I stand by what I've always said about Glocks. They are durable and reliable pistols... but they're not perfect. This was proven when I took a trip to our local indoor range.
If you're a frequent shooter, you inadvertently become a self-taught range safety officer. When you're not on the line, you're watching everyone else - making sure that all muzzles remain pointed downrange and watching for childish actions of immature shooters who spend more time goofing off rather than focusing on what they're doing.
In the lane next to us, there was a father with two kids (roughly ages 14-16). They had 2 different Glocks - both of the guns were rentals of the range. I didn't appreciate them occasionally loading their firearm outside of the shooting box, but for the most part, they had good muzzle and trigger discipline so it didn't bother me too much. While I was keeping my eye on them, I noticed that their BOTH of their Glocks jammed on them at different times. I'm not talking about limp-wristing or stove-pipe jams, but jams that completely locked up the slide making the firearm un-shootable. Twice this family had to call for assistance to get the pistol working again.
Why am I telling you this? Because it proves the point I've been making ever since I got interested in firearms and shooting sports:
Glocks are good pistols, BUT they're not perfect, and they CAN malfunction.
*This is just a stock photo - not the gun that jammed on my range trip* |
Some of you are thinking: "But those are range-owned weapons that get fired thousands of times every week! They're abused by everyone that rents them! Of course they're not going to function as well as an average-use gun that's properly maintained!"
Ah HA!!! Got you! If you're a Glockophile, you've uttered the words "Glocks are the best because they will ALWAYS fire reliably under any conditions without fail!" at some point in your life.
So based on your logic, the shooting range where they see moderate-heavy use, but are occasionally cleaned and properly stored should be a cakewalk shooting environment for a Glock.
But alas, the guns jammed...and jammed well.
Would any other pistol have faired better? Probably not. Would any other pistol have performed as well as the Glock did? Absolutely.
As I've said before, my problems with Glock stem from the company's marketing of their product as PERFECT - and it bothers me that society, which is normally skeptical of everything, all of a sudden believes that there's no better pistol than this ugly brick of a gun.
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