Rangerrich99
New member
So, since the temperature here soared past the 117 degree mark, I decided to do a quick review of my new Glock 19.
Disclaimer: I'm not a firearms instructor, former military/LEO, or Youtube tactical reviewer. The reality is, that I'm just a regular middle-aged guy from the Midwest, who's been lucky enough to have been shooting for meat and sport for the last 30 plus years.
My first experience with Glocks was actually back in the early 90's when my brother brought a black plastic pistol into the home we shared in St. Louis. At the time, I don't think I'd even heard of Glock, and the only semi-auto pistol I thought was worth owning was a 1911. The two things I really remembered about that gun (a Glock 17) was that it didn't point well for me and that because of how high I held my strong hand on the grip, it would bite me at least once through every magazine.
In short order, I decided I didn't like it. So much so that I never considered buying a Glock, and I never recommended anyone else do so either.
Fast forward to three months ago. I decided I wanted another 9mm (I already had a S&W Shield), something that was a little more fun at the range and could do part-time duty as a CCW. I even started a thread here asking for advice about what 9mms I could test out, mostly so I could buy something other than a Glock. After doing a half-dozen rental test runs with various candidates, I ended up buying a Gen 4 G19 anyway. I lucked out a little and picked it up for a little over $400. It came with four backstraps and three mags. Two of the back straps have 'beavertails,' and after my experiences with my brother's Glock, I spent the first twenty minutes of ownership comparing and contrasting the two beavertail back straps for optimal fit.
Side note: if you get one of these things, be sure to put the little retention pin for the back straps IN THE BOX after initial removal. I didn't, and it promptly escaped and was MIA for almost a week before I found it under my fly-tying bench. Which is on the other side of the room from my workbench. Which figures, right?
Then I took the thing to the range with two boxes of Sasquatch ammo from MassAmmo.com and the remainder of a box of Winchester WB. Not surprisingly, it ran all 129 rounds without a hiccup. Point-of-impact vs. point-of-aim was pretty close to right down the sights (one-half inch high and consistently 1/4 inch left), and groups were more than acceptable out to 15 yards. Initially I was concerned about the slight left groupings, but since I shoot right down the sights with just about every other handgun I own, I've decided to just live with it, instead of trying to alter my grip for one gun.
Initial impressions: The grip angle is definitely different than my 1911, but that's not to say it's bad, or feels bad. It's just different. It seems to point better than my brother's Glock, though this may be a function of how my grip has evolved over the years, or it could be the addition of the back strap. It still doesn't point as naturally as my 1911, or even my Sig.
The grip panels feature a pretty aggressive stippling pattern; much more aggressive than my buddy's gen 3 gun. However, I haven't found it uncomfortable. Yet. Time will tell, along with a longer-than-usual range session. Some people I know have complained about the finger grooves, but while I won't rave about them, so far I've found them to fit my hand well enough.
The trigger. Well, it's a Glock trigger. I will say that it seems to be smoother and the break seems a little crisper than my previous experiences with earlier generation Glocks, but it's not anywhere near any 1911 I've shot. Or any of my DA revolvers in SA mode, for that matter. That said, it has a fairly short and positive reset, and it didn't take long to get adequately comfortable with the trigger.
Field stripping. As we all know, one of the things you have to do as a gun owner is figure out how to disassemble/field strip your weapon and clean it. Whether you like it or not. And I fall in the camp of 'Not.' Well, I'm pretty sure I've never had an easier time field stripping and cleaning a gun. Period. Which, at least for me, makes cleaning it a little more enjoyable.
For anyone not familiar with the procedure, it works like this: grip the gun normally with your strong hand. Then take those fingers and place them over the top of the slide, leaving your thumb where it is. Now, just squeeze your hand so that the slide moves back about a half inch. Take your weak hand fingers and pull both of those little tabs down at the same time. Let go of the slide. Pull the trigger. The slide should just pop off, so either hold it with your off hand or just aim slightly up so it doesn't jump off the rails and fall on the floor. That's it.
To the present: My G19 has experienced 3 failures to go back into full battery, stopping about an eighth (1/8) to a quarter of an inch short. And the slide locked up tight. The first time I had to mortar the gun to get it to eject the round. The second time I put it in a vise. The last time the range I was at had a gunsmith on site. It turned out that it was my reloads, which were just a bit too long. A slight twist of the seater die (.003 inches) solved that problem and all subsequent reloads (about 150) have run through the gun flawlessly. To the fellas over at Dillon Precision, thanks for the tip.
One other issue: about three weeks ago, my G19 started to consistently shoot about one inch to the left out to 10 yards. Beyond that it got progressively more southpaw. This was consistent through two different brands of ammo, and a magazine of my reloads. I stopped shooting and gave the gun a thorough once over. And discovered that the rear sights had actually moved a little more than a tenth of an inch to the left. Fortunately, the gunsmith at Shooter's World wasn't busy and he fixed it in less than two minutes. He also mentioned that he'd seen that problem before, but that it wasn't common. Since then I've fired another 150 rounds through the gun and it's shooting as straight as it was when I bought it.
So, after two-and-a-half months and nearly 700 rounds I've had two issues with my G19, one of which was my out-of-spec reloads times 3. Overall, I have to give the gun at least four stars. It's well-made, accurate over my typical shooting distances, easy to work on, and consistent. Things might change in a year, but I already have the feeling that this gun will be boringly reliable and consistent over the next ten months.
So on the bright side, I may have absolutely no reason to write a twelve month update review . . .
Disclaimer: I'm not a firearms instructor, former military/LEO, or Youtube tactical reviewer. The reality is, that I'm just a regular middle-aged guy from the Midwest, who's been lucky enough to have been shooting for meat and sport for the last 30 plus years.
My first experience with Glocks was actually back in the early 90's when my brother brought a black plastic pistol into the home we shared in St. Louis. At the time, I don't think I'd even heard of Glock, and the only semi-auto pistol I thought was worth owning was a 1911. The two things I really remembered about that gun (a Glock 17) was that it didn't point well for me and that because of how high I held my strong hand on the grip, it would bite me at least once through every magazine.
In short order, I decided I didn't like it. So much so that I never considered buying a Glock, and I never recommended anyone else do so either.
Fast forward to three months ago. I decided I wanted another 9mm (I already had a S&W Shield), something that was a little more fun at the range and could do part-time duty as a CCW. I even started a thread here asking for advice about what 9mms I could test out, mostly so I could buy something other than a Glock. After doing a half-dozen rental test runs with various candidates, I ended up buying a Gen 4 G19 anyway. I lucked out a little and picked it up for a little over $400. It came with four backstraps and three mags. Two of the back straps have 'beavertails,' and after my experiences with my brother's Glock, I spent the first twenty minutes of ownership comparing and contrasting the two beavertail back straps for optimal fit.
Side note: if you get one of these things, be sure to put the little retention pin for the back straps IN THE BOX after initial removal. I didn't, and it promptly escaped and was MIA for almost a week before I found it under my fly-tying bench. Which is on the other side of the room from my workbench. Which figures, right?
Then I took the thing to the range with two boxes of Sasquatch ammo from MassAmmo.com and the remainder of a box of Winchester WB. Not surprisingly, it ran all 129 rounds without a hiccup. Point-of-impact vs. point-of-aim was pretty close to right down the sights (one-half inch high and consistently 1/4 inch left), and groups were more than acceptable out to 15 yards. Initially I was concerned about the slight left groupings, but since I shoot right down the sights with just about every other handgun I own, I've decided to just live with it, instead of trying to alter my grip for one gun.
Initial impressions: The grip angle is definitely different than my 1911, but that's not to say it's bad, or feels bad. It's just different. It seems to point better than my brother's Glock, though this may be a function of how my grip has evolved over the years, or it could be the addition of the back strap. It still doesn't point as naturally as my 1911, or even my Sig.
The grip panels feature a pretty aggressive stippling pattern; much more aggressive than my buddy's gen 3 gun. However, I haven't found it uncomfortable. Yet. Time will tell, along with a longer-than-usual range session. Some people I know have complained about the finger grooves, but while I won't rave about them, so far I've found them to fit my hand well enough.
The trigger. Well, it's a Glock trigger. I will say that it seems to be smoother and the break seems a little crisper than my previous experiences with earlier generation Glocks, but it's not anywhere near any 1911 I've shot. Or any of my DA revolvers in SA mode, for that matter. That said, it has a fairly short and positive reset, and it didn't take long to get adequately comfortable with the trigger.
Field stripping. As we all know, one of the things you have to do as a gun owner is figure out how to disassemble/field strip your weapon and clean it. Whether you like it or not. And I fall in the camp of 'Not.' Well, I'm pretty sure I've never had an easier time field stripping and cleaning a gun. Period. Which, at least for me, makes cleaning it a little more enjoyable.
For anyone not familiar with the procedure, it works like this: grip the gun normally with your strong hand. Then take those fingers and place them over the top of the slide, leaving your thumb where it is. Now, just squeeze your hand so that the slide moves back about a half inch. Take your weak hand fingers and pull both of those little tabs down at the same time. Let go of the slide. Pull the trigger. The slide should just pop off, so either hold it with your off hand or just aim slightly up so it doesn't jump off the rails and fall on the floor. That's it.
To the present: My G19 has experienced 3 failures to go back into full battery, stopping about an eighth (1/8) to a quarter of an inch short. And the slide locked up tight. The first time I had to mortar the gun to get it to eject the round. The second time I put it in a vise. The last time the range I was at had a gunsmith on site. It turned out that it was my reloads, which were just a bit too long. A slight twist of the seater die (.003 inches) solved that problem and all subsequent reloads (about 150) have run through the gun flawlessly. To the fellas over at Dillon Precision, thanks for the tip.
One other issue: about three weeks ago, my G19 started to consistently shoot about one inch to the left out to 10 yards. Beyond that it got progressively more southpaw. This was consistent through two different brands of ammo, and a magazine of my reloads. I stopped shooting and gave the gun a thorough once over. And discovered that the rear sights had actually moved a little more than a tenth of an inch to the left. Fortunately, the gunsmith at Shooter's World wasn't busy and he fixed it in less than two minutes. He also mentioned that he'd seen that problem before, but that it wasn't common. Since then I've fired another 150 rounds through the gun and it's shooting as straight as it was when I bought it.
So, after two-and-a-half months and nearly 700 rounds I've had two issues with my G19, one of which was my out-of-spec reloads times 3. Overall, I have to give the gun at least four stars. It's well-made, accurate over my typical shooting distances, easy to work on, and consistent. Things might change in a year, but I already have the feeling that this gun will be boringly reliable and consistent over the next ten months.
So on the bright side, I may have absolutely no reason to write a twelve month update review . . .
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