twoblink
Member
I got a Glock 35, I haven't taken her to the range yet (and I haven't officially named her yet) but I'll give a mini review first, and then probably attach a range report later in the week.
First off, the box.. The glock box that the gun came with is horrible; it's cheap plastic and my Steyr M40 box is about 10x better. Aside from the Glock 35, there was 3x 10 round magazines.. I wish they gave me hi-cap mags; but oh well. It came with a mag lip depressor; a cable lock, a brush head, and a lot of documents. All in all, not impressed with the box; it didn't really close; and everything was just kind of thrown in there loosely together.
Glock 35 Gen4: the gun itself:
I own a Steyr M40, which I love; but was considering getting into perhaps pistol competitions, and so decided longer barrel and sight radius should help. I prefer the ergonomics of the Steyr, and I like the old "camelback"; but I do have to admit, with sweaty hands, the Steyr grip isn't that great. People say they cured that with the M40-A1, but I haven't tried one so I couldn't answer to it. The gun itself seems well made, and the new quad-pyramid pebbling on the grip does give a firm grip. I don't know if the mag release is considered an extended one, but it sticks out quite a ways.
Side story about glock mag releases: I was at the range one time, shooting my Steyr, when a beautiful female off-duty cop was in the next booth. We got talking, and she was shooting a Glock 23 at the time, and so we decided to try each other's guns. Well... I am left handed; and so the first shot I took, the mag release dug and ripped my middle finger open; it an artery, blood was squirting everywhere; she freaked out, the rangemaster announced on the PA "You, please stop bleeding in my range"... errr...
So ever since; I have had bitterness towards glocks, and especially their mag releases. So when I got the gun home, the first thing I did was get out my file, and file the entire mag release down; so there were no sharp corners. Incidently, some people report that when they use an extended mag release and holster their guns, the release gets hit, and so when they draw their guns, the mag falls out. Not good. So.. mag release, FILED.
The gun came with an extended slide release; I will see if that presents a problem or not; I personally like it, because being left handed, I rack the slide with an overhand right hand grip; but if the slide is back, I use my left index finger to depress the slide stop.
Being a Gen 4, I took it apart to take a look. The biggie change obviously was the 2 stage recoil spring. It looks cheaply made to me; the metal kick piece that sits on the barrel is made out of cheaply stamped metal that is not even even. <== not a typo, I mean to say not even even. I have ordered a replacement steel guide rod and Gen4 recoil rod from glockstore which should come on Monday.
I pulled the trigger basically twice; once at gun store to make sure it worked, and then once again at home, to take the gun apart. That's it, I had every intent to replace some parts of it and so I figure why bother shooting it first if I knew it was going to happen. So I did a full disassembly of the gun; and I replaced the trigger connector with a 3.5# ghost connector. I guess the gen 3's all came 3.5# but the Gen 4 is 4.5# stock. I figure since I had the gun apart already, I went ahead and did the $0.25 cent glock trigger job. I guess you get for what you pay, I polished up all the contact points until it was like a mirror; smoother? I can't tell the difference, the only thing that is stopping me from complaining about it is the fact that I didn't expect it to be a miracle worker; and I basically used up a drop of flitz and some elbow grease. So would I recommend the 25 cent trigger job? Sure, if you've got time to kill, but don't expect miracles; and you will barely notice the difference, but it's cheap!
After I put the gun back together; I tried the trigger again; a little bit better; but still stacks a bit at the end. Glock triggers are just that I guess.
That being said, we come to the one item that I have the biggest gripe about. The trigger safety, I am not sure if it's just MY GUN, or what, but first off, I seem to remember the trigger safety to be slightly wider; mine is thin almost like a blade. Second, it's SHARP! Depressing it a few times, I can feel a blister forming on my shooting finger!! Not good. So any suggestions of how to combat this; is welcome. I ended up using the 1 cent fix method; aka put a bandaid on my trigger finger tip. NOT GOOD. So I need to do something about the sharpness of it.
What I do like about the gun: First, the sight radius. Somewhere on THR there is a post by me about sight radius; went deep into the nerd math and covered difference in arc minute etc. Needless to say; my go for getting the gun was sight radius.
The second of course, was barrel length. I own a 2.25" Ruger SP101, and a 5" Ruger GP100 (again, not a typo, I own a 5" and it's AWESOME). The biggest tell-tale was when I shot at 25 feet with both guns; the GP100 grouped about 2" while the SP101 opened up to over 5". Sight radius and barrel length.
The gun didn't feel as front heavy as I thought it would; I guess I was expecting a lot of nose-heaviness because of all the people who complain about it all the time. Honestly, not a big deal.
Overall, not too bad of a gun. My wife's comment when I showed it to her was that "That gun looks so fake it's not funny." Plastic Fantastic.
Caliber: .40SW
Now my biggest reservation about the gun is the unsupported barrel; My Steyr is fully supported; and so in the back of my mind, Glock .40 kb! are things I can't get out of my mind; and I can't ignore; and so answer to it was, I ordered a Storm Lake barrel for the gun (which will come on Monday as well). I'm not even going to shoot the OEM barrel. That solves that.
I guess the question people ask is, if I'm so worried about it, why didn't I just get a Glock 34 in 9mm and be done with it? Well, I like the ballistics of the .40 better; and also, I seriously think that I will probably end up moving to 357Sig later on in my future. And so the better ballistics and the upgradeability to 357Sig was what sold me. Years ago, when I was deciding on what auto pistol to get, I did my homework and came to the conclusion that .40SW seems to be the best compromise between size, capacity, manageability, availability, and shootability, not to mention stopping power. A lot of people ten years ago told me I made bad choice because look at all the agencies, they all shoot 9mm. Well.. fast forward 10 years later, and most of the agencies have moved off the 9mm and to the .40 and some to the 357Sig. I think honestly, the 357Sig is the superior round, but until costs come down, I will probably be shooting the .40SW.
Gen4:
Looking at the reviews; and reading about them, I seem to have to agree, I think the older generation guns were 9mm guns adapted to .40SW. I think with the Gen 4's, I think they are .40SW adapted to 9mm. It seems like they thought more in terms of .40SW with this gun than they did with all the previous generations. That is good for me, and the glock 35. When the glock 35 first came out; I thought FOR SURE, that the glock 36 would be a practical tactical in .357Sig. Oh well.
Pet peeves:
I wish Glock just used a different spring; but they didn't, they used the same spring as the Glock 22, and so in order to make sure the gun cycled reliably; a whole has been cut out the top of the slide to make the Glock 35 slide weigh the same as the glock 22's slide; thus the same spring can be used. Now like the Beretta 92, this is a pet peeve. Why would you "on purpose" expose the slide to the possibility of crap falling in between the slide and the barrel so the gun can jam? That seems stupid to me. And WORST case scenario, something dents the barrel! I know I know, Tamara has told me a thousand times, the barrels are so hard they won't dent, but still there's a possibility. When a slide gets dented, the gun jams. When a barrel gets dented, the gun blows up in your hands, (and blows up your hands). So I WISH the slide didn't have a whole cut into it. Bad design IMHO.
Practical Tactical:
So these guns are sometimes called Practical Tacticals;
For target practice; the longer sight radius and the longer barrel should provide to "practical" portion of the name.
I'm watching on youtube, all the videos of people shooting 100 yards with these guns. AMAZING! So from a tactical point of view; 100 yard guns means you can engage a target at ranges previously reserved for rifles. Don't get me wrong, don't bring a handgun to a rifle fight; but it's warm and fuzzy to know if I was actually a good enough shooter; this gun will "reach out and touch someone" at 100 yards. I don't know what the terminal ballistics are at that range, but I don't want to stand at 100 yards and have someone shoot me to find out.
I will be ordering Dawson Precision sights, as the stock sights are not worth the material they are made on. Monday, my Storm lake barrel should come, as well as my slug plug. If they arrive on time, I'll take her to the range Tuesday and give you guys a range report.
Not the most scientific of reviews, and not so mini...
First off, the box.. The glock box that the gun came with is horrible; it's cheap plastic and my Steyr M40 box is about 10x better. Aside from the Glock 35, there was 3x 10 round magazines.. I wish they gave me hi-cap mags; but oh well. It came with a mag lip depressor; a cable lock, a brush head, and a lot of documents. All in all, not impressed with the box; it didn't really close; and everything was just kind of thrown in there loosely together.
Glock 35 Gen4: the gun itself:
I own a Steyr M40, which I love; but was considering getting into perhaps pistol competitions, and so decided longer barrel and sight radius should help. I prefer the ergonomics of the Steyr, and I like the old "camelback"; but I do have to admit, with sweaty hands, the Steyr grip isn't that great. People say they cured that with the M40-A1, but I haven't tried one so I couldn't answer to it. The gun itself seems well made, and the new quad-pyramid pebbling on the grip does give a firm grip. I don't know if the mag release is considered an extended one, but it sticks out quite a ways.
Side story about glock mag releases: I was at the range one time, shooting my Steyr, when a beautiful female off-duty cop was in the next booth. We got talking, and she was shooting a Glock 23 at the time, and so we decided to try each other's guns. Well... I am left handed; and so the first shot I took, the mag release dug and ripped my middle finger open; it an artery, blood was squirting everywhere; she freaked out, the rangemaster announced on the PA "You, please stop bleeding in my range"... errr...
So ever since; I have had bitterness towards glocks, and especially their mag releases. So when I got the gun home, the first thing I did was get out my file, and file the entire mag release down; so there were no sharp corners. Incidently, some people report that when they use an extended mag release and holster their guns, the release gets hit, and so when they draw their guns, the mag falls out. Not good. So.. mag release, FILED.
The gun came with an extended slide release; I will see if that presents a problem or not; I personally like it, because being left handed, I rack the slide with an overhand right hand grip; but if the slide is back, I use my left index finger to depress the slide stop.
Being a Gen 4, I took it apart to take a look. The biggie change obviously was the 2 stage recoil spring. It looks cheaply made to me; the metal kick piece that sits on the barrel is made out of cheaply stamped metal that is not even even. <== not a typo, I mean to say not even even. I have ordered a replacement steel guide rod and Gen4 recoil rod from glockstore which should come on Monday.
I pulled the trigger basically twice; once at gun store to make sure it worked, and then once again at home, to take the gun apart. That's it, I had every intent to replace some parts of it and so I figure why bother shooting it first if I knew it was going to happen. So I did a full disassembly of the gun; and I replaced the trigger connector with a 3.5# ghost connector. I guess the gen 3's all came 3.5# but the Gen 4 is 4.5# stock. I figure since I had the gun apart already, I went ahead and did the $0.25 cent glock trigger job. I guess you get for what you pay, I polished up all the contact points until it was like a mirror; smoother? I can't tell the difference, the only thing that is stopping me from complaining about it is the fact that I didn't expect it to be a miracle worker; and I basically used up a drop of flitz and some elbow grease. So would I recommend the 25 cent trigger job? Sure, if you've got time to kill, but don't expect miracles; and you will barely notice the difference, but it's cheap!
After I put the gun back together; I tried the trigger again; a little bit better; but still stacks a bit at the end. Glock triggers are just that I guess.
That being said, we come to the one item that I have the biggest gripe about. The trigger safety, I am not sure if it's just MY GUN, or what, but first off, I seem to remember the trigger safety to be slightly wider; mine is thin almost like a blade. Second, it's SHARP! Depressing it a few times, I can feel a blister forming on my shooting finger!! Not good. So any suggestions of how to combat this; is welcome. I ended up using the 1 cent fix method; aka put a bandaid on my trigger finger tip. NOT GOOD. So I need to do something about the sharpness of it.
What I do like about the gun: First, the sight radius. Somewhere on THR there is a post by me about sight radius; went deep into the nerd math and covered difference in arc minute etc. Needless to say; my go for getting the gun was sight radius.
The second of course, was barrel length. I own a 2.25" Ruger SP101, and a 5" Ruger GP100 (again, not a typo, I own a 5" and it's AWESOME). The biggest tell-tale was when I shot at 25 feet with both guns; the GP100 grouped about 2" while the SP101 opened up to over 5". Sight radius and barrel length.
The gun didn't feel as front heavy as I thought it would; I guess I was expecting a lot of nose-heaviness because of all the people who complain about it all the time. Honestly, not a big deal.
Overall, not too bad of a gun. My wife's comment when I showed it to her was that "That gun looks so fake it's not funny." Plastic Fantastic.
Caliber: .40SW
Now my biggest reservation about the gun is the unsupported barrel; My Steyr is fully supported; and so in the back of my mind, Glock .40 kb! are things I can't get out of my mind; and I can't ignore; and so answer to it was, I ordered a Storm Lake barrel for the gun (which will come on Monday as well). I'm not even going to shoot the OEM barrel. That solves that.
I guess the question people ask is, if I'm so worried about it, why didn't I just get a Glock 34 in 9mm and be done with it? Well, I like the ballistics of the .40 better; and also, I seriously think that I will probably end up moving to 357Sig later on in my future. And so the better ballistics and the upgradeability to 357Sig was what sold me. Years ago, when I was deciding on what auto pistol to get, I did my homework and came to the conclusion that .40SW seems to be the best compromise between size, capacity, manageability, availability, and shootability, not to mention stopping power. A lot of people ten years ago told me I made bad choice because look at all the agencies, they all shoot 9mm. Well.. fast forward 10 years later, and most of the agencies have moved off the 9mm and to the .40 and some to the 357Sig. I think honestly, the 357Sig is the superior round, but until costs come down, I will probably be shooting the .40SW.
Gen4:
Looking at the reviews; and reading about them, I seem to have to agree, I think the older generation guns were 9mm guns adapted to .40SW. I think with the Gen 4's, I think they are .40SW adapted to 9mm. It seems like they thought more in terms of .40SW with this gun than they did with all the previous generations. That is good for me, and the glock 35. When the glock 35 first came out; I thought FOR SURE, that the glock 36 would be a practical tactical in .357Sig. Oh well.
Pet peeves:
I wish Glock just used a different spring; but they didn't, they used the same spring as the Glock 22, and so in order to make sure the gun cycled reliably; a whole has been cut out the top of the slide to make the Glock 35 slide weigh the same as the glock 22's slide; thus the same spring can be used. Now like the Beretta 92, this is a pet peeve. Why would you "on purpose" expose the slide to the possibility of crap falling in between the slide and the barrel so the gun can jam? That seems stupid to me. And WORST case scenario, something dents the barrel! I know I know, Tamara has told me a thousand times, the barrels are so hard they won't dent, but still there's a possibility. When a slide gets dented, the gun jams. When a barrel gets dented, the gun blows up in your hands, (and blows up your hands). So I WISH the slide didn't have a whole cut into it. Bad design IMHO.
Practical Tactical:
So these guns are sometimes called Practical Tacticals;
For target practice; the longer sight radius and the longer barrel should provide to "practical" portion of the name.
I'm watching on youtube, all the videos of people shooting 100 yards with these guns. AMAZING! So from a tactical point of view; 100 yard guns means you can engage a target at ranges previously reserved for rifles. Don't get me wrong, don't bring a handgun to a rifle fight; but it's warm and fuzzy to know if I was actually a good enough shooter; this gun will "reach out and touch someone" at 100 yards. I don't know what the terminal ballistics are at that range, but I don't want to stand at 100 yards and have someone shoot me to find out.
I will be ordering Dawson Precision sights, as the stock sights are not worth the material they are made on. Monday, my Storm lake barrel should come, as well as my slug plug. If they arrive on time, I'll take her to the range Tuesday and give you guys a range report.
Not the most scientific of reviews, and not so mini...