Is there any ballistic advantage of the Glock 34 compared to the Glock 17?

Certainly. The barrel of the G34 is .83" longer than the G17. It's not a large difference, but firing the same ammunition from the same lot, the G34 will clock faster.

I meant to ask if there was any significant advantage.

About the difference between standard pressure and +P loadings. It's not a big difference but it's a difference. Whether that's significant is up to you. The projectile is striking the target perhaps 40 or 50 fps faster in the G34 barrel.

Longer sight radius, too. That allows the shooter to potentially be more precise, especially at longer ranges. (Depending on the skill of the shooter, sights, and other variables.)

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Originally posted by Bulldog7972:
I meant to ask if there was any significant advantage.

That's really hard to quantify. Depends on the ammunition and barrel. You're probably looking at 20 or 30 fps difference.

The G34 is a long-slide G17 with a lightened slide; a lightened, tuned trigger and extended controls. IOW: A competition/race gun. It wasn't designed to serve the same purpose as a G17.

I have one. It's a hoot to shoot I wouldn't dream of carrying it, though, if that's what you're thinking.

OK,thanks all.

I think the sight radius is far more relevant then the velocity that increase.

On a related note, is there any appreciable ballistic advantage from the extra 3/8"-1/2" in length of a threaded barrel over a standard one?

This message has been edited. Last edited by: iron chef,

An inch of barrel is worth between 15-50fps/inch depending on the specific ammo and exact barrel length. Head on over to ballistics by the inch and you can see various loads and barrel lengths. Partial inches are probably proportional for all practical purposes. So no there is no appreciable ballistic advantage.

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I wouldn't dream of carrying it, though, if that's what you're thinking

I've carried one for quite awhile, no issue. When I was trying to figure out the red dot carry thing an MOS g34 was my test rig since I was already using it in competition. The extended controls and the - connector are added by many to other glocks and are not in any way problematic for carry. In size its not the least bit different than a 1911 or full size USP and lots of people carry those.
Myself I have converted to using RMR equipped guns and there is no advantage to long slides so my 34's sit unused mostly. But if you are using iron sights its hard to find a better model. The 17L is too long.

I don't think the sight radius matters much. Velocity will be a tad higher, but I don't think the sight radius difference in between the G17 and G34 is significant.

In my own testing, an extra half inch of barrel length (P226 4.4 to 4.9") did not increase 9mm velocities very much. The standard pressure Speer 124 grain Gold Dot load gained an average of 20 feet per second and the +P version of the same load gained 13 fps.

“Significant” is obviously in the eye of the beholder, but although higher velocity = higher projectile energy = greater possible wounding effects, such small increases hardly meet the definition of the word for me. In fact, 20 or 13 fps difference is much smaller than the extreme velocity spreads both loads exhibited even with small sample sizes. (The largest sample in my limited testing was 19 shots with the standard load and 4.4" barrel; the ES was 102 fps.) In other words, when fired from either load, a fast bullet from the shorter barrel could easily exceed the speed of a slow bullet from the longer barrel.

The 34’s barrel is about 0.8 inch longer than the 17’s and therefore its average velocity would be greater than a 0.5 inch difference, but not much. And again, the extreme spreads of velocities of individual shots of many loads would probably swamp the average velocity differences between the two barrel lengths.

It's really going to depend on the ammo. My 9mm reloads using a relatively slow burning pistol powder (HS6) gain significant advantage from longer barrels. I saw 200fps+ gains out roof an 8" AR as compared to a 4" handgun barrel. However, I also found that high-end factory defensive ammo like Federal HST does not.

I believe this is because that ammo is designed for maximum efficiency out of shorter barrels, and to minimize muzzle flash caused by unburned powder igniting outside the muzzle. The HST was faster out of the shorter barrel than my reloads, but saw only a negligible increase in velocity as the barrel length increased.

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Originally posted by hrcjon:

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I wouldn't dream of carrying it, though, if that's what you're thinking

I've carried one for quite awhile, no issue. When I was trying to figure out the red dot carry thing an MOS g34 was my test rig since I was already using it in competition. The extended controls and the - connector are added by many to other glocks and are not in any way problematic for carry. In size its not the least bit different than a 1911 or full size USP and lots of people carry those.
Myself I have converted to using RMR equipped guns and there is no advantage to long slides so my 34's sit unused mostly. But if you are using iron sights its hard to find a better model. The 17L is too long.

I agree with this. I carried a G35 as a duty pistol for about 9 years. But, in the 9mm pistols, I'm not sure that there is enough practical difference between the two.

And a G34 with an X300 just plain looks MEAN



I call that an advantage in my pea brain.

I think the 34 balances a bit better. Especially the Gen 5 model since they omitted that stupid cutout on the top of the slide. I agree it's a bit big to carry but nice for competition and home.