But it looks cool...

[newt]

I'm going to take some flak for this post, but here goes...

What I told our hapless young man with his broken roscoe that night was this:
“A billion dollar company with a fleet of engineers in Austria came up with this thing that passed government testing and various safety tests and that same company stakes their liability on their product designed the parts you took off this gun and designed them to work in concert with one another. A dude with a CNC machine in his garage probably made most of the parts you stuck on it. Which parts do you want to trust your life on?”

Every now and then someone may come up with a better mousetrap. I think Randy Lee with his Apex M&P trigger components is a good example. But these examples are few and far between.

Changing the sights on a Glock to something more robust and useable is accepted common sense. I installed a Wilson barrel in my Glock 17 almost ten years ago because I wanted to shoot lead reloads safely and wanted the little bit of extra accuracy it provided at distance, but I tested the living crap out of it before I ever relied upon it to live in my duty holster.

Good post. I like to do customs myself(as well as stock), mostly because I can and it's fun, although I'm very careful that I use only top quality stuff (i.e. Langdon, Apex, etc), or top Quality Smiths (Yost, MARS, etc). And I test the hell out of stuff, because that's also fun(and necessary.) As an engineer, I eat this shit up.

That said I'm an engineer(well manager now, so I've had my management lobotomy) who has helped build a business (with many other people of course) that's worth a number that likely now has a B or two in it. Ole Gaston himself wasn't much of a business in the firearms space when he started, and he changed the entire industry. My own product has likely changed the way computing, security, and networking happen.

A lot of the best advances come from some nobody that pushes the limit, sees those limitations, and tries something new. A lot of them fail. Heck, probably 98% fail. But for all those, the Glocks, Randy Lees, Bruce Grays show up, become experts and help change an industry to varying degrees. Don't knock'em, just know their place. Play with them like you did, let others do the initial testing. You'll learn something. If the manufacturer is smart, they will learn too. I remember when Magpul mags came out. A freaking (injection?)molded piece of plastic...Good on'em. I love that stuff.

Those garage machine shops are mostly dumbshits. But there are some diamonds. And those sometimes become the Gaston Glocks (who I believe literally started in his garage).

N

[Darth_Uno]

All these aftermarket parts usually do exactly what they claim - make the trigger pull lighter/shorter, cycle the slide faster, possibly (barely) more accurate. But the tradeoff is ALWAYS reliability. I can't think of any mods that are guaranteed to make it more dependable. Even the "upgraded" stainless parts (vs mim). It may run just fine; it also may not.

After playing that game, I've settled on minus connectors and Suarez triggers. I've yet to have a problem with the Suarez triggers, and they pass all safety checks. I'm not saying they help me any, I just have a preference for a flat trigger.

[HCM]

@KevH, I think maybe the only thing you missed giving credit to in your OP is the increased awareness of competition shooting in the last ten years or so thanks to the internet. I'm particularly referencing the dramatic rise in popularity of tricked out CZ's and Tanfo's that basically took over in USPSA production division. I know I've noticed a trend over the last few years on the forums towards those guns (mostly the CZ's). I dunno how many of your officers are aware of the shooting sports and whether it's had an effect at your specific agency. What I do know is that there's been a very noticeable increase in interest in "custom" CZ's on the forums for defensive and carry use.

You do know that custom CZ pattern guns had a dramatic rise in popularity and USPSA in the early 1990s? The 1994 AWB killed off interest in CZs and unintentionally resulted in a renaissance of the 1911.

[RAM Engineer]

“A billion dollar company with a fleet of engineers in Austria came up with this thing that passed government testing and various safety tests and that same company stakes their liability on their product designed the parts you took off this gun and designed them to work in concert with one another. A dude with a CNC machine in his garage probably made most of the parts you stuck on it. Which parts do you want to trust your life on?”

I love this quote.

[blues]

“A billion dollar company with a fleet of engineers in Austria came up with this thing that passed government testing and various safety tests and that same company stakes their liability on their product designed the parts you took off this gun and designed them to work in concert with one another. A dude with a CNC machine in his garage probably made most of the parts you stuck on it. Which parts do you want to trust your life on?”

I love this quote.

That said, I trust the "Gadget" and if Tom's posts regarding his poverty are to be taken seriously, he didn't have the largest budget to work with when creating his striker control device. (Just kidding about the poverty, @Tom_Jones.)

Sometimes brilliance and doggedness will carry the day.

[HCM]

“A billion dollar company with a fleet of engineers in Austria came up with this thing that passed government testing and various safety tests and that same company stakes their liability on their product designed the parts you took off this gun and designed them to work in concert with one another. A dude with a CNC machine in his garage probably made most of the parts you stuck on it. Which parts do you want to trust your life on?”

I love this quote.

Except the original G17 was a product of “a dude in a garage” who happened to be an engineer with experience making curtain rods and components for heating systems and a couple guys whose prior experience was making camera bodies.

What they do have is 40 years of extensive field use and refinement.

It’s also worth noting that the original “it’s an upgrade, not a recall” was the result of Glock failing drop tests during some government (DEA) tests during the early 1990s.

Once again time is a flat circle.

[HCM]

That said, I trust the "Gadget" and if Tom's posts regarding his poverty are to be taken seriously, he didn't have the largest budget to work with when creating his striker control device. (Just kidding about the poverty, @Tom_Jones.)

Sometimes brilliance and doggedness will carry the day.

Glock started as a dude in a garage with no prior gun experience.

[PNWTO]

Very timely thread since Ed Calderon just posted a quote I think of often when I see these companies and groups marketing to the Timmies and Sheepdogs.

[blues]

Glock started as a dude in a garage with no prior gun experience.

I'm aware of this and a fan of the brilliance of its origins.

[HCM]

I'm aware of this and a fan of the brilliance of its origins.

My point being the Gadget came from the same humble origins as the Glock itself. The billion dollar company and fleet of engineers came later.

Speaking of engineers, with regard to @Tom_Jones vs Glock



For those who haven’t seen “The Right Stuff”