Happy New Year!

The New Year buzz seems to be dominated by the leak that Glock is going to release a new gun January 22nd, 2018. This new gun, the Glock G19x, essentially is G19 slide assembly on a modified G17/G34 frame.

The cool specs are it will ship with one 17 round magazine and two 19 round magazine via an extended base plate, nPVD colored slide, Glock Marksman Barrel (GMB), ambi slide release, and no finger grooves.

Let’s applaud the good first. Offering more colors with one of the most durable finishes is a definite plus. Sure Cerekote and Durakote are nice, but not they do not hold up compared to nPVD. The barrel is probably the star of this offering with the “match-grade” polygonal rifled barrels. Having been the butt of accuracy jokes for decades this barrel should hold it’s own against any factor and most aftermarket options. In all fairness, the factory barrel if far better than 99% of the people who complain about its accuracy. Check out this comparison of 11 Glock barrels.

Why the G19x? Who does the R&D and market research there? Is anyone asking for a G19 that takes G17 magazines? Wait, you can already to that. Granted, the bottom of the magazine hangs out the bottom of the grip. If you don’t like step down then get a magazine spacer collar, a.k.a grip extenders. Don’t get me started on why Glock offers a 140mm 40S&W mag and the 9mm doesn’t get the love. Thank you Magpul and ETS.

The G19 fan base loves its compact nature. Big enough to get the job done and still be concealable. The G17/G34 have the longer sight radius and bit extra weight favored for those shooting it in competition.

So where does that leave the G19x? No one shooting organized action shooting sports like USPSA, IDPA, or 3Gun will see this as a competitive advantage of the current offerings. What concealed carry permit holder is going to find the larger grip easier to hide. It’s usually the grip that prints. What about the .mil folks? Again, many of the short bus door gunners we have come across prefer the shorter grip of the G19 as it is less likely to get caught up on gear.

This leaves two groups of people who may prefer the G19x and are large enough to support the line. Law Enforcement and plinkers. Will LEO’s gravitate to this over the G19 or G17? probably not. There’s no advantage to them. That will leave millions of plinkers and other collectors. That’s enough to keep this alive.

Here’s an example of what Glock should have come out with. I call it a G17s, s for short. It is a full frame G17 cut down to the G19 length. This particular example Grip-N-Rip cutouts to better grab the magazine in case the magazine gets stuck. The holster is a Competition Holster in Moonshine Wildfire camo with bright red (EMT-Red) liner.