justin22885 said:
meh, ive shot a few glocks, werent as accurate, as reliable, or as durable the glock "crowd" makes them out to be.. no more spectacular than any other pistol and the ergos were awful to boot, i'll pass on glocks myself
25 years ago I started shooting USPSA matches with 1911/Sig P226 with an eye for CZ75. My shooting/reloading mentor was a bullseye match shooter who did all his gunsmith work. My match Norinco 1911 was heavily fortified with Wilson Combat components and I was taught to do the trigger job (2.5 lbs) and hand fit all the replacement components. We tested our match loads at 25/50 yards using jacketed/plated/moly coated/lead bullets. His accuracy threshold was sub 2" at 25/50 yards.
I never gave Glocks much consideration after I handled one at a gun store in the 80s. My initial impression was, "Who the heck would make a pistol out of plastic (polymer)!?" When a fellow match shooter offered me to run the practice match stage with a Glock 17, I was curious. When I got faster stage time than my P226 (which I was proficient with) I could not believe it and ran the stage again. Guess what? I got even faster stage time with a G17 I was unfamiliar with.
Reluctantly, I bought a G17 and after shooting over 100,000+ rounds, sold the G17 to another match shooter and switched match caliber to 40S&W and used two Glock 22s. When I got married, I bought his & her G17s and transitioned from Makarov/P95/G17/19/26/21/30 to TCP738/G22/23/27/M&P40/M&P45/PT145 for SD/HD pistols.
I still like 1911s and currently use railed Sig 1911 XO for 45ACP accuracy platform along with M&P45/40 with trigger jobs -
http://www.burwellguns.com/M&Ptriggerjob1.htm
With round count now over 400,000, I have shot plenty of different pistols over the years. We had "bring your other pistols" day on some of our all-day practice match sessions (we would shoot 500-1000+ rounds per shooter) and got to try different modified match and factory stock pistols. I have shot over 100+ different pistols and now only thing that really matters to me is holes on target. When someone praised the virtues of a particular pistol, we would say, "Let's see how it does on a match stage" and took our turns shooting the pistol. If the accuracy of double taps at 7-25 yards and stage times were good, we were interested. If the accuracy and stage times were not good, it didn't matter what name was on the slide or how much the pistol costed - it wasn't good for match shooting or SD/HD as far as I was concerned.
To demonstrate the accuracy potential of Glocks and to standardize my load development process with more objectivity, I currently use unmodified factory Glock 22/23/27 (Sig 1911 for 45ACP) along with KKM/Lone Wolf 40S&W and 40-9 conversion barrels. In the "Handloading & Reloading" category, I post actual pictures of target shot groups as I conduct various load development. I even had range staff verify the accuracy testing and had a THR member witness accuracy testing and talk to range staff to verify the posted shot groups are actual and not made up.
Here are some samples of target shot groups shot with G22/KKM/LW barrels at 25 yards -
http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?p=9924922#post9924922
Shot group verified by THR member -
http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?p=9646469#post9646469
Glocks are mass produced pistols with parts put together instead of hand fitted 1911s. With anything mass produced, you are going to get stacking of tolerances and parts performance so some of the Glocks will perform better than others. When buying pistols, I tell people to watch the front sight while dry firing to see if the front sight jumps/moves when the hammer/striker is released and to buy the pistol that doesn't move the front sight for greater accuracy out of the box before trigger surfaces break in. Before I bought my last Glock, I went through several samples before I found one whose front sight did not jump/move when the striker was released.
Are Glocks the most accurate pistols you can buy? No.
Do Glocks have the best triggers? No.
Are Glocks most ergonomic? No.
There are many reasons why Glocks are popular for match shooting but certainly not because they are "terrible". More likely because they produce more consistent, tighter, faster shot groups on target. When was the last time you saw a HK at a regional level match?
Will you find Glocks at bullseye matches? Not likely as Glocks lack the trigger required for bullseye matches but you won't find many other factory polymer pistols at Bullseye matches either.
Over the years, I have seen a lot of "Glock dislike" posted on various forums. Why? For someone who transitioned from 1911/P226 to Glocks, I can empathize with such sentiment but certainly do not "hate" them. While I admire many other pistols, Glocks are ones I reach for when I want something that needs to work. Many match shooters who shot $1000-$3000+ pistols often said when they go home, they lock up the match pistols in the safe and put the Glocks on the night stands.
When people ask me about Glocks now, I tell them there are better pistols but my Gen3 Glocks are like a pair of well worn jeans I feel comfortable with. It's not dress pants I would wear to formal occasions but jeans I feel comfortable doing everything else.