Glock is a handgun manufacturing company based in Austria. The comapany came into existance when founder and engineer Gaston Glock rose to the challenge of designing a new and better semi-automatic pistol for the Austrian military who were in the market for a new standard-issue sidearm for their regular forces.
The prototype that was submitted for the trials eventually became the Glock G17. It beat out 8 other contenders by meeting each and ever one of the XYZ requrements established as the measuring rod by which all of the submitted designs would be evaluated. Immediately, the Austrian government placed an initial order for 25,000 of the pistols and Gaston Glock’s company never looked back.
What Glock is best known for is the fact that it pioneered the ‘plastic pistol’. The original G17 featured a plastic framed matched to a metal slide. This combination was looked down on for years by the general shooting public in the early 1980′s who usually identified plastic with the breakable and brittle housing of toys and electronic of the day.
The 9mm Sub-Compact G26
A myth was also taken up that the entire gun was manufacturerd from one form of polymer or another and that it could thus pass through metal detectors without being discovered. This was patently untrue but the misconception continued to circulate through the ranks of the uninformed well into the 1990′s.
Eventually, the rugged reliablity and next generation safety features began to win over support in the United States. Once the tide of consumer opinion turned, the Glock pistol took the country by storm. By 2005 over 65% of the law enforcement agencies in the U.S. had adopted either the G17 or G22 as their standard-issue handgun. Of course, anything that is good enough for the military and police is good enough for the average citizen in America and soon Glock ownership in the civilian market expanded exponentially.
It apeared that civilian shooters were more prone to appreciate the safety aspects of Glock guns. Every Glock pistol shares three separate safety sub-systems which work together to ensure that the gun never fires unless the trigger is pulled. Due to how well these three sub-systems work in concert with each other, the company has christened their guns as “Safe Action” pistols.
Trigger Safety
The first of these safety features is the Trigger Safety. This is the only visible safety which comes in the form of a small lever integrated into the trigger itself and blocks the trigger from moving rearward. For the gun to fire both the Trigger Saftey and the trigger itself have to be depressed together at the same time. If the trigger safety is not depress, the trigger will not move rearwards which will prevent the pistol from firing.
Firing Pin Safety
A Firing Pin Safety is the second of the three systems. This internal features is comprised of a spring-loaded firing pin that obstructs the firing pin channel and blocks the firing pin from moving forward unless the trigger is depressed. When the trigger is pulled, the firing pin safety is disengaged automatically and then is returned to an active state once a round is fired and the action cycles.
Drop Safety
The final element of the Safe Action system is a Drop Safety. The rear part of the trigger bar, rests with both arms on the drop safety shelf located in the trigger mechanism housing. When the trigger is pulled to the rear, the trigger bar begins to move off until finally separating from the firing pin lug. During the slide cycling process, the trigger bar is lifted and caught by the firing pin lug. The trigger bar is reengaged by the firing pin lug.
Glock has a done a fantastic job of maintaing a sharp business focus. In a world where every gun company seems to want to get in on every pistol, rifle, and shotgun niche where customers can be found, Glock continues their tradition of only making pistols. Instead of chasing different markets, the company has chosen to build on their tried-and-true G17 design which has modified into various compact, sub-compact, and competition models. The guns have been chambered in 9mm, .40 S&W, 10mm, .45 G.A.P., .45 AUTO, .380, and .357 SIG calibers to meet the specific power and concealability needs of their various customers.
Read some reviews for the Glock pistols below and you’ll most likely discover that these guns enjoy an unusually enthusiastic fan base. Newest pistols reviewed are listed below and a full index that is organized alphabetically can be reached via the link at the very bottom of this page.
