The Pistol is a tool, Modify it as such. An essay by Jeffrey Bloovman.
Pistol is a tool, modify it as such.
For many years I was 100% opposed to modifying the Glock pistol. To me they were simply out of the box “perfection.” Durable, reliable, accurate, cost-effective, what more could a user want? Modifying this perfect pistol came to me slowly. One day it dawned on me that, well, the factory sights suck. They are difficult to use, cheaply constructed crap. I now refer to them as plastic dovetail protectors, as protecting the dovetails of the slide are really all they’re good for. As we’ve seen, many students who survive the Armed Dynamics classes soon realize that the plastic sights that come from the factory more often than not, wind up littering the shooting area by the end of the one-handed reload and malfunction clearing portion of the class. My friend James Yeager at Tactical Response turned me on to XS Big Dot sights years ago, and after using them extensively on both the range and in force-on-force classes, I truly feel they are the best sights on the market. When people are moving around trying to shoot you and not get shot, one simply places the golf-ball sized front sight on them and presses the trigger. But I digress; we’ll talk more about XS sights in another article. So, if we can improve upon the factory sights, what other modifications can we perform to enhance usability of this “perfect” pistol? Read on to find out.
Magazines. This is an easy one. We ONLY use factory magazines in our Glocks. People think they are saving hard earned cash by purchasing KCI Korean-made magazines. I am here to tell you they are junk, absolute, unequivocal JUNK. In face, while at a recent class down south, Justin Mateer and I witnessed one student’s model 19 become virtually useless as his “bargain priced” Korean Glock magazines failed over and over and over again. So spend the $10 extra and buy factory magazines that will actually feed bullets into your chamber. I am not a fan of magazine grip extensions on any Glock, as they are unnecessary. However, one floorplate that does belong on your compact Glock magazine are those offered by GAP Enterprises. They give the user a large ledge with which they can forcefully remove a magazine during one-handed malfunction clearances. By the way, we practice one-handed drawing, shooting, and malfunction clearing, because we at Armed Dynamics think it’s rather presumptuous to assume we won’t sustain injuries to the dominant or support hand/arm during a gun fight. We must therefore train ourselves to an unconscious level of competence with our weapons handling using two-hands, our dominant-hand only, and our support-hand only. After you attend our Defensive Pistol I class, we tell you that the rest of your life your range sessions will consist of shooting 1/3 two-handed, 1/3 dominant-hand only, and 1/3 support-hand only. Anything less is masturbation.
Trigger. This is sure to draw hooting and hollering from traditional Glock users, but I’ve found a trigger modification that improves the factory 5 ½ pound pull. Now, off the bat let me tell you that we will not be lightening our triggers. Frankly, it shouldn’t matter how many pounds your trigger pull is, if we are effectively working our trigger it doesn’t make a damn difference. My friend Paul Gomez of Gomez Training International introduced me to this enhanced set up, and I have to say it is awesome. By combining a Glock factory NY1 trigger spring, a “minus” 3.5 lb (now known as 4.5 lb) connector, and a little bit of polishing compound, we’ve created what for my money is the best Glock trigger I’ve ever experienced. The NY1 trigger spring is a naturally more reliable system, as the spring inside its Olive plastic body is pushing rather than stretching like the traditional spring. This eliminates broken trigger return springs (which do happen), and significantly increases the trigger reset-strength, giving an even stronger “click” whence the trigger resets. However, merely adding the NY1 spring will increase the pistol’s trigger pull to about 8 ½ lbs and possibly turn many shooters off. This is where the minus connector comes in. You see, a minus connector in conjunction with a regular trigger spring lightens the pull to approximately 3.5 lbs. This is ill advised, as doing so can decrease reliability, and may also be frowned upon by a court system which may cast you in the “lightening your trigger so you can shoot people easier,” crowd. When using the minus connector in conjunction with an NY1 trigger spring, we are actually increasing the weight of pull by about a pound or so. Then, by lightly polishing the surfaces of the connector, trigger bar, and firing pin safety, we are more or less splitting the difference, and are left with a 6-6.5 lb very smooth, strong reset, higher reliability trigger. It’s true that the Glock has the strongest out-of-the-box trigger reset of any factory pistol out there, but when compared to this set up, the factory reset sucks.
Stippling. Even when utilizing a strong, locked-wrist, thumbs-forward grip on while shooting, I noticed my support-hand thumb could slip off the frame during rapid strings of fire. Stippling a polymer framed pistol is not a new concept, so I thought I’d try my hand at burning my very own Glock with a soldering iron. Hell, how hard could it be? As you can see, I’ve stippled only the areas of the pistol which interface with my hands. Also notice that all of the textured areas are naturally covered when the pistol is holstered, thereby protecting my body from the virtual sandpaper I’ve created on the gun. Notice the ledge on the left side of the frame toward the muzzle where the support-hand thumb interfaces. I’ve found that this makes a marked improvement in keeping the muzzle down and support thumb firmly planted on the frame. Most people want to vomit when they see my Glock, but more often than not, after shooting it they ask how much I’d charge to do the modifications to their pistol.
Grip abbreviation. What! Why the hell would you do that! How could you change the natural aesthetics of your… plastic… gun? Well, easy my friend, it’s called a hacksaw. As you’ve probably noticed by now, the grip on my 19 has been abbreviated. This does two things. One, it provides for more positive extraction of empty magazines when I’m ripping them out, as I can index my fingers on the baseplates when jettisoning the magazine. The second reason for this modification is that it simplifies clearing one-handed malfunctions. Traditionally, when a failure to extract (aka double-feed) occurs, the user with a disabled arm has to lock the slide back prior to ripping the magazine out and cycling the slide 3 times. With the abbreviated grip, the user can skip locking the slide back, which is often very difficult in a highly adrenalized state, and instead simply strip the magazine out via the now exposed baseplate in the relief cut area. An added bonus with the abbreviated grip is that it alleviates the pinching some users experience when forcefully seating magazines in the gun. You'll notice that my abbreviation is extra ugly, cause I am unconcerned with "how it looks," and care only on, "how it functions." Typically though, when a student hands me their pistol to modify, I'll say, "okay, I'll treat it likes it's yours, not mine." Note that you cannot abbreviate the grip on subcompact Glocks (26, 27 etc) due to their magazine release springs extending to the near edge of the grip. If you abbreviate it, you’ll wind up chopping the spring as well. While the pistol may continue to work, I’d suggest just purchasing GAP Enterprises Finger Rest Extensions for your stubby factory 10 round magazines. They can be stripped in the event a failure to extract (double-feed) occurs when you are down an arm (as mentioned in the “magazine” paragraph above).
Griptape. On the top of the slide, just forward of the rear sight, you’ll notice a piece of 3M safety walk tape (non-mineral type). This again aids in performing one-handed reloading/malfunction clearing (seeing a theme here?) as it creates more friction between the slide and whatever we’re using to rack it ie, someone’s pants, table, steering wheel, boot heel, etc. I recommend heating your slide up with a hair dryer just prior to installing the tape, as it adheres better on the hot slide and stays put much better after it cools.
Grip Force Adapter. This is one of the only non-factory (save for sights and a light) items that will find itself on my Glock. It prevents “slide bite,” although of much greater importance is its ability to act as a counter-lever to the bore, reducing muzzle rise during firing.
The well used Glock 19 in the pictures has a RATTAC National Match threaded barrel on it currently, but I will refrain from taking a strong stance on it before I put it through some major T&E, as I only have about 500 rounds through it. Since the pistol will soon be sporting a Huntertown Arms sound suppressor, the threads are less for the “cool guy factor” and more for shear necessity. I will tell you however, that my impression thusfar of the barrel has been quite favorable. Expect a review of that item once I’ve treated it like… well, like it’s mine for a little while (read: spit on, thrown around, shot until red hot, etc). If you’re in the market for a threaded barrel for your pistol, give Jahred a call at AGS Armament & Consulting, AGS Armament & Consulting LLC. However, when you order something from him, be sure to write in the notes section, “Jeff f***in Bloovman Sent Me.” Worry not, he’ll understand.
So there you have it, a list of modifications that will enhance your Glock, and keep it running when you may not have two hands to do so. We treat our firearms as tools, and if we can improve a tool’s function and performance over a wider operating spectrum, why wouldn’t we? A pistol is a tool, modify as such.
Pistol is a tool, modify it as such.
For many years I was 100% opposed to modifying the Glock pistol. To me they were simply out of the box “perfection.” Durable, reliable, accurate, cost-effective, what more could a user want? Modifying this perfect pistol came to me slowly. One day it dawned on me that, well, the factory sights suck. They are difficult to use, cheaply constructed crap. I now refer to them as plastic dovetail protectors, as protecting the dovetails of the slide are really all they’re good for. As we’ve seen, many students who survive the Armed Dynamics classes soon realize that the plastic sights that come from the factory more often than not, wind up littering the shooting area by the end of the one-handed reload and malfunction clearing portion of the class. My friend James Yeager at Tactical Response turned me on to XS Big Dot sights years ago, and after using them extensively on both the range and in force-on-force classes, I truly feel they are the best sights on the market. When people are moving around trying to shoot you and not get shot, one simply places the golf-ball sized front sight on them and presses the trigger. But I digress; we’ll talk more about XS sights in another article. So, if we can improve upon the factory sights, what other modifications can we perform to enhance usability of this “perfect” pistol? Read on to find out.
Magazines. This is an easy one. We ONLY use factory magazines in our Glocks. People think they are saving hard earned cash by purchasing KCI Korean-made magazines. I am here to tell you they are junk, absolute, unequivocal JUNK. In face, while at a recent class down south, Justin Mateer and I witnessed one student’s model 19 become virtually useless as his “bargain priced” Korean Glock magazines failed over and over and over again. So spend the $10 extra and buy factory magazines that will actually feed bullets into your chamber. I am not a fan of magazine grip extensions on any Glock, as they are unnecessary. However, one floorplate that does belong on your compact Glock magazine are those offered by GAP Enterprises. They give the user a large ledge with which they can forcefully remove a magazine during one-handed malfunction clearances. By the way, we practice one-handed drawing, shooting, and malfunction clearing, because we at Armed Dynamics think it’s rather presumptuous to assume we won’t sustain injuries to the dominant or support hand/arm during a gun fight. We must therefore train ourselves to an unconscious level of competence with our weapons handling using two-hands, our dominant-hand only, and our support-hand only. After you attend our Defensive Pistol I class, we tell you that the rest of your life your range sessions will consist of shooting 1/3 two-handed, 1/3 dominant-hand only, and 1/3 support-hand only. Anything less is masturbation.
Trigger. This is sure to draw hooting and hollering from traditional Glock users, but I’ve found a trigger modification that improves the factory 5 ½ pound pull. Now, off the bat let me tell you that we will not be lightening our triggers. Frankly, it shouldn’t matter how many pounds your trigger pull is, if we are effectively working our trigger it doesn’t make a damn difference. My friend Paul Gomez of Gomez Training International introduced me to this enhanced set up, and I have to say it is awesome. By combining a Glock factory NY1 trigger spring, a “minus” 3.5 lb (now known as 4.5 lb) connector, and a little bit of polishing compound, we’ve created what for my money is the best Glock trigger I’ve ever experienced. The NY1 trigger spring is a naturally more reliable system, as the spring inside its Olive plastic body is pushing rather than stretching like the traditional spring. This eliminates broken trigger return springs (which do happen), and significantly increases the trigger reset-strength, giving an even stronger “click” whence the trigger resets. However, merely adding the NY1 spring will increase the pistol’s trigger pull to about 8 ½ lbs and possibly turn many shooters off. This is where the minus connector comes in. You see, a minus connector in conjunction with a regular trigger spring lightens the pull to approximately 3.5 lbs. This is ill advised, as doing so can decrease reliability, and may also be frowned upon by a court system which may cast you in the “lightening your trigger so you can shoot people easier,” crowd. When using the minus connector in conjunction with an NY1 trigger spring, we are actually increasing the weight of pull by about a pound or so. Then, by lightly polishing the surfaces of the connector, trigger bar, and firing pin safety, we are more or less splitting the difference, and are left with a 6-6.5 lb very smooth, strong reset, higher reliability trigger. It’s true that the Glock has the strongest out-of-the-box trigger reset of any factory pistol out there, but when compared to this set up, the factory reset sucks.
Stippling. Even when utilizing a strong, locked-wrist, thumbs-forward grip on while shooting, I noticed my support-hand thumb could slip off the frame during rapid strings of fire. Stippling a polymer framed pistol is not a new concept, so I thought I’d try my hand at burning my very own Glock with a soldering iron. Hell, how hard could it be? As you can see, I’ve stippled only the areas of the pistol which interface with my hands. Also notice that all of the textured areas are naturally covered when the pistol is holstered, thereby protecting my body from the virtual sandpaper I’ve created on the gun. Notice the ledge on the left side of the frame toward the muzzle where the support-hand thumb interfaces. I’ve found that this makes a marked improvement in keeping the muzzle down and support thumb firmly planted on the frame. Most people want to vomit when they see my Glock, but more often than not, after shooting it they ask how much I’d charge to do the modifications to their pistol.
Grip abbreviation. What! Why the hell would you do that! How could you change the natural aesthetics of your… plastic… gun? Well, easy my friend, it’s called a hacksaw. As you’ve probably noticed by now, the grip on my 19 has been abbreviated. This does two things. One, it provides for more positive extraction of empty magazines when I’m ripping them out, as I can index my fingers on the baseplates when jettisoning the magazine. The second reason for this modification is that it simplifies clearing one-handed malfunctions. Traditionally, when a failure to extract (aka double-feed) occurs, the user with a disabled arm has to lock the slide back prior to ripping the magazine out and cycling the slide 3 times. With the abbreviated grip, the user can skip locking the slide back, which is often very difficult in a highly adrenalized state, and instead simply strip the magazine out via the now exposed baseplate in the relief cut area. An added bonus with the abbreviated grip is that it alleviates the pinching some users experience when forcefully seating magazines in the gun. You'll notice that my abbreviation is extra ugly, cause I am unconcerned with "how it looks," and care only on, "how it functions." Typically though, when a student hands me their pistol to modify, I'll say, "okay, I'll treat it likes it's yours, not mine." Note that you cannot abbreviate the grip on subcompact Glocks (26, 27 etc) due to their magazine release springs extending to the near edge of the grip. If you abbreviate it, you’ll wind up chopping the spring as well. While the pistol may continue to work, I’d suggest just purchasing GAP Enterprises Finger Rest Extensions for your stubby factory 10 round magazines. They can be stripped in the event a failure to extract (double-feed) occurs when you are down an arm (as mentioned in the “magazine” paragraph above).
Griptape. On the top of the slide, just forward of the rear sight, you’ll notice a piece of 3M safety walk tape (non-mineral type). This again aids in performing one-handed reloading/malfunction clearing (seeing a theme here?) as it creates more friction between the slide and whatever we’re using to rack it ie, someone’s pants, table, steering wheel, boot heel, etc. I recommend heating your slide up with a hair dryer just prior to installing the tape, as it adheres better on the hot slide and stays put much better after it cools.
Grip Force Adapter. This is one of the only non-factory (save for sights and a light) items that will find itself on my Glock. It prevents “slide bite,” although of much greater importance is its ability to act as a counter-lever to the bore, reducing muzzle rise during firing.
The well used Glock 19 in the pictures has a RATTAC National Match threaded barrel on it currently, but I will refrain from taking a strong stance on it before I put it through some major T&E, as I only have about 500 rounds through it. Since the pistol will soon be sporting a Huntertown Arms sound suppressor, the threads are less for the “cool guy factor” and more for shear necessity. I will tell you however, that my impression thusfar of the barrel has been quite favorable. Expect a review of that item once I’ve treated it like… well, like it’s mine for a little while (read: spit on, thrown around, shot until red hot, etc). If you’re in the market for a threaded barrel for your pistol, give Jahred a call at AGS Armament & Consulting, AGS Armament & Consulting LLC. However, when you order something from him, be sure to write in the notes section, “Jeff f***in Bloovman Sent Me.” Worry not, he’ll understand.
So there you have it, a list of modifications that will enhance your Glock, and keep it running when you may not have two hands to do so. We treat our firearms as tools, and if we can improve a tool’s function and performance over a wider operating spectrum, why wouldn’t we? A pistol is a tool, modify as such.
I agree that the factory sights are horrid and that factory magazines are the only way to go. Not sure I am ready to cut and melt the grips yet, but I can see the reasoning. Thank you for sharing.
