Glock

Glock, Inc. was founded by Gaston Glock in 1963 in Deutsch-Wagram, near Vienna. The company was to specialize in manufacturing durable plastic and steel parts. Soon after, Glock realized that the combination of plastic and steel were able to produce lightweight, yet very durable products suitable for military applications. Glock began a contract with the Austrian army and supplied it with such things as machine gun ammunition belts, field knives, shovels, and more.

Early in the 1980s the Austrian military put out a bid for a new duty pistol, and Glock was invited to participate. This would be the first time Glock would design and produce a firearm. The new pistol had a polymer frame, which made it very light-weight, and had the highest magazine capacity of any pistol in the same class. Glock did away with any external safety devices and designed 3 internal safeties which didn't have to be operated by the user, as they were all automatically deactivated when the trigger was pulled. Glock designated their new 9mm pistol the Glock 17. The Austrian military, after testing all of the firearms submitted, chose Glock's. It soon became the standard duty pistol for Austria's military, and Austria's law enforcement authorities.

With the Glock 17, Glock, Inc. began its successful venture into the service pistol industry. Through aggressive marketing and low pricing, Glock, Inc. has been able to make its pistol line one of the most used in law enforcement around the world. As of today, they have produced many models, which are (chambering, pistol size):

Glock 17 (9mm Luger, full size)

Glock 17L (9mm Luger, competition)

Glock 17T (9mm Luger, trainer)

Glock 18 (9mm Luger, full size, select fire machine pistol)

Glock 19 (9mm Luger, compact)

Glock 20 (10mm, full size)

Glock 21 (.45 ACP, full size)

Glock 22 (.40 S&W, full size)

Glock 23 (.40 S&W, compact)

Glock 25 (.380 ACP, full size)

Glock 26 (9mm Luger, sub-compact)

Glock 27 (.40 S&W, sub-compact)

Glock 28 (.380 ACP, sub-compact)

Glock 29 (10mm, sub-compact)

Glock 30 (.45 ACP, sub-compact)

Glock 31 (.357 SIG, full size)

Glock 32 (.357 SIG, compact)

Glock 33 (.357 SIG, sub-compact)

Glock 34 (9mm Luger, IPSC-sized)

Glock 35 (.40 S&W, IPSC-sized)

Glock 36 (.45 ACP, sub-compact)

Glock 37 (.45 GAP, full size)

Glock 38 (.45 GAP, compact)

Glock 39 (.45 GAP, sub-compact)

Sources: www.glock.com, www.glockfaq.com

Glock is an austrian company founded by Gaston Glock in 1963. At first they produced machinegun belts, hand grenades, bayonets, knives and other products which combined plastic and steel.

The Glock 17, Glock's first handgun, was introduced in 1983. The austrian military bought 25,000 of these simple (32¹ interchangable components), lightweight (625 grams when empty², mostly due to the polymer frame) 9mm semi-automatic handguns.

The Glock 17 was later adapted by the armies of India, Jordan, Thailand, Norway and the Philippines. It was also selected as the official european NATO handgun. The Glock 19 has also been approved for NATO use.

Current models include the .45 Glock 30 subcompact handgun, and the fully automatic Glock 18, weighing in at under 700 grams each.

They are protected by Glocks "Safe Action" system, which consists of trigger safety (triggered only when the applied force is centered), firing pin safety (the pin is readied only when the trigger is moved backwards) and drop safety (firing pin pushes trigger bar downwards, again disabled by moving the trigger backwards). Of course, these safety measures are relevant for accidents only, and are certainly not to prevent children from using it. That is still the gun owner's job!

In 1985 Glock expanded its business to the United States and opened its first office in Smyrna, Georgia. Why they celebrated their tenth anniversary in the US in 1986 is beyond me.

A well-spread myth concerning Glock's handguns is that they do not trigger metal detectors, because of their plastic frame. This is false, because the slides and barrels are composed fully of steel, and the plastic frame has some metal parts molten into it (not to mention the metal rounds that go into it).

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¹ 1983 model. Current model 17 has 33 components.
² Weight of current model 17. The 1983 model may have differed.

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Resources: Glock, FreeRepublic.com

Glock Corporation is a military contractor / small arms manufacturer originally based out of Austria. They produce a variety of products, including knives, apparel, a multi-tool, and pistol accessories. Primarily, however, they are well known for their well built, extremely reliable handguns. As stated in a previous wu, their first gun was the 1983 Glock 17 9mm pistol. They have since introduced an extensive line of sidearms for personal, law enforcement, and military use. These are outlined below, catagorized by the ammunition they are chambered for.

9x19 (9mm)

Glock 17 - Standard sized pistol - 10 / 17 / 19¹ magazine capacity.
Glock 19 - Compact pistol - 10 / 15 / 17¹ magazine capacity.
Glock 26 - Subcompact pistol - 10 / 12¹ magazine capacity.
Glock 34 - Practical / Tactical pistol - 10 / 17 / 19¹magazine capacity.
Glock 17L - Competition pistol - 10 / 17 / 19¹magazine capacity.

.40

Glock 22 - Standard sized pistol - 10 / 15 / 17¹ magazine capacity.
Glock 23 - Compact pistol - 10 / 13 / 15¹ magazine capacity.
Glock 27 - Subcompact pistol - 9 / 11¹ magazine capacity.
Glock 35 - Practical / Tactical pistol - 10 / 15 / 17¹ magazine capacity.
Glock 24 - Competition pistol - 10 / 15 / 17¹ magazine capacity.

.357

Glock 31 - Standard sized pistol - 10 / 15 / 17¹ magazine capacity.
Glock 32 - Compact pistol - 10 / 13 / 15¹ magazine capacity.
Glock 33 - Subcompact pistol - 9 / 11¹ magazine capacity.

.380

Glock 25 - Compact pistol - 15 / 17¹ magazine capacity.
Glock 28 - Subcompact pistol - 10 / 12¹ magazine capacity.

10mm

Glock 20 - Standard sized pistol - 10 / 15¹ magazine capacity.
Glock 29 - Subcompact pistol - 10¹ magazine capacity.

.45

Glock 21 - Standard sized pistol - 10 / 13¹ magazine capacity.
Glock 30 - Subcompact pistol - 10¹ magazine capacity.
Glock 36 - Slimline (really fsking small) pistol - 6¹ magazine capacity.


¹ Magazine capacities affected by local law.

for more detail, find "technical data" on glock.com.