Glock 17 Generation 4

I’ve been hemming and hawing about what 9mm pistol to get. I narrowed it down between the fourth generation Glock 17 or a Beretta 92FS. My justification to myself is I wanted a smaller caliber pistol to bring when I take new people shooting. Right now when I take a new person shooting they get to start on a .22 and jump to a .45 (Unless they’re willing to try a revolver but I notice many people don’t like that idea). I recently purchased a PA-63 which is in 9×18 but that gun is rather vicious and likes to bite the web of your shooting hand and the index finger of the hand wrapped around the shooting hand. I like it but I don’t think new people would.

Of course that’s just B.S. justification for the fact I want to own a 9mm. Yesterday I went into Ammo Craft in Hopkins, MN (Yes they get free advertisement because I really like the guy who runs it and their prices on guns are always good) and they had a fourth generation Glock 17 in stock. I thought I’d play around with it a bit and decided to purchase it. I’m taking it to the range for testing tonight. Until I get a range report I’m going to write some of my thoughts on this gun.

Looking at the gun not much has changed besides the grip is smaller and the texture is different. I like the new texture as it’s more aggressive than the generation three frames but less aggressive than the RTF2 frames. It’s a happy medium. Most people know that the gun now has the ability to use swappable back straps, two of which are included with the gun. One thing I like about Glock’s design is you don’t need a back strap inserted as the grip itself is textured on the back. This means the gun itself is still a self contained unit. Inserting a back strop is as simple as removing the trigger pin, clipping the back strap in, and inserting the included longer pin.

Two things to say about this. First I’m not that big of a fan of needing two pins, one for use when no back strap is attached and one for when a back strap is attached. It’s a small part and will be easy to lose. The second statement is the tool they give you to push the pin out is a joke. This little push punch is flimsy crap that bends when you look at it wrong. Why they didn’t just spend the extra three cents and include a Glock armorer tool I don’t know. Luckily any 3/32″ punch will work to remove the pin so you can get a real tool if you want one.

Overall the back straps make a noticeable difference. I have long fingers and find the grip on the Glock 30SF and 21SF to be comfortable. When the largest back strap is inserted the 17 feels very nice in my hand. As I mentioned the gun comes with two back straps. Without any back strap attached the gun is similar to an SF model of the large frame Glocks meaning it’s smaller than previous 17s. The back strap marked “M” adds 2mm of thickness to the back of the grip while the back strap marked “L” adds 4mm.

Another feature is the magazine release is now only larger but can be swapped around for left handed use. I haven’t tried swapping it around yet so I don’t know how easy it is but I can’t imagine it being very difficult. I’m not too concerned about the ambidextrous nature of the pistol as I simply use my trigger finger to drop the magazine when I’m firing it left handed. What I do like is the magazine release is larger and I don’t have to adjust my hand to hit the release with my thumb. The release is seated just slightly higher than the frame so I don’t believe accidental magazine releases while the gun is holstered will be an issue.

The other new feature in the new generation Glocks is the telescopic recoil spring. I don’t have much to say about it since I haven’t shot the gun yet but it’s supposed to reduce the felt recoil. This really isn’t anything new for Glock as my 30SF also has a telescopic recoil spring but certainly doesn’t look as heavy build is the on in the generation four pistols. One thing is for certain it’s slightly harder to rack the slide (Very slightly mind you). Getting the slide moving takes more force but once it’s “broken” free it’s easy to move the rest of the way back.

All the internal parts minus the recoil spring and barrel look to be the same as previous generation Glock pistols. This means finding parts for the gun shouldn’t be difficult. Of course the slide on the fourth generation pistols won’t fit on previous generation guns since the frame needs to be cut out for the large recoil spring.

Overall I like to look and design. There aren’t many changes to this gun but there really didn’t need to be either. I’ll post about the range results when I have them.

REAL ID Won’t Go Away

Even though no citizen wants it out politicians are ensuring some form of REAL ID gets passed into law. This time it’s being introduced to stop the “immigration” problem. From the article:

Lawmakers working to craft a new comprehensive immigration bill have settled on a way to prevent employers from hiring illegal immigrants: a national biometric identification card all American workers would eventually be required to obtain.

That’s right a card you’d be required to get in order to work. Doesn’t that just sound like big brother plus some? Of course Chuck Schumer’s name would appear on this project. What a bastard. Americans really want to beg the government for permission to work, make money, and live in this country. Also you know it’s a bad idea when:

Most European countries require citizens and foreigners to carry ID cards.

When most European countries do something you know it’s not good for individual liberty of human rights. Let’s not lie to ourselves our government is going to do everything it can to develop some federal method of tracking as many citizens as they can. But hey at least they aren’t using the terrorist card on this one.

Japan Sounds Like an Anti-Gunner’s Wet Dream

No not for the usual reasons such as Japan’s overly strict gun laws. But when I read this article on a Cold War era treaty Japan had that allowed nuclear armed United State’s naval units to port the following exert struck me:

The secret pact is controversial because after World War II and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan adopted the three “non-nuclear principles” – not making or possessing nuclear weapons, nor allowing them on to its soil.

Now I’m the first person to say nuclear weapon proliferation is a bad idea (Although we in the United States have no right to tell other countries they can’t build or own them). The things are vicious but if everybody else has them you really need to as well less you get nuked and not have a method of retaliation (Mutually assured destruction is the only reason I believe the Cold War stayed cold).

But Japan’s mentality mirrors that of some anti-gun and anti-self defense advocates. The idea is to blame the devices not those who are wielding it. For instance some people who are mugged at gun point becomes advocates for banning firearms since they incorrectly believe that will disarm the criminals and make streets safer. Japan seemed to develop the same attitude towards nuclear weapons. Since they got nuked they decided that ensuring there are no nukes in their country will prevent them from getting nuked again.

I just found that interesting since I’d imagine the only country to be nuked in a time of war would like a means of ensuring it doesn’t happen again (Once again mutually assured destruction). But of course this piece was also interesting:

The secret deal was sealed in the 1960s between US and Japanese diplomats, who agreed that the transit of nuclear arms through ports did not constitute the introduction of weapons into Japan, and so did not require prior consultation on the US side.

Much like anti-gunners are willing to call the police to be a proxy of violence Japan seemed just fine with our nuclear capable ships being in their waters. If Japan was so dead set against nukes you would think they would be angry about anybody having them. But it’s easier to take the moral high road when you can decry violence while still having somebody defend you if somebody brings violence upon you.

Funny Search Terms

One nice thing about WordPress is it will list different search terms people used to navigate to your site. I must admit I do find some humorous items in that list such as this one:

.308 round piercing skull range

I’m very curious to know the story behind that search term.

Vision, This Man Had It

When it comes to the technology field we get some great predictions and quotations. For instance take this article written in 1995 for Newsweek:

After two decades online, I’m perplexed. It’s not that I haven’t had a gas of a good time on the Internet. I’ve met great people and even caught a hacker or two. But today, I’m uneasy about this most trendy and oversold community. Visionaries see a future of telecommuting workers, interactive libraries and multimedia classrooms. They speak of electronic town meetings and virtual communities. Commerce and business will shift from offices and malls to networks and modems. And the freedom of digital networks will make government more democratic.

Baloney. Do our computer pundits lack all common sense? The truth in no online database will replace your daily newspaper, no CD-ROM can take the place of a competent teacher and no computer network will change the way government works.

That’s what I call a visionary! Oh and:

Then there’s cyberbusiness. We’re promised instant catalog shopping—just point and click for great deals. We’ll order airline tickets over the network, make restaurant reservations and negotiate sales contracts. Stores will become obselete. So how come my local mall does more business in an afternoon than the entire Internet handles in a month? Even if there were a trustworthy way to send money over the Internet—which there isn’t—the network is missing a most essential ingredient of capitalism: salespeople.

Yeah there’s now way that online shopping thing could catch on. Never!

The Starbucks Drama Continues

Anybody following any gun rights sites as of late knows there is an ongoing drama fest with Starbucks. The drama is being create by the mostly irrelevant Brady Campaign Against Good Ideas. The Brady Bunch want Starbucks to ban weapons from their establishments while Starbucks doesn’t want to get involved in this debate.

Joe Huffman makes a good point in this debate. The best thing we pro-gun people can do is quietly go about our business, patronize Starbucks, and not make an issue of this. Let’s show the Brady Bunch how irrelevant they really are and ignore their little whine fest and let Starbucks have their wish of staying out of the gun issue.

Quote of the Month

Just a funny thing that happened this weekend. It was one of my friend’s birthdays. This friend is also adamantly anti-gun. Of course the topic of guns briefly came about and eventually the following paraphrase was said:

Burg I’m not going to debate you. You argue with facts and I’d need to prepare for a debate with you.

That made me feel pretty good. Remember kids learning your facts is important because anti-gunners don’t know what to use to combat such terrible things. They need time to prepare for such frontal assaults.

Yes this is a pretty pointless post but hey it’s my site and I get to make pointless posts if I want to.

Why I Prefer Common Guns

Many people prefer esoteric guns. These people like having unique guns for various reasons, myself included. For instance I have a SPAS-12 which is kind of a rare breed. It’s fun and a blast to bring out to the range because it’s a very good conversation starter. But when it breaks finding parts and information is almost impossible. Right now it won’t feed shells out of the tube and the gas ring is defunct. Thankfully I found out the same gas ring used on Remington 11-87 shotguns will work on the SPAS-12 but the other problem is harder to diagnose and finding parts is a problem.

This is why I primarily like having common guns. For instance if a part breaks on my Glock I can easily find a replacement. The same goes for my AR-15 and AK-47. To top it off not only can I easily find parts but I can parts for a reasonable price.

Anyways my advice is if you only have a few guns and don’t plan on expanding your collection much further make sure you have some common guns. Sure that fancy SPAS-12 looks cool but you aren’t going to be able to walk into your local gun store and get a replacement part should you need one.

Truth About Guns Mentioned in Latest JPFO Alert

Well guys it appears as though my podcast has hit the big time. I’ve been mentioned in the latest Jews for the Preservation of Firearm Ownership e-mail alert. Of course the mention was entirely inadvertent. Here is an exert from the alert:

ALERT FROM JEWS FOR THE PRESERVATION OF FIREARMS OWNERSHIP
America’s Aggressive Civil Rights Organization

March 5th 2010

JPFO ALERT: LAMPOON A LEFTIST

We recently received an article from -The truthaboutguns.com –
http://thetruthaboutguns.com/2010/03/robert-farago/jewish-gun-ownership-up/

It takes to task a sloppy and incomplete article by a leftist
Israeli newspaper about gun ownership.

Share it with an anti-gunner this weekend. You will be glad you
did.

So an accidental space between “The” and “truthaboutguns.com” nabbed me some free publicity. And I did check to ensure I had my domain before the other site and it appears as though The Truth About Guns started in February of 2010 while I started in 2009 so I have precedence. Does that matter at all? Not in the slightest to me but it’s always nice to be in a position where I don’t have to worry about changing my URL due to possible legal issues.

Either way I just thought that this was funny and I’d share it.