Honest Inquiry about Glock design (NO FIGHTING)

[BigBear]

I DO NOT WANT TO START A FIGHT! REPEAT: I DO NOT WANT TO START A FIGHT.

I've been looking around at different handguns etc and notice that a lot of them are starting to look like the Glock setup. Meaning that a lot are using polymers and plastic, etc. But on other forums and even occaionally here I hear a lot of Glock... bashing? Not sure if that is the right word I'm trying to convey. Anyways, if there is so much public contempt for glock and calling them "hand grenades" and stuff, why are other manufacturers using the basic design such a XD and a few others?

Please, just honest opinion/thought, no bashing, falming, fighting, being sarcastic, etc.

[GreenScoutII]

Ok, I'll play...

I think the Glock is a solid, reliable, well proven design. They are quite popular with law enforcement and the general public for good reason. They work and they don't break the bank.

That said, I personally don't care for them for two reasons.

1. I prefer a conventional exposed hammer, true single/double action design. Think Sig P220. This is just a preference on my part because I like the "feel" of the trigger better with this type of design. I have never shot a striker fired pistol, Glock or otherwise, where I liked the trigger. Tens of thousands of people do like the Glock design and shoot it well.
Again, this is not a knock on Glocks, just an expression of personal preference.

2. I don't care for the ergonomics of the Glock as defined as how it feels in my hand. It is a bit blocky for my taste, rather like gripping a short piece of 2x3 dimension lumber. Again, not a knock, just my preference.

There you go. If you like Glocks, they are an outstanding pistol with a proven track record. If you don't, there are many other choices which will serve you well.

[bczandm]

Others are starting to look like Glock because the Glock has such huge marketshare. 58% in some areas, such as with law enforcement.

Glocks are reliable and inexpensive. Very few major flaws. All guns have problems, but the plastic grenade thing is really not justified. Are there better guns, yes. Are there better values, debateable.

And my off topic comments...

FWIW, Glock really did not invent anything. He just put it all together. Plastic? Think Remington Nylon 66, started in the late 50's. The safety trigger was used by Iver-Johnson roughly 100 years ago. Browning had hi-capacity mags in the mid 30's....so on and so on.

If you want an interesting read, search about the dark history of the company. You will be shocked to learn some of the nasty things that went on. Did you know that Gaston Glock's partner is in jail for attempted murder? He put a hit out on Gaston and was seconds away from being successful.

Oh, and I am a 1911 guy, with two Glocks!

[newracer]

Really it's a personal preference. I like Glocks and own 3 of them. I like the simplicity and reliability of them. They have the fewest parts of any handgun.

[BigBear]

Ok, kewl, whew... it was kept civil. I love this board. So it really is just personal preference. There is nothing wrong with any major platform we find out there. Good to know.

[Irving]

The contempt you see for Glock isn't an actual back lash against the pistol, but the fan club of the pistol. Do a little browsing on AR15.com and you'll see that the Glock Kool-aid is strong over there. It would be a challenge for you to find a thread about a new gun some one bought that didn't have at least one comment along the lines of "That gun sucks, should have bought a Glock 19."

In every thread where people ask about which gun to purchase next, no matter what they are looking for, there will 10 responses of "GLOCK!"

It has come to the point that it is actually an inside joke on the board to just answer any gun related question with "Glock 19!" Similar to how on Honda-tech people would start a poll, and always include the option to vote on "smoke weed every day." I think on here for a while people even were giving "52" as an answer to random questions for a while (doesn't that come from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy though?).

So anyway, when you see people getting up in arms about Glocks, it's not because they are bad pistols, it's because people are tired of hearing how wonderful they are all the time. It's very similar to how republicans will make a huge deal out of every little thing the democratic party does, regardless if it merits any attention at all.

As far as Glocks blowing up goes; all guns blow up and that is a fact of life. The combination of Glocks dominating the market in many shooting sports, and fan boys constantly shouting the praises of Glock from their Church of Glock soapboxes, when a Glock does fail, you can bet that everyone is going to talk about it and everyone is going to hear about it.

In short, the worst thing about Glock pistols is some of their koolaid swilling owners.

You'll even see me making fun of Glocks, but not because I have any feelings toward them one way or another, just because it's the cool thing to do. Did I cover that pretty well guys?

[SA Friday]

Glocks are a love or hate weapon. It either fits or it doesn't. The grip to slide angle is 9 degrees wider than a 1911 grip. You either like this or hate this.

First Gen Glock 40 cal chambers were much larger than the current glock chamber. The generous chamber caused a lot of brass expansion and fired brass that looks like a guppie. It's pretty common to hear the terms guppie brass or glocked brass to describe brass that has been severly bulged out near the webbing on one side. Glock, over the years has tightened up their chambers, but they are still more loose than some others. Ironically a current 40 cal H&K chamber is more loose than the current Glock 40 cal chambers, but Glock got the rep and so a lot of people still say Glock 40's chambers are too big.

The Glock kaboom was and is a gun myth. Where is started, I don't know, but if a Glock kabooms dear god everyone on the planet gets told about it and how horrible Glocks are. Glocks have polygonal rifing, and when they first came out, nobody had any experience with it. More than a few learned the hard way that shitty lead bullets shot out of a glock can leave enough lead in the barrel to cause a kaboom. This is rare now a days as more than a couple gun makers use polygonal rifling in their pistols, but the learning curve was painful. I've seen my share of pistols kaboom. It's always been the ammo, reloaded double charges. The only odd kaboom I've seen was a glock 9mm and it was blowing the cases out at the webbing right at the feed ramp. It was bad Fed brass previously shot out of a MP5 and then reloaded with VV N310 powder. Essentially, reloader error and not the gun. Anyone that believes Glocks just arbritrarily blow up have no idea what they are talking about. The other thing that has happened over the years is a few LE agencies have blown up a couple of glocks and then sent out warning messages to all the LE agencies, because they didn't understand what happened. It was bullet set-back. LE agencies don't teach about this and some cops rechamber bullets multiple times. Set the bullet back, and kaboom. Had to be the gun right? (I did a whole write up about this, search for the thread if you want to understand bullet set-back.)

I've owned over half a dozen Glocks, and done some pretty radical work to more than a few of them and shot them competitively. They all ran like a raped apes and shot accurately out to 100 yds. Glocks are easy to shoot, easy to work on, parts are readily available, and are more reliable than any other manufacturer I've ever shot. It's rare to see a Glock puke in competition, and when it does it's always something the shooter did to the gun or their ammo that caused it. Glocks are the cockroaches of the pistol community; they are everywhere, ugly, and you can't kill one unless you blow it up and it might even survive that.

Short of STI, I cannot think of a single manufacturer that has won more national pistol shooting titles. Last year two pro shooters shooting Glocks, Bob Vogel and Dave Sevigny, duked it out in an amazing title battle for the Limited-10 National title that ended with Sevigny winning by less than one half a point. Rob Leatham came in 3 in that match by the way. Ya, two guys with Glocks spanked The Great One. Those two shooter also duked it out in the 2009 Production Division Nationals and Vogel beat Sevigny. Both were shooting G34's in the Production match. The 2009 Ladies Limited title went to a lady shooting a Glock 35. The Limited-10 National title went to a lady shooting a Glock 35.

So, if you don't like the grip angle go to a different gun. Just don't blame Glocks if you can't hit what you are shooting at, it isn't the Glock and more than likely your lack of practice. Blaming a gun for blowing up is like blaming a dog for bad behavior. It's almost always the owner's fault, and are too stupid or too embarrassed to admit it.

BigBear, asking the posters to not be sarcastic is like asking everyone on this site to hold their breath for a day. It just ain't gonna happen brother.

[Irving]

See Big Bear? Fryday said exactly what I said, only he used a thesaurus so I wouldn't give him a "D" for plagiarizing.

[BigBear]

BigBear, asking the posters to not be sarcastic is like asking everyone on this site to hold their breath for a day. It just ain't gonna happen brother.

Roger that, it's understood, but at least by asking, people actually wrote thoughtful responses instead of just bashing it! lol. BTW, you mentioned that you did some work to your pistols... Would you mind letting me in on what you did or is that propietary information?! lol. Feel free to PM if needed for privacy.


HAHAHA Yes Stuart.

[SA Friday]

Roger that, it's understood, but at least by asking, people actually wrote thoughtful responses instead of just bashing it! lol. BTW, you mentioned that you did some work to your pistols... Would you mind letting me in on what you did or is that propietary information?! lol. Feel free to PM if needed for privacy.


HAHAHA Yes Stuart.

Sight changes, trigger jobs, tuning the gun to run specific types of ammo, couple of barrel changes... Stuff like that.