Glock 17 Gen 5 First Impressions LOTS OF PICS

[JJHSN]

First impressions and then there is a link to an IMGUR album with a lot of pics for you study.

Love the fact is has no finger grooves, humps and what not. SO much easier for me to grip and it feels GREAT.
Love the trigger. Definitely and noticeably less gritty, mushy and a crisper break and reset. If is HUGELY different, no, but ... every bit helps. I had the guys in the gun shop where I picked it up try it and one Glock fanatic in particular was particularly impressed. FWIW...again, nothing HUGELY better, but ... heck...nice.
I really like the new magazines, very easy to see the orange through the holes in the mag. Hope we can buy more soon.
The internals appear to be improved, the safety "plunger" looks much more robust.
The finish/coating on the slide is very nice. A nice rich black, rather than an anemic grey and the barrel appears to be treated comparably.
The front of the slide is nicely bevelled and while the critics (idiots!) here are declaring the frame not equally beveled, it looks great and just fine and dandy.
The RTF treatment on the grip is great, in fact, just about perfect in my opinion. I may or may not throw some Talon grips on it.
I purchased mine with Ameriglo Sights and they are GREAT...excellent front post width and rear sight width. For less than $100 bucks more, a good investment.


I've put together a HUGE photo album on Imgur if you want to take a look at it in detailed photos.

I noticed a few things:

The frame has a "tab" that fills/blocks a slot in the back of the slide, I used a Gen 3 Glock 17 for comparison's sake. You can see what I'm talking about in the photos.

Take a look at the photos, in a many of them I'm comparing this Gen 5 to a Gen 3 and I tried to show the difference in barrel rifling.

Click on this link to see this Glock 17 Gen 5 album, and you will notice a number of images where I'm comparing it to a Glock 17 Gen 3 model (in OD green).

https://imgur.com/a/OZegu

[JJHSN]

In my first impressions post I offered initial thoughts and LOTS of pictures of the Gen 5 Glock 17. In this post I'm sharing my thoughts after putting a tad over 500 rounds through it today. In no particular order, here are my post-500 round firing impressions.

No Grooves is Groovy
I really grip the handgun better without the grooves and humps, but I recognize this is a purely personal opinion, due in large part to the fact that my hands are XXX-L and I just get a better "purchase" on the grip and handgun, very comfortable. I had my Glock 26 Gen 4, a Glock 27 Gen 4 and a 17L Gen 3 with me for comparison and most assuredly, for me, no grooves is groovy.

Trigger: It's Not Really All That, But...
I really prefer a trigger shoe that is flat and will be replacing the show on the Gen 5 as I do with all my Glocks, but having said that, is the Gen 5 trigger better? Answer: Yes, it is. Smoother take up, cleaner break, and a crisper reset point. Again, I had three other Glocks to compare it to and there is no doubt this Glock Gen 5 trigger is the better of the bunch, but ... all that much better? Nope.

Sights: Standard or Ameriglo
The Glock standard sights, which I have on my 17L are just so terrible, I mean, really, really bad. I have not swapped them out with something else. I have Trijicon HDs on the 26 and on the 17 a thin fiber optic front post which for me is the best of the bunch. The Ameriglo sights on the Gen 5 I bought are much better than stock, but for me...I think I'm going to go with a fiber optic front post, and today I broke down and wore my "cheater" eye pro which are safety glasses with magnification on the bottom half...wow, I had almost forgotten what it was like to be able to get a nice crisp razor sharp front post and overall sight picture and yes, makes a big difference. But...the Ameriglo with my "normal" vision (which is not that great anymore) definitely worked, I just think I do better with a thinner front post, the Ameriglo front post fills most of the rear notch and I like a bit more light on either side of the front post, again, personal choice.

Accuracy
I'm sure any Glock barrel is more accurate than me, but ... I did get my best results today using my Gen 5 Glock, though the 17L with its long sight picture will be great for me and once I get the sights replaced, I am sure it will be great as well, but the Gen 5 barrel definitely is an improvement, compare to the standard Gen 4 and 3 barrels I had today.

New Magazines
They work, but beyond that, not much else today. I do like the extended baseplate.

The Grip "Notch"
Some folks are whining about the "notch" saying they feel it when they shoot, and it has the potential for interferring with reloading magazines. I definitely did not feel it at all, and for reloads, I think it HELPS, when I grip a magazine for reload my index finger is touching the tip round and I "point" the mag into the magwell, that notch is awesome because my fingertip goes into it and I get a great mag seating that way, no guessing, and so I say the notch actually is a help for reloads if you reload in this way, and of course, it's stated purpose is to allow you to strip really stuck mags, but I find it a perfect improvement for more accurate reloads.

Ejection
I had my other Glocks to compare and I was catching some cases from the Glock 26 to the top of my head as they came straight back, the Gen 5 was ejecting every single case in a very predictable ark off to the right, in a very predictable patter. I was shooting NATO 124 grain ammo and not a single time did I catch any brass to the face, head or shoulders, Worked just fine.

Function
Blew through the 500 rounds without out a single problem of any kind. Got it really nice and hot and it just kept on chugging away. I lubed it prior to shooting using Glock's recommended application points and amounts...worked like a charm.

That's about all I can think of.

Below is a pick of my group from 30 feet away, shooting in a regular pattern, about once per second. Good enough for me. This is an 18 round group. I was not using the magnified portion of my shooting glasses so sights were a bit fuzzy for me, but .... there you have it.

[vba]

Nice review...thank you!

[PP99]

Thanks for the info!

[Model12Win]

Extremely cool. How are the orange mag followers, are they useful?

[JDBerg]

Originally Posted by Model12Win:

How are the orange mag followers, are they useful?

Glock kinda stole the orange follower idea from Magpul. I think the dirty orange followers on my Magpul GL9 mags really just tell me when I need to clean these mags, I have one 17 round mag for the G17 and two 15 rounders for the G19, and they don't stay clean for very long, but these are still great aftermarket Glock accessory mags at a great price!

[TunnelRat]

Orange followers were around back on the S&W 3rd Gen autos and it wouldn't surprise me if they were around before that as well.

To me personally they don't add much, but they don't hurt either. I think most people would agree that you bring the pistol up to your eyes. At that point when the slide locks back I can't see the follower. When the slide locks back I go into a mag change. I don't drop the pistol down first, look into the ejection port, and then do a mag change. I have the colored followers on my CZ P-07 mags and I honestly never see them other than when I load the first few rounds.

[JJHSN]

Re. the orange follower....most of the time I shoot until I empty the magazine, so not sure what benefit seeing orange through the witness holes for me would be, but I can see it being an easy way to get a check on how much is your mag if you need to do so in a tactical situation. No mark no foul otherwise in my book.

[Katsumi Liquer]

Thanks for the detailed review.

I see they still have not fixed the unsightly upward warp on the front of the frame's dustcover.

[JJHSN]

Yes, it's a horrendously ugly handgun, and I can't believe anyone even bothers to buy one and shoot them, they look so bad.

[Model12Win]

I held one the other day at my dealer's.

Slippery finish and a better trigger. Many good changes on the Gen 5, not all cosmetic like some boobs claim.

Daddy like.

[JDBerg]

I saw my first G19M Gen5 at the gun range and I think this is a winner, the grip without the fingergrooves is a quantum leap improvement, the new slide finish is an upgrade and that trigger is spot on. The trade deal they offered me for my Gen3 19 plus cash was an insult, this 19 is a keeper anyway. I like everything about it but the asking price, I don't think the base gun is worth six bills so I'll hold off until the hype dies down and the price comes down a bit and probably go with an AmeriGlo factory NS version

[pete2]

Gen 5, is Glock ever gonna get it right?

[laytonj1]

Originally Posted by pete2

Gen 5, is Glock ever gonna get it right?

Once you stop improving your product the only place left to go is down...

Jim

[franco45]

Dude, it's just a Glock.

[JJHSN]

I picked up my Glock 19 Gen 5 today, and I got this one with standard sights. Glock improved the rear sight picture on the Gen 5, very nice indeed.

[Hun Shooter]

I would be curious how it measured up against the CZ P-10C

[OhioGuy]

I tried one at my local range last week. I think it's an overall improvement over Gen4. I'm not partial toward Glock, nor do I dislike it. It's a great gun and Gen5 is an incremental improvement.

The guy at the store said Glock is like the Apple Computer of the gun world...they release a new version by tweaking 1 or 2 little features, and everyone goes nuts

I will say...everyone likes to hate on the stock Glock "Notch" sights. I thought they were weird when I first used them too. But since I've shifted to shooting with eyes focused on the target, I have to say...that "U Notch" in the rear actually makes the sights quite easy to pick up quickly. On 3-dot systems, I need the front to be colored so I can tell which dot I'm seeing, but with the Glock it's pretty easy to know where my front sight is, AND whether it's more-or-less aligned with the rear.

Is that the reason for the Glock design?

[Model12Win]

I think I would have went with the G19, though.

It does everything the G17 does but in a smaller, more compact package. It does equally well as a carry pistol as it does an open carry duty pistol.

[PatientWolf]

I've really never seen the big fuss over Glocks, and in fact have had kind of a dislike for them. I only bought a G23 to complement a Sub2000.

I was at the LGS today and the sales person told me they got in the new Gen 5 Glocks and asked if I wanted to see one. I believe I mumbled something about not really needing a Glock but she offered to let me handle the G19 anyway.

Out of politeness, I took it and verified it was clear. I held it as she explained all the new features. I thought "You know, that doesn't feel so bad..." I tried the trigger and it was in my opinion a significant improvement over my G23 and actually a pretty good trigger.

I think I may have to seriously consider this one. It would go well with my other Sub2000.

[ap3572001]

So far it's my favorite G17.