They’re good guns. They’re also fugly and boring, taking their design from the Henry Ford “any color as long as it’s black” type school. They have different sizes, calibers, etc. but are all fundamentally the same. I have no desire to own one but wouldn’t refuse one if offered. Something like the Camry of guns.
But if you think you see Glock owners fanboying out, you need to check out 1911 forums. Or AR-15.
A Glock is great for me because it’s simple, reliable, and shoots well. The lack of safety doesn’t bother me, I don’t store my weapons with a round in the chamber anyway and when I do have a round in the chamber I obey the rule to keep my finger off the trigger until I’m ready to fire and to not point a gun at anything I don’t want to shoot.
With a Glock you never have to worry about pulling the trigger with a round in the chamber and it not going BANG (due to forgetting to turn the safety off.)
I prefer HK and their external safety, and don’t own a Glock. Not yet anyway. But, you gotta like their 33-round magazine in 9mm. (2-min video)
There are documented cases of glocks firing during reholstering. Usual case is where a hoodie drawstring or other strap gets caught in the trigger and pulls the trigger as the gun is shoved into the holster. So much for “safe action”. A gun with a grip safety, external safety, or decocker does not have this problem. They don’t call it glock leg for nothing.
There are some misapprehensions here. First of all, a Glock does have an external safety–the trigger safety–as well as two internal safeties. What is lacks is a manual safety, which is also true of the bulk of service grade pistols manufactured today. On pistols that do have a manual safety such as the 1911 or Hi-Power its function is not to prevent the user from having a negligent discharge by locking the trigger but rather to prevent an accidental discharge due to dropping the pistol and allow the pistol to be carried in Condition 1, as manual safety can make up for poor muzzle and trigger discipline on the part of the user, and a user that does not train for and exercise good trigger discipline cannot be relied upon to engage the safety, either. Trigger discipline is very, very simple; the finger should be outside and covering the trigger guard at all times that the pistol is in hand unless it is pointed at the target and the user is prepared to fire.
The use of double action/single action (DA/SA) or double action only (DAO) pistols with a long trigger pull like a modern (double action) revolver is often cited as helping to prevent negligent discharges, but in fact the same rules about trigger discipline apply whether using a revolver, single action, DA/SA or DAO pistol. Relying on a heavier trigger pull to prevent accidental discharges is like relying on an airbag to protect you from a car wreck; sure, it helps a bit, but it is no reason for not wearing your seatbelt restraint, which is your primary protection against being thrown up against the windshield.
The Glock is a service weapon of adequate accuracy out of the box and is noted for good reliability, high durability, and will keep working even with limited cleaning and servicing. Older generations have had issues with frame cracking or separation after many thousands of rounds or +P+ ammunition, but those issues have been largely addressed with design upgrades. With aftermarket components (of which they are many) some of its noted deficiencies like weaker springs, plastic guide rods and slide stop, and mediocre sights can be fixed. What cannot be fixed (easily) is the grip angle, which some people really like and others (like me) detest.
While I personally favor the Sig Sauer P2xx series of pistols for their ergonomics and out of the box trigger, accuracy, and reliability, the Glock is a fine pistol for those who can shoot it well, and is as reliable and safe as anything else on the market at that price range, with practically accuracy that exceeds all but the elite shooter’s marksmanship ability under stress. I don’t and won’t own one, but I wouldn’t demean those who do and can shoot it well.
Stranger
Grew up with a Ruger .22 revolver. Sweet piece of machinery. I’d love to try out the Ruger .22 target auto. I’ve heard good things about it.
(Hey, it gets a +2 accuracy modifier in the James Bond 007 role playing gaming system…)
Desert Eagle
I’ve been toying with the idea of buying a Deagle. I’m trying to find a buyer for my late father’s Striker shotgun. Figure I’ll put the proceeds into a pimped-out Deagle.
It is standard practice to clear the holster with the free hand before reholstering the pistol if there is any possibility that something may get caught in the holstering process, e.g. when wearing a jacket, or IWB covered by a shirt. And I’ve tried, and seen others try, to force the Glock to fire accidentally (on a dry chamber) by getting something “stuck” in the trigger guard, and it almost always rides up toward the pivot and won’t engage the trigger safety, which has to be pulled down low on the trigger. I won’t say it is impossible to accidentally pull the trigger on a Glock with some intruding object, but it takes a lot of carelessness to get to that point, about the same that it would take any normal DAO or DA/SA pistol.
And regardless of whether you are reholstering or not, Rule #2 (“Never let the muzzle cover anything you are unwilling to destroy.”) is still in play. The holster should not have the muzzle pointing into the body, and the user should orient the muzzle outward and away from the body when holstering. Someone who shoots themselves in the leg while reholstering has made a sequence of poor decisions and personal carelessness.
Stranger
It’s a fine pistol with a mediocre trigger that can fortunately be improved with an aftermarket trigger kit. However, it lacks a firing pin safety and so should not be carried on a loaded chamber (true of nearly all .22 rimfire pistols). The bull barrel model is an excellent target pistol with a little work, and several special operations units use it as the basis for a locked breech integrally silenced pistol that is so quiet that it sounds like a polite cough.
The Desert Eagle is a “fun” pistol for those who like such things, and is one of the few true pistols that uses a gas pistol instead of straight blowback, short recoil, roller locking, or gas-retarded delayed blowback. It is not, however, a pistol seriously meant or practical for most of the purposes for which people own firearms. It is a novelty item for people with a lot of money to burn, and is not in the same category as a Glock or other service-grade pistol.
Stranger
I would recommend a glock for a beginner for nothing more than that once they learn to shoot it straight, they’ll be experts when they buy a good gun. Glocks are garbage.
sigh Hundreds of police forces and dozens of militaries have adopted the Glock as a standard issue sidearm from the three decades since it was introduced. While popularity is not necessarily a metric for quality, it is clearly something other than “garbage”.
Please come back with an informed opinion and well-reasoned arguments rather than the sniping invective of an armchair operator.
Stranger
A Glock is no better and no worse than any other semiauto pistol, it all comes down to fit, comfort, and how accurately you can shoot it
I have owned a couple Glocks in the past, the first was a 21, (.45 ACP), it was soft shooting, decently accurate, and reliable, it just didn’t fit my hand as well as it should’ve, so I traded it towards a different gun, more recently, I tried a 17 Gen4 (9mm), a bit more comfortable thanks to the slimmer grip, and smaller frame size of the 9mm, and being able to use the 33 round Glock 18 mags as a range toy was a hoot, a good, soft shooting, reliable gun, but still it never felt quite right…
So I traded it towards a CZ-75B, a gun which is just as reliable, but more comfortable, more accurate and I shoot better, the CZ is the right gun for my needs, I have no hatred for the Glocks, I just shoot other guns better
Find a local gun shop, and at the very least handle some handguns, when you find the right one for you, you’ll know, just don’t buy into a product due to the hype around it, the right gun for you might be a Sig, CZ, S&W, HK, Ruger, Remington, Kimber, Kahr, Bersa, Taurus, who knows, it might even be a Glock
Just stay away from cheap “Saturday Night Specials” like Lorcin, Jennings, Jiminez, Raven, Phoenix, most of those are poorly made, unreliable, and outright dangerous to the user.
Your right, let me get my facts straight before I post my opinion.
You are correct that quantity is absolutely no metric to describe quality. I would go further and point out that I purchased my glock from an x service man for $150. That goes to show the discount that service men get on these guns.
Maybe garbage wasnt the right word. It was reliable and it was cheap. Those are the only positive things can come up with.
I occaisionally use the word garbage to describe my unfavorable view of any particular product, behavior or trait that I find to be of low quality or standard. I never literally threw it in the trash so it was technically not garbage.
Why don’t you say what’s wrong with a Glock? You left that part out.
Also, the Beretta 92 is the issue sidearm.
No, you misunderstand. He bought it from one of the X-Men, or maybe someone from the X Files.
Seriously, the US military does not sell service people their duty weapons. They have in the past sold surplussed weapons like the M1 Garand rifle and M1 carbine through the Civilian Marksmanship Program, and is proportedly going to sell surplus M1911 pistols, but has never sold weapons in current inventory, and as running coach notes, with the possible exception of some elite special forces units, has never issued any version of the Glock as a duty weapon. If the poster in question actually purchased a Glock pistol for $150, it was either stolen or the seller knew it to be defective as used Glocks in good condition sell in the $400-$500 range, even for first and second generation pistols. If the intent of the poster was to demonstrate his experience as validity of his opinion of the Glock as being “garbage” he has done the opposite. It is perfectly valid to view the Glock as a design with some issues or that does not personally suit (as I do) but there is no way to objectively view the Glock as not being an at least adequate service-grade pistol.
Stranger
I have no idea what he paid for it. https://us.glock.com/bluelabel
Obviously it wasn’t duty his duty weapon.
It was $150 complete with case, 2 magazines, leather holster, plastic holster and small cleaning kit. He was a friend but I don’t think he was just giving it away either.
Not a chance that it was stolen.
The Glock is not very refined. It’s weight distribution and angle of the handle just don’t jive. A comparable but much better pistol is the SA xdm. Much better grip. Much better weight. And you’ll have a better concealed carry weapon. You’ll have 2 safeties, unlike the glocks zero safeties. You’ll have a smaller handle when using the smaller magazine and a larger handle with the larger magazine giving more CC holstering options. I would encourage anyone who is interested in a glock to at least try an xdm first. Compare and decide for yourself. You will feel the difference and if you’re like me you’ll be much more accurate. Glocks are overrated.
What’s your opinion of a glock stranger? You recommend people buy them? Why? Please don’t say because they sold a lot.
The Glock has three safeties–the integral trigger safety, striker lock, and firing pin block. If you got a working service grade pistol with two magazine and two holsters for the price of a pot metal Raven .25 ACP I’d say you got a sweetheart deal, especially since you could turn around and more than double your money by reselling it.
The XDM is a fine pistol save that I don’t like the grip safety locking the slide, which could pose a problem in the case of a malfunction or using the pistol one handed in the case of injury. I do need to point out that the XDM is sold as a match grade pistol (small fit tolerances) while the Glock is a service grade pistol, so comparing accuracy or fit is not like-to-like, especially an older model used Glock to a new-in-box XDM. The XDM is a large pistol that is not well suited to genuine concealed carry regardless of which length magazine is used.
My personal preference as previosly stated is for the Sig Sauer P2xx series pistols which don’t require any customization out of box beyond new grip scales and tritium sights to achieve match grade performance, but although I don’t personally care for the Glock platform I have seen many shooters use them to good effect accurately and reliably with the biggest complaint being the way it spits brass straight up so that it can fall right down your shirt unless you are wearing a brimmed hat.
I also don’t feel particularly needful of very large magazine capacities as I prefer to limit my fire to precisely aimed shots rather than spray & pray firing, and consider a pistol a gun suitable to allow you to fight your way to an exit or a better weapon. Then again, I don’t carry any illusions that I’m going to take down a building of terrorists or shoot Nazis zombies in a multi-level underground lair with a single large caliber pistol so I’m quite okay with seven or eight rounds in a magazine and don’t anticipate being called up by 1SOFD-D on a whim to help take down some random airliner hijackers. I have, however, been a firearms trainer and have trained people using a wide variety of service firearms of which the Glock was far from the worst in terms of reliability, accuracy, or ergonomics.
Stranger
3.8" barrel is compact. Glock 17 has a 4.48" for reference.
Here’s a pic with the smaller magazine http://www.personalarmament.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/image.png
And here’s a pic with the larger magazine https://www.slickguns.com/sites/default/files/27336.jpg
Under tech makes many holstering options. All of them are much more comfortable with a smaller magazine.
You are again comparing apples to oranges. The Glock 17 is a full size service pistol in 9mmP. The Glock 19 is the compact version with a 4" long barrel and 7.3" overall length, with a shorter magazine. Glock also makes the G36 and G43 “Baby Glock” pistols in 9mmP which are even smaller (in my opinion, too small to comfortably and accurately shoot a full bore cartridge). Glock also makes similar pistols in .40 S&W, .45 ACP, 10mm Auto, .45 GAP, and .357 Sig. Although by no means a small or slender pistol the compact versions are routinely carried by plainclothes police in ostensible concealment, though a practiced eye can generally see them printing even under a suit jacket.
The XD is a large framed, heavy, block-like pistol (even the compact versions) that shows like a pregnant woman wearing a bikini in her third trimester. About the only thing you could do to keep it from printing is to wear an oversized trench coat making you look like a flasher. Those UnderTech garments look good in advertisements but I guarantee that they’re about as comfortable to wear as a hair shirt and such a slow draw that even Drunk English Bob could get the drop on you. The only way to practically carry a large bore pistol in genuine concealment in less than winter gear or a clown suit is inside-the-waistband (IWB) holster, and anyone who has carried that way for any length of time can attest to what a literal pain in the ass it is.
Is there anything you know about the Glock platform that didn’t come from repeating what you’ve read in Reddit groups or AR15.com discussion forums?
Stranger
