Glock357
Active Member
I have a Glock 22 that I installed a 357 sig barrel and a Burris red dot. Although it's great to shoot and very accurate, it's pretty big. So I ve been wanting a smaller one for a while now. At the same time I have been watching the polymer Glock 80 knockoffs for a while but thought that the plastic rear rail wasn't a good idea. So when they came up with the compact version that fixed the rear rail flaw I couldn't resist.
So i bought a used gen three Glock 23 slide with the barrel and all parts for the upper and lower included for 400 bucks and the polymer 80 lower for 145 from eBay. The parts arrived some last night and some this afternoon and couldn't wait to build.
It took me about an hour to carefully mill the unnecessary plastic off on my xyz vise and drill press, then sanded and polished, installed the parts that I ultrasonically cleaned last night and there you go.
I also polished the front and rear rails on my knife sharpener, lubed, added some copper anti seize and its ready for range testing. I am planning to spend the day at the range tomorrow to test it out.
Preliminary observations:
The build quality rivals that of the original Glock. The nylon plastic frame appears to be similar in composition. In fact with the beefier front and rear slides I would say it is stronger than the Gen 4 Glock I have. I attempted to build my own Glock frame a few years ago so I studied how deep into the plastic the Glock rails go and was surprised that they don't go in too far.
I think the polymer 80 design is an upgrade to the Glock because the front rail makes optimal use of the real estate between the front rails and barrel lock block. It replaces the over molded Glock rails with a cast stainless steel rail and barrel locking block unibody and they added a 4th pin to hold it secure. I think this is a stronger setup.
They also replaced the rear Glock rails with a unibody bent stainless steel that hugs the plastic trigger mechanism housing. They also provided a stainless steel pin to replace the Glock rear trigger pin, since now this pin will take the stress from the rail, it's probably a good idea to make it metal. The rear rail is made with a thicker sheet metal than the original Glock, but still fits snugly on the slide. The tighter tolerances result in a pistol that doesn't rattle. Combining this with an aftermarket barrel with also tighter tolerances might increase accuracy. The rear rail is nickel plated, but the quality of the plating is not great given that it was flaking out of the box. With some polishing I was able to blend in the flaked plating. I am not sure the plating was needed, but the Glock rails are also plated, and it was also flaking on my Glock right out of the box. I think the plating serves to reduce the friction between the rail and the trigger bar.
After installing everything, I tested the function and although the slide is tighter than my G22 it still cycles smoothly. I ll update tomorrow after I shoot it some.
I only have the G22 magazines (5, 15-rounders, from before the prohibition) so i bought an x-grip extender to go with them. The only problem with the magazines is that they don't drop free, but at the same time they are not too tight either. Maybe with some sanding I can loosen them up. I think the issue here is that the thinner polymer 80 grip results in some sagging after demolding the frame. (Correction: after close inspection, it appears that the magazine catch is pushing against the magazine body and not the frame. I don't know if it's because I am using 4th gen mags on a3 gen frame)
Bottom line, I like the frame a lot, it feels nice in my hand, aiming is very similar to the Glock. Additionally polymer 80 corrected many of the Glock flaws, such as the disconnection between the front rails and the barrel lock block, the skinny rails, the reinforced the plastic in key areas such as the front Picatinni rail area and they thickened the plastic over the Glock mechanism area, about the trigger and pins. They added a 4th pin and replaced the rear pin with a metal one. Overall, if they had a 4th gen one I would have bought it to replace my G22 frame! Next step is to buy a 357 sig barrel.
My question is is how does the Glock company feel about polymer 80?
In the pics below you can see a comparison between my G22 4th gen with the polymer 80 pf940c with used OEM slide.
So i bought a used gen three Glock 23 slide with the barrel and all parts for the upper and lower included for 400 bucks and the polymer 80 lower for 145 from eBay. The parts arrived some last night and some this afternoon and couldn't wait to build.
It took me about an hour to carefully mill the unnecessary plastic off on my xyz vise and drill press, then sanded and polished, installed the parts that I ultrasonically cleaned last night and there you go.
I also polished the front and rear rails on my knife sharpener, lubed, added some copper anti seize and its ready for range testing. I am planning to spend the day at the range tomorrow to test it out.
Preliminary observations:
The build quality rivals that of the original Glock. The nylon plastic frame appears to be similar in composition. In fact with the beefier front and rear slides I would say it is stronger than the Gen 4 Glock I have. I attempted to build my own Glock frame a few years ago so I studied how deep into the plastic the Glock rails go and was surprised that they don't go in too far.
I think the polymer 80 design is an upgrade to the Glock because the front rail makes optimal use of the real estate between the front rails and barrel lock block. It replaces the over molded Glock rails with a cast stainless steel rail and barrel locking block unibody and they added a 4th pin to hold it secure. I think this is a stronger setup.
They also replaced the rear Glock rails with a unibody bent stainless steel that hugs the plastic trigger mechanism housing. They also provided a stainless steel pin to replace the Glock rear trigger pin, since now this pin will take the stress from the rail, it's probably a good idea to make it metal. The rear rail is made with a thicker sheet metal than the original Glock, but still fits snugly on the slide. The tighter tolerances result in a pistol that doesn't rattle. Combining this with an aftermarket barrel with also tighter tolerances might increase accuracy. The rear rail is nickel plated, but the quality of the plating is not great given that it was flaking out of the box. With some polishing I was able to blend in the flaked plating. I am not sure the plating was needed, but the Glock rails are also plated, and it was also flaking on my Glock right out of the box. I think the plating serves to reduce the friction between the rail and the trigger bar.
After installing everything, I tested the function and although the slide is tighter than my G22 it still cycles smoothly. I ll update tomorrow after I shoot it some.
I only have the G22 magazines (5, 15-rounders, from before the prohibition) so i bought an x-grip extender to go with them. The only problem with the magazines is that they don't drop free, but at the same time they are not too tight either. Maybe with some sanding I can loosen them up. I think the issue here is that the thinner polymer 80 grip results in some sagging after demolding the frame. (Correction: after close inspection, it appears that the magazine catch is pushing against the magazine body and not the frame. I don't know if it's because I am using 4th gen mags on a3 gen frame)
Bottom line, I like the frame a lot, it feels nice in my hand, aiming is very similar to the Glock. Additionally polymer 80 corrected many of the Glock flaws, such as the disconnection between the front rails and the barrel lock block, the skinny rails, the reinforced the plastic in key areas such as the front Picatinni rail area and they thickened the plastic over the Glock mechanism area, about the trigger and pins. They added a 4th pin and replaced the rear pin with a metal one. Overall, if they had a 4th gen one I would have bought it to replace my G22 frame! Next step is to buy a 357 sig barrel.
My question is is how does the Glock company feel about polymer 80?
In the pics below you can see a comparison between my G22 4th gen with the polymer 80 pf940c with used OEM slide.
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