History
Founded in 1963, Glock was a manufacturer of curtain rods before branching out into the firearms industry in the 1970s. They manufactured machine gun belts, practice hand grenades, plastic magazines, field knives, and entrenching tools for the Austrian Army. In the early 1980s, the Austrian Army requested a pistol model; Glock responded with a 9mm semi-automatic pistol dubbed the Glock 17, because it was Gaston Glock's seventeenth patent. The Austrian Army adopted the Glock 17 in 1982 with the Norwegian Army following suit two years later. In 1985, Glock Inc. was established in the United States in Smyrna, Georgia. Over the next few years, Glock expanded its 9 mm product line, developing the select-fire Glock 18 in 1986 and the Glock 17L and Glock 19 in 1988. In 1990, Glock became the first manufacturer to offer models chambered for the .40 S&W cartridge, beating Smith & Wesson to the marketplace with pistols for their own cartridge.
Development
In May 1980, the Austrian military invited Glock to bid on a contract to supply them with a new duty pistol to replace the WWII-era Walther P38 service pistol. Samples were submitted for assessment trials and, after passing all of the exhaustive endurance and abuse tests, Glock emerged as the winner with the Glock 17. In 1982, the handgun was adopted into service by the Austrian military and police forces as the Pistole 80 (P80). Shortly thereafter, the Swedish, Dutch, and Norwegian armed forces accepted the weapon into service. As of 1992, Glock has sold approximately 350,000 pistols in over 45 countries, of that 250,000 to the USA.
Popularity
The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation issues all agents graduating from their academy a Glock 22 or Glock 23 according to the agent's preference. Glock .40 caliber pistols are issued to all new agents of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, and the Glock 19 remains the standard issue of the U.S. E.P.A. Criminal Investigation Division. Most Australian police services use Glock pistols. Glock pistols are also issued to Australian Customs officers. The New Zealand Police carry the Glock 17 in situations where weapons are issued. Glock 17’s and Glock 19’s are standard service pistols in certain Israeli military and paramilitary units and are popular pistols among Israeli citizens.
The popularity of Glock pistols can be attributed to a number of factors, especially reliability. They function under extreme conditions and are able to fire a wide range of ammunition types. The simplicity of the Glock design contributes to this reliability, as it contains a relatively small number of components (about 34 components; nearly half as many as the typical handgun) making maintenance and repair easy. Disassembly for the Glock pistol is simple, making it easy to detail strip without expensive tools.
Glock sidearms are common among law enforcement agencies and military organizations around the world. They are standard-issue sidearms for the Austrian, Dutch, Norwegian Army, Northern Irish police, Belgian, Australian police forces, and various special units such as the German GSG 9 counter-terrorism unit of the German Federal Police, Specialist Firearms Command of the London Metropolitan Police Service, and the new Iraq security forces.
The polymer frame makes these pistols lighter than typical steel or aluminum-framed pistols, which is attractive for police officers and civilians who carry firearms for an extended period. Glock pistols do not have any external controls such as levers, decockers, or manual safeties. This removes a potential source of errors when operating the pistol under stress. However, this can also cause problems. A criticism of the Glock action is that the trigger has to be depressed prior to disassembly or insertion into the original design of its storage case, which can result in an unintentional discharge if the operator is extremely negligent.
Most of the steel components in a Glock pistol are treated with a nitriding process called "Tenifer", which increases the surface hardness and makes the weapon resistant to corrosion and wear.
The popularity of Glock pistols seems to have inspired other manufacturers to begin production of similar polymer-framed firearms, including the Springfield XD, Smith & Wesson M&P, and Walther P99 pistols. The Smith & Wesson Sigma so closely resembled Glock's design that it resulted in a patent infringement lawsuit, with Smith & Wesson settling out of court and paying Glock an undisclosed amount.
Design Details
The Glock 17 is a 9 mm semi-automatic pistol that uses a modified Browning locked breech short recoil operating principle. The firearm’s locking mechanism has a vertically tilting barrel with a rectangular breech that engages a guide in the slide, on the breech face, and a cut in the top front of the ejection port. The barrel recoils rearward, locked together with the slide approximately 3 mm until the bullet leaves the barrel and pressures drop to a safe level. The ramped lug at the bottom of the barrel then mates with the angled locking block in the frame, camming the barrel downward, while the slide continues back in a straight line. The slide also contains a spring-loaded claw extractor, while the fixed ejector is a steel protrusion in the trigger housing. The striker firing mechanism has a firing pin that is cocked in two stages, powered by the firing pin spring. The firing pin remains only partly tensioned upon the forward return of the slide, it's fully cocked and released after the trigger has been depressed all the way to the rear. This is known as a pre-set trigger mechanism, referred to as the “Safe Action” trigger by the manufacturer. A connector ensures the pistol can only fire in semi-automatic mode.
The Glock features a triple safety system against accidental discharge that consists of three independent safety mechanisms: an external trigger safety and two automatic internal safeties - a firing pin safety and a drop safety. The external safety is a small inner lever contained in the trigger. Pressing the lever activates the trigger bar and sheet metal connector. One of the internal safeties is a solid hardened steel pin, which, in the secured state, blocks the firing pin channel (disabling the firing pin in its longitudinal axis). The firing pin safety is only pushed upward to release the firing pin when the trigger is actuated and the safety is pushed up through the backward movement of the trigger bar, the second, drop safety guides the trigger bar in a precision safety ramp that is only released when a shot is triggered by pulling the trigger right back. The safeties are systematically disengaged one after another when the trigger is squeezed and then automatically re-activated when the trigger is released. This triple safety system guarantees safe handling of the pistol with a cartridge introduced into the chamber, reducing the time required to deploy the weapon. This allows the user to concentrate on tactical considerations, rather than manipulation of levers, hammers or external safeties found in other, conventional handguns. This design however does not allow the pistol to be decocked in case of a squib round.
The Glock 17 feeds from a double-column box magazine with a 17-round capacity or an extended 19-round magazine. After the last round has been fired, the slide remains open on the slide stop. The slide stop release lever is located on the left side of the frame directly below the slide and can be manipulated by the thumb of the shooting hand.
The Glock 17 has a fixed sight arrangement that consists of a ramped front sight and a notched rear sight with white contrast elements painted on for increased acquisition speed; a white dot on the front post and a rectangular border on the rear notch. The rear sight can be adjusted for windage as it has a degree of lateral movement in the dovetail it is mounted in. Adjustable and illuminated night sights are also available.
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The cold hammer-forged barrel has a polygonal (hexagonal) bore with a right-hand twist. The weapon’s frame, magazine body, and several other components are made from a high-strength nylon-based polymer. The frame also contains hardened steel guides molded into the internal surfaces. The slide is milled from a single block of ordnance-grade steel. The barrel and slide are finished with a proprietary nitriding process called Tenifer.
Current production Glock 17’s consist of 34 parts. For maintenance, the pistol disassembles into five main groups: the barrel, slide, frame, magazine, and recoil spring assembly.
The firearm is designed for the NATO-standard 9x19mm Parabellum pistol cartridge (bullet weight: 7.5 g, muzzle velocity: 350 m/s), but can also use high-power (increased pressure) +P and +P+ ammunition with either full metal jacket or jacketed hollow point projectiles.
Many of the Glock pistols are available as “C” models (for “compensated”) which add a ported (slits cut into the barrel) barrel and slide to reduce muzzle climb while shooting the pistol.
The Glock has been modernized several times throughout its production history. In 1991, a modified version of the recoil spring and recoil spring tube was introduced that is now a single integrated recoil spring assembly that does not disassemble. Additionally the magazine was slightly modified (the magazine floorplate was changed and the follower spring was fitted with a resistance insert at its base) and the trigger pull was increased (optionally). The factory standard trigger is rated at 25 N, but by using a modified connector, it can be increased to 35 N. In response to a request made by American law enforcement agencies for a two-stage trigger Glock introduced the so-called NY (New York) trigger module, which features a flat spring in a plastic housing that replaces the trigger bar’s standard coil spring. This trigger upgrade is available in two versions: New York and New York Plus that are rated at 34-40 N and 41-50 N respectively, which require approximately 20-30 N of force to disengage the safeties and another 10 N in the second stage to fire a shot.
A mid-life upgrade to the Glock series involved the frame’s grip, which received checkering on the front strap and serrations to the rear (these pistols are sometimes called the Generation 2 models). In the late 1990s, the pistol’s frame had been further modified with a Universal rail adapter (used to mount laser pointers and tactical flashlights), thumb rests on both sides of the frame and finger grooves on the front strap of the pistol grip (Generation 3 upgrade). The extractor has also been changed twice and the locking block was enlarged along with the addition of another pin.
Plastic Pistol Myths
Glock pistols do set off metal detectors and can be detected by X-ray machines, due to their metal barrels and slides. The claim that they could not was first made in an article published in The Washington Post on January 13, 1985, entitled, “Quaddafi Buying Austrian Plastic Pistol.” In the article, vocal gun control advocate Jack Anderson made the allegations, which were then reported without fact-checking by the Associated Press and further reported by many United States television news stations and newspapers. It has since become an urban legend that to this day continues to appear in news reports and movies, and has even been a topic of debate in the United States Congress.
In fact, 83.7% (by weight) of the Glock pistol is normal ordnance steel and the “plastic” parts are a dense polymer known as “Polymer 2” which is radio-opaque and is therefore visible to X-ray security equipment. In addition, virtually all of these “plastic” parts contain embedded steel not to make the firearms “detectable”, but to increase functionality and shooting accuracy. Contrary to popular movies like Die Hard 2: Die Harder, neither Glock nor any other gun maker has ever produced a “porcelain”, “ceramic” or “plastic” firearm which is undetectable by ordinary security screening devices.
Safety Mechanisms
Glock pistols use an internal safety mechanism with three components, with no external thumb activated safety switch that may be found on traditional-design pistols. Glock calls this the “Safe Action” system. All three safeties are disabled one after the other when the trigger is depressed. They are:
• Trigger Safety: An external lever mechanism contained within the trigger that prevents the trigger from moving unless the lever is depressed.
• Firing Pin Safety: A spring-loaded pin attached by an extension bar to the trigger assembly blocks the striker from striking the primer of the cartridge until the trigger is pulled.
• Drop Safety: The far end of the same extension bar locks the striker into place from the rear until the trigger is pulled.
Similar systems for internal safeties have since become standard for many major manufacturers of semi-automatic pistols. The absence of a traditional safety switch means that Glock users who intend to carry the gun on their person with the chamber loaded must be cautious (as they should be for any type of firearm) of keeping their finger off of the trigger when holstering or unholstering the gun. However, the firearm will not discharge if dropped, requiring a deliberate trigger pull to discharge the firearm.
In 2003, Glock announced the Internal Locking System (ILS). The ILS is a manually activated lock that is located in the back of the pistol's grip. It is cylindrical in design and, according to Glock each key is unique. Group key hierarchic solutions are available for law enforcement agencies. When activated, the lock causes a tab to protrude from the rear of the grip. This is done to give both a visual and tactile indication as to whether the lock is engaged or not. The Glock cannot be fired or disassembled when the ILS is activated. When disengaged, the ILS adds no further safety mechanisms to the Glock pistol.
The ILS is available as an option on all Glock pistols except for the G36, but not all ILS-equipped Glock pistols are carried by distributors or imported with the option. The most commonly available Glock pistols with the ILS are the G17, G19, G22, G23, G26, and the G27.
Options and Accessories
Glock pistol accessories include several devices for tactical illumination, such as front rail mounted lights with optional lasers and an adapter to mount a flashlight on the bottom of a magazine. Holsters in various configurations and matching magazine pouches are also available. Some other popular Glock accessories include sights, triggers, recoil springs, extended controls, and match grade barrels. |