My Glock 23 Review Part One

I've always wanted to own a Glock, ever since I first started hearing about it a lot in the mid 80s. It was relatively new then, the first truly commercially successful "plastic" gun. Considering that before that time, the most successful gun was the M1911 family of automatic pistols, which by then was already 70 years old.

The polymer frame, and the relatively new trigger system was just so different, so high-tech. Even more impressive was that its success, as it was then slowly being adopted by more and more law enforcement and military agencies all around the world.

When I finally could afford one a couple of years ago, the supply of the pistol to the Philippines suddenly dried up, when the company decided to stop distribution of the unit in the country due to some controversy over some of the guns bought here ending up in Japan. So I had to wait a couple more years to finally get one, when the gun became available again.

Its a Glock 23, in .40 S & W, with what looks like a 3rd Generation frma. The licensing and release of the gun was an adventure in itself, one that I will relate later. For now, however, I am just going to review the gun first.

'First Impressions'
I'm impressed with the gun box that comes with it. It square with highly rounded edges, and has the company name "Glock" in big letters on the front. The unit came with:
- Two magazines;
- A cleaning brush tip;
- Instruction and other manuals in a sealed envelope;
- Magazine Sleeve;


I found the extended "plus two" magazine baseplate to be too big, and not very aesthetically pleasing. It adds to the bulk of the gun, and since this is a compact version, not very desireable. However, since civilians are not anymore allowed to conceal carry the weapon in the country, then it does have a practical value in that it adds two more rounds to the magazine. Still, I don't like it very much, and am thinking of replacing it.

Magazine release is hard to depress, much harder than on my SIG-P250. And also smaller, and has sharper edges.

Trigger was surprisingly hard, much like on an untuned M1911. Soft initial takeup, before breaking a bit heavy and coarse. However, due to the fact that it is striker fired, the length of travel of the trigger was quite short, again very similar to the 1911.

The sights were very nice, large and very visible, with a dot up front, and an open-topped rectangle at the rear. I actually prefer this to the three dot sight on my P250.

'Gun Disassembly'
The manual was almost useless in terms of how to disassemble the gun, I had to go to the internet to find better instructions. Despite that, I still was not able to get how to disassemble the gun. I had to keep trying and learn by trial and error how to do it properly. I found the disassembly of my SIG P250 to be much easier, and much more instinctive.

I finally found my own way of doing it. Here are my tips:
- First, pull the trigger on an empty chamber to ensure that it is fully retracted (i.e., not yet "reset").
- The way you hold and pull the slide back is critical. If you are right handed, hook your thumb to the rear of the frame, while the rest of your fingers is hooked to the top of the slide;
- Then slowly pull the slide back slightly, about 1/8", or until you feel a slight slack or break in the spring pressure.
- Next, pull the slide lock down with your other thumb and index finger. Make sure that both the left and right sides of the lock are pulled all the way down. If one side is up, it won't work.
- While keeping the slide lock down, move the slide forward.
- If the slide does not disengage, then pull the slide back slightly again, and move it forward again, and it should disengage. You will know it disengages, when the slide starts to protrude over the frame when it goes forward. Remember to keep the slide lock down all the time while doing the actions above until the slide disengages.

Despite the technique above, I still find the disassembly to be a bit difficult. I am not successful most of the time in doing it, it seems you need to have very good timing and coordination to be able to do it right. It seems I will be needing a lot of practice to get it right most of the time.

The slide lock also has sharp edges, which tends to painfully dig into your fingers as you are manipulating it.

'Initial Conclusions'
I am a bit surprised in the coarseness of some parts of the gun. The heavy trigger, the somewhat difficult disassembly, the small size and sharp edges of the control surfaces that dig into your flesh when manipulating parts under spring tension were not something I expected. In terms of ergonomics, I have to say I prefer more my SIG P250. However, right off the bat I can see two main advantages of the Glock over my P250:
- First is the travel of the trigger, which is much shorter, much like that of a single-action pistol;
- Second is the customization options. I can easily find options locally on replacing the base plate and slide rear plate cover, for example, or lighten the trigger, which you can't do something similar with on the P250 at the moment.

I don't think I can live with that rough and heavy trigger, I will have to do something about it, probably before I fire the gun.

(End of Part One)

--> My Glock 23 Review Part Two

--> My Glock 23 Review Part Three

--> My Glock 23 Review Part Four

--> My Glock 23 Review Part Five