Glock 19X – There’s plenty of room for the author’s entire hand on the grip.
This week, we are taking a look in depth at the new Glock 19X. The 19X is based off the handgun Glock submitted for the MHS trials, delivered now to the civilian market, minus the thumb safety. I covered the Generation 5 Glock’s in 19 and 17 configurations here, last August. The highlights of those guns are a changed and more accurate barrel, an improved trigger, and none of your Gen 3 or 4 parts fit. The 19X is built on the Gen 5 improvements but is it’s own animal.
The 19X is basically a G19 slide melded to a G17 sized frame.
The 19X is basically a G19 slide melded to a G17 sized frame. This has been poo-pooed at length by the usual internet commando’s, but I like the concept. In fact, we had a grip extension created by Len Baxley when I was in the Army that did exactly the same thing. The result is a Commander sized Glock, which has several benefits. An extra ¼ inch might not sound like much on paper, but it does matter in real application.
First, it allows you to get a full grip on the gun. My pinkie finger hangs off the frame of a normal G19, as it does most men. This might not matter if you have an ironic mustache or XX chromosomes, but it sucks if you have lumberjack hands. I have taught many female and male students, and not once have I looked at a longer frame as a disadvantage.
Second, a G19 is lighter than a G17. With a plastic gun, I think we can go ahead and concede most of the weight is in the slide and barrel. 3/4ths of an inch of slide might not matter much, but ounces make pounds.
Glock is calling this color Coyote.
The third point is a little bit more controversial, but hear me out. Most people think of longer slide guns as more accurate. They aren’t. Easier to be accurate with? Sure, I will buy that. There is exactly nobody in the top 100 at USPSA or IDPA nationals using a Glock 19, though G34s and G17 are well represented. But if you do everything exactly correct, a G19 will shoot a bullseye just as well as a long barrel. The shorter sight radius takes a little more effort to line up for a long shot. The tradeoff though is a short sight radius is faster to line up. At most pistol range fights, be it the local 7/11 or Sadr City, speed matters more. With a 17 round magazine, you can walk them in if need be. The margin is small, but a shorter gun is also faster out of the holster. All things being equal, I would prefer a 19X to a G 34 for combat use.
The 19X does have some drawbacks, but they are negligible. First, it is only available with the older style Glock night sights, not the new BOLD ones. I really like the new sights, so much that I find the choice of the old ones shocking on this gun. There is nothing wrong with the old model, my G23 still wears them. But with a new gun, I want the new “hotness” sights. Easy fix, I would put Trijicon HD’s on if this was my gun.
The Glock 19X comes with the old style Glock night sights.
The second issue relates to magazines. The 19X will take Gen 3 and Gen 4 Glock 17 magazines no problem. If you have extended magazines like the Taran Tactical ones, they still fit if you remove the lanyard loop or grind off the peg used for retention on the magazine. Glock Gen 5 magazines do not fit, thanks to the shelf at the front of the grip. I don’t have a gym bag full of Gen 5 magazines, so I don’t see this as a problem but it was a bit of an oversight by Glock. One of the best things about Glocks has been the magazine compatibility. This certainly complicates that.
The 19X comes with three magazines. One standard 17 round magazine and two extended magazines that hold 19 rounds each.
How did it perform? Well, it’s a Glock. The trigger is an improvement over the Gen 3&4, but still not a 1911. Amazing I know. I have about a half a million rounds on a Glock platform, so this was like picking up an old friend. Also amazing, it never quit. But then, who thinks of 500 rounds as any kind of test for a Glock? It was boringly reliable, like every other Glock in the arsenal.
I personally like the 19X, and I think for a duty gun it is a fantastic choice. For concealed carry, I also think the extra .25 inches of frame length is irrelevant. I carried a G23 for years, with the grip extension on. Width is a lot more important than height. If you can carry a 19, you will have no problem with a 19X.
Learn more about the Glock 19X by clicking here.
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Well at least there is no magazine ‘safety’. I sold my Brownings, and wont own several new striker fired weapons just because they do have them. I sometimes even carry double action revolvers… oh the horror! No safeties… Relax everyone… If you like safeties, have at them. (As long as they don’t have them slide mounted…)
There are only two rules you need to remember when handling a firearm, with or without a thumb safety, nerve point it at anyone you don’t want to kill and never pull the trigger unless you want to hear a bang.
I’ve taken my 1911 apart and both my glocks many times. Seeing how they function, I don’t see the need for a safety on a striker fire gun. 1911 when ready to fire has a hammer under tension and could be bumped around and made to fire.
A striker fire is a different animal all together, your finger provides the tension just like pulling back the spring on a pinball machine to fire the gun. If your finger isn’t up to the task of being safe,maybe you shouldn’t have eather.
Wow, so many experts on here I don’t know who to listen to. How many have actually shot this thing compared to how many just blindly spewing uninformed (and from what I can tell untrained) opinions. Another thing, no external safety, really? Maybe get yourself some more training on handling a firearm, that’s the first defense against AD. I’ve had many different handguns, many I got rid of for various reasons, the ones I’ve kept feel right for me, but I never slack on training with each and everyone of them. Over 30 years of ownership, never an AD….it’s the owner, not the firearm that makes it safe.
Disappointed that the Glock 19X for the civilian market lacks the military’s manual safety option. I stopped carrying my Glock 19 because of insufficient safety with these kind of Glocks. Went to a S&W Model 59 which I had inherited in new condition from my father – it is exactly what a pistol should be. Utter reliability too.
Interesting how, every time there is a modern pistol “improvement” it becomes closer to the Model 59.
S&W nailed this one perfectly a long time ago.
Best, Dr. J. Burnett
Actually Doc your wrong most new guns get their looks from the Glock and the best safety should be between the ears. Glocks aren’t for everybody because most people have been trained by the idiots from hollyweird and you see most of them with bad trigger finger placement. Plus THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS AN ACIDENTAL DISCHARGE. Keep your bugger hook off the bang switch and it wont go off.
I feel better,
Thank you,
Tj
They are missing out on a lot of sales by not offering it with a thumb safety. I own a couple of Glocks (20, 21, 29) and insist on having a kydex-type holster for carrying them — anything else is unsafe because it does not have a safety. That little split trigger gimmick does not count as a *real* safety. There is no way that I would recommend a Glock to someone that did not have a at least moderate experience with firearms, especially women looking for a home defense handgun.
But Glock doesn’t want to sell one with a safety because by doing that, they probably think that doing that would be admitting that they had made a mistake all these years selling ones without a safety. That might open them up to some liability lawsuits by people who were injured by ADs due to their lack of a *real* safety.
There are other handguns that people routinely carry that do not have a safety and are not considered so inherently unsafe that a kydex-type holster is required. For example, a traditional double-action revolver. With it, the trigger pull is long and heavy, so the chance of an AD is reduced. The Glock has a shorter trigger pull and although not as heavy as the DA revolver, it is definitely heavier than a good SA handgun like the M1911. Also, despite what some people might claim, the Glock is NOT a double-action handgun since if the primer does not fire, you have to cycle the slide to get it to recock instead of just pulling the trigger again as in the Beretta 92.
why call it “commander” size? is this another pathetic attempt to compare glocks with a 1911?
there is no comparison. you should have called it “hi point” size, at least then it’s a more comparable comparison.
why the sudden accolades, when everyone has known for years that the trigger and barrel arent that good.
glock ignored these for years, and now we’re supposed to be impressed because they finally did what most everyone else has been doing for years?
the bigger question is why did it take glock 30 years to do something about it?
glocks were designed for law enforcement open carry, now that so many untrained people are concealing them and shooting themselves in the leg, you would think that glock would offer a better design, like a grip safety found on the xds & 1911’s, with or without a manual safety.
just wait another 30 years and maybe glock will add that too. I’ll stick with my American Company, & American made guns. ( which doesn’t include springfield armory xds’s made in croatia)
still not impressed, so many better guns than glock out there to choose from. and none of them were designed after attending nazi youth camp like the glock was.
I bought it, but for some reason could not adjust to it….until a former member of the armed services and current LEO explained it to me. I, like so many others, was trying to make the 19X fit my style of carry and use. It was like putting a square peg in a round hole. The gun was developed for the military and so it is a sidearm, and not, for example, for appendix carry. With its extended magazine, the gun is made for a gun fight, not a, “I can draw faster than you, or like drawing a G43 from the appendix position. Just as I wouldn’t use a hammer to cut a piece of wood, I had to adjust my thinking about the gun and how it was designed to be used. It then became a great piece of equipment.
No matter how many whistles and bells and better grip, it’s STILL a plastic gun and STILL a 9mm, two things I have never preferred after carrying handguns for over 60 years. 30 of those years in our Armed Forces in the field as either a grunt or an Interrogator-Translator!
Well, you helped sell another firearm! Think this is my 3rd buy of weapons you’ve reviewed…this, Saint Edge and CZ P10C.
Just put my 1st 150 rounds through the Glock and it went far better than I thought. I like the recoil impulse better than the CZ and maybe the trigger also. Very good first impression.
Keep the great reviews and write-ups coming…
I put a Vickers Tactical baseplate on my Gen5 mag and it works just fine in my 19X.
Your pinky finger hangs off a 19? Damn, I have “man hands” myself (XXL work gloves so they’re pretty big) and I’ve never had this issue.. I’ve had it with the 26 obviously as everyone has I believe, but never with a 19
“I would buy one if it had a thumb safety”. Learn how to safely operate your equipment and it doesn’t need a thumb “safety” which isn’t. In gun school one of the first things Dunlap taught us was never trust a “safety”. It still goes and it can cause you to get shot in the heat of the moment by not taking it off “safe”. I have had a 3 digit Gen 1 17 since new and have NEVER had an “accident” or anything else with it. If you have to have a “safety” buy one of the thousand others that have them, the reason Glock sells so many pistols is because they DON’T have a “safety”.
More correctly, they don’t have a manually operated external safety. Glock’s internal safety system is still one of the best (disengages smoothly on trigger pull unlike some imitators that are a bit clunky) but that’s only one of the reasons they get so many contracts from entities that purchase large numbers of handguns. Excellent marketing is no doubt a large part of it…as with any product that does very well against stiff competition.
Don’t fool yourself, these sell because they are cheap….They are cheap and a Department can buy a box full of these POS pistols for what a good pistol would cost.
AND…I guess you’ve never heard of “Glock Leg”, look it up!
Sorry Clay. Big fan of your reviews, but this sure seems like the first sell out to say something, anything nice about this mediocre loser of the MHS trials. We all know there’s nothing special about the gun – after all it was Glock perfect right? and someone hacked it up. Just needed to get something on the editor’s desk right away I guess? IDK more about your MCX Virtus trials is what we’re waiting for. Keep up your good work and stay safe.
According to Glock, the 19X weighs 6 grams less than a 17.
I have always had issues with Glock…. Now they decide to put a real barrel and a better trigger on their pistols. So since 1985, they were selling an inferior pistol, YES. My XDM came with a match grade barrel and a great trigger, I purchased it 6 years ago. I find the Glock grip angle uncomfortable and not intuitive. . Glock’s have an excellent reliability record, but even the cheap knock off plastic guns have a solid reliability record. To each their own..
“My XDM came with a match grade barrel and a great trigger”
As for the barrel, okay. But the trigger? Really? I have had three XDMs and an XD. All four had frickin terrible triggers. Springfield was replacing them (or working on them in some way or other) by the hundreds and thousands, when the XDM and it’s “competition” trigger first came out. I shoot PPC. And at most matches, the award guns are always a SA pistol of some sort. First place WAS always an XDM. Was! They stopped giving them, and replaced them with a real gun (and trigger!), one of their 1911 pistols.
The XDM is a joke!
I to own a couple of XDM’s and I agree that they have terrible triggers, I spent a $100.00 and replaced them. Now I have too much money in them to get rid of them.
I own a Gen5 Glock 19 MOS and I think it is the best Glock ever made.
“Width matters more than height?” I understand the sentiment, but I think it depends on the build of the concealed carrier. For a short stocky guy like Clay, gun width may matter more than gun height, but for a taller, thinner person, grip length is one of the factors that makes a gun most difficult to conceal.
I’m 6’2″
But rumor is you have tiny feet
She said “taller AND thinner”, Clay… 😂😂😂😂
LOL! Maybe he’s a giant!
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Bigger grip to have to wrestle with to conceal. Ehhh sights. Fussy interchange-ability magazines. Awaiting the generation 6 glock 19xx.
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They left off the one thing that would make me consider buying one, the thumb safety.
I have a gen 3 19 but I would buy another if it had a thumb safety
Gee, I carried a Glock 23 with the op-rod laser for several years and NEVER had it go off due to not having a thumb safety! The safety is your trigger finger and knowing how to use it.
Add one more person not buying one for the lack of a thumb safety.
“Your safety is your finger” has failed quite a few times, and there are even more than a few on YouTube!
True enough. You actually need a brain too, in addition to keeping your finger off the trigger. You need the full set of human safeties.
By your reasoning, the safety would also fail.
See where this is going?
Those ‘failures’ are from a lack of discipline of the finger placement, and spatial awareness.
There is NO ‘safety’ for that.
I really like this gun. For me, when I raise it up, it just seems to instinctively point to my target. I might add, I have a Gen 4 19 and a 17. For some reason I just like the 19X better. The trigger is an improvement, and I just like the looks of it.
One point I take issue with in the review, though. Clay says real men will always have their pinky hang off the grip of a 19. And all this time I thought I was a man. I’ll be sure to keep my hands out of any photos from now on.
I really don’t see anything improvement wise that’s going to send me out to buy another Glock. I do like the Firing pin safety improvement so instead of the rotating round pin you now have a ramped one that doesn’t turn, seen many of the round one’s chewed up!
The feral apostrophes are rampant. The possessive form of “its” never takes an apostrophe. The word “commando’s” indicates that something or other belongs to a commando. Good write up overall. Happy to help with the other important stuff.
Jess Phud, I’m sure none of knew what the hell Clay meant, without the grammar Nazi showing up to help us out!
There’s something else to be said for a full-length grip: Any added difficulty in concealment is offset by the more secure grasp you can obtain for a faster and more certain draw. Just choose your holster wisely to tuck in the butt of the gun.