Glock 17

I'm a gun snob, so it might seem odd that my current carry pistol is a Glock 17. Glocks are ugly, have awful triggers, and just lack a certain panache. Let's face it, "elegance" is not the first word that comes to mind when you look at a Glock.

Ok, so why carry it? I could ramble, but let's make this easy - you can shoot it really fast out of the holster and maintain great combat accuracy. I'm a sucker for a low bore axis mated with a consitant trigger. The trigger manages to be spongy and crunchy all at once, but it's consistent.

Try to beat a Glock up. The famous Tenifer finish is actually under the black phosphate surface treatment. I wish I could get this same finish on all of my social guns. It doesn't reflect and it never, ever rusts. If you get it to rust, my hat is off to you. My sweat could be marketed as an industrial solvent and I've carried a number of Glocks in the AZ heat and I've never had a speck of rust. Blood, salt water, sweat nothing affects it.

Not only doesn't it rust, it just never breaks. The abuse that these things will take is legendary. You really can throw them across a parking lot, toss them out of helicopter, run over them with a truck and other showman stunts. In other words, it will withstand abuse that your body won't. In more practical terms, they run no matter how much you abuse them. Fill 'em with sand, they run. Dunk 'em in mud, they run. Forget to lube 'em, and it's probably going to run if you have hot enough ammo. Just imagine how reliable it is if you take care of it properly. And, you do take care of your life saving emergency gear properly right?

Ok, everything breaks, so a word of caution. The rumors of Glocks going kaboom are based in fact though I think the hysteria is way over done. Again, without getting technical, just run factory, jacketed ammo and you will never have a problem. Don't sweat buying a used one. Scrub the chamber out well before shooting it, again, use only factory, jacketed ammo and you will be fine. You say you reload? Hey, it's your ammo and your gun, knock yourself out. I've known plenty of Glocks that run tens of thousands of handloads without a problem. But, you are increasing your risk. For my money, Wal-Mart 100 round packs are cheap enough that I'm not going to tempt fate even while practicing.

If everything breaks, and everything does, what are the Glock's weak points? The three most common parts to break are the trigger return spring, the extractor, and extractor spring. All are cheap parts, all last far more than the average person is going to shoot, and they are all easy to swap out. If you can do basic home repair, you can replace those parts. Of course, you void any warranty and you have to do it right. If you do it wrong, don't go looking to point the finger anywhere but at yourself. A gunsmith is going to charge you for an hour's worth of labor to do ten minutes worth of work, but if you are at all hesitant or unsure, consider it an investment in your peace of mind.

Ok, that says a lot about Glocks, but what about the Glock 17? Why did I choose it? After carrying a Glock 23, a 19, and a 35, I've settle on the 17. As common and popular as Glocks are in other calibers, I think the 9mm is their most reliable system (quick tip: guns are usually the most reliable and handle best chambered for the cartridge around which they were designed.) Out of all the 9mm Glock models, the 17 simply fits my hand the best. I most often recommend the Glock 19 to people, as it's a superb design and it's shorter frame is a bit more comfortable to most people. But, not for me. My hands are moderately large and I like the full frame of the 17.

So far, it's box stock and I could leave it be for years and never have an issue. I'm leaving the internals on this one stock because stock is always the most reliable. If your pistol requires gunsmithing to be made carry worthy, you may wish to consider a different design. Hey, look at that, I just got the 1911 guys foaming at the mouth. I love the 1911 and owned, well, let's just say I've owned a LOT of them, but it's a complete bill of goods that it's acceptable to need a "reliability package" on a brand new gun.

I stay away from the +2 magazine base plates. Again, stock is the most reliable. The magazine spring was designed to push up seventeen cartridges and can have an issue if it's asked to work over a longer distance. You might never have a problem, but wouldn't it suck if you were in a fight for your life and your gun malfunctioned because you wanted to be able to shoot two more rounds after going through eighteen shots (17+1 in the chamber.)

The Glock 17 pictured is my personal carry gun and sits alongside a Comp-Tac Gurkha holster, which I'll review after I use it some more.

Eighteen rounds of Federal 9BP hollow points in an utterly reliable and deadly fast package. You can sweat on it, you can bleed on it, you can abuse it, and it just keeps on working. Kind of hard to not love that, even if it is one ugly gun.