed some extra magazines and made the mistake of grabbing a G23 magazine. I was almost done with the qualification before I realized the magazine was a .40 but it fired just fine and never caused even the slightest bobble in the G19.

And that way you have a 2-in-1 platform.

[ratf51]

Yes, yes, I understand the "just buy the barrel"! But if I do that it deprives me of my excuse for buying another pistol. You wouldn't want to do that to me, would you?