Review: Glock 17 Gen4

October 10, 2016

Review: Glock 17 Gen4

Hey, it's Glenn from Range Rabbit, and today I'm going to talk about Glock pistols generally, and the G17 Gen 4 in particular.

Let me get one thing out of the way up front. I love Glocks. Love 'em. If I could only have one firearm, or only one pistol, it would be a G17. The reason is as simple as the gun itself. It works properly every time. Now, you might be thinking, 'Hey, my gun works fine too', and that's great. I also have lots of guns that work properly, but no other brand has the long and well-deserved reputation for not only reliability, but ease of use, and the availability of maintenance parts.

Reliability might seem a little boring for some people; reliability isn't sexy like night vision or a new fifty cal; but whether you shoot in competition or carry for a living, you need you gun to work properly, and lots of guns don't. When I'm at the range on match day, there are always a few people struggling with their gun. Mags won't seat, wont release, failure to feed, failure to eject, blah blah blah.

Almost every law enforcement agency in Canada uses Glock, the high profile exception being RCMP, who mostly carry Smith and Wesson 5946 (facepalm). There are three reasons cops carry Glocks; the first is reliability, the second is that they are very easy to understand when you're freaking out. I don't mean to say that cops need a simple gun, but when you're pinned on your pack in a puddle of water in a dark alley, and some 300 pound rat is trying to bust your head with a cinder block, you want a solution that make perfect sense to your gross motor skills. No safety, no decock lever, no hammer, just and handful of violence. Perfect.

The third reason that law enforcement so often choose Glock is that if you shoot your gun a lot, or keep it for a long time, eventually you'll want to at least replace the springs, maybe a couple of other parts, and, in my experience, Glock is the only brand for which you can get every part, for every model, in Canada.

Let me pause here for a moment and tell you a couple of the reasons people don't like Glock. For starters, they feel kinda cheap. I mean, the frame and magazines are made of polymer, and they feel ...plasticky, which is fair. When you're holding a $1000 item in your hand, you want to feel the engineering, the excellence, and Glocks don't feel like that. More importantly, the trigger has a little plasticky flex in it and some people, especially fast competitive shooters, can really feel the difference. Further, the trigger pull on a stock Glock is about five and half pounds every round, and that's a heavy trigger for competition. Many would argue that for everyday carry an even heavier trigger might be safer, but in Canada we only use our Glock at the range, so that's not an issue.

OK, so GlocksĀ are great guns that aren't very fast in competition, should you buy one? Yes; if you're only gonna have one pistol, it should be a Glock 17 Gen 4. It's 9 mm, which is a fine cartridge at a reasonable price, comes with two ten round magazines, there are plenty of holsters readily available, and it's easy to get mag pouches for. What are you waiting for? Go get a Glock, and I'll see you at the range!