I agree with most of what I have read here; However, with one notable exception… For American Law Enforcement, I believe that the Glock 35, a full size auto pistol in 40 S&W, with improved night sights (Heinie or similar style) is where the evolution of the duty handgun has led us… A firearm is a tool, and for the Police, I truly believe the Glock 35 is the tool of choice…
Just my .02
Buck
I pretty much agree with everything even though my Dept. requires the NY2 (12lb) trigger pull in our G19’s.
I sort of disagree with #2 in regards to the G22 however. My personal experience with my 3rd Gen. G22 has been nothing short of amazing and that has been with the stock 40S&W barrel as well as Storm Lake manufactured 9mm and 357Sig conversion barrels.
I’m fast approaching several thousand rounds over the past few months since purchasing it, I’ve cleaned it only twice so far, and it still runs without a hitch!
I’ll do the next few thousand rounds with a SureFire X200B attached, what should I be on the lookout for?
Once again the above statement is strictly my experience with my G22, maybe I’m just lucky.
Edited to add - I still want to get my hands on a G17L
Buck and Wave,
I respectfully disagree with you on the utility of .40 Glocks. There have been too many problems, at too many agencies and organizations to ignore. 9 mm Glocks have consistently demonstrated significantly less failures and far greater durability.
I believe it has been an evolution… The original Glock was designed as a 9mm pistol for the Austrian military, at they hit their mark very well… Initially when they attempted to simply rechamber the 9mm Glocks to 40 Cal is was a disaster… 40 Cals were known as Glock grenades… It was far too much cartridge to be contained in the frame as designed… Over the last 20 +/- years, Glock has redesigned its 9mm Glock 17 pistol to meet the needs of American Law enforcement, and I believe the end result of that is the third generation 40 caliber Glock 35…
The Glock 35 made today is not the same pistol that had failures early in Glock’s 40 cal development. Much as the M4 carbine of today is not the same as the M16A1 rifle from the 1970s
Again just my .02
Buck
The reason I don’t own one it there extreme grip angle. Aside from that they are a great gun.
I just don’t want to have to adjust to it vs every other handgun I’ve fired. I may add one to the collection one day, just to have one.
2008 is the year of the AK and Glock for me. I’ll be shooting the Glock this Saturday at our IDPA match for the first time in something like 3+ years. Should be interesting.
On a side note, I put the fiber-optic-front Warren sights on the gun and I LOVE them. Not sure how durable they are or how suited they are to “hard use”, but in terms of pure shooting they are amazing. It’s like having a little miniature Aimpoint mounted right out there on the front of the gun, and as my eyes get worse that little red dot in the front sight just draws my eye right to it, with the un-serrated rear just melting away.
Just so we are tracking,
I would not say either of you guy “disagree” with Lav. I’d just say YOUR guns have worked. When Lav states something, it is more of an “across the spectum” type of thing. This has been pretty well documented and I like to think the boys at Glock are at least looking into the whole mounted light issue.
I’ve had my Glock 19 for about 14 months or so (about 3500 rounds through it)
and the only time it ever malf’d was in the low light class, which coincidentally, was the first time I ever ran Remington UMC ammo through it.
It has a Glockmeister grip plug, Heinie Slant-Pro sights (trit front) and Larry’s mag release. I have a SF X200B w/DG switch on it as well. These were all lessons learned from LAV and DP, and they track with what LAV outright recommended in the first post.
It’s a great pistol and I carry it every day.
One thing I wish Glock would offer is a model with the light rail but the old style non-grooved grip. I know I can send the frame out and have someone grind off the bumps, but it would be nice to just have it the right way from the beginning.
I’m still on the prowl for a good deal on a used 2nd gen (or would it be 3rd? what gen are we on anyway) G19 to run without a light.
One other mod I’ve always done to all Glocks is to put the G17 trigger in them. It has a smooth face as opposed to a serrated face on the compact and sub-compact guns and just feels better to my fingertip. YMMV
I’ve been extremely happy with the two Lone Wolf barrels that I have.
When a Glock 34 was my Production (USPSA) gun I used a KKM drop in barrel. I only used it because my ‘gamer’ custom loads would tumble out of the factory barrel at 7yds. (147gr ZERO brand bullets with VihtaVuori 320 powder, Federal primers, new brass and a undersized Lee sizing die, the load makes +P+ pressures but is very soft shooting with a muzzle velocity of 875fps making a power factor of 128) I used it with a tungsten guide rod and a 15lb recoil spring.
The same loads wouldn’t tumble out of my SIG225 or CZ85 Combat which told me it was likely the polygonal rifling in the Glock not getting a good bite on the bullets so then I bought the conventionally rifled KKM barrel to ‘fix’ it. It ran well for me and I put about 15K rounds through it before selling the whole pistol to a VA Arms teammate.
glocks are like potato chips.
you can’t have just one.
Great post Mr Vickers. I also like Glock I have a lone 19 but I’m in the process of obtaining another.
I have done the following modifications to my G19
[ul]
[li]3.5# Connector[/li][li]New York Olive Trigger Spring[/li][li]Vickers / Tango Down Magazine Release[/li][/ul]
I have been using Trijicons night sight but I’m in the process of installing 10-8 Sights.
Yes. Since the Glock has no steel roll cage built into the frame, lights (like the X series) tend to cause the frame to flex which CAN cause malfunctions.
LAV, thanks for sharing your opinion on this subject (much appreaciated).
C4
Someone on this forum (an IP) said to me that when choosing a weapon, always look at which caliber that the weapon was orig. designed around.
This logic (for me) has always held true on everything from AR’s to pistols. I am of the opinion that polymer framed guns are great with 9mm. For 45, 1911’s are the best choice. YMMV.
C4
+1 almost everything above.
My G19 has been my constant companion for the past couple of years now. I also shoot it in competition (first IDPA, now 3 gun). It is as-accurate/more-accurate as its operator. I have over the past couple decades sampled just about every common handgun platform out there. There’s no shot I can make with a 1911 or anything else that I cannot also make with the G19.
It is not sophisticated, refined, or “venerable”, and certainly is not pretty. It is sort-of the common crow of the gun world: black, basic, adaptable, and indefatigable.
The G19 particularly for me is just the right balance between shootability and carryability. Sort-of the “Commander” of Glocks. Goes just everywhere.
Over the last holidays I experimented with replacing it with a M&P9. Nice gun, but just not the same.
An earlier post here awhile back described somebody’s new Glock as “just run-of-the-mill”, to which I replied something like “Exactly! Therein lies its appeal.”
I used to tell people this 10 years ago when I was selling guns, and 99% of the time they disregarded it and did their own thing.
I remember when the S&W “Chief’s Special” autos came out and they based the .40 off of the .45 frame instead of the 9mm. I thought “here’s the first company that gets it”.
A little over 2 years ago I E-mailed DP with some questions about the Glock 19 I had purchaced about a year or so before that. He sent me alot of good info, including a phone # to a guy named Larry Vickers. He told me to give him a call. I “knew” that Lav was a “1911 guy” but called him anyway due to the fact that I was taking a class from him in the next few months. It turned out that my info was a little less then accurate.
Go figure…
i just sold my glock 23 2nd gen and purchased a g23 3rd gen. i had one ammunition failure outside of that never had an issue with my 2nd gen. though i’m not happy hearing the rails cant support an alluminium light as thats basically the only reason i upgraded, that and the figer groves. i also had heard the chamber issue had been fixed. sucks for me. though i’ll probably keep it until i can afford a 1911
What is different about it? Other than the G3 frame, and the longer slide/barrel, the guns are identical?