Glock safety concerns

If you feel queezy carrying your new Glock, then carry it with the chamber empty till you realize it's perfectly safe with a round in the chamber.

 

+1. And put some effort into learning about your gun and guns in general. Being scared by guns is, 100% of the time, a symptom of not knowing enough about them. Understanding how it is built and how it works and what all those parts do will make you feel a lot better.

 

I wasn't being snide.
A lot of Glockers (well, some of them anyway) carry their pistol with a loaded magazine/empty chamber. Works well for those who carry a Glock on duty & must surrender it several times daily (like when entering a federal building, jail, etc.) That way , the first round won't be all dinged-up from being chambered 50 times before being fired.

Someone once said on these forums: Rack the slide, then insert a loaded magazine, and carry it all day long, every day. If you find the trigger has been pulled, then be concerned.

One word of advice, don't get a generic holster, get one made specifically for your model Glock. In the past, there were issues of a thumbstrap hanging into the holster, and discharging the firearm when it was re-holstered. A few were injured, and many more soiled themselves.

BTW, what model do you own?

 

Actually, there is an external safety on the Glock. It's the trigger. All three safety's are predicated on the trigger being pulled. Don't pull the trigger, gun won't go bang. It's really that simple. Now it's just a matter of comfort. I have close friends that will not carry a Glock because they are not comfortable. It's kinda like faith, you either have it or you don't and the only person that can really decide that is you. We can give you knowledge and assurity and point to statistics and numbers that say the Glock is just as safe as any other gun and probably safer if you consider the number of Glocks in use and the number of ADs. In the end, YOU have to be comfortable and have "faith" or carry something else.

In my opinion (repeat OPINION), all safety's are nothing more than gimmicks to appeaze political correctness and the minds of an ignorant public. Pull trigger, bang... don't pull trigger, no bang. Everything else is hype.

Just my $.02

 

Your Glock has the same number of external, user-operated safeties as the revolvers you are used to using. Yes, they have a longer/heavier trigger pull before they will fire, but if the edge of your revolver trigger snags on the edge of your holster during re-holstering, the revolver will fire if you shove it down hard enough; the Glock, thanks to the tab in the CENTER of the trigger (where it is difficult to snag on anything accidentally), will not.

Get a holster made for your Glock model that securely covers the trigger guard, and practice your gunhandling skills with your G26 until you have raised your confidence level a bit. The suggestion above about carrying with a cocked Glock and empty chamber is another option, but if you do so, I suggest a LOT of specific practice on chambering a round at the end of the drawing stroke, and getting some training on how to get a gun in this condition ready-to-fire if you only have one hand available.

Edited to add: A couple of years ago, a local guy put a divot in his butt while reholstering his 1911A1 clone at a match. The thumb and grip safeties didn't stop him from shooting himself, or prevent the accident in any way. Depending on safeties for safety is not safe, IMO.

 

hunters ed taught me a safty is a mechanical devise subject to failure. imo relying on a safty and not your self makes for a dangerous combinations. i practise drawing trigger finger on the trigger guard then moving it over when the gun is in postition to be fired. also reholstering without finger on trigger. (very Important.) and lastly i dont want to panic in a shoot out situation and forget to take the safty off or having it snag on somthing, just one less thing to worry about. anyways thats my opinion some may agree others will not. as i have known alot of people that love the glock but will not buy one becaues it does not have an external oh well they are just missing out. lol

 

So the obvious choice would be to grab one of the other 5,000 makes and models and sizes of 1911 out there. They all have the same external safety feature and some even have more internal safety features than the Wilson (i.e., series 80 Colts). The Wilson CQB costs over $2,000 - a similar Kimber would be under $1,000 and a Springfield Armory Mil-Spec might be under $600 (and a SA GI model under $400, mine was $389, new) - the cheaper guns aren't going to have the level of custom fitting and trigger polishing, etc., of the Wilson, but to someone who hasn't been shooting them a long time, it may not seem like that big of a difference.

 

Want a thumb safety on your Glock?

http://www.cominolli.com/glocksafety.htm

http://www.cominolli.com/glocksafetyinstallers.htm

 

MichaelAnthony,

There are several good posts above mine. Please read them. Some of my commenents will be redundant to theirs.

I had revolvers for 15 years prior to first Glock. Along the way I had a few other semiautos that had external manual safety, including S&W and Colt.

I found the Glock to be great fun to shoot and out fantastically reliable, but I still had concerns initiallly.

It took me a while to get used to the idea that the Glock was "safe". Actually, the Glock was always safe, the concern was whether I was safe.

I no longer have concerns. Just practice proper firearm. Do get a holster that was designed for the Glock, not some cheap little nylon thing.

I now love the simplicity of the Glock design, perfect IMHO for a stressful situation.

If you decide to carry with an empty chamber for a while, that is okay, but you I'll bet you will soon master your concerns and carry with a chambered round.

 

Tony

Try carrying your Glock around with the trigger reset and a empty chamber, Wear it like that for awhile and see if the trigger gets tripped.

Just my .02
HTH
Jim

 

Good advise from other board members.If you however dont want the 3913 send it to me.I am more accurate with it than my glocks

 

Actually two of the Glock's internal safeties are drop safeties where, in theory, there is no politically-correct human involved to pull the trigger to make it go bang. Glock wants it to still not go bang if dropped. As there are cases where humans have intervened, instinctively trying to catch their falling Glock (with bad results), the best thing to do is let it fall - then pick it up, rather than try to catch it. The drop safeties work (yes, plural, the trigger safety is also the drop safety for an impact on the rear of the slide vs. the muzzle end).

 

U need to chill. There is only one way your glock is going to go off. That's if you place your finger on the trigger. Just like any other gun; external or internal safety. If you're not going to shoot it....Don't touch the trigger!

 

Check out Butch's posts on this thread and you should feel better about the Glock safety.

http://glocktalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=536963&highlight=safety

I also agree that you should carry the gun for a week-month... whatever... with the slide racked, but no round in the chamber... if you release the striker, then you're right to worry.

I like the fact that there is no temptation to think that the Glock is "safe". I always handle it carefully because I know there is no room for mistakes with regards to trigger discipline.

The purpose of the safety is to keep it from going off if you drop it. The thing that keeps you from pulling the trigger (other than your brain) is a quality holster... a good holster is your manual safety.

Good luck and be safe. I hope you come to love your Glock.

 

Just wondering, how do you check if glocks safeties are working correctly? Is their a way to test them?

 

Trigger safety should be obvious from looking at it.

I don't know how a drop safety could fail unless you removed material.

The firing pin safety can be tested by field stripping the slide and trying to move the firing pin forward. Shouldn't go. Then press the plunger and you should be able to push the firing pin forward.

Not many ways they can malfunction unless you start modifying stuff.