quote:

Originally posted by wrightd:
Did anyone happen to ask him why he chose the weird grip angle before it was too late ? I guess now we'll never know.

I was told that it lowered the bore axis and allowed for better recoil management.

It never felt right to me after becoming proficient on the Beretta/Sig grip. Nothing against them, they are great guns, just my pointing preference.

quote:

Originally posted by wrightd:
Did anyone happen to ask him why he chose the weird grip angle before it was too late ? I guess now we'll never know.

Jesus, man

Tell me- why was an arched mainspring housing part of the modifications to the original 1911?

In their second volume, Mötz and Schuy have gone into the development of the pistol with the support of the Glock company. From the chapters it is easy to deduce that Glock was not a one-man show and received input from experts in order to be able to present a functional prototype at the Austrian Armed Forces trials. Accordingly, this external input will also have had an influence on the ergonomics of the weapon. Recommended literature on this topic and on the person Gaston Glock are:
MÖTZ,J./SCHUY,J.: Österreichische Pistolen Vol 2.
BARRET, P,: Glock: The Rise of America's Gun

Often, innovation in firearms is associated with one person who was the public persona of the gun.
Example: Colt.
Sam Colt died in January of 1862. Rollin White, the inventor the through bored revolver cylinder once worked for Colt but defected to Smith and Wesson. Whites Patent on his cylinder did not expire until 1870 and prior to his death, Colt did not want to pay royalties to S&W for the fully bored cylinder.
As the Civil War ended, it was two engineers who worked for Colt who designed a system to convert Colt revolvers to use metallic ammunition. Charles Richards and William Mason. Their design eventually evolved into the Colt SAA which went public 11 years after Colt died. Richards also designed and patented the swing out revolver cylinder when he worked for Remington Arms, which is still in use today. Everyone has heard of Sam Colt, but very few know of Richards and Mason. Gaston Glock was without a doubt a visionary who made the Glock pistol a reality, but I am sure it was more of a team effort than is widely known.

Sad to hear. Always thought it would be incredible to meet him. What a pistol that he leaves, used by all sides.

Master of innovation and trend.

94? Wow.

Leave to the a-holes at MSN to piss on a great man's grave

"Man who made billions out of death and killing dies at the age of 94"

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news...69cd7dbd10121b&ei=42

quote:

Originally posted by YooperSigs:
I am sure it was more of a team effort than is widely known.

It doesn’t take anything away from the one who initiates an idea and helps lead a team to its successful realization to point out that a team had to have been involved. Do we think that product like a modern handgun of such a radical design was first manufactured with a chunk of steel and plastic using a drill and files? In fact, I’ll give as much credit, if not more, to someone who can lead a team to a successful product rather than cobbling it together in the basement himself.

And of course there are other examples as well. Although the Soviet Union loved to canonize people like Mikhail Kalashnikov into living saints for their secular religion, there is credible information that he didn’t design the AK all by himself in a monastery on a remote mountain someplace.

His story is rather remarkable and had a huge impact on the firearms industry. Making it to 94, not a bad run in life.

quote:

Originally posted by jer830:
Yes a very sad day for the firearms community. He was a genius and I consider him to be the equal of JMB.

I hope the company continues on the same path and doesn’t start doing silly things.

^^^^
I have to disagree with your JMB comparison. Glock designed and upgraded one gun. Browning had multiple designs including but not limited to the High Power, 1911, various machine guns, the BAR, various Winchester lever actions, Auto-5, Browning Semi-Auto 22lr, cartridges such as the 25 ACP, 45 ACP, Browning 50 BMG, etc. Glock was brilliant but the equivalent of Browning? No.

^^^^^^^
You beat me to it! I couldn't list all of JMB's designs (and quite frankly, don't like all of them, either) but the man was an unmatched genius.

Glock, really, only designed one system and based dozens of mods on it. When it came time for me to replace my depleted inventory, I bought mostly Glocks (and one SIG) and moved on from JMB and the 1911.

Man may have only designed one gun, but he created the standard by which every other company emulated. Yes, it wasn’t the first polymer handgun, but he ushered in a new age of duty and service grade handguns. All of the standards for reliability and durability increased community wide under his watch. In the marketing area alone, he revolutionized getting guns in holsters that the public recognized.

He likely surpasses Browning on those facts alone. Browning, Sam Colt and Stoner all deserve the rightful credit they each deserve but Gaston Glock did so much more than “designed one gun”.

quote:

Originally posted by BB61:

quote:

Originally posted by jer830:
Yes a very sad day for the firearms community. He was a genius and I consider him to be the equal of JMB.

I hope the company continues on the same path and doesn’t start doing silly things.

^^^^
I have to disagree with your JMB comparison. Glock designed and upgraded one gun. Browning had multiple designs including but not limited to the High Power, 1911, various machine guns, the BAR, various Winchester lever actions, Auto-5, Browning Semi-Auto 22lr, cartridges such as the 25 ACP, 45 ACP, Browning 50 BMG, etc. Glock was brilliant but the equivalent of Browning? No.

But you have to admit- Gaston Glock built a better mousetrap, and the world beat a path to that man's door at (+/-) $500 a piece!

What's the most popular handgun for Law Enforcement? Somewhere around 2/3rds of LE carries Glocks. Something like 65% of the handgun market in the U.S.
Not an engineering genius on scale as Sam Colt or John Browning, but that ONE DESIGN aint doin' too bad!

I bought my first Glock on blue label for $260. Spare mags were $8 a piece.

quote:

Originally posted by jljones:
He likely surpasses Browning on those facts alone. Browning, Sam Colt and Stoner all deserve the rightful credit they each deserve but Gaston Glock did so much more than “designed one gun”.

Yet he required the use of the Browning Tilt Barrel Action to make his gun work. While he is most definitely a far better business man than Browning or Colt, Browning invented the basis to allow Glock to exist.

^^^^
Exactly. And Browning didn't have modern polymers, computers, and someone else's (his) operating system to tweak. How many of us have asked, where is the Glock PCC or EBR? Browning did all that and more with cartridge designs, shotguns, machine guns, rifles, etc. And this without the engineers Glock used to help him win the Austrian contract.


Glock built a better mousetrap with modern technology but he "perfected" a design Browning pioneered with a slide ruler and a pencil. You have to wonder what JMB could do today if he were still alive?

Gaston was an industry titan for sure, but nowhere near the equal of le maître John Moses Browning.
With that said, you can’t deny what the man did for the hand-gunning world.
Rest in peace Gaston.

I wonder if he will be buried in a black Tupperware container

quote:

Originally posted by 400m:
Gaston was an industry titan for sure, but nowhere near the equal of le maître John Moses Browning.
With that said, you can’t deny what the man did for the hand-gunning world.
Rest in peace Gaston.

The criticisms are silly. It's like comparing Julia Child to Ray Kroc. No one claims Kroc was a chef (celebrity or otherwise) nor patron saint of fine dining & haute cuisine. He didn't invent the hamburger nor did he invent fast food. He did write the book on the fast food franchise model and arguably did more to popularize American cuisine around the world than anyone else. The average Chinese citizen has probably never heard of Julia Child, but everyone in China knows McDonald's. "Billions served" is no small feat.

Glock has nearly attained the eponym status of Kleenex, Post-It, Coke, Weed Eater, Crescent wrench, etc. I'm sorry to the "Two Whirled Wors" crowd, but as jljones put it, Glock raised industry bars and forced everyone else to innovate.