Advice for first time Glock owner?

[addiction]

It is not that their Glocks do not punch holes in paper reliably - they do. It is the fact those people absolutely lack any imagination or desire to experiment. They are as boring as their pistols. They are truly mainstream, purely Main street, plain, square, standard, mass-produced. They lack any distinctive features. They are not sexy;

Here is one with "imagination"

 

[mkwerx]

HOw about the modded Glock 17L used for Space Above and Beyond?





The nerd in me has always wanted to mod out a Glock like this, maybe an "updated" version (maybe a 34 instead of the 17L) - with the bird cage flash hider, maybe put a red dot up top instead of the tasco .22 looking scope, mount a crimson trace grip on it for added whiz-bang effect. Hang a TLR-1 or something on the rail below. Yes, I'm a geek. And I'll probably never create such a beast. I don't want to drop a grand into a Glock.

Yes, the above images are of resin guns.

 

[jimboshooter]

My advice: Read this Glock torture test blog including the video of him dragging the gun behind his truck on both dirt and paved road and including the video of him throwing the gun from a plane into his farm land. Then, just enjoy the snot out of it and never worry too much about it failing you.

http://theprepared.com/content/view/90/administrator/

 

[replicant]

One thing about a Glock and part of the reason they are the darling of law enforcement is the gun just runs. If dirty it will actually shoot itself clean. A Sig or any other metal semi auto will stop up with dirt and needs stripped and cleaned to return to action. All metal guns need regular cleaning and lubrication. A Glock doesn't require any oil to run. Carry it next to your body in a saltwater environment for years with no care and not only will it run it won't rust. A pistols life expectancy and this was a big one for me. Metal framed guns have about a 5000 round life expectancy before overhaul or flat out replaced. Glock is expected to go 1 MILLION! Then for just a few bucks you can fully rebuild it yourself.

Can you provide some references for your claims in this post?

 

[mkwerx]

Glocks are great, but not infallible. Just like all other firearms, they need to be properly cleaned and lubricated, and the small parts in them can and do break occasionally, just like other guns. The popularity of Glocks among law enforcement agencies is due to the simplicity of operation, and probably just as much if not moreso, cost. Glock sells new guns to LE agencies for wholesale prices. If your the guy making the decision how to spend your firearms budget, and you're not a drooling fanboy of one brand, those $350-400 Glocks are a lot more appealing than $600-800 for Berettas, HKs, Sigs, or reliable 1911s. You can buy your gun, holster, and issue ammo for the price of the guns alone when comparing the agency priced Glocks to the other guns. It's the same reason the US military chose the Beretta over the Sig P226 when it began issuing 9mm - the Sig 226 and Beretta 92 scored the same on their tests, but the Beretta was cheaper, and thus won the contract. It didn't win because it was a better gun or better design - cost rules with bureaucrats.

Glocks are good guns for new shooters to learn with because they're simple. As long as you obey the basic rules of firearms handling they're just as safe as any other gun. As long as you don't monkey around with non factory internals, they're very reliable out of the box. But just like every other gun, they get dirty, and need cleaned out and lubed. My carry guns get taken apart and cleaned weekly, because they accumulate lint inside. The lube points get hit with a drop of lube.

The extreme tests are great fun to watch and read about - but one gun might pass the torture tests with flying colors, while the next will fail. Guns are machines, and machines can and will fail at some point. Keep your gun maintained and try to minimize the chance of it failing when you need.

And here's some video evidence that Glocks do need to be cleaned and lubed to ensure proper function. It helps to have good ammo too...

Plz note, the vids might have course language not suitable for children or folks with soft sensibilities.

Glock 17 Gen 4 w/ marine spring cups fails to function wet

 

[mkwerx]

Glock 17 Gen 4 vs Beretta 92FS

 

[mkwerx]

Sig P226 performs same test

 

[replicant]

What a disappointment. I was looking forward to getting a Glock and shooting it a million times underwater without ever cleaning it or lubricating it
:banana:

 

[BAMCIS]

I would not bang a woman who carries a Glock because I know what the whole process would look like - very reliable, predictable, same thing every time

I would and I do. The woman is my wife. :love: Even though she carries a Glock and she is very reliable, she is far from predictable and it is defiantly not the same thing every time. But do what you want or don't want. YMMV

 

[Blitzkrieg]

I am not sure I would use the fact that cops may use 3.5 lb triggers as a reason to do so, most cops are not great gun handlers. Plus I don't subscribe to the idea that lighter triggers make you a better shot, they don't they just make your gun easier to shoot. Subtle difference, but an important one. My guns are all stock, but I would suggest that if you do lighten your trigger you do so to all of your guns. I bought a Glock that had a 3.5 lb trigger in it, when I first shot it, I sure knew it, I popped a round of while "taking up the slack in the trigger", needless to say it now has a stock 5.5 lb trigger now. Under stress there is no way you will be able to accommodate a different trigger weight on your carry gun, especially if it is lighter. If you feel compelled to change it, make if heavier, and do it to all of them.

I have a wide variety of defensive handguns with all sorts of triggers and it has never been an issue

Who says Glocks aren't sexy?

 

[waglockfan]

Damn. I wanna test the feasability of my Glock firing under austere conditions with the cheapest, most shoddy ammo available. Then people will take my word as gospel.

Not.

I can bet you the results would have been different had they used decent ammo, even Federal American Eagle is a night and day differance in quality over Wolf.

 

[Boats]

My advice: Read this Glock torture test blog including the video of him dragging the gun behind his truck on both dirt and paved road and including the video of him throwing the gun from a plane into his farm land. Then, just enjoy the snot out of it and never worry too much about it failing you.

http://theprepared.com/content/view/90/administrator/

There's another one born every minute they say.

Any ordnance steel duty pistol slide will spall .22lr RNL rounds all day long. Every quality duty pistol ever made will survive to function after being dropped, oh the horror, from a low flying airplane into a tilled field of dirt. Shoot the receiver with a centerfire rifle, even a .243, and we'll talk about indestructibility.

All of the rust is cosmetic. The friggin' Titanic is still recognizable after a century of rusting away in salt water.

Most people are suckers and too easily impressed.

 

[Boats]

It's the same reason the US military chose the Beretta over the Sig P226 when it began issuing 9mm - the Sig 226 and Beretta 92 scored the same on their tests, but the Beretta was cheaper, and thus won the contract. It didn't win because it was a better gun or better design - cost rules with bureaucrats.

More people need to read the GAO report about the XM9 trials. Then they might quit getting it wrong.

It's not like anyone's asking to trace the origins of the Bible or something. It was only about 30 years ago.

The SIG P226 entrants failed an entire section of the mud testing. Once it failed against the control 1911A1 pistols and the other successful entrant, the Beretta Model 92F, the competition should have been over right then.

To avoid having Beretta become the sole bidder, the Army threw out an entire phase result to allow SIG (SACO, the then-importer) to continue to even submit a final bid.

Even as there were two bidders, SIG still put in the lower per unit bid. However, Beretta won the overall bid by penciling out lower overall when spare parts were factored in.

Nevertheless, SIGs bid was totally unrealistic. With no already established factory in the States, unlike Beretta, SIG was likely mostly blowing smoke with its bid numbers. Decades later, the basic P226 still can't hold the line on price like Beretta has.

 

[Boats]

I have a wide variety of defensive handguns with all sorts of triggers and it has never been an issue

Who says Glocks aren't sexy?

The girl is fine, the pistols are still as hideous as her trigger discipline is.

 

[Boats]

Glock 17 Gen 4 w/ marine spring cups fails to function wet

Austria is a landlocked country.

 

[NWGlockgal]

Well, sorrry to see the thread has developed into a Glock love/hate fest instead of simply answering the OP's question. He wasn't really asking for our opinions on what to buy.
However there is one post here that is just too juicy not to answer...which I'll do once I get on a real computer instead of this phone with it's itty bitty keyboard

 

[bzltyr]

Great pistol...Have fun with it.

 

[bwchase]

The trigger pull will get so much better with use. Old gen 1 gl17 was almost perfect. Bought a new gen 3 gl17. Now will have to shoot a few thousand rounds to get that same smoothness again. Oh well!
Night sites help older eyes, and for carry in the warmer weather use crimson trace grip laser on 19,23, and 26.
I carry any of them in a crossbreed iwb. The 17 is a great gun for all around.

 

[BAMCIS]

I have a wide variety of defensive handguns with all sorts of triggers and it has never been an issue

Who says Glocks aren't sexy?

The girl is fine, the pistols are still as hideous as her trigger discipline is.

Until you pointed it out I didn't even notice her trigger discipline......

 

[Blitzkrieg]

I bet you wouldn't complain if she pulled your trigger