Beginner Gun Review: Glocks
I’m just going to say it right off the bat: Glocks are a love them or hate them type of gun. It was the first gun I ever fired and I hated them back then. Years later, when I got to know guns a bit more and rented one at a local range, I absolutely fell in love with them. Some people don’t like that they’re not the prettiest guns to look at. In fact, they’re well past the “utilitarian” category and safely sitting in the “damned ugly” class. Some don’t like the striker. Some don’t like the polymer handles. So what is it about these things that make them so polarizing? To be honest, I have no clue and I could probably write a whole book on the various arguments you’ll hear.
In terms of starter guns, however, that’s a much easier one to cover.
In the interest of full disclosure, I should point out that I actually own a Glock 19. That’s my baby you see in the photos. The interesting thing I’ve found is that all Glocks essentially shoot the same. It’s pretty odd. I’ve tried various models, generations and calibers and the only discernible difference between them was the amount of recoil. It’s really a testament to their engineering, if you ask me. As such, I’m going to be grouping them all into the generic “Glock” as opposed to reviewing one particular model. All in all, I always recommend 9mm for a first “non-.22 caliber” which would be the Glock 17, 19, 26, and 34 models.
So let’s get to it, shall we?
Ease to Break Down
To break down a Glock you pull the slide back about ¼ of an inch, pull a release lever down, push the slide forward to remove it then pop out the spring and the barrel. That’s it. The gun is field stripped and the 4 parts that it breaks down to are ready to clean. There is a more extensive disassembly to clean the striker but that isn’t something your going to do after every range trip (usually recommended every 5000 rounds). To reassemble, put the barrel in, pop in the spring then slide the slide back on to the lower.
There is a trick to the initial slide back that is shown in their manual…and had my dumb self actually read it would have saved me dropping the gun a bunch of times trying to get the release lever freed up. Seems like a small thing but the fact that it wasn’t idiot proof immediately obvious puts it at 4.5 dunce hats.
Maintenance
Glocks are famous for their reliability. If memory serves me correctly, there is a pistol at Glock headquarters that they’ve put almost 500,000 rounds through without any cleaning or anything and it still runs like new. Many people in Alaska carry Glocks because they don’t need oil. It gets so cold there that the oil will freeze or gel up making some guns unusable. That being said, it’s safe to say a Glock isn’t going to explode in your face if you skip a cleaning or leave it in a drawer for 6 months between trips to the range. There isn’t a gunsmith or expert in the world who would recommend that, however. Cleaning a Glock is a relatively quick procedure, though, that can be done with some solvent a couple of cotton swabs (I’m not allowed to say Q-Tips).
When it comes time to do the big cleaning of the striker, things get a bit dicey. Not too difficult, but not documented in their manual either. Because of that striker assembly funkiness, Glocks get a 4 out of 5 dunce hats for maintenance.
Reliability
I am a cheapskate. I won’t skimp on my defense ammo but for everything else I will buy the cheapest, shadiest, piece of crap ammo that I can find if it will save me $0.50 at the end of the day. Needless to say, not every round fires the way it’s supposed to. So far, after a few thousand rounds at the range, I can remember every failure I’ve had….all 4 of them. One was a bullet that wasn’t all the way in the casing, 2 were bad primers and the last one had what I can only assume was a woefully mis-measured amount of powder in it. I’ve never seen anything like it and people I’ve talked to have never seen it either. The bullet came out so slow that it didn’t even reach the target. Admittedly, none of those can be blamed on the gun but the fact that those are the only bullets that have caused trouble with the gun says that it eats ammo like a whale eats krill.
For that insatiable hunger for lead, the Glock gets a 5 out of 5 dunce hats.
Safety
If you didn’t know that Glock doesn’t have a pretty complex system of internal safeties, it wasn’t through lack of effort on their part. Heck, the gun is officially referred to as the “Glock Safe-Action Pistol” on all their marketing materials. What it boils down to is this: the gun itself doesn’t have an external, manual safety. What it does have are three built in safeties that make it almost impossible for the gun to go off if you don’t want it to. Keep in mind: No gun safety is ever 100% fool proof. If they ever do make a fool proof one, YouTube will find a better fool. Trust me. With that in mind, the Glock’s “safe action system” does a pretty good job. First off, it has this little lever on the trigger that makes it so you can’t pull it without having your finger on the trigger. The next is the firing pin safety. This is a block of steel that sits between the firing pin and the loaded bullet. It is only moved out of the way right before firing. The third is a drop safety that will only disengage when the force moving the firing mechanism comes from the trigger itself and not the impact of dropping it on the floor. I have seen a demonstration of someone using the backside of a cocked and loaded Glock to hammer in a nail. Dangerous demonstration but it certainly got the point across. I’ve heard many people say that a gun without a manual safety is an unsafe gun. My opinion is: no gun is safe in and of itself and it is your own technique and practices that makes it safe-er. Frankly, I like not having to remember to click a manual safety off when drawing the pistol. Seconds count: 4.5 out of 5 stars.
Poor Technique
Maybe its just me, but my Glock has an interesting way of letting me know when I’ve limp wristed it. Instead of ejecting the spent casing off to the right, it launches it straight up and slightly to the back so that the casing bops me right in the middle of the top of my head. If I really limp it, I get bopped in the forehead. Kind of a little “hey, dummy, hold me the right way” kind of thing. Thank you, Glock, I appreciate you watching out for me. The bullets still go. The next one still feeds. The only way I’ve been able to get this thing to mess up was by holding it so loosely with my left hand that I almost dropped it. (note: when I run the poor technique tests, I load one bullet at a time for safety) The gun has never taken a chunk out of my hand which I think is a result of the overall shape and/or design.
If you don’t have much hand strength or are still convinced the “Hollywood cup” or “gangsta sideways” is the way to hold it, this gun won’t physically punish you for it (you still won’t hit anything holding it like that though). 5 out of 5 dunce hats.
Starter Kit
Glocks come with a cheap plastic case, 2 magazines, a cleaning kit, a speed loader and a cable lock. Not too shabby. I do have to take issue with their “speed loader”. It’s a funky plastic thing that just doesn’t work well (especially when you compare it to my EZ-Loader). You can never have enough extra magazines and shipping with 2 seems to be kind of standard these days. I’ve yet to buy a gun that didn’t have one of those cable locks so that’s not much to write home about. The Gen4 Glocks come with an assortment of backstrap sizes so you can customize the size of your grip. The cleaning brush comes in handy but I just can’t get excited over it.
Out of the box they load you up decent enough. To be honest, though, they really need to stop making a big deal out of that speed loader. It really is borderline useless. The Glock kit isn’t the best kit on the market but it’s not the worst either. With the XD(m) and its awesome kit nipping at Glock’s heels, they might have to step up their game at some point. In the meantime, the Glock gets 3.5 dunce hats.
Accessories/Upgrades
Glocks have been around for a while and they have an almost cult-like following. There are plenty of aftermarket magazines, an Everest sized amount of holsters and just about every upgrade you can think of. I seriously saw a “Hello Kitty” custom job being advertised the other day. A pink Glock with little kitties all over it. Wouldn’t you hate to be the bad guy that gets shot with that thing? If the bullet doesn’t kill you, the embarrassment will. What I’m trying to say is that, while there isn’t much that needs to be done to a Glock, there isn’t much you can’t do to it either. The best part is that only the most extreme upgrades will require a gunsmith. The rest is just drop-in performance upgrades.
For the crazy amount of toys available, Glocks get a 5 out of 5.
The Final Word
Overall, the Glock is one of the first guns that comes to mind when someone says “what should I get for my first gun?”. They may not be the prettiest things on the market but they are a great gateway drug to bigger, beefier and more challenging firearms. Even though I own a decent collection at this point, my Glock is still my go to friend.
Averaging the scores together gives Glocks a final score of 4.5 out of 5.
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