Glock 17 vs Glock 19: Comparing the OG Glocks

The Glock 17 and Glock 19 are each boxy, plain black, practically featureless pistols that modified the way in which we take into consideration handguns. Simply 34 elements had been introduced collectively by a man who had by no means constructed a gun earlier than to set a brand new customary for handgun design that might final for many years to come back. I’m, in fact, speaking about when Gaston Glock contributed crucial new handgun design because the days of John M. Browning by introducing the Glock 17 after which the extra compact Glock 19 quickly after. 

The concept of those pistols popping out in sequence probably influenced the now frequent apply of gunmakers dropping a full-size pistol and a compact model proper on its heels. Polymer frames, striker-fired actions, no handbook security, double stack magazines — these present requirements all return to the G17 and G19. 

However what are the essential variations between the Glock 17 vs Glock 19? Considerably surprisingly, these handguns are completely different sufficient that every has its personal diehard set of followers. Right here, we’ll get deep into the weeds on the variations, similarities, professionals, and cons between these two iconic Glocks. 

See It

• Launched: 1982
• Designer: Gaston Glock
• Motion: Glock Protected Motion, striker fired
• Caliber: 9x19mm
• Weight with Empty Magazine: 24.97 ounces
• Weight with Loaded Magazine: 33.33 ounces
• Barrel Size: 4.49 inches
• Journal Capability: Normal – 17 rounds; Elective – 19 / 24 / 31 / 33 / 10
• General Size: 7.95 inches
• Slide Size: 7.32 inches
• Width: 1.34 inches
• Slide Width: 1 inch
• Top: 5.47 inches
• Sight Radius: 6.5 inches

See It

• Launched: 1988
• Designer: Gaston Glock
• Motion: Glock Protected Motion, striker fired
• Caliber: 9x19mm
• Weight with Empty Magazine: 23.63 ounces
• Weight with Loaded Magazine: 30.16 ounces
• Barrel Size: 4.02 inches
• Journal Capability: Normal – 15 rounds; Elective – 17 / 10 / 24
• General Size: 7.95 inches
• Slide Size: 6.85 inches
• Width: 1.34 inches
• Slide Width: 1 inch
• Top: 5.04 inches
• Sight Radius: 6.02 inches

Glock 17 vs. Glock 19: Breaking It Down

The G17 and G19 are practically similar — by way of operation, they are similar. Most of the elements are interchangeable. The Glock 19 is solely a reduced-sized Glock 17 launched in 1988 as a “compact” pistol meant for navy and regulation enforcement use. There was a G18 in between, which was a select-fire model of the G17 made for navy use that may fireplace in full auto. 

The G19 has since turn out to be a favourite concealed carry gun, and plenty of profess that its grip and general dimension are simpler for a broader vary of shooters to deal with effectively and carry comfortably, both open or hid. 

The barrel and grip are shorter by a couple of half inch, which leads to a decreased journal capability (flush-fitting magazine) of 15 rounds versus the G17’s 17 rounds. An prolonged capability baseplate that provides house for 2 further rounds is a well-liked G19 accent for these with bigger fingers. In actual fact, some shooters used to chop down a G17 grip to G19 size so the gun would print much less whereas nonetheless having a full-length G17 barrel and slide. 

What made these early Glock fashions so enticing was the actual fact they may fireplace one another’s magazines in the event that they had been lengthy sufficient to slot in the grip. The flush G19 mags had been too quick to suit a G17, for instance, however the 17-round G17 mags may very well be utilized in a Glock 19, which may additionally use any magazine designed for the Glock 17 and the uncommon select-fire Glock 18. 

So the compact Glock cycled as reliably because the bigger G17, the mass of the Glock 19’s slide is identical regardless of its decreased dimensions.

In some ways, the Glock 19 is seen because the extra versatile and helpful handgun. Whereas the G17 has spawned quite a few variants and separate fashions (just like the Glock 34) and mods that make it a unbelievable competitors pistol, the Glock 19 has proved higher suited to tactical and defensive roles. 

The Glock 19 has lengthy been a favourite of U.S. Special Operations Forces (SOF) operators who get to decide on their loadout past the usual difficulty equipment.  The Glock 19 Gen4 MOS (modular optic system) was truly designated by SOF because the Mk27 MOD 2 pistol. 

Curiously, when the U.S. navy launched its XM17 Modular Handgun System competition in 2015 to discover a sidearm to switch the growing older Beretta M9, Glock despatched neither a Glock 17 nor a Glock 19 as its entry, however a brand new mannequin that was a hybrid of each. 

The Glock 19X was primarily a Glock 19 slide and barrel on a Glock 17-sized body (a hack that Glock homeowners had been doing for years), all completed in a distinctly peanut-butter-like tan colour. 

Whereas Glock finally misplaced the MHS competitors and the profitable navy contract to the SIG Sauer P320, which grew to become the M17 pistol, the Glock 19X was launched on the business market, solely it didn’t have the handbook security required by the navy. The Glock 19X truly spawned a brand new line of weapons that pair longer grips with shorter slides, just like the subcompact Glock 43X and the Glock 45, which Glock calls “crossover” models. 

Learn our full information of Best Glocks, right here.

The Start of the P80 and Glock 17

When Gaston Glock got down to construct a brand new type of handgun on the daybreak of the Eighties, he wasn’t a John Browning sort churning out design after design with extra refinements every time. He had zero expertise in gun design. What he did find out about, nevertheless, was superior artificial polymers. His background was key to the design of the Glock 17 and would turn out to be a cornerstone of all the firm. 

In 1980, the Austrian navy started in search of a brand new obligation pistol. Their personnel had been nonetheless carrying the WWII-era Walther P38. The navy finally introduced some standards, together with a 9mm chambering. 

Gaston heard in regards to the seek for a brand new navy pistol, and since he didn’t know a complete lot about constructing weapons, he surrounded himself with individuals who did. He gathered main handgun specialists from throughout Europe with navy, regulation enforcement, and sport-shooting backgrounds. The purpose was to articulate what options shooters of the day needed in a contemporary handgun made for fight. 

Three months later, he had a prototype in hand that made in depth use of contemporary manufacturing strategies and artificial supplies — greater than any handgun had but dared. Not solely did this preserve the design easy, but it surely additionally decreased price. In-house, the pistol was designated because the Glock 17, however when it was adopted by the Austrian Military later in 1982, it was designated because the Pistole 80, or P80. 

Dispelling Glock G17 Myths

You’ll come throughout some myths in regards to the G17’s identify and the place it got here from that sound fairly convincing. Little doubt you’ve learn on-line that the identify comes from the truth that the OG pistol had a 17-round journal capability. It’s actually true that that customary magazine for a Glock 17 holds 17 rounds, however that isn’t the place the identify comes from. In any case, the Glock 19 doesn’t maintain 19 rounds, now does it? 

The extra uncommon however equally unfaithful clarification is that the Austrian navy had 17 necessities in its solicitation for a brand new sidearm, and the G17 checked all these bins. Once more, not true. 

The very fact is, the Glock 17 acquired its identify as a result of it represented the seventeenth patent procured by Gaston Glock’s firm. That’s it. And that’s why the Glock mannequin numbers don’t have something to do with dimension, chambering, or anything that resembles logic. 

You may additionally hear that the Glock was the first pistol with a polymer body. Once more, not true. One may say it was the primary profitable handgun made with a polymer body and be fairly correct. 

The primary commercially accessible handgun with a polymer body was the futuristic-looking (and plenty of would say hideous and Hello-Level-esque) VP70 produced by Heckler & Koch in 1970, a full 12 years earlier than the G17 was launched. Not solely that, however the straight-blowback VP70 was extraordinarily gentle (28.9 ounces) and had a double-stack journal with an 18-round capability. It even had a spring-loaded striker as a substitute of a hammer. 

In contrast to the Glock, the set off was double-action solely, so it was a reasonably heavy set off pull. This gun additionally had a enjoyable quirk — the navy model, the VP70M, included a removable inventory that may very well be used as a holster, similar to the previous Mauser C96. It additionally had a enjoyable swap that might enable the pistol to fireplace in 3-round burst mode, however solely when the inventory was connected.  

It even had the identical purpose because the Glock, to be a reasonably easy handgun with few elements that might be straightforward to make use of and reasonably priced for common individuals. The “VP” within the identify stands for Volkspistole, actually “individuals’s pistol” and it was made not for a navy contract however for an anticipated Soviet push into West Germany on the time. 

Whereas it wasn’t extensively profitable, and its heavy set off gave it a foul repute, H&Okay produced the VP70 and its variants for nearly 20 years till 1989. 

Glock 17 vs Glock 19, Key Options

The Glock 17 and Glock 19 are each short-recoil operated, locked breech pistols that use a modified cam-lock system adopted from the 9mm Hello-Energy pistol that was largely designed by John Browning. So, there is a little bit of Browning’s work current in each Glock. 

The Glock locking mechanism features a linkless, vertically tilting barrel paired with an oblong breech that locks into the slide’s ejection port, very like SIG’s pistols.

Protecting Coatings

Glock has included revolutionary coatings to guard the metal elements of its weapons, one other product of Gaston Glock’s proficiency with trendy supplies. There have been additionally design parts meant to extend the pistol’s skill to function in adversarial situations.

The Striker Motion

Whereas the striker-action on the VP70 had a heavy set off as a result of it was accountable for each totally cocking the striker and releasing the sear to fireplace the gun, Glock’s system mounted this downside. 

When a Glock’s slide is racked, it brings the set off to the half-cock place. When the set off is pressed, it cocks the striker the remainder of the way in which after which releases the sear, permitting the striker to maneuver ahead and fireplace a spherical. The firing pin is then captured within the half-cock place on the finish of the firing cycle for subsequent photographs.

This course of, often called the Glock Protected Motion set off, makes the general set off pull lighter and smoother, and it’s additionally the rationale that, after the chamber is cleared, a Glock set off have to be pulled to disengage the half-cocked striker earlier than the gun might be disassembled.  

The slide contains an exterior, spring-loaded claw extractor and a metallic ejector pinned to the housing of the set off mechanism. Glocks made after 2002 have a in a different way formed extractor that additionally serves as a loaded-chamber indicator that protrudes barely to point a loaded spherical. 

The Polymer Body

Now, let’s get to probably the most controversial a part of the Glock — its polymer body. The gun acquired a bizarre repute with dangerous connotations within the Eighties when Glocks had been nonetheless uncommon on this aspect of the Atlantic. Folks referred to as it a “plastic gun” or mentioned it was made from ceramic and was designed to keep away from metallic detectors. 

This concept was bolstered by a quote from John McClane (Bruce Willis) in Die Laborious 2 (1990) that the media latched onto through the push for the Brady Bill that was finally enacted in 1993:

“That punk pulled a Glock 7 on me. You already know what that’s?” McClane says of the handguns utilized by terrorists within the film. “It’s a porcelain gun made in Germany. Doesn’t present up in your airport X-ray machines, right here, and it prices greater than you make in a month.”

Not one factor in that quote is correct, however on the time, most Individuals didn’t know a rattling factor about Glocks, and plenty of believed it. However you’ll be able to’t completely blame the film. In 1988, congress passed the Undetectable Firearms Act that outlawed the manufacture or import of any weapons that might go by a metallic detector. That was two years earlier than the film got here out, so this concept in regards to the Glock was already floating round on the market. 

A “Plastic Gun”

The Glock body, journal physique, and different elements are produced from an excellent sturdy nylon-based polymer that Gaston Glock invented, referred to as Polymer 2. It was formulated for top sturdiness and was extra resilient than metal alloys. It’s additionally immune to shock, caustic liquids, and temperature extremes that might heat metal frames or make them brittle. 

The frames are made by an injection molding course of that embeds 4 hardened metal rails within the polymer that act as information rails for the slide, two on the rear of the body and a pair above and in entrance of the set off guard. The set off guard is squared off and checkered on all fashions. The body incorporates a grip angle of 109 levels, someplace between a 1911 and a Luger. 

Regardless of what John McClane says, Polymer 2 completely reveals up on x-ray machines, and a lot of the Glock 17 and Glock 19’s weight comes from metal elements.

The pistols have a low slide profile, leading to a bore axis far decrease than the SIG P226, one other fashionable 9mm pistol of the late Eighties and Nineties. This helps cut back muzzle rise and felt recoil for quicker taking pictures and higher goal reacquisition between photographs.   

The slide and its distinctive, brutalistic, rectangular form is CNC machined from a block of metal. 

The barrel and slide had been hardened utilizing a proprietary course of referred to as Tenifer, which was utilized with a excessive temperature nitride tub. The Tenifer therapy was extremely immune to put on, corrosion, climate, and even salt water and sweat. As a result of the coating truly penetrates the metal, it retains these properties even when the seen end wears. The nitriding is topped with a adorning Parkerized floor end.

In 2010, Glock switched from the high-temp tub nitriding to a gasoline nitriding course of that hasn’t been revealed to the general public.

All of those options are the identical on the Glock 19. 

Simplicity In Movement

The Glock 17 and Glock 19 each break down totally into solely 34 elements. For normal upkeep, the weapons break down into 5 main elements: the barrel, the slide, the body, the journal, and the recoil-spring meeting. 

The barrel is hammer cast with right-handed twist polygonal rifling (.45 ACP and .45 GAP fashions use octagonal polygonal rifling). New traces of Glock pistols just like the G43 use the Glock Marksmanship Barrel, which has a deeper rifling sample. 

“Glock Doesn’t Have a Security”

The Glock 17 and Glock 19, together with the corporate’s different handgun fashions, don’t include any type of handbook thumb security, neither is it an possibility. Many shooters see this as a giant optimistic. It reduces coaching time for these new to the Glock platform and reduces a step that requires superb motor abilities when drawing a handgun to make it prepared to fireplace. 

However Glocks do, certainly, have a security. In actual fact, they’ve three unbiased security mechanisms which are the opposite elements within the Glock “Protected Motion.” 

There’s the exterior set off security: that little tab that protrudes from the middle of the set off. When pressed, it prompts the set off bar and connector. There are additionally two automated inner safeties: a firing pin security and a drop security. The firing pin security is a metal pin that blocks the firing pin channel till it’s pushed upward and releasing the firing pin when the set off is activated. 

The drop security guides the set off bar in a ramp launched through the set off pull. Every security is disengaged in sequence when the set off is depressed, after which all of them re-engage when the set off is launched.    

Glock 17 vs Glock 19, Which Is Higher? 

So which is higher? Properly, that each one depends upon what the gun will likely be used for.

The Glock 17 has the next capability when utilizing a flush magazine and a barely longer barrel and sight radius, so there may be extra ammo and higher accuracy potential with iron sights. For an obligation gun in a holster, it’s preferrred. For some, a G17 is snug within the hand and concealable in an IWB holster, in order that’s what they carry. 

If you happen to’re in search of a contest gun, the G17 is an effective base. In actual fact, one of many earliest Glock variants was the long-slide G17L meant for aggressive taking pictures, which morphed into the G34. And, in fact, there are all of the custom-made Glock race weapons on the market. 

On the subject of regulation enforcement and navy use, with prolonged baseplates, you get the identical capability out of a G19, which is slightly lighter and slightly shorter, so it may also be hid when obligatory. That is all the cause a separate, compact configuration of the M17 was adopted by the U.S. navy because the M18.   

For these totally targeted on CCW, the G19 is extra concealable for extra individuals, whereas the G17 is only a bit too cumbersome for a lot of. 

So, ultimately, it’s not that the Glock 19 is healthier than the Glock 17, or vice versa, however that they’re every higher at completely different handgun duties. That mentioned, the Glock 19 is a little more versatile than its barely greater brother. However ultimately, each particular person has to shoot what they shoot finest and carry what carries finest. The hope is that each might be present in the identical gun.