Every time Glock releases a new generation, the consumer seems to say, “That’s it?” There are a lot of criticisms of the minimal changes. Glock is aware of this, and it was even the subject of a joke made at the Smyrna facility to a group of writers, YouTubers, and other influencers earlier last week.
We were invited and weren’t told much. We didn’t know what we were there for, but upon entering the facility, the topic was clear: The Glock Gen 6 has arrived.
For the first time, I don’t think the consumer market will see a new Glock generation and say, “That’s it?” Glock hasn’t made minimal changes and slapped Gen 6 on the slide. Instead, the new Gen 6 is a radical redesign of the Glock pistols and will take the duty market by storm.
Glock has always had its grip on the duty market, but it has faced a rising tide of competition. They aren’t the only polymer frame, 9mm, striker-fired pistol on the market. With that in mind, the Gen 6 is integrating a ton of changes to the frame and slide to beach the competition.
Glock addressed most of the criticisms surrounding its guns. Taking note of all the complaints about the grip, the MOS system, the trigger, and the texture, Glock produced a family of pistols that are thoroughly modern and come out of the box ready with the features concealed carriers, competitors, and duty professionals have always wanted.
Gen 6 Ergonomics: Redesigning the “Block”
Let’s break down the criticisms and how Glock addressed them one by one.
RTF6 Texture and Palm Swell
The grip texture of Glock pistols has always been fine, but for some, it was never aggressive enough. We saw the rise of custom shops offering to stipple your frame to make it more aggressive. That’s not needed anymore.
Glock has introduced the RTF6 texture that covers the entire grip of the gun. The texture feels extremely aggressive and sticks to your hand. It now goes all the way up and provides a full grip over the gun.
Glock gets the “block” comparison due to their somewhat thick, unergonomic grip. That’s changed; they’ve integrated a palm swell to improve ergonomics and help with that high grip.
Say Goodbye to “Glock Knuckle”
High grip is a big theme. How many Glock fans complain about Glock knuckle? They won’t anymore; the trigger guard has a radical undercut to let your hand sit high.
The compliment to the undercut is an integrated and much longer beavertail that allows you to tuck your hand up quite high and ensures zero slide bite. This new beavertail isn’t reliant on a backstrap to add it; the beavertail is independent of the two backstraps the gun will come with.
Glock also added a magazine well to make the gun faster and easier to reload on the fly.
The Trigger
Glock also changed the trigger shoe. It is now a flat-faced trigger that eliminates the rubbing feeling you get when shooting Glocks for extended periods of time. It is comfortable, has a reduced reach, and still features a very subtle hook for a constant index point.
The Optics System and Slide
Glock also ditched the MOS system with the Gen 6, but keeps a modular optics design. Instead of the plate attaching to the gun and the optic attaching to the plate, the optic will attach directly to the gun. The Optics Ready system has a series of polymer inserts that contain your recoil bosses and act almost like a crush washer when securing the optic to the gun.
Glock also redesigned the EDP channel to prevent longer screws from negatively interacting with the extractor and creating reliability issues. To make racking the gun easier with an optic, the slide serrations have been deepened and made more aggressive toward the top of the slide.
The Thumb Rest
Thumb rests have become more and more common with firearms. Glock acknowledged that and added a set on each side of the gun. These are not additions to the frame that add bulk, but are carved into the frame.
This keeps the profile slim and doesn’t negatively interact with holsters. It allows the user to press downward on the frame to help mitigate recoil. I’ve also found that thumb pressure makes it easier to find the dot from the draw.
Shooting the Gen 6 Glock
We got to extensively shoot the three new Gen 6 pistols: the Glock 19, the Glock 17, and the Glock 45. I found each pistol to be extremely easy to control. The upgraded ergonomics make a huge difference.
From a recoil perspective, the gun maintains a flat shooting design. It’s easy to shoot quickly without drifting off target. The gun returns quickly to the target, and I could spring out a slightly modified Bill Drill rapidly with excellent control, with a group no larger than my palm.
Driving the gun between targets with double taps was easy. Rapid-fire mag dumps were also easy. The gun just likes going fast and doing it accurately. Sadly, we were limited in how far we could shoot, but at close range, you could produce one ragged hole if you did your part.
The big takeaway is that doing your part is a fair bit easier with a Gen 6 Glock.
What This Means for the Duty Market
One thing Glock reiterated over and over again was that the Glock is a combat pistol. It’s a fighting pistol first and foremost.
The Gen 6 is primed to offer a modern pistol design to the modern duty market. Glock has a real shot at beating back the rising tide of the competition by simply doing exactly what the customer wants.
For the duty world, the optics mount will likely be a serious game-changer. More and more police departments are issuing optics. Heck, my small town Sheriff’s department is rocking optics these days.
Having a better, stronger system that reduces tolerance stacking will be a serious game-changer for agencies looking to adopt optics. By improving the optics ready system, they’ve reduced the downsides significantly and improved the most important aspect of a duty gun, its reliability.
At the range, the frame changes made a huge difference. The guns were substantially flatter shooting. We shot with dots, and dots are a great measure of how fast a gun recovers from recoil. When shooting, the dot pops right back down and on target for rapid recovery.
When you measure all the steps Glock took, it becomes clear they didn’t just listen to customer feedback. They reduced the effort needed to utilize the Gen 6 effectively. What it does best is reduce the potential for human and mechanical error when shooting a firearm.
It’s easier to shoot fast, the optic system is better, the ergonomics are better, and ultimately, the Glock Gen 6 series of pistols is a fairly radical departure from the Glock Gen 5 series.
The New Glock
The new Gen 6 Glock series didn’t leave me thinking, “That’s it?” It took Glock about five years to develop the Gen 6, and you can see the work they put into the gun. They took the common criticisms of Glock pistols and addressed them, one by one, to create a Generation you should keep your eye on.
