Many of you know I have been a hardcore 1911 guy. I have my last 1911 up for sale here and another ODT member PMed to ask why I'm selling it to get a Glock. The following is a copy of my answer to him. I thought some others may be interested in that answer.
"It's a big transition for me that has been many years in the making. I've been a 1911 guy for about 35 years and have always loved them, with one exception. Reliability. With proper maintenance, and sometimes, proper ammo selection we both know they run fine. The problem is that with those stipulations that means they can be somewhat finicky.
I'm a bit of a prepper and decided that I wanted a sidearm that was as close to 100% reliable for a SHTF situation as was available. That means a Glock. Unfortunately, the Glock trigger is so bad I just could not stand it. I tried to like Glock on a couple of different occasions and got rid of them after a short time because of the trigger. Then a friend of mine started experimenting on doing trigger jobs on them and the difference is phenomenal. It's still not as good as a good 1911, but is very functional and easy to master.
My first permanent move into a Glock was a Gen 4 Glock 22 as my primary Go Bag sidearm. I got the 22 because with nothing other than a barrel change it shoots 9mm. You don't even need to use a different mag, though almost everyone will tell you differently. I tested this and you can run 9mm from a 40 mag or 40 from a 9mm mag and the weapon runs 100% reliably. This means that by simply carrying an extra barrel I can shoot either 9mm or 40 S&W. Whatever I can get my hands on.
I also believe that a combat weapon needs a high capacity over individual power of each round. I feel exactly the opposite about a SD weapon because the vast majority of the time a SD encounter will be determined by the first two or three rounds. This is often not the case in a combat situation and sustained firepower is required. Different circumstances require different tools.
Once I had made this move away from a 1911 it only made sense to start looking at a change in my SD weapon. I wanted something smaller and lighter than my 1911 Commander. I stumbled across a great sale on a Kahr CM45 and jumped on it. I liked the easy carry of the weapon, but ultimately decided against it and sold it. The logical move was into the Glock 36. A small single stack 45. That was a very good choice, again after getting the trigger job done. Light, comfortable and with the power of the 45 for SD.
I traded my 1911 Commander for a Government model because I wanted to be able to convert it to 460 for hunting and they don't make conversion kits for the Commander. I got the other modifications done to it for fun and then kept it in 45 as my nightstand gun.
I've been practicing with both Glocks a LOT, to retrain three and a half decades of body programing with 1911s. For the first time in several weeks I pulled out the 1911 yesterday. I presented the weapon to fire and.........no front sight!!!! It was low. Below my line of sight. This is not a problem you want to have in either a SD or combat situation. After doing a few repetitions and thinking about my presentation the problem went away, but only if I made an effort to avoid it. Then I picked up one of the Glocks and with no thought presented to the target. The front sight was on the target automatically. Back to the 1911 and a natural presentation. Front sight was low and out of sight again. The ergonomics of the two weapons simply do not match up well.
This may not seem to be a big deal to a lot of people, but for me it is. Instant acquisition of the target with the front sight can make the difference between life and death in a real world situation when fractions of a second matter. It also means that if I'm point shooting the 1911 will hit low. For me, the only logical choice is to commit completely to the Glock, thus my nightstand gun will become a Glock 21. It doesn't hurt that they also make a 460 conversion for that weapon."
"It's a big transition for me that has been many years in the making. I've been a 1911 guy for about 35 years and have always loved them, with one exception. Reliability. With proper maintenance, and sometimes, proper ammo selection we both know they run fine. The problem is that with those stipulations that means they can be somewhat finicky.
I'm a bit of a prepper and decided that I wanted a sidearm that was as close to 100% reliable for a SHTF situation as was available. That means a Glock. Unfortunately, the Glock trigger is so bad I just could not stand it. I tried to like Glock on a couple of different occasions and got rid of them after a short time because of the trigger. Then a friend of mine started experimenting on doing trigger jobs on them and the difference is phenomenal. It's still not as good as a good 1911, but is very functional and easy to master.
My first permanent move into a Glock was a Gen 4 Glock 22 as my primary Go Bag sidearm. I got the 22 because with nothing other than a barrel change it shoots 9mm. You don't even need to use a different mag, though almost everyone will tell you differently. I tested this and you can run 9mm from a 40 mag or 40 from a 9mm mag and the weapon runs 100% reliably. This means that by simply carrying an extra barrel I can shoot either 9mm or 40 S&W. Whatever I can get my hands on.
I also believe that a combat weapon needs a high capacity over individual power of each round. I feel exactly the opposite about a SD weapon because the vast majority of the time a SD encounter will be determined by the first two or three rounds. This is often not the case in a combat situation and sustained firepower is required. Different circumstances require different tools.
Once I had made this move away from a 1911 it only made sense to start looking at a change in my SD weapon. I wanted something smaller and lighter than my 1911 Commander. I stumbled across a great sale on a Kahr CM45 and jumped on it. I liked the easy carry of the weapon, but ultimately decided against it and sold it. The logical move was into the Glock 36. A small single stack 45. That was a very good choice, again after getting the trigger job done. Light, comfortable and with the power of the 45 for SD.
I traded my 1911 Commander for a Government model because I wanted to be able to convert it to 460 for hunting and they don't make conversion kits for the Commander. I got the other modifications done to it for fun and then kept it in 45 as my nightstand gun.
I've been practicing with both Glocks a LOT, to retrain three and a half decades of body programing with 1911s. For the first time in several weeks I pulled out the 1911 yesterday. I presented the weapon to fire and.........no front sight!!!! It was low. Below my line of sight. This is not a problem you want to have in either a SD or combat situation. After doing a few repetitions and thinking about my presentation the problem went away, but only if I made an effort to avoid it. Then I picked up one of the Glocks and with no thought presented to the target. The front sight was on the target automatically. Back to the 1911 and a natural presentation. Front sight was low and out of sight again. The ergonomics of the two weapons simply do not match up well.
This may not seem to be a big deal to a lot of people, but for me it is. Instant acquisition of the target with the front sight can make the difference between life and death in a real world situation when fractions of a second matter. It also means that if I'm point shooting the 1911 will hit low. For me, the only logical choice is to commit completely to the Glock, thus my nightstand gun will become a Glock 21. It doesn't hurt that they also make a 460 conversion for that weapon."
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