When one speaks of military sidearms in contemporary times, few brands weigh as heavily as Glock. The revolution started in Austria during the early 1980s when Gaston Glock, more famous then for producing polymer curtain rods than anything firearm-related, saw an opportunity. The Austrian Ministry of Defense had issued a request for a new service pistol to be lighter, more dependable, and simpler to operate than those currently in use. Glock, with no background in gun design, assembled a small team and approached the task of totally reinventing what a military pistol could be.
The game-changer was an injection-molded polymer frame—a radical departure from decades of all-steel construction in the industry. This wasn’t only a means of cutting a few ounces; it revolutionized the way a pistol managed recoil and withstood the abuse of hard use. By stripping the design down to its essentials, Glock reduced the number of potential failure points in the field—something soldiers could appreciate when their lives depended on their sidearm.
Glock also innovated with the Safe Action System, a trio of automatic mechanical safeties that reduced the need for a traditional manual safety lever. The pistol was safer to carry and faster to bring into action, and survived rigorous drop tests that had caught other designs out. What resulted was a sidearm not only to the military’s standard, but also setting the bar for reliability and simplicity to follow.
In 1982, Glock presented prototypes to the Austrian military. What ensued was a merciless gauntlet of testing—water submersion, freezing, mud baths, drops from height, and even being trucked over. Glock’s pistol survived them all and was adopted by the Austrian military as the P80. Soon, it was renamed the Glock 17, its name derived from the size of its magazine, which held 17 rounds. Austria took delivery of more than 25,000 of these first-generation pistols between 1982 and 1984, and news of their performance soon spread throughout Europe.
Norway and Sweden were quick to join Austria in using the Glock 17 as its standard sidearm. The image of durability and simplicity soon spread to police services and military organizations across the globe. By the mid-1980s, Glock set its eyes on the United States. The decision to open a subsidiary in Georgia saw the company begin to woo law enforcement agencies. The first U.S. police department to adopt the Glock 17 was that of Colby, Kansas, in 1986, and from there, its usage among American law enforcement authorities took off.
Every new generation of Glock improved on the previous one. The original had a straightforward design: a full-size, striker-fired pistol with a textured grip and an accessory rail. The second generation enhanced the grip texture to enhance handling.
The third generation, brought out in 1998, added the now-ubiquitous accessory rail for lights and lasers, as well as finger grooves and a thumb rest—features that were controversial but served many shooters. In 2009, the fourth generation included interchangeable backstraps and a dual recoil spring system to control felt recoil.
The fifth generation, which came in 2017, eliminated the finger grooves, introduced a flared magwell for faster reloads, and featured ambidextrous controls. It also introduced the Glock Marksman Barrel, with better rifling and a precision crown for improved accuracy.
With all these refinements, Glock remained faithful to its founding philosophy: keep it simple, make it reliable, and make it easy to use. The company’s brash slogan, “Perfection,” is not hype—it’s been tested and proven over decades of service. By the close of 2023, over 23 million Glock pistols were in circulation across the globe, a number that speaks volumes about how much shooters trust the brand.
Glock’s influence permeates far beyond the war zone. Police forces across the globe issue them, and recreational shooters value them for their sturdiness, simple form, and immense aftermarket possibilities.
No matter the size, from the full-frame Glock 17 to the compact Glock 19 to the slim-line Glock 43 for carry concealed, each carries the same DNA: tough, reliable, and prepared for whatever lies ahead.
The passing in December 2023 of Gaston Glock ended an incredible era, but the firm he founded has no intention of letting up. What started as a curtain rod factory in Austria evolved into a revolution in the way guns were made—a pistol that not only revolutionized military sidearms, but also set a new standard for what shooters around the globe expect from their handguns.
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