quote:
Originally posted by sns3guppy:
quote:
Originally posted by Robert Johnson:
Wonder what the idea behind the half-moon cutout was? Glad its gone.
My favorite thing about Glock is they are constantly improving their products.
The front cutout is for magazine extraction. Though many cover them up, the back of the magwell wall has also always had a thumb cutout for the same purpose. Many people fill that with a grip plug.
My Gen 3 G34 came with a front cutout. On mine, it's covered by an Advantage minimalist mag well, an the rear cutout is filled by the same well's aluminum plug. I've never cared for either cutout.
My Glock mags use the Vickers baseplates, and those extend slightly outside the exterior of the grip, making extraction easy, without any need for cutouts on the pistol frame itself.
quote:
Originally posted by BBMW:
Specifically, this was an FBI requirement for the guns that became the M models. The Gen 5 is the civilian release of the M line, so Glock kept the cut.
After recently shooting my 1986 Gen 1 17, and just now finished cleaning it, I feel the need to address this question again. I have two of the original magazines that likely came with it. So everything I have to say in the following should be viewed in that frame of reference. If you haven't logged any range time with the old Glocks, this read may help provide a little perspective on the half moon cutout.
The original Glock magazines were not fully metal lined, had shorter magazine bodies, and had baseplates half the thickness (or less) than that of the successive generations of magazines, meaning nearly flush-fit. A fully loaded magazine does not want to easily insert, starting to present resistance starting at the shoulders of the magazine and requiring a firm slap to seat, and when fully seated, there is no gap between the frame and the baseplate. When you push the mag release on a fully loaded Gen 1 magazine with a Gen 1 pistol, the only thing that happens is that the magazine release stays depressed because the rounds pushed the magazine just far enough to keep it depressed and you can still chamber a round and shoot the pistol. The magazines do not drop free when loaded, because the rounds in a loaded mag bulge the sides out, and they
must be ripped free. Even empty NFML mags don't drop completely free, and usually require being pulled the rest of the way out.
So add all that together, and I see why the half moon cutout was a feature on the first pistols. It's frankly necessary to operating the weapon, as it originally sold and shipped. Once the fully metal lined mags with slightly longer mag bodies and chunky baseplates that we've come to know and love as some of the most reliable pistol magazines ever invented were a standard feature, the actual need for the half moon cutout goes from being questionable to ridiculous once you've logged some time shooting a Gen 1 pistol with the original Gen 1 mags. That this "feature" continued to Gen 5 is
totally stupid, and even more so that the FBI
requested it. And yes, Gen 2, 3, and 4 mags (haven't tried five yet, but I'm assuming they should prove no different) all drop completely free from my Gen 1 17, fully loaded or empty.
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