*THE* Gen 5 Glock thread: First Impressions, Reviews and Thoughts

[Padwan]

Are the sights the same basic design on the Gen 4 and Gen 5? Meaning are they both using fiber optic or night sights and are the front post and rear notch comparable.

Wasn't there a change in sight heights between the two generations? Have the makers (including Glock) sorted this out completely?

Replacement sights are identical (black rear, FO front). From the box, the G5 had a lower rear (6.1) but used the same height front as the G4. With the aftermarket sights, both shoot to the same POI with my range ammo. The sights were ordered to mimic the relationship between the OEM sights as the factory sets provided a good zero, but were harder for my eyes to see quickly. I had my local Glock armorer look at and shoot the guns so he could order and install sights for me, and he did a good job.

I still think the G5 to be better built in some ways but my experience with the G4 was a little surprising. FWIW, I only encountered a few BTF issues with the G4 during my first 400 rounds and I was shooting fairly mild 115gr ball at the time. Shifting to warmer 124gr ball, no issues yet. Am only at a little under 6k rounds with the G4 though.

[SW CQB 45]

I finally got my new issued piece. Out of the box trigger press... not bad.

[TCinVA]

I'm not really a Glock fan in general. The ergonomics of the pistol suck for my hands. The slide runs train-tracks in my right hand in short order. I hate that you have to press the trigger to take it apart.

I've had my Gen5 G17 since February with an ACRO mounted on it since May. I've put over 8,000 rounds through the pistol so far and despite my gripes with it, I've performed well with it.

The most impressive aspect of the pistol is the accuracy. It is the most accurate Glock I've ever fired. To show you what I mean:



I was at a friend's place getting some targets when I saw this squirrel about 75 yards away. Squirrels have been eating the wiring harnesses in his vehicles doing thousands of dollars in damage and so he's declared war. I have a hunting license and it's squirrel season in Virginia, so I closed distance on the little buck-toothed bastard to get a better background. I was just over 50 yards away when the little bastard hopped up on a fallen branch. At the time I wasn't concerned about the range. I just dialed my ACRO down to minimum visibility to get the cleanest dot possible, aimed, and made a very deliberate trigger press. To my surprise, the +P 124 grain HST found its mark resulting in the exit wound you see. A squirrel's vitals are not very big...especially if you are using a pistol at 50 yards. Nevertheless, the bullet went exactly where I wanted it to go.

I'd call it a fluke except I've now taken four squirrels with my Gen5 G17. Three out of the four have been at distances beyond 50 yards. Last night I killed one at just over 65 yards:



This grey squirrel is about 1/3 smaller than the other fox squirrels I've taken there. This one was quartering away so I favored the rear of the ribcage to get as many vitals as I could. The bullet exited through the right shoulder basically vaporizing the joint and the bone down to the squirrel's "elbow".

The only squirrel I shot at closer range was just under 25 yards and because of how he was on the tree I aimed for the spine...and hit it. A squirrel spine. At just under 25 yards.

Point being the vitals of a squirrel are not a big target. Despite this, I've been able to hit this not big target four times with my carry ammo...and at distances ranging from 25 yards to 65. That kind of mechanical accuracy is...well...nuts.

[Duces Tecum]

Doing it on demand and having results that support hunting the wee beasties across a football field and sometimes into the bleachers speaks is remarkable shooting.

Well done!

[10mmfanboy]

I'm not really a Glock fan in general. The ergonomics of the pistol suck for my hands. The slide runs train-tracks in my right hand in short order. I hate that you have to press the trigger to take it apart.

I've had my Gen5 G17 since February with an ACRO mounted on it since May. I've put over 8,000 rounds through the pistol so far and despite my gripes with it, I've performed well with it.

The most impressive aspect of the pistol is the accuracy. It is the most accurate Glock I've ever fired. To show you what I mean:



I was at a friend's place getting some targets when I saw this squirrel about 75 yards away. Squirrels have been eating the wiring harnesses in his vehicles doing thousands of dollars in damage and so he's declared war. I have a hunting license and it's squirrel season in Virginia, so I closed distance on the little buck-toothed bastard to get a better background. I was just over 50 yards away when the little bastard hopped up on a fallen branch. At the time I wasn't concerned about the range. I just dialed my ACRO down to minimum visibility to get the cleanest dot possible, aimed, and made a very deliberate trigger press. To my surprise, the +P 124 grain HST found its mark resulting in the exit wound you see. A squirrel's vitals are not very big...especially if you are using a pistol at 50 yards. Nevertheless, the bullet went exactly where I wanted it to go.

I'd call it a fluke except I've now taken four squirrels with my Gen5 G17. Three out of the four have been at distances beyond 50 yards. Last night I killed one at just over 65 yards:



This grey squirrel is about 1/3 smaller than the other fox squirrels I've taken there. This one was quartering away so I favored the rear of the ribcage to get as many vitals as I could. The bullet exited through the right shoulder basically vaporizing the joint and the bone down to the squirrel's "elbow".

The only squirrel I shot at closer range was just under 25 yards and because of how he was on the tree I aimed for the spine...and hit it. A squirrel spine. At just under 25 yards.

Point being the vitals of a squirrel are not a big target. Despite this, I've been able to hit this not big target four times with my carry ammo...and at distances ranging from 25 yards to 65. That kind of mechanical accuracy is...well...nuts.

Fury rats ate my towing wiring harness on my xterra just a couple weeks ago. Nothing better than some squirrel brains!

[JBP55]

Excellent shooting TCinVA.

[EVP]

I'm not really a Glock fan in general. The ergonomics of the pistol suck for my hands. The slide runs train-tracks in my right hand in short order. I hate that you have to press the trigger to take it apart.

I've had my Gen5 G17 since February with an ACRO mounted on it since May. I've put over 8,000 rounds through the pistol so far and despite my gripes with it, I've performed well with it.

The most impressive aspect of the pistol is the accuracy. It is the most accurate Glock I've ever fired.

TCinVA I always appreciate your feedback, I am curious on your thoughts about the Gen 5s besides the great accuracy. You mentioned you don’t particularly care for them but I assume you are running a Gen 5 Glock for the ease of red dot optic?

[TCinVA]

TCinVA I always appreciate your feedback, I am curious on your thoughts about the Gen 5s besides the great accuracy. You mentioned you don’t particularly care for them but I assume you are running a Gen 5 Glock for the ease of red dot optic?

Correct. The Gen5 9mm Glocks are going to see wide adoption in LE and the MOS models are probably going to be the preferred option as red dots become more commonly adopted...regardless of whether or not that makes sense for the average user. Since I find myself teaching these days and since I'm starting to be involved in LE classes, being able to use what is going to become the default service sidearm and its integration with the RDS seemed like a good idea.

The Gen5 has some improvements but in the end it's still a Glock. That fact makes it an ergonomic nightmare for my personal physiology despite the refinements. It still does all the Glock-y things.

The exact details about the Gen5/FBI spec guns are scarce, but as best I can determine they're trying to hold the accuracy at least on contract guns with good ammo to 2" at 25, which is pretty good for a service pistol. Some specimens seem to be able to exceed that baseline. I've never benched my pistol to measure it, but results in the field would seem to indicate that either I've had a string of very lucky shots or it is shooting a bit better than 2" at 25.

Quality control is still a thing, so there are certainly Gen5 specimens out there that aren't performing up to spec. But generally speaking the Gen5 pistols seem to be a good bet. Any Glock I purchase in the future is most likely going to be a Gen5.

[10mmfanboy]

I read somewhere that one of the criteria for the MHS trials was that the chosen sidearm had to be accurate enough to hit a 4" plate at 50 meters 90% of the time for the duration of the lifecycle of the sidearm.

[L-2]

Ref. Post_2908,

I think the MHS reference is somewhat off-topic (irrelevant) as I believe MHS (Modular Handgun System) had different accuracy criteria compared to FBI's solicitation and, later, Customs & Border Protection's having its own solicitation and criteria.

As I remember (doesn't mean much, memory sometimes fails me) Gen5 wasn't even released/identified/made public yet at the time of the FBI solicitation, which resulted in the "M" series. Soon after, the Gen5 models came out being very close to the two M-models, G17M and G19M. Gen5 followed with G34Gen5 and G26Gen5 and "MOS" ready Gen5 models.

The Glock 19X (no thumb safety and really unknown as to what else might differ) was later released as a gun similar-to the MHS trial gun.

CBP wanted MOS capable handguns with its own desired features changing the G26 a little (more mag capacity, maybe longer grip length) and the G17/G19 hybrid to be known as a G47 (I think it'll be a G45 frame with special G17gen5 MOS length slide with longer dustcover area).

Note. My mind is about to explode, maybe implode, with all these variations. I have mixed feelings whether these large branches of the U.S. Government should be bothering with requiring these somewhat small variances in design & capability or just choosing from what's already being sold on the market. I mean we're talking 9mm handguns; not Star Trek phasers or "ray guns" which don't yet exist (at least to my limited knowledge). Then there's SIG and the modular handgun idea the military wanted. I'm still trying to understand how this modularity will actually benefit the military or anyone. I keep imagining a whole bunch of SIG M17/M18 serialized fire control mechanisms (or whatever they're called) coming back in a large box for armorers to clean-up; i.d. as salvageable; and reassemble into working guns with grip/slide/barrel modules of various sizes; or just send a bunch of fire-control-mechanisms out from a depot for folks in the field to repair their own handguns (and that may be beneficial, I don't know).