| Glock's New G36: A Fistful of Firepower | |
After putting it through this shooting review, our Technical Editor has called Glock’s new single-stack .45 ACP the best handling, most concealable compact pistol the company has ever made.
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Glock semiautomatic pistol ranks among the most original handgun design concepts
of the last 100 years and has been a seminal contributor to the handgun manufacturing
technology of the 21st century. First introduced to the U.S. by its Austrian
manufacturer in 1987, it has since become one of the predominant law enforcement
and personal-defense handguns in the nation and is commonly imitated and used
as point of departure by some of our largest domestic handgun manufacturers
as well. All Glocks share the same basic characteristics and operating principles
and are currently available in nearly a dozen basic model configurations and
variation packages in chamberings and frame sizes that include 9mm, .40 S&W,
10mm Auto, and .45 ACP.
The
newest Glock is the G36, which was initially announced at the 1999 SHOT Show
and finally began shipping to dealers in April 2000. It has been eagerly awaited,
as it offers a compact .45 ACP with a 3.78-inch barrel and six-round single-stack
magazine that is .14 inch narrower and a full four ounces lighter to carry than
the antecedent double-stack 10-round Glock G30 .45 ACP originally introduced
in 1997—even though their lateral dimensions are the same (6.77 inches
long; 4.76 inches high). And, except for the modified character of the grip
due to the single-stack magazine, which results in a distinctly individual feel
for the G36, it is in all respects the same pistol as every other Glock model.
Influential Innovations
The
most notable and visible unique aspect of any Glock is its nonmetallic polymer
frame. And what is most significant about that is the particular way the plastic
frame is formed. It is fabricated by first placing various internal steel components
(slide bearings, unlocking cam, ejector, slide release, etc.) into a mold, which
is then injected with a molten polymer material. When the polymer solidifies,
out comes a fully functional frame, ready to be fitted with the steel action
assembly, steel slide, and barrel. These other components are fabricated and
assembled in an essentially conventional manner, but the original concept of
literally molding a polymer pistol frame around its metal parts was breathtaking
at its origin and has since been adopted and adapted by dozens of other firearms
manufacturers worldwide.
However, it is
also important not to make too much of the whole “plastic gun” thing.
A Glock pistol is nonetheless 83 percent steel, and the total weight of the
metallic components used in a Glock G36’s construction is about 18 ounces—that’s
still more than the overall weight of any of the increasingly popular titanium/aluminum
all-metal AirLite and MultiAlloy compact .38 Special and .357 Magnum revolvers
from such manufacturers as Taurus and S&W. Glock pistols are as visible
to security metal-detection devises as any other firearm.
The Glock’s autoloader operating system is mechanically a simple cam-lock design adapted from the John Browning design first developed for the famed Browning Hi-Power 9mm. When the slide and barrel begin to move rearward in recoil, the cammed surfaces of the lug beneath the barrel slide down into a mating cammed ramp in the frame, thus unlocking the large rectangular chamber block from the slide. The function and location of other standard operating features are also customary: The slide locks open after the final round in a magazine is fired; the slide release lever (steel) is on the left side of the frame; the magazine release button (synthetic) is behind the trigger guard on the left side, and freed magazines (steel-sleeved synthetic) pop smartly from the frame when released.
|
SPECS
Glock G36 .45 ACP Semiautomatic Pistol |
|
Distributor
...........................Glock Inc.
Box 369 Smyrna, GA 30081 Model .............................................G36 Operation ....................Recoil-operated autoloader Caliber ................................... .45 ACP Barrel length ....................3.78 inches Overall length................... 6.77 inches Weight, empty ..............22.51 ounces Safety ......................Safe Action trigger Sights ............................Drift-adjustable white-outline rear; integral white-dot blade front Sight radius ......................6.18 inches Rifling ........Octagonal, 1:15.75 RH twist Stocks ..........Integrally molded polymer Magazine capacity ..............6 rounds Finish ..................................Matte black Price .............................................$668 |
Those things may be conventional. But the Glock’s hammerless trigger mechanism decidedly was not, at least when it first appeared, and has proved as revolutionary and influential on other handgun designs as anything else about the gun. The Glock mechanism has neither a double-action nor a single-action trigger, but is instead something in-between that Glock refers to as a “Safe Action.” It works like this: When the slide functions, the firing pin is moved about halfway back and held in that position against the pressure of its spring by a sear plate on the rear of the trigger bar. This keeps the firing pin from contacting the primer and causes the passive firing pin safety plunger to prevent pin movement. Then, when the shooter presses the trigger, the trigger bar pushes the firing pin backward the remaining distance it can move to compress its spring and then releases it to spring forward and fire the cartridge. The basic concept is the slide only halfway cocks the gun, and the trigger pull completes the action. This was a profoundly significant innovation. One criticism of double-action autoloaders has always been that the first-shot DA trigger pull is too long, and then the sudden shift to the second and subsequent-shot short-pull SA trigger makes it difficult to control rapid-fire. The Glock’s trigger pull is DA in the sense that squeezing the trigger moves the firing mechanism to full cock and then releases it, but it is also SA in the sense that the pull is short because the action is already “half cocked” to begin with. Plus, the trigger always returns to the same position after firing so there is no difference between the position of the trigger for the first and subsequent shots. Pull-weight specification for the G36 is 5.5 pounds, which is about half the weight of a conventional DA revolver or autoloader pull. Rapid-firing the Glock feels like rapid-firing a DA revolver in which the trigger only had to recover about halfway as far forward as usual between shots. For shooters who grew up on previously traditional mechanisms, it takes some training and getting used to.
Page Two - Safety, Action, Maintenance, Shootability
This article was originally published in Shooting Times magazine in November, 2000.
