Just a mention, for those interested, that Gaston Glock has died.
RIP Gaston Glock
- Thread starter Columbo
- Start date
That's quite odd: I was watching a YouTube video about him just this morning.
He had to be pushing 93 years old.
He was an absolute pioneer. He started with a clean sheet of paper with the Glock 17. He had no experience whatsoever in the firearms world - he was a chemical engineer - but he and his team developed a handgun in record time (about 3 months) that changed the world of handguns forever.
And literally every modern handgun owes a lot of its DNA to the first Glock back in the early 1980's.
He had to be pushing 93 years old.
He was an absolute pioneer. He started with a clean sheet of paper with the Glock 17. He had no experience whatsoever in the firearms world - he was a chemical engineer - but he and his team developed a handgun in record time (about 3 months) that changed the world of handguns forever.
And literally every modern handgun owes a lot of its DNA to the first Glock back in the early 1980's.
Other than the plastic frame, what was really unique?
Striker fired, only a handful of parts, reliable without handfitting/mating parts, half the weight of a 1911, nowadays carried by ~80% of all LEO‘s and @OkieStubble
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Very unpleasant family/divorce drama in the last years but one of the few real Austrian entrepreneurs - RIP
Born in 1929 so 94
And a very pleasant evening to you as well.
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I think what Glock did best was marketing. As @jar_ so eloquently noted he took a lot of designs/ideas and combined them into a polymer frame that could be cheaply produced. It helped that the design is very robust and reliable even in some of the worse conditions. Glock was able to sell the pistols cheaper than any of the fledgling “wonder nines” of the day and that made the city bean counters happy.
When Glock started marketing their duty pistols to U.S. LE Departments across the nation, not only were they selling them to LE for half of their MSRP, but they were giving large departments with bulk orders an extra 20% off.
That was enough for even the die hard double action hammered Administrators to allow their boys & girls in blue to strap on that weird, futuristic, ugly and misunderstood pistol and go to work with it on their hip.
It was only after, did they realize how simple, accurate, dependable, reliable and indestructible, the genius was of Gaston Glock’s design.
It didn’t take long for it to become the nation’s leading duty pistol for LEO’s. Couldn’t get them anymore for 50% off after that. Gaston used the marketing ploy of a drug dealer…
“first ones free.”
Marketing yes, but at the time it was a design triumph as well. All these years later the G19 is still my go to gun when I need something that will function and do the job. Not as pretty as my 1911, but 100% always the one in my nightstand safe…
At the time, the internet was still very new, cell phones hadn’t quite come into their own yet; and everyone from doctors to gang bangers was carrying a pager.
Most of us was still getting our cutting edge firearms information from Guns & Ammo and The Shotgun News.
I was a very young aspiring police officer at the time, but I remember it being a very tumultuous time also, as the older ‘keepers of the gate’ of the all steel and wood 1911 and first all steel double action wonder nines, wasn’t going to accept or admit to the as you say; “ design triumph” of Gaston Glocks new baby.
I can still hear the knock down, hair pulling, body dragging fights and caliber wars of that era, not only about Glock, but the 9mm vs. .45 ACP was still hot & heavy at that time.
Yes, very tumultuous times indeed. But the curiosity and fascination which grabbed a few, was all that was needed, because once those few started torture testing the evil and diabolical heresy of Satan’s pistol called the Glock?
And the real world stats from the streets began coming in? The genius of Glock could no longer be resisted or denied. Even several, famous firearms instructors & writers whose names don’t need mentioning, held out pridefully and stubbornly as long as they could; and are now hailing the greatness of Glock.
I was lucky enough to have started my young LE career exactly at the time Glock took over. I carried a G17 Gen2 back then, fresh out of the police academy and then switched to a G23 in 2002 when all departments transitioned from 9mm to .40 S&W ammunition. Then switched back to a Gen3 G19 while spending a decade teaching young cadets in the way of the Glock and in how to survive while working the streets. I was promoted to an administrator for the last 7 years of my career and switched my carry between my beloved G23 Gen3 and my personal G19 Gen4.
The department gifted the G23 to me upon my retirement where it has sat in my safe the last almost 3 years since. Time fly’s when you get old.
RIP. I still believe the G19 is the finest combat pistol ever made. However, nothing pulls my heartstrings like a proper 1911.
- Thread starter
- #15
I wasn't intending this to become yet another referendum on the virtues of Mr. Glock's pistols.
Suffice it to say, the Glock pistol was and remains a groundbreaking and outstanding firearm. I was offered the opportunity to carry one on more than one occasion. I instead opted to keep my P220 to the end, before retiring it several years ago to bedside defense.
9mm vs 45 acp, plastic vs metal, Austrian vs German/Swiss ...
They are both excellent peacekeepers and defenders. Today is not the day I will extol one over the other.
Instead, I thank Mr. Glock for giving us that choice in the first place. Back when there was no Internet, and a lot of phones still had rotary dials. And for creating the spirited debate over his pistols that has continued unabated for decades since.
Suffice it to say, the Glock pistol was and remains a groundbreaking and outstanding firearm. I was offered the opportunity to carry one on more than one occasion. I instead opted to keep my P220 to the end, before retiring it several years ago to bedside defense.
9mm vs 45 acp, plastic vs metal, Austrian vs German/Swiss ...
They are both excellent peacekeepers and defenders. Today is not the day I will extol one over the other.
Instead, I thank Mr. Glock for giving us that choice in the first place. Back when there was no Internet, and a lot of phones still had rotary dials. And for creating the spirited debate over his pistols that has continued unabated for decades since.
I’ve been shooting since back in those days as well, and wore out the pages of many issues of Guns and Ammo (and Soldier of Fortune).At the time, the internet was still very new, cell phones hadn’t quite come into their own yet; and everyone from doctors to gang bangers was carrying a pager.
Most of us was still getting our cutting edge firearms information from Guns & Ammo and The Shotgun News.
I was a very young aspiring police officer at the time, but I remember it being a very tumultuous time also, as the older ‘keepers of the gate’ of the all steel and wood 1911 and first all steel double action wonder nines, wasn’t going to accept or admit to the as you say; “ design triumph” of Gaston Glocks new baby.
I can still hear the knock down, hair pulling, body dragging fights and caliber wars of that era, not only about Glock, but the 9mm vs. .45 ACP was still hot & heavy at that time.
Yes, very tumultuous times indeed. But the curiosity and fascination which grabbed a few, was all that was needed, because once those few started torture testing the evil and diabolical heresy of Satan’s pistol called the Glock?
And the real world stats from the streets began coming in? The genius of Glock could no longer be resisted or denied. Even several, famous firearms instructors & writers whose names don’t need mentioning, held out pridefully and stubbornly as long as they could; and are now hailing the greatness of Glock.
I was lucky enough to have started my young LE career exactly at the time Glock took over. I carried a G17 Gen2 back then, fresh out of the police academy and then switched to a G23 in 2002 when all departments transitioned from 9mm to .40 S&W ammunition. Then switched back to a Gen3 G19 while spending a decade teaching young cadets in the way of the Glock and in how to survive while working the streets. I was promoted to an administrator for the last 7 years of my career and switched my carry between my beloved G23 Gen3 and my personal G19 Gen4.
The department gifted the G23 to me upon my retirement where it has sat in my safe the last almost 3 years since. Time fly’s when you get old.
My uncle was a NY Police Officer and an early lover of Glocks. It’s hard to believe now, but he told me a lot of officers initially fought the change, even though thier issue pistols were still revolvers. Those old SW Wheelguns were actually pretty reliable too, so I guess the thought of change was tough for some….
Same here. I remember the first ever test of the Glock 17 by Peter Kokalis in Soldier of Fortune. I pored over that test a hundred times and bought one very early on. As it turned out, I traded it for something after a couple of years (don't remember what I traded for) and tried some other models before settling on a G19 (Gen2, bought new, still carry it) and the G36 .45. Both are reliable as a stone and I shoot them well.
Sig makes a fine handgun as well.
In the current world, everyone debating fine points to death on the internet makes it easy to forget how spoiled for choice we all are now. I’m a big fan of Glocks, but there are certainly other good options out there.
I read that same article to death lol…
I‘v traded my way up over the years, but of course now wish I kept my old ones. Who’d have thought that even Glocks could become collectors items?
My current G19 is a Gen 5 with a Streamlight light/laser combo. I also have a G48 for hot weather carry. That’s the slim version of the 19…
Sad day for world, he was genius.
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