9mm is the cheapest defense round you can buy, with FMJ cartridges widely available for under $.10 apiece. The Glock 17 or its slightly smaller, more concealable sibling, the model 19, are the best way to carry and shoot this round.
The Glock semi-auto design is so simple, so widely recognized, and so thoroughly proven, that this pistol wins based not only on simplicity but also on ubiquity and durability. The polymer frame keeps it very light. The slide is also the only semi-auto with a factory spring light enough for my wife to reliably cycle. Cleaning, if necessary at all, is a cinch: You remove the slide, pop out the recoil spring, remove the barrel, scrub and lube them all, and then put it back together. Show above is a first generation Glock 17 from the mid 1980’s. I don’t know how many thousands of rounds have gone through it, but that’s the extent of its cleaning, and I can’t remember ever having a non-operator-induced malfunction.
You can buy a new Glock for under $500. Put tritium sights on it for another $100. Get a holster, load up its 17-round magazines with cheap ammunition, and get to a range to hone your skills. For defensive use, especially if you don’t have a military or police background, you owe it to yourself to get some professional training. Local NRA-affiliated organizations or shooting clubs should be able to steer you in the right direction. (I qualified expert on the M9 in the Air Force, and subsequently spent 3 productive days at the SigArms Academy’s Concealed Carry course for civilians.)
There are a plethora of semi-automatic pistols on the market. Right off the bat I rule out any with an external safety: A well-designed handgun is drop-safe, so it doesn’t need a manual safety. The gun’s operator keeps the gun safe by keeping it holstered, and when it is unholstered the operator keeps it safe by not pulling the trigger unless he wants to discharge a round. I also rule out guns with exposed hammers or double actions: These are unnecessary complications that may be fine for competitive shooters, but which should not be brought into the equation for civilians just trying to acquire or maintain basic competency.
The only drawback to the Glock series is that it uses “double-stack” magazines, which means the grips are larger and not suited to people with small hands. If you have small hands, find a single-stack gun that fits you — that’s more important than any other feature.
Finally, if you don’t already have a safe, buy one of these and bolt it into a cupboard or closet. (You can find them on Gunbroker.com for under $100.)
Update: this is a photo of a third generation Glock 17. Its frame has more aggressive grip moldings as well as a front rail for attaching lights and laser sights — in this case a Streamlight TLR-2 unit that combines both.
Your guide rod?
Hi
Yes it is GLOCK is a marvelous gun,my GLOCK 19 serial Number CRA591 has shot 4500 rounds without a single stopage !
regards.
PS Keep Glocking !
Great video showing Glock reliability: 298 rounds shot full-auto with no jam or component failure.
im new to glocks and recently got the same glock 17 gen 1. in the pic the magazine are gen 2? do they also work for gen ? please help !
Here’s documentation of an outrageous torture test of a Glock 21: It wasn’t cleaned for 15,000 rounds. Then it was soaked in mud, sand, saltwater. It was frozen, shot at with a .22, dropped from a plane, run over with a truck, dragged behind a car, and still shot reliably.
See also SniperWorld’s Glock page.
Details on Glock’s distinctive ergonomics:
Massad Ayoob comments on Glock handguns.
Pingback: EmptorMaven » Blog Archive » I Like Sig Pistols
More observations of Glock’s advantages over other pistols.
Glock Pistols: What Breaks and How to Fix It
Here’s a torture test in which they ran a full-auto Glock until it failed due to heating past the polymer’s melting point. First the plastic guiderod failed after 669 rounds. Replacing it with a steel guiderod they were able to run up to 1272 rounds before the trigger return spring attachment melted, but it could still fire!
Perhaps the busiest rental range in the world notes: