Is Glock hurting, after the Gen 5?

Baccusboy · Jul 29, 2018

Sorry, posted this in the wrong forum... meant it to be in handguns. Won't delete...

In my boredom, I like to peruse the different gun forums, and watch a lot of YT videos. I am seeing a common theme... sales of the Glock Gen 5 are pretty flat. There's just so much great competition out there, now (often over $100 less). It also seems people are mostly not happy with the big, uncomfortable finger hole cut to remove the mag.

Will we soon hear that Glock is in trouble? Or will a Gen 6 with a different cut in the magwell, or an improved grip be coming soon?

MattTheGunslinger · Jul 29, 2018

I love Glock. The G19 Gen 3 is in my opinion the greatest semiauto handgun ever created. That being said, Glock is a cocky company who dropped the ball time and time again. It wouldn't surprise me if they were in trouble, but I hope they're not.

Bertfish · Jul 29, 2018

Never owned one never really wanted to.

What do they even change between generations?

If I were them I'd be concerned about market saturation with striker fired polymer handguns AND letting their own product stagnate.

DC-W · Jul 29, 2018

When Generation 3s are still extremely common and don't perform drastically worse than the newer pistols, what impetus is there to update short of needing ambi controls and really hating finger grooves?

MattTheGunslinger · Jul 29, 2018

The biggest difference is each generation has different grip features. Minor internal changes for some generations. Gen 4 started the interchangeable back straps. None of it is really ground breaking or original thinking. Heck even the G42 and G43 which are much smaller frames were extremely late to the compact 380acp and 9mm party.

If Glock was smart they would make a Carbine that takes, wait for it.... GLOCK MAGS!! People have wanted this for years. 9mm, 40S&W, 10mm or 45acp carbines with grip options that take all mag sizes for the respective caliber. That would be a gold mine for them. But nooooo, the pistols that they changed 5-6 times is perfection.

lazarus · Jul 29, 2018

Matt said:
The biggest difference is each generation has different grip features. Minor internal changes for some generations. Gen 4 started the interchangeable back straps. None of it is really ground breaking or original thinking. Heck even the G42 and G43 which are much smaller frames were extremely late to the compact 380acp and 9mm party.

If Glock was smart they would make a Carbine that takes, wait for it.... GLOCK MAGS!! People have wanted this for years. 9mm, 40S&W, 10mm or 45acp carbines with grip options that take all mag sizes for the respective caliber. That would be a gold mine for them. But nooooo, the pistols that they changed 5-6 times is perfection.

What would be nice is a carbine with the magwell in the grip, like a High Point. I hate to ape the ape gun, but if you can wrap your mitts around a Glock pistol, why not a carbine with the mag in the handgrip. It would shorten the whole thing. Then with a 16” barrel and 13-14” LOP and you are at your 29-30” or so OAL without going Bullpup and you are basically 50 state legal with a very compact pistol caliber carbine. Make the buttstock a side folder if you need to.

zoostation · Jul 29, 2018

They still own somewhere around 50% of the US LE market by most guesses. But IMHO having worked in that industry they're very arrogant and don't see the need to do much of anything new when they have achieved "perfection." Guns don't wear out and you can only sell the same customer base so many of a Gen 1,2,3 and 4 of the same gun before people start to decide they don't need a Gen 5. That being said, if I were going somewhere my life was going to be on the line I'd be hard pressed to take anything else given a choice. I'd pick a Glock over an HK any day. Just my .02.

Biggfoot44 · Jul 30, 2018

The Gen 5 was too close on the heels of the Gen 4 .

Baccusboy · Jul 30, 2018

I plan to buy a Glock (possibly single stack) one day. I love not having the finger grooves on the Gen5, but that cut in the magwell is just too much for comfort.

I really expected I would be getting a Gen5 19. Not with that uncomfortable chunk missing.

I keep reading that Gen5's are just not selling well. The CZP10c and Sig P365 surely are not helping Glock sales. S&W 2.0, either.

SWO Daddy · Jul 30, 2018

DC-W said:
When Generation 3s are still extremely common and don't perform drastically worse than the newer pistols, what impetus is there to update short of needing ambi controls and really hating finger grooves?

IANAL, buy I've always suspected it's mostly to do with patent protection.

Schipperke · Jul 30, 2018

I'm stuck with Perfection 2.0

Rockzilla · Jul 30, 2018

Bertfish said:
Never owned one never really wanted to.

What do they even change between generations?

If I were them I'd be concerned about market saturation with striker fired polymer handguns AND letting their own product stagnate.

unfortunately owned a older Glock,(Glock bulge) had a different barrel
installed, SOLD IT, don't want another,Like my HK's, Sigs,FN's, and of
course 1911's....each to their own, I guess. Only thing keeping them
around is the LE market, so with that comes the arrogant mind set,
and that cash cow. And I'm Glock..They may wake up one day, but
they won't be getting any of my $$$. Just more $$ for other projects...
YMMV...

-Rock

omegared24 · Jul 30, 2018

Matt said:
I love Glock. The G19 Gen 3 is in my opinion the greatest semiauto handgun ever created. That being said, Glock is a cocky company who dropped the ball time and time again. It wouldn't surprise me if they were in trouble, but I hope they're not.

I love my 3rd gen and I agree, it is the greatest handgun...for me.

It fits my hand perfectly and ergonomics work well but I can see where it wouldn't work for some people.

Sundazes · Jul 30, 2018

The Poly 80's have had to have an impact on sales of completed factory firearms. But the parts OEM market should be booming.
Also the used market is huge. Look at all the ads here and the consignments at IP's.

Czechnologist · Jul 30, 2018

I think Glock is playing it smart from a business standpoint. If it ain't broke... and that's why they still own 50% of the LE market instead of sticking their necks out, like Sig and other manufacturers, with radical new designs fraught with issues that take 3-4 generations to finally fix.

Some companies, like Sig and to a lesser-extent CZ, Walther and Steyr, are absolutely obsessed in taking any market share away from Glock that they can and yet, Glock keeps churning-out the same pistol they've been making for 20+ years with only minor modifications. Until they start losing significant numbers of customers to other manufacturers, Glock won't be changing much about what they do and it's hard to blame them.

erwos · Jul 30, 2018

Biggfoot44 said:
The Gen 5 was too close on the heels of the Gen 4 .

Here's a man who gets it. The reason sales are flat is because the Gen5 came out a little too soon, and didn't offer very much in the way of obvious improvements from Gen4. Hell, the only thing that Gen4 really offered that MATTERED was the ambi-magazine release and maybe the backstraps. Other competitors came in and then ate their lunch.

Personally, the release of the P80 PF940 frames basically ended most of my desire to buy any more factory Glocks. The PF940s are better in nearly every way, and the downsides I know of (pin walk, trigger overtravel on forceful holds) are fixable with minimal pain. About the only factory Glock I could ever see buying at this point would be a G34 MOS, purely because they're a known quantity for IDPA/USPSA.

I get why Glock is sticking with their current frame config - backwards compatibility is a huge benefit when you're the standard - but their failure to introduce a "Glock Pro" line or similar that did what Poly80 and the competition did was a huge strategic mistake.

If a new shooter asked me what they should buy in terms of handguns now, I would be recommending the Sig P320. For a long time, that recommendation would have been a Glock 17/19. I doubt I'm the only one to make that change.

Baccusboy · Jul 30, 2018

I think, perhaps, the most important "mistake" made with the Glock Gen 5 is the hang-up/catch of the mag induced at the notch, as shown around 7:40 of this video:

That presents problems that weren't there before, and in an actual reload situation, a danger.

bkuether · Jul 30, 2018

I thought the Glock 5 was for me, now just thinking my gen 2 G17 works just fine.

Z_Man · Jul 30, 2018

i mean how many polymer semi auto's do i need? i bought a gen 5 cuz of the ambi slide stop and my wife is a southpaw. i could have bought a different handgun, but i have magazines and the such for g19 so... i have a lefthanded g19 to go with my right handed one. i may be in the minority, but i think i prefer the finger grooves with the gen 4 texture. but gymratz hooked me up when the were MD legal so it was also the cheapest i've paid for a new glock.

alucard0822 · Jul 30, 2018

IMO, they should have stuck with the gen 4, maybe added a couple other variants, and held off on Gen5 till they had something better. The finger grooves never bothered me, but the "hump" on the backstrap is less pronounced on SF and gen 4 models, and feels more like a 1911 grip angle.

Is Glock hurting, after the Gen 5?

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