The history of the Glock pistol

So you are doing your own investigation through our website, looking for the perfect gun for you? Congratulations, now you probably are about to explore something new about a gun, which can become your best friend not only during your sport shooting lessons, but even in everyday carrying.

Yes, long rifles or carbines are much more powerful, but certainly not much more fun than pistols. And if talking about the practical use, it is not likely that you will carry an AK or the M4 all day round on you unless you are in the military, so here comes the Glock pistol.

Why did it become so popular?

The secret behind the succes of this gun is simple - applying innovation. As far as a Glock pistol was one of the first firearm to employ polymer construction, the Glock G17 popularized this practice and brought it into the mainstream, making the company the best-selling pistol manufacturer in the world.

But what was before the company got all-world recognition?

It may be hard to believe, but in 1963, Gaston Glock was a successful manufacturer of curtain rods and rings in his native Austria. Today, his name is just as well known as John Moses Browning, Samuel Colt, Horace Smith, Daniel Wesson and William Ruger in the world of firearm development and manufacturing. He is said to have jokingly stated: “In 1980 I didn’t know a pistol from a revolver,” but by 1982 his Glock G17 was chosen to be the standard sidearm of the Austrian Army. And things started to go unbelievably well for the Glock.

Further adoption in the world

Seeing how succesfull glock performed in its motherland, fellow countries decided to make the same step. In 1984 it was adopted by Norway, the first of 45 export countries to choose the Glock as a standard sidearm. In 1986, a Glock plant in Georgia was turning out handguns for what would soon be more than 2,000 U.S. police departments. Today, the number of Glocks manufactured is counted in the tens of millions.

Innovative construction

Glock G17 chambered in 9 mm bullets, utilized a steel slide and barrel as well as numerous steel internal parts, but the most innovative aspect was the polymer frame that held all the parts together. This frame provided the platform for the 33 parts utilized in the composition of the gun, which was less than half the number of parts in most other pistols manufactured at that time. The use of polymer reduced the weight of the pistol more than by half, without any loss in the build's strenght! This result sounds impressive even now, and back then it sounded like science fiction.

All those aspects made a Glock company being able to proudly state its one-word slogan - prefection.

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