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Figure 3-1 Glock Pistol

The Glock series of pistols began fielding as the standard service pistol of the Austrian Army in 1982. It was designated the P80 and is heralded as the single greatest evolution in pistol design since the Colt M1911 by John Moses Browning. The Glock line of pistols is legendary for its simplicity and reliability. They are employed by countless military and law enforcement organizations worldwide, and as of 2008, Glock has sold more than 2.5 million pistols in over 100 countries.

They are recoil-operated locked-breech detachable-box-magazine-fed semiautomatic pistols. The only exception is the .380ACP variant using the straight blowback operation. They come in various calibers from .380ACP to .45ACP and sizes from subcompact with 3.46” barrel to the long-slide 34/35 with 5.32” barrel. The now-discontinued G17L/24 had 6.02” barrels but was replaced by the abovementioned G34/35. Current production Glock pistols consists of 34 parts, which includes the magazine. For maintenance, the pistols disassemble into five groups: the barrel, slide, frame, magazine, and recoil spring assembly. The Glock uses a modified Browning locked-breech short-recoil operating system with a vertically tilting barrel. The barrel recoils rearward, locked together with the slide approximately 1/10 of an inch. This locked rearward movement allows the bullet to leave the barrel and pressure to drop to a safe level before the extraction of the spent case begins. A ramped surface at the bottom of the barrel engages a corresponding surface in the frame called the locking block. These two surfaces cam the barrel downward and unlock it from the slide as the slide continues to the rear.

The slide has an external spring-loaded machined-steel extractor and a stamped sheet-metal ejector pinned to the trigger housing. The Glock uses a striker firing mechanism. meaning that the firing pin itself is spring loaded, and when released, is propelled forward using the energy from the striker spring and the inertia of the striker itself. The easiest way to remember the difference between striker-fired pistols and traditional semi-automatic pistols is that a traditional pistol has a hammer that strikes the firing pin, propelling it forward, where as the striker-fired gun has no hammer, but instead uses a spring and the weight and inertia of the striker itself. When the weapon is charged, the striker is in a partially cocked position. As the trigger is pressed to the rear, the striker is brought to the fully cocked position. At the end of its travel, the trigger bar is tilted downward by the connector, releasing the striker and firing the pistol. The connector also captures the striker at the end of the firing cycle and ensures the pistol can only fire semi-automatic. The exception to this is the select-fire G18.

The Glock has redundant safeties that secure the weapon against accidental discharge. The three safety mechanisms are an external trigger safety and two automatic internal safeties. The internal safeties are a firing pin safety and a drop safety. The external safety is a small inner lever contained in the trigger. The firing pin block is a solid hardened-steel pin which, unless the trigger is pulled completely to the rear, blocks the firing pin channel, stopping it from striking the primer of the cartridge. The drop safety guides the trigger bar on a safety ramp that is only released when the triggered is pulled completely to the rear. The safeties are disengaged in succession when the trigger is pressed to the rear and then automatically reset when the trigger is released.