And, we're back, after those messages

Hmm, I appear to have gone on an unplanned and unannounced hiatus for a time. Well, you have my sincerest apologies for that. I'm back now, though, and hope to continue the good fight.

In my time away, I've had a good chance to test the new Glock Gen 4. The Glock 19, to be specific. Yes, it's not really all that new, but anyhow.

At first, I wasn't sure how I'd feel about it, being at least a pound lighter than my usual carry piece and polymer instead of all steel. Moreover, I've smallish hands and the double stack mag had me a bit concerned.

So I tried it.

Initial reaction: 'Terrible! I hate this gun. It makes me feel like a two year old. I can't hit a twenty inch square cardboard at twenty feet.' The stippling on the backstrap was uncomfortable, I had two FTE's, and came away feeling like a dunce. I think I hit my fifty foot target a whopping twice in fifty rounds.

Well, I'm not usually one to give up too easily; so I went back a week later. 

Whatever had gone wrong the first day, went entirely right the second. Everything was in a four inch group at fifty feet. There was one FTE and one FTF in a hundred rounds but otherwise no problems.

So my impressions based on these two days:

I really like it.

The recoil's well controlled by their fancy new spring mechanism; same load in my Beretta 92 SB, all steel, feels about the same as in the Glock despite the weight difference.

The trigger pull is nice; very consistent with a crisp reset. 

Magazines can be a little difficult to load all the way, but they do fill.

For those of us who aren't used to Glocks, disassembling for cleaning is a trick; but once you get it, it's almost as easy as a 92 and several times easier than a 1911.

The lack of safeties makes it a little unusual for someone used to a flip safety but it's easy to get used to and actually quite nice for people with good trigger control. Although it's not a gun I would use for someone brand new to shooting for exactly the trigger control reason. 

So all in all, I got over my initial aversion to the Glock. A gun to bear in mind for many purposes, I believe.