Choosing New Duty Pistol

[60167]

Long story short, I have the opportunity to select a new duty pistol. I could select either a gen 4 Glock 22 or gen4 Glock 23 with Glock factory night sights. The gun will be carried with a weapon mounted light in a Safariland 6360. I will carry the gun on patrol.

Smart self knows I should go with the 22. There's an increase in magazine capacity and an increase in shoot ability due to the longer sight radius and greater slide mass. I'm curious what the advantage is to the Glock 23. I carry/train off duty with Glock 19's exclusively and it's tempting to get a gun that handles like what I'm used to. I also prefer how the compact frame fits in my hand.

Anyone carry a Glock 23 over a 22? Why?

[warpedcamshaft]

Just checking: You have fired a full-sized and compact frame Gen 4 Glock before?

In my mind: The difference between the compact and fullsize Gen 3 frame messes with me more than the difference between the compact and fullsize Gen 4 frame.

I can't explain why from a technical standpoint, but that is my experience.

What Gen are your 19's?

[L-2]

I like your idea of choosing the G23Gen4 instead of the G22Gen4. If you do choose the smaller, when could you change to the larger should you change your mind?

I usually carry a G19gen3 and sometimes a G23gen3 off-duty. I have to carry the mandated G17Gen4 for work which replaced a G22gen3 we used for ~15 years.

As I sometimes pinch my strong hand during reloads, however, I do like the larger gun, especially, if I don't have to conceal it. You may not have that issue.

[60167]

I've got a gen 3 Glock 17 and 19 and a Gen 4 Glock 17 and 19. I prefer the 19 across the board.

[HCM]

A 19 is not a 23.

IME, with the Gen 2 and Gen 3 Glock 23's there is a much bigger gap in "shoot-ability" at speed between the 22/23 than between the 17/19.

The earlier 23's also proved less durable than the 22s, I believe this is a big part of why the FBI pulled their Gen 3 23s out of service a few years ago in favor of all 22s and 17s. The double recoil spring system on the Gen 4 may alleviate this issue.

I would go with the 22 for uniform carry and your gen 4 19 for off duty. There is plenty of transference between different variants of the Glock platform

[SoCalDep]

I have seen a bunch of Gen4 22s in our academy with WMLs and they've all worked great (as has every other Glock except the 23). I haven't seen a 23 in quite some time, but there were several (all of them Gen3) that had major problems with WMLs a few years ago. Hopefully the Gen4s work better. The Gen3 23 I had 17 years ago was 100% reliable but I never used a WML.

I like the Gen4 19/23 feel even better than the Gen3, and I definitely prefer the 19/23 grip size. That said, for patrol, you're not saving anything in terms of size going with a smaller gun because the WML will dictate the size of your holster. If the 19/23 size truly fits you better to the point of objective improvement in shooting/manipulating, then great. Otherwise there's no reason not go go with higher capacity.

[psalms144.1]

For uniformed duty use, I see NO advantage to carrying a compact pistol over a slightly larger "full size" pistol. When people who we're not supposed to know exist were looking at Glock Fotays to replace 1911s, they found, consistently, that the increase in recoil leading to reduced shooting efficiency was NOT worth the size "advantage" of the smaller pistol. In 9mm, it's a completely different story, accuracy and speed/recoil control are nearly identical.

In your shoes, I'd carry the G22 on duty, and the G19 (or G26) off duty (if that's OK with your leadership). Another advantage to NOT having the same "size" weapons is there will be no chance to mis-match magazines. For a while I was using a G19 with a G23 as "backup" for when we ran low on 9mm ammunition, and it didn't take too many trips to the range with a bag full of G23 mags for my holstered G19 to realize "dis iss prohblehm" (as my Russian friends say). All my G23 mags now wear Vicker's baseplates so they're easy to separate visually and by feel. Same can be accomplished by using only compact 9mm mags, and full size 40 mags.

[SLG]

I shoot a 23 just as well as a 22. No 23 has ever proven to me to be as reliable as the 22. I carry a 22 concealed every day.

[voodoo_man]

Is a 17 not allowed?

Because that's what you should get for duty.

I switched from a 21 back to a 17 a few years ago, best decision I've made in reference to duty guns.

[Wayne Dobbs]

After 27 years with Glock as a duty, off duty and now retired carry pistol line and after all the armorer work, training efforts here and OCONUS (teaching really stupid people), I would never do a .40 caliber again. Buy a Gen 4 G-17 for duty work and if you want smaller, get a Gen 4 G-19 and be done with it. In fact, get two of the 17s and shoot hell out of one for a training gun and have a well kept duty gun.