G26 and G36, both second generation. Both were updated by Glockmeister in Phoenix. I see no need to replace them.

G5 at the moment, is the best of glock.
One hopes soon they apply those updates to the whole line.

I didn’t get into glocks until gen4. They just “fit my hand better”
G:22,23,20,21,40,41
I also like my gen5 g19.
I had a Gen3 g19, but it just felt too slick to me. I currently have a gen3 g30s and, while I shoot it quite well, I still feel like I barely have a good hold on the grip. The gen4 is just the right amount of sticky for me.
I never minded the finger grooves, but I can appreciate their absence on the gen5.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: hudr,

I have my issued gen4 17. I like it a lot and being the full size the finger grooves fit me.

I have what I thought was my favorite, my G19.5. I love the lack of finger grooves. The ambi slide stop I did not like so I cut the right side off. I've had zero issues since doing this. I keep a spare ambi stop on hand. The front strap cut out doesn't bother me per se, especially with the gen 5 mag plates being extended. I have the pearce mag plates with the fill-in for the cut out and have no problem with those. After using them for awhile I thought that my coworkers would not be able to use my spare mags with the pearce plates as reloads for their G19s since they all have different generations. So, I took them off and put the OEM plates back on.

I also have a G43 and G48. I switch the 48 frame between the two slide assemblies. I did get rid of my 42 simply because I never carried it and have smaller .380 to carry. I do find myself carrying the 48 more than my G19 as of late.

So, gen 5 is my favorite. I could do without the cut out but not enough to get a gen 5 19 FS. I do fight the urge to trade or sell my 43 to get a 43X. But, I figure its best to have the option of having a smaller frame.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: BennerP220,

quote:

Originally posted by parabellum:
The gen5 Glocks are a genuine improvment to the Glock system and these are replacing most of my other Glocks.

Before the gen5 pistols, the RTF pistols were my preference, based solely upon that great grip texture, but the gen5 pistols can't be beat.

Of course, the gen5 pistols are available in 9x19mm only, so if your preference is for .40, .45 or 10mm, you're going to be choosing a different generation.

[QUOTE]

On the gen5 pistols, this leaf spring has been replaced by a coil spring, which is much less likely to suffer a breakage. This coil spring is used on the slimline Glocks as well- the G42, G43, G43X, etc. Glock, as with virtually all manufacturers, does not make unnecessary design changes, so...

That video was pretty remarkable.
How much gen 4 and how much gen 5 are the 43, 43x, and 48. They have the coil spring, they don't have finger grooves, the 43x and 48 both have Marksman barrels (I think). What other internals or other are common with gen 4 or gen 5?

quote:

Originally posted by sns3guppy:
I've had zero issues with springs on any of the Glocks, so don't care much there. I replace recoil springs and recoil spring assemblies periodically.

Well, that would be why you're not having any spring issues. The RSA and magazine springs are all that most shooters will ever have to change, and it seems to me that most shooters don't reach the point of needing to change out the RSA in Glocks. I've got a G19 I purchased new in 1993 and it's on its third RSA. Magazine springs- well, I'm a bit obsessive on mag springs. I probably dispose of perfectly good mag springs, but I do like to err on the side of caution. Also, I "retire" Glock magazines that I've kept loaded for long periods. People fail to realize that the spring pressure in double column magazines is exerted not just upwards, but also outwards. While we refer to Glock magazines as "fully metal lined", the magazine bodies are, in fact, polymer, and after leaving G17 and G19 magazines loaded for extended periods, the magazine bodies swell slightly, near the top of the mag body. I don't like this change in geometry, subtle as it is, so, again, I err on the side of caution.

quote:

I think Jerry aluded recently to some information that's forthcoming regarding trouble with the Gen 5 that's come up in federal agency testing.

Yeah, I read- and tried my best to interpret- those very vague allusions to some kind of issues, read those things several times as a matter of fact and I've not gleaned anything useful from them.
What I like to see members of this forum do is that if they have some information to share, then they should feel free to share it. But, if they have information which they cannot share, or if they want to play games by dropping vague hints, they should keep all of that to themselves until they are certain of the accuracy of the information they have and until they can state- in unequivocally plain English these things which they are dancing around with. Anything other than that just doesn't sit well at all with me. Once, I owned a vintage Captain Midnight decoder ring but damn if I didn't misplace it long ago. Ever since then, I need things spelled out to me.

Say it, or don't say it. Don't go halfway.

Perhaps I'm just a "Glock fanboy". Gosh, I don't feel that way. I own a wide variety of pistols. All I know is what works for me, and I own so many pistols, I'll never reach the end of service life of any one of them. Hell, forget about excessive inventory- I'll wager that if you polled the members of this forum, not 5% of shooters here have more than 10,000 rounds through any pistol they own. We poor, unfortunate non-LEO people- we don't have access to agency-purchased pallets of pistol and rifle ammunition, and if you are the one paying for the ammo, 10,000 rounds of centerfire anything ain't cheap.

quote:

Originally posted by parabellum:

quote:

Originally posted by 1s1k:
Gen 3.5 RTF with gills of course.

You like da gills? Dang.

I had all 6 variations at one point and now I’m down to the 19 that I shoot and I kept the most rare one which is the 22c.

I confess that I do own an RTF2 G17 with the gills. The thing I don't like about those serrations- the cuts do not extend fully to the top and the bottom of the slide. It feels odd to me. It's not the shape of the grooves- it's the abbreviated length of the grooves.

These fish gill Glocks are actually fairly low-production items. What I wanted was an RTF2 G17 with traditional slide serrations. Glock did have one pictured in an ad, but I looked and looked and looked and I am convinced that they were never produced in that configuration.

Now, the RTF2 G19 was produced with both the fish gill cuts and the traditional cuts and I did find a G19 with the traditional slide serrations. I think the reason for this is that the G19 has traditionally outsold the G17, and after Glock received criticism for the fish gills, they went back to the conventional serrations, and the RTF2 G17 (and G22 also, I suppose) were made in one production run only, while the RTF2 G19 and G23 were made in more than one run.

And, oh, if you really like the RTF2, you probably have the G21 version. I've got one of those. Probably gonna sell it and the fish gill G17 before too long. They have some collectibility and I've never shot them. They're just taking up space.

I bought a police trade-in RTF2 G22 frame and turned it into a G34. Nice pistol.

I have one Gen 4 19 that I am giving on my son and have moved on to the Gen 5. All previous generations have been sold long ago. I currently have two gen 5 17s and a gen 5 19. One of the 17s is an MOS with an RMR, that I am still trying to get comfortable with.

I have a G3 G19 that has an OEM minus 3.5 connector and TruGlo TFX Pro sights. I like the feel of the G5 G19 a little better. But the trigger isn’t better than my current one (Or my Walther/VP9s for that matter). I have a hard time justifying the time to sell my G3 and then the money to upgrade to a G5 when the G3 shoots as well as it does. That’s the problem with Glocks, they are the Toyotas of the gun world. A newer generation may be empirically better but my 12 year old Toyota with 186k miles runs great - kind of like my G3 G19 - so why buy a 2020 Tacoma when my old one is working so well?

I am not a “Glock Guy” I have several and they are awesome “tools” but beyond that they don’t engender much passion in me. That said.

The Gen 3’s were generally GREAT guns. The GEN 4s seemed to have lost their way a bit. More issues early on, crappy finish etc. I have a Gen 4 17 that is a good gun but the finish (not the tennifer metal treatment but the finish) is horrible.

The GEN 5s Of Which I own one seems to be my favorite. Fits my hand, the trigger is bordering on passable and the grip fits me better then the others.

That said to me they are all Glocks, with all the good and bad that connotation brings.

Glocks are STELLAR defensive firearms, no matter the generation, but I think I like the Gen 5 the best.

Yet I always find my way back to DA/SA......because I am an ignorant, old, Luddite. But for my money if I could trade all my Glocks in I would do so for GEN 5s. I like all my Glocks but the GEN 5 seems to be my favorite.

Chris

Gen 5’s are the renaissance. I do like & prefer them best.

For me it was more about a model that forced me into a generational change. I’ve really come to like the long grip/short slide models like the 19x and the G45.

I still have a few 4s, mainly my competition 34 and a G40 and I still have a couple of 3s but I can see eliminating them. I’d still like to get a G5 34 to play with.

I like the 4's and 5'sbetter than their earlier counterparts simply for the reduced grip, I've got large hands but it seems the shorter length to the trigger suits me.

My oldest son took a liking to my favorite G4 26 and it went home with him, and my G4 27 has taken its place. But I'm getting excited to get a new G5 26 for myself. I do like the mechanical G5 changes and slide finish of deeper black.

I put Apex trigger shoes on every Glock I own, the stock unit beats my finger to death. I shoot either a Steel Match or USPSA almost every weekend (most times 2 guns in different divisions) and the Apex pad has completely eliminated the blister. This was especially true with the .45ACP guns (36 and 30S), they beat my finger up pretty good with the stock trigger.
I agree with Para that the coil spring upgrade to the slidelock leafspring was a great update to the 5's.

When I bought my G5 34 with the MOS plate I never had any intention of putting a dot on it. I've always been an iron sight guy. But a few weeks ago at the EastCoast Steel Championship in PA I tried a buddy's G19 with a dot he was shooting in Carry Optic Division and that thing was cool!
So when I got home I ordered a Trijicon RM08G which is the dual illuminated green 12.9 triangle. I only have about 400 reds thru it but that gun is fast! Loving the MOS option on th G5 Glocks.

I replace RSA' frequently, and have only one failure with the dozen or so Glocks I own. Back around 1990 we had some of the first 19's that came out. On the range my gun jammed shut and was a royal bitch to get the slide opened and cleared. The extractor hook and snapped off and the piece had got wedged inside the slide and locked it shut. Our armorer at the time had to order a new piece and was back in business in a couple of days. That was the only failure I've ever had.

Now to be perfectly honest I probably created the problem myself. I was told that if I was to clear the weapon every night after work the repeated clambering of the same bullet would have the possibility of seating the bullet and causing over pressure if I shot it. So instead of rotating my rounds To be chambered and charge the gun using a loaded magazine, I would place the bullet into the chamber and release the slide to snap shut over it. In hind sight I'm sure that was what caused that extractor failure and not the Glock design.

quote:

Originally posted by GWbiker:
G26 and G36, both second generation.

Glock didn't offer a Gen 2 G36 or a true Gen 2 G26.

The early production G26s are unofficially referred to as "Gen 2.5", since there are some minor differences from later G26s, namely the lack of texturing on the front strap. But they're not true Gen 2s, since they have finger grooves and thumb rests. These early G26s were basically the first Gen 3s, although they debuted a couple years before the Gen 3s were rolled out in the other models. There were never any true Gen 2 grooveless G26s, other than early prototypes.



Here's a grainy still of an early prototype G26 without finger grooves or thumb rests, though they were never mass produced or offered for sale in this Gen 2 configuration:



The G36 wasn't released until several years after the changeover to Gen 3. There were never any Gen 2 G36s, or even Gen 2.5s like the G26. G36s were fully Gen 3 from the get go. (In fact, Glock has only every produced Gen 3 G36s... There are no Gen 4 or Gen 5 either.)

quote:

Originally posted by parabellum:
Twenty-eight years? Well, you might want to consider installing a new recoil spring assembly. It's all of about 8 bucks.

Ordered one from Glockmiester, this morning, thanks Para.

Gen 4s are my preference, though I'm starting to like the Gen 5s more, ( especially the 17M I handled at the LGS yesterday, ) since they feel pretty good. However, while I know this thread is limited to 9mm/G19s and G17s, my preference is for .357 SIG.

I don't know which generation you should call the first G26 pistols. I guess 2.5 sounds right. I pre-paid a dealer for one in early 1996. They were hard to get at the time, as you might imagine. I picked up the pistol a couple of weeks later, and man, was I disappointed.
I was talking earlier in this thread about the "pig-nosed" dust covers on Glocks. My new G26 had something I've never seen on any other Glock- a dust cover that was warped downwards. It was like an open mouth. It looked awful. Bugged the crap out of me.
I took it over to Glock in Smyrna. They asked me why I bought it if this warpage bothered me. I told them because I paid for it before I saw it. They did replace the pistol for me on the spot. I walked in with a G26 with a BUD serial prefix and walked out with a G26 with a BVW prefix.

Back then, I was using CorBon 115 grain +P for my carry load in Glocks. I had no problems controlling my G17 and G19 with this load, but when I fired these CorBons out of the G26, I had to readjust my grip every three or four shots. Finger grooves or no, the smooth front strap of the pistol was slick as could be. The CorBon 115 may be rated as a +P, but really, it snapped like a +P+ load.

Here's an old pic of an old friend, now retired for first a gen3 G26 and now a gen5 G26.

Right now, I’d have to say the Gen4. The grip texture is so much better than the Gen3. I don’t feel the need for s set of Talon Grips on any of my Gen4 Glocks. I currently own 12 Glocks, of which 3 are Gen3, 7 are Gen4 and then a 42 and 43. I was wanting to stay with Gen4s just for commonality of parts, but took the plunge with a G45. I had 2 GSSF prize pistols and selected a G45 as one. It’ll be a while before it comes in but we will see how I like this, who knows, I may switch over to Gen5 for my 9mm needs. I don’t have an issue with the finger grooves, so I never felt a need to change. But your point is a good one, plus if they are truly more accurate with the GMB, it’s a win win.

My only G19s are a 19 Gen 4 and a 19X. I like them both, but I shoot the 19X better, probably mainly because of the 17-sized frame; and the marksman barrel probably helps, too.