I've sorta alluded to the fact over the last year that I have been heavily involved in testing some gear for my day job. Our current Glock pistols are 10 years old. Most of the night sights are dead, and most are painfully in need of being rebuilt.

When you calculate what it costs to replace the night sights, and rebuild them all, there is a $13 difference in just trading for new guns at agency price.

For five years now, I've been trying to ditch the .40 caliber pistols for a 9mm replacement. It has only been the last year that it has gained traction. With the FBI switching, our state police now switching, and I have heard that both Lexington Metro and Louisville Metro will be soon switching to 9mm, I think my time has finally come. (Insert caliber wars comments, and "why don't the guns last more than 10 years" comments here).

So, for the last year, I've had in my possession a Gen4 19, Gen4 17, and recently a Gen4 34. I've put them in officers hands, shot them in classes (most notably the Gen4 17 that I shot at MOAC), SWAT has shot the snot out of them,and tested some of the related gear.

Most recently, I shot some timed USPSA and IDPA stages with my duty G35, and then I turned around and shot the same stages with a similarly set up G34. What I noticed was this (I know it makes sense, and is sorta dumb and duh). I could make the same times with both guns. For instance, one stage I set up was with a single target at about 4 yards, and two targets at 25 yards. The goal was to put a pair into the eight inch circle on each target. My self assessed goal was to put the pair into close target no slower than 1.10, make the transition onto the pair of 25 yard targets and put a pair into each at that distance. I could do it. But, I had to work a lot harder to get the .40 to track at that speed. And on occasion, I slipped a .40 out of eight inch circle into the down one.

I have also been testing the Magpul G-series magazines. I will tell you, we have been running about 50 of them across a few people and had zero issues. Over the weekend, I used them in SIMs pistols and had no issues as well. I have a G26 magpul mag that is on the way and am going to test it as well. Right now, you can snag them up for around $12, and OEM for around $20 if you look around a bit.

To me, either caliber gun can be shot well, if the skill is there. The top third in any given department will shoot better with a 9mm. The bottom third in any department will shoot better with a 9mm. The middle third? It honestly doesn't matter. They'll eat whatever crayons you give them.

If given a blank check, we'd make the switch to the P320. That isn't going to happen, so it will be new Glock 9mms.

That's great! Ours will be 10 next year. I'm writing a proposal now to admin about trading in versus replacing parts. Doing it now since it will take them a year to give me the okay. We're not switching calibers. Just trying to trade in our gen3 31s for gen4 31s.

quote:

Originally posted by jljones:
They'll eat whatever crayons you give them.

Yeah but Walmart brand crayons are cheaper.

quote:

Originally posted by Chowser:
That's great! Ours will be 10 next year. I'm writing a proposal now to admin about trading in versus replacing parts. Doing it now since it will take them a year to give me the okay. We're not switching calibers. Just trying to trade in our gen3 31s for gen4 31s.

If you would like some of my documentation let me know. I'll email it to you.

Do you see any performance difference in the officers between the 19, 17, 34?

Curious if the longer barrel makes any real difference to anyone

Why the comment about the 320?

Is it that much better or just personal preference?

You'd have to think the fcu and being able to swap frames for different sized officers and what not. Platform is ideal for M&P.

So is the stock trigger better or shorter reset on a 320 vs a glock?

Or is it that it can be easily swapped out?

quote:

Originally posted by xmod:
So is the stock trigger better or shorter reset on a 320 vs a glock?

The OEM 320 trigger is MUCH better than the OEM Glock trigger IME.

Good for you. Good work and research. Our department got Gen3 G22s in 2002. When traded those in for Gen4 G22s in 2013. The price for parts to rebuild or what the trade in value from Glock was an no brainer.

I personally think 9mm's will last longer than 40's. 9's just don't seem to get beat up as much by the firing of them. 40's seem to be harder on guns. I can tell you from personal experience that switching from 180 grain to 155 grain .40 cal rounds put the whipping on the RSA's.

Jljones,

What trigger weight are you working with?

We just went through this, and like you, managed to get the numbers in re refurb and new sights vs ordering new Glocks to work in our (actual officers) favor. From there, it was a bit of work to get 17s and 19s instead of 22s and 23s, but we got it done. Wish we could have worked out the option for 34s....

Bill R

Being a layman wouldn't the 34/35 be slower to clear leather so to speak. Seems to me the LE 34/35 which AFAIK don't offer a better trigger and only slightly better sight radius are out weighed by the speed of the draw.

quote:

Originally posted by Lord Vaalic:
Do you see any performance difference in the officers between the 19, 17, 34?

Curious if the longer barrel makes any real difference to anyone

Not really. I can shoot them all similarly. I get a wee bit more performance out of the 34 than I do a 17 or 19. If we didn't carry WML, I would probably get a 19 because it would ride better in the car.

quote:

Originally posted by xmod:
Why the comment about the 320?

Is it that much better or just personal preference?

Across a wide array of shooters, the 320 does more to mask bad inputs into the gun than the Glock does. I can have a bad grip on the gun, grip it improper, or put other bad inputs into the 320, and as long as I don't push the gun down at the point of ignition, or slap the living crap out of the trigger at speed, the bullets go where I want them to. The Glock is a bit more sensitive to those bad inputs.

quote:

Originally posted by jackimoe:
Jljones,

What trigger weight are you working with?

5.5

quote:

Originally posted by cslinger:
Being a layman wouldn't the 34/35 be slower to clear leather so to speak. Seems to me the LE 34/35 which AFAIK don't offer a better trigger and only slightly better sight radius are out weighed by the speed of the draw.

On face value, without a WML yes to a small degree. However, once you add a WML in a duty holster, you get the same length as a 34/35 because the weapon light sticks out forward of the 17/19. So, it is really a wash. Out of a Safariland 6360, I am still averaging a one second draw. I'm not going to beat that with a 17 or a 19.

I'm curious as to why it would be so expensive to refurbish the Glocks you now own.
If you sold them and I bought one, I would send it to Glock and they would replace the night sights and anything else needed for free and ship it back for free.

Do they not treat departments the same as individuals?

Not trying to screw up your plans to switch to 9mm but it is curious.

Bruce

I'm fairly sure that they rebuild 10 year old guns and replace night sights for free. Even if they did it's $120 for round trip shipping.

I sincerely don't believe that Glock would rebuild guns, replace night sights plus new magazines for free. I've heard of them doing gratis work here and there for folks but never anything like that.

If you bring the gun to their facility, they will replace internals. As it's a one year warranty, fee night sights? Tend to doubt it as they don't even put them on without an additional cost.

Look at their repair work order form. a place for CC info. There CS is good but they still have to make a profit.