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I’m not a Glock fanboi. I currently own only one, a Gen5 19. It works for me because it lacks the smallish finger grooves found on previous Gens. (My personal preference is for DA/SA hammer guns, mainly for the characteristics espoused by guys like Ernest Langdon.) That said, I marvel at the simplicity of the Glock design, only a few stamped parts working so well together to precock the “striker”, provide a relatively short trigger pull and reset, and act as a drop safety. The connector, for example, is also its own spring. I’ve never researched how the 17th iteration of the Glock came to be. Undoubtedly, the engineers and technical advisors that Glock had at his disposal must have considered design elements from earlier pistols like the VP70 and P7. The evolution from things like a grip-mounted cocking mechanism and long staple-gun-like trigger into the remarkable Glock system is a masterful example of design engineering. Anecdotes aside, what is really known about the Glock design, how it came to be? I’ve heard that Gaston might have seen an early iteration of what eventually became the Steyr M, but who knows if that’s actually true. RB Cancer fighter (Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma) since 2009, now fighting Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma. | ||
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The design of the Glock is innovative. The genius actually lies with Glock marketing. End of Earth: 2 Miles Upper Peninsula: 4 Miles | |||
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Check YouTube. Someone put a video of how he designed it and sold it. He raised the bar. Sadly other than minor changes in grips, serrations and finishes they're pretty much the same as the original iterations. But other manufacturers have upped their game and followed suit. Which is good for the public. They're dependable, basic and just work. For the money I feel they should offer a good set of sights and a smoother trigger out of the box. | |||
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Yep ... I've thought this for a good while | |||
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Every time I clean or install any upgrades on a Glock I'm amazed at how utterly simple it is to work on. It's the only gun that I don't need a schematic or you tube video for when I attempt a complete dissasembly/assembly. Even the guns minimalist appearance is genius, it just never seems to age. The blocky grip, not so bad in later generations, was the only thing that, in my opinion really needed a change. Overall, it was catching lighting in a bottle. Everything just worked so well in that first generation. No one's life, liberty or property is safe while the legislature is in session.- Mark Twain | |||
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| My other Sig is a Steyr.  |
Thinking that Gaston Glock made it by not being in the gun industry to begin with. He had no legacy equipment or preexisting designs because he was manufacturing curtain rods at the time. Once the design was ready, he practically gave them to different agencies. Then changed it to make everybody want the newer version. Buying back the originals that were worth more at the time. Marketing played a major role. When the 10mm Glock was announced at the SHOT show, were people going to the booth because of the 10mm, or because he hired the ladies from The Gold Club to promote it? | |||
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That's why i owned them, and i've never understood why the concurrence bring us so complicated striker pistols designs like the P320, Vp9 etc.. The CZ P10C is simple too except for the rollpins who are a f... to disassemble and reassemble. The 1911 was genius too with all the parts done to disassemble the gun without tools! | |||
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Conductor in Residence |
There's a great book about the development of the Glock called "Glock: The Rise of America's Gun" by Paul Barrett. You can get it on Kindle and most Barnes and Noble stores carry it, too. | |||
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Is the S&W M&P generally considered as "simple" as a Glock? | |||
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Certified All Positions |
It's worth pointing out that it didn't happen overnight, and certainly if you examine a gen 1 and today, it's not done yet. Calling it simple is a gross understatement, and really, if any gun were simple, why is it so hard to make a good one? As to "how did it happen," well, Mr. Glock set out to do what most weapons designers do, which is build a better mouse trap. He had his own knowledge, but he also had the history of other firearms. For instance, could Browning or Garand have designed the Glock? Available technology and materials, history, individual traits of a designer, lots of things come into the development of a firearm. It's one of the reasons I love guns. They aren't just for killing people, there is engineering and history that is rich and interesting. Arc. ______________________________ "Like a bitter weed, I'm a bad seed"- Johnny Cash "I'm a loner, Dottie. A rebel." - Pee Wee Herman Rode hard, put away wet. RIP JHM "You're a junkyard dog." - Lupe Flores. RIP | |||
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As .38supersig mentioned, Gaston Glock did not come up in the firearms industry, so he was able to start with a relatively blank slate. To quote from "The Graduate," the key word here is "plastics," as that was Glock's specialty. If I remember correctly, he already had some existing government contracts and when the Austrian government put out a request for a new pistol, he decided to give it a try. As I recall he took several different pistols, took them apart to figure out how they worked, and used his expertise as an engineer to come up with what he saw as a better, simpler, more cost effective (and thereby profitable) way of making something that achieved the same end result - launching a 9mm projectile from a handheld device. He wasn't bound by traditional ways of doing things and was able to think outside the box. There's a pretty good book called "Glock: The Rise of America's Gun" by Paul M. Barrett that covers the whole story from Gaston Glock's background through the design, marketing strategies and various controversies (anyone else remember the hysteria about the Glock pistol supposedly being a perfect terrorist weapon because it was invisible to airport X-ray machines?) and gun industry intrigues. It's been a few years since I read it, but I would recommend it to the original poster and anyone else interested in the rise of Glock. | |||
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In 1998, I visited a gun shop in downtown Vienna Austria whose owner knew Gaston quite well. The owner told me that Gaston Glock actually got his start designing and manufacturing modular plastic window frames and home interior components. Glock's initial focus was to translate the economies of scale he learned manufacturing these products into the design of his submission for the new Austrian Army pistol bid proposal that had just been released. As we all know, he won the contest, and the rest is history. While in Vienna, I took the train to the outskirts of the city where the original Glock factory was located. It was small but quite impressive. Gaston Glock's legacy of making efficient modular manufacturing processes the basis for new design was extremely timely amidst the 80's era of "just in time"(JIT) manufacturing and inventory techniques that often left quality control as a second or third priority. For many of us who grew up enjoying the shooting sports, the pinnacle of quality control and hand fitted excellence was the Colt Custom Shop. In the mid 1980's I remember saving for many months to buy my dream gun, a Colt Python in Satin Stainless finish. At that time they were a special order item. The first one that arrived at my FFL dealer was so badly manufactured (multiple machining gouges and defects on the barrel crown, barrel shroud, and cylinder shoulders) that I sent it back. The second Python that arrived was better, but not perfect. I accepted it, only shot it a few times at the range (its accuracy was far less impressive than other vintage 1970's Pythons I'd experienced) and sold it a few years later. In my humble opinion, Gaston Glock became successful when he did because he figured out the right business formula to surpass both the production capabilities and the quality control capabilities of many firearms competitors with his advanced manufacturing processes and innovative marketing. It is a marketing lesson that is fascinating and worthy of further study. | |||
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Simplicity by design is a the enabling of the genius, which is the strategic & tactical marketing. He produced reasonably shootable & reliable handguns that could pass most government test protocols for a fraction of the cost. At the time of release, they did nothing better than the competition. Glocks were just cheaper. Ttoday the pistols have a cult like following, which I find somewhat odd for such a utilitarian design. Kind of like being a fan of a toaster. I often wonder if Hi-Point was First to Market if they would be the cool kid. The pistols are far from perfect, but with the best in segment OEM and aftermarket support, they can be customized and made to perform better. Still cannot knock the ugly off of them or the horrible ergonomics, but there is hope with Gen6. | |||
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It's on the ballpark, but there are several things they do more complicated. Having to remove the rear sight to pull the firing pin safety (part of any aftermarket trigger and/or doing trigger work) is the most glaring. | |||
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Funny you said that, as I was just thinking about something else I read in the book I recommended in my previous post. It seems there was some debate about pricing when the Glock was introduced, as it was so cheap to make they could have sold it for far less than they ended up pricing them. They wanted to avoid the stigma of cheapness (see Hi-Point) so they ended up inflating the price to give an aura of quality - and giving them a huge profit margin that gave them plenty of room offer all kinds of incentives in their contract deals. | |||
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| Slayer of Agapanthus |
Nice first post! IIRC, mostly from reading the book, Mr. Glock did study the designs of pistols with expired patents. The BATF declaring the design of the action as 'double action' was providential. "It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye". The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupery, pilot and author, lost on mission, July 1944, Med Theatre. | |||
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| Certified All Positions |
We should all be thankful his name doesn't have more syllables. Arc. ______________________________ "Like a bitter weed, I'm a bad seed"- Johnny Cash "I'm a loner, Dottie. A rebel." - Pee Wee Herman Rode hard, put away wet. RIP JHM "You're a junkyard dog." - Lupe Flores. RIP | |||
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and this my friends is the winner. if that had not happened we would be discussing none of this. “So in war, the way is to avoid what is strong, and strike at what is weak.” | |||
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