Patrick Sweeney - Glock Deconstructed

F or those of you who have read my previous books, you know who this is going to be dedicated to: Felicia and the poodles.

Fierce devotion, looking out for the pack, keeping an eye out for trouble, and alertness for opportunity are all traits dogs are supposed to be masters of. Well, as dedicated as the three guys are, they know Felicia is the exemplar after whom to model themselves.

Save for her, Id be a penniless surfer dude (and probably an only passable surfer, at that), and the world would have fewer firearms books. So, you have her to thank for the need to find more room on your bookshelf.

T his time, it was going to be different. If you can believe it, Glock actually came to me. Well, a member of the PR company they had hired contacted me with the idea of a new Glock book. Glock is interested in a new book and is going to support it, they said.

Well, slap me silly and call me rude names. This I can get excited about.

To test the waters, I composed a prospective set of questions. Being the clever fellow I am (sometimes too clever by half, if you dont mind the occasional Shakespearean reference), I composed a set of questions that would tell me pretty accurately how much info Glock was willing to divulge and how much assistance they were willing to provide. The queries ranged from simple to the type where I anticipated the answer would be something on the order of We cant answer this without divulging trade secrets. I covered the basics, like how many loaner pistols they could send and on what schedule, on up to almost certainly secret requests, such as how long the moulding machines cycled to produce a frame or set of frames. And, so, I sent in my queries. I figured that those theyd answer and how theyd answer the ones they did would give me a good read on just what level of support they were offering. To make sure there were no fumbles, I send copies to all involved. I send them to the PR rep, e-mail and snail mail. I send them to Glock, to the address provided. I do everything but semaphore them to Smyrna.

A short detour here. Every year, the firearms industry holds its annual trade show, the SHOT (Shooting, Hunting, Outdoor Trades) show. At this show, everyone who is anyone is in attendance, and all the makers have exhibition booths, with booth being anything from a 10-foot-square patch of carpeting with canvas walls up to a multi-story structure with a footprint larger than the average home. Glock is in the latter camp. Its booth is the size of a parking lot, but it has to be, as it has lots of models and lots of fans. It also need room for the waiting line for autographs to snake around other nearby booths.

The PR rep, on finding out that Glock had not contacted me (nor them) on the matter of answers after a decent amount of time had been allowed, suggested that I talk to the in-house Glock PR guy. Name and e-mail attached, please ask the home office. There is no response.

Were my hopes for a really different book on the Glock firearms gone? You see, what I wanted to do, instead of simply updating the existing book, the previous Gun Digest Book of the Glock Volume 2, I was figuring on starting with a clean slatewell, clean in that I did not rewrite, update, clean up, change, or otherwise massage the existing text. I started with a clean sheet of paper (an interesting turn of phrase, in this digital world), but I was wondering about Glocks: I wanted them to show me.

People tell me Glocks are ultra-reliable, durable, accurate, easy-to-use, and easy to maintain. My experience has been not so much. Then again, they dont fit my hands very well. However, Glock sells a lot of them, so theyve got to be working for some of you. Now, dont get me wrong. If evil is coming through the door in a short time hence and all I have is a Glock, I wont feel like Im using a cap gun. (Ill also be doing all I can to get out of there before evil arrives, Glock or no Glock.) But given a choice, Ill pick a lot of other firearms before I pick a Glock. Thats me, its a personal preference.

Still, there is this book, and theres plenty to say about Glocks, both positive and not. And even though I didnt get as much help from the people at Glock as I would have liked, I have a couple decades experience as a gunsmith, more as a competition shooter and reloader, and many, many visits to firearms factories. These basics, combined with earlier work experience in manufacturing, affords me a peek behind the curtain, even if it wasnt an actual tour of the Glock factory.

I did not gush all over the various models of Glocks. I mean, if what you want is breathless recitation of the latest press handout, plenty of writers and PR people can do that for you. There are also plenty of magazine articles about Glocks, though, and I dont mean to dis my brethren gun writers, but there is only so much that can be done in 1,800 words and with a deadline of next Thursday.

Too, lacking a support team, research laboratory, unlimited budget, and Congressional mandate, I cant serially abuse Glocks pistols, compared to others, to determine which is king of the hill. For those who suggested such, I appreciate your esteem in my abilities to perform such a task, but I really cant do that alone. Plus, statistically speaking, to do so to less than a couple dozen samples is a meaningless exercise. So, no criminally abused Glocks in this volume. Sorry.

Regardless, sit back and enjoy (or grit your teeth) and learn what you can use to hold your own in discussions at the gun club. Have fun.

S ince we last had a chance to talk, back in 2008, in my Gun Digest Book of the Glock, Volume 2, a lot has happened. Glock has changed, and yet has not changed. The pistols were changed, then unchanged and re-changed to a different perfection. A lot of competitors have decided that, since Glock makes something almost perfect and people are buying them, then they, too, should make something a bit more perfect and sell lots of them.

Competition improves the breed. If it doesnt, then it brings out aftermarket customizers, who will improve things where the original makers wont. Three different Glock frame modifiers are represented here.

Glock found itself involved in legal wrangling, but, as corporate legal wrangling goes, it wasnt all that unusual. Oh, for those of us who are into firearms, it is always an unnerving proposition, when lawyers get involved. But, in the corporate world, especially in some industries, signing up as a corporate officer or becoming a member of the Board of Directors also involves having a company attorney surgically attached at the hip. Thats just a part of modern corporate life.

Glock, after coming out with the original design, stuck with it as long as it could before changing it. The change, one done to make it easier to comply with the silly U.S. import scoring system, gave Glock a chance to change the texturing on the frame. Between origin and the chance to change, shooters had become a lot more interested in a non-slip grip. Wait, let me amend that. There had always been shooters interested in a non-slip grip, but, what with the increase in IPSC competition, there were more shooters who paid attention to that sort of detail. What happened in IPSC (USPSA in the United States), would work its way over to law enforcement. Once enough police officers were paying attention, departments wanted better guns.