The Gen 5 Glock 34 is optics-ready. (Photo: Glock)
Glock is hard at work expanding their core product line with new Gen 5 versions of their Model 26 and 34 handguns. Glock is updating these guns with improvements developed for the military MHS trials pistol.
The updated handguns follow the recently-updated Glock 17 and Glock 19 pistols. The Model 26 or “baby Glock” is a subcompact for backup and concealed carry. The Model 34 is a full-size handgun with an extended barrel and slide assembly. It’s very popular with competition shooters. Both are chambered for 9mm Luger.
In addition to the Gen 5 enhancements Glock is giving the new 34 the MOS treatment. Glock’s MOS guns — Modular Optic System — are optics-ready. The gun comes with multiple mounting plates compatible with the most popular handgun red dots today.
“The development of our Gen 5 pistols was the result of the constant pursuit of perfection and a desire to meet the requests of the consumer market,” said Glock vice president Josh Dorsey. “We have combined the standards of high-level performance and reliability with distinctive design enhancements to improve durability, accuracy, and performance.
The Gen 5 Glock 26 is contoured for concealed-carry. (Photo: Glock)
“The benefits enhance the shooter experience at the range and in high-stress situations where fractions of a second matter,” he added.
Some of the Gen 5 improvements include a diamondlike-carbon finish, contoured slide and updated frame. Glock put a new profile on the muzzle of these guns to ensure safe holstering. And the frames no longer have fingergrooves that forced some shooters into awkward grips.
Internal improvements include an updated trigger and “Marksman” barrel, Glock’s new match-grade barrel. The Marksman barrel still uses polygonal rifling but now has a factory target crown.
Like the previous generation Glock pistols, the Gen 5 frames can be resized with interchangeable backstraps. The Glock 34 frame also has an enlarged and flared magazine well for fast reloading.
The Glock Gen 5 family from largest to smallest. (Photo: Glock)
See Also: Glock 17 and Glock 19 Gen 5 Unleashed–Full Review
The 26 does not have the enlarged magwell to make it easier to conceal. On both guns the controls are ambidextrous with dual slide release levers and a reversible magazine release button.
Glock is releasing the pistols along with the new G19X on January 22, 2018. The suggested price for the Glock 34 Gen 5 MOS is $899.
The subcompact Glock 26 Gen 5 price varies depending on the configuration. Buyers have a lower-cost option at $699 with standard sights, $749 with Glock night sights and $799 with premium Ameriglo sights. Street pricing will probably be less but there tends to be a price bump on new guns like these, especially at first.
Are these the Glocks you’ve been waiting for? What do you want to see next added to the Gen 5 series? Let us know in the comments!
Have a Glock 34 gen 4 . Like the gun
very much, but would like a bull barrel and slide an inch longer.
I have a custom made 1911 long slide which is more accurate than my Glock 34. Would be interesting to try longer barrel and slide on Glock to compare with my 1911.
Come-on Glock, $700 and still no steel sights, no front slide serrations, no scalped mac bottom, no high-cut trigger guard, no recontoured grip, no enhanced trigger? Literally nothing that your customers do immediately after purchasing your guns.. just more of the same. No innovative changes, and I would have to spend more money to make it work the way I want. No thanks, I’ll just buy an older HK, or a Springfield XDM. Both have everything I want for around $500, you know, the price glock used to be at?
Ok, plenty of negative comments about Glock in general … and no argument from me. But to answer the question at the end of the article:
I would like to see a Gen5 17L MOS. Yes, I realize the 17L isn’t practical for much of anything, but it’s a fun gun for informal target and plinking. And it’s different. Glock skipped the 17L in the Gen4 product line, so it might be a good fit here. It probably wouldn’t be a big seller, but they would sell. The recent-manufacture 17L Gen3’s are still selling.
The only draw a Glock ever had was a decent weapon for a good price. Around 500 to 600 dollars.
So now, they continue to ignore their customers, and prices rise to 699 to 899?? No thanks. I’ll go with a Sig, FNX, or HK for what they are charging. Better weapons, and more features. I’ll keep buying up Gens 1 – 3, easy to find used, and super affordable, they will be relegated to a “truck gun.” Glock is finally behind the times. Hope it was worth it.
I have family members & friends who enjoy shooting flocks belonging to me & others, but will not buy one or more due to the lack of a manual, preferably ambidextrous, safety system. Call them & me old school, but I would like to see & am willing to pay more for such a feature, or some higher tech version of one. Love my D.C. 40 S&W Glock, otherwise. Lower recoil for me than a lot of 9mms I have shot. Any chance of you offering a double compensated barrel in this newest gen Glock?
the next best thing looking for the next ????
Glock is pricing themselves right out of their own market. 700 dollars for a standard G26. Come on now , get real!
Agree. I own Glock pistols including the 26.. Not going to fall for the trick of having the latest and greatest. I’ll purchase the old gens at a discount now.
I’m actually excited about the G34 Gen5.
No front slide serrations??? Unbelievable. There a re literally thousands and thousands of us (especially us competitive shooters) who have to pay someone to mill our slides and then have them refinished with some inferior coating. You have, and will, continue to run customers off if you don’t listen to what we want. Surprisingly, even to myself, I’ve begun to consider other platforms. I love your handguns, but your unwillingness to listen to your customers is insulting.
Then you come out with the 19X? Exactly opposite of what it shout have been…a 17 slide with a 19 frame. You got it completely ass backwards. Very disappointing.
“Press Checks” with front serrations, rear sites made to cock one handed on your belt, plus holding your AR handguard with that funky over hand grip, are all just “Silly Gun Fashion”. Besides the tactii-cool wannabes, nobody does this in real life.
Glock- You are missing the mark on pricing the Gen 5 too high for your market. Fire the person who promoted this absurd idea. They are leading Glock down the wrong path. Keep Glocks simple and keep them reasonably priced. Cheers.
Glock is an ugly looking gun
Amen
How about making a manual, ambidextrous safety option available?? I still use my 2nd gen 23C and 19, because my gorilla-sized paws and pyramid-fingers (my wife’s description), don’t like the finger grooves.
Probably missed it if it’s apart of this run down on the Gen fives, but would be nice if they made some bigger calibers than the tiny 9mm! As far as I’m concerned 9mm are for cops who can’t shoot and need the extra two and civilians for the same reason. If you ever look at the ballistic test on what a .40 cal dies compared to a 9mm you’d be a fool to keep carrying a 9mm. And getting rid of the finger grooves is stupid and should of been a select or model choice if you liked that version instead of nixing the finger grooves all together! Yeah if your a bity girl then yeah your hand isn’t SUPPOSED to fit a FULL SIZE G20… SO TO TELL YOU THERE’S NO SANTA! You should ONLY BUY a weapon ONLY IF YOU CAN 10000000% control it at ALL TIMES! This is including manipulating the weapon PROPERLY as well! But for people like me that pick guns that FIT MY HAND it’s a SHAME they took the grooves away because there’s ZERO DOUBT since I have a smooth and fingered pistols custom done and there ZERO CONPARISON when you hold one after the other that AS LONG AS YOUR HAND IS AS BIG AS THE HANDLE IS THEN FINGER GROOVES HELP the gun to not loose the grip height and location that you normally could not if you had the finger grooves to hold them in place. That’s of course MY two cents and that’s ALL IT IS… MY TWO CENTS!
LOL. This is a great piece of satire (I hope). You really captured the sentiment of the stuck-in-the-past Fudd who hasn’t kept up with advances in bullet design and the realities of terminal ballistics.
You even nailed the style and tone with the unnecessary all caps and the “loose” instead of “lose” and “should of” instead of “should have”.
Well done.
Hey Glock! you make very dependable guns, my gen 3 and gen 4 still shoot very well, so I WILL NOT be puchasing a gen 5 at
your outrageous prices.
I have all the glock “perfection” I need in my gen 3 Glock 26 and it cost me $500 brand new .
GEN 5 NO THANKS!
Yawn…
Too many good after-market parts out there that can be used to upgrade, for far less $$$.
All my Gen 3 or 4 needs is MAYBE something done to the trigger and night sights.
I could always use/need more ammo. The Gen 5??? Not so much.
Glock continues to tinker around the edges. In a market saturated with handguns, Glock has basically kept the same design for the last 30+ years. Sure, I like Glocks as much as the next person, but where is the innovation? Where is the pistol caliber carbine that so many people are looking for? Look to entrepreneurs and now Ruger, who’s also introducing a line of less expensive handguns to meet market demand. While Glock is going the other way and making theirs more costly. Glock is fat and sitting on its laurels. Plain to see.
Agreed, it would be nice to have seen a Glock Rifle, Sub-Gun and maybe a crew served SAW or MMG. Mr. Glock’s expertise was in polymers and using them to make things. He did not start out as a gun designer and that was the key to Glock’s success; he simply asked users what they wanted in a pistol, studied existing designs and made a weapon that was easy and cheap to make on modern equipment. Most importantly, the gun just works.
The simple fact is this, Gaston Glock made a great, ground breaking pistol…..becoming a very wealthy and famous man. The original Glock 17, was his 17th patent and although the platform has evolved and improved, Gaston Glock is not John Moses Browning and the Glock pistol represents his best creation. Sometimes lightening doesn’t strike twice.
Based on Glock’s head start with polymer gun technology and creating guns optimized for modern CNC manufacturing, there is absolutely no reason why 30 years ago, Glock couldn’t have created a modern low cost rifle like the Savage Axis/Ruger American. Same goes for the FN SCAR or the BREN 805/806 designs. Perhaps Gaston Glock felt he had enough money and would just focus on the “Golden Goose” in front of him and not worry or risk/failure in other ventures. Who knows.
In Glock’s defense, they have adapted and innovated, perhaps slower than people would have liked. That being said; companies like Colt have done much less to innovate or improve their original products over much longer periods of time. Smith and Wesson is guilty of this too, until they started, in the 1980’s to really innovate, because they lost substantial market share to Glock and had no choice, whereas before they were content to keep producing the same products and collect the money.
One of Glock’s biggest misses can be attributed to their European perspective and satisfaction with their growing market share, so much so, that they missed out on the CCW market to a great extent, until the belated creation of the Glock 42 and 43 respectively. Since Europe doesn’t allow its subjects to carry weapons this is understandable to a degree. Historically, they should have known better, as Colt sold many more .31 caliber 1849 Baby Dragoons than they did of their larger guns until the advent of the Civil War, just as S&W J-frame sales accounted for a greater percentage of sales than the N-frame guns.
Glock makes pistols and will likely continue to do so for many, many decades.
Obviously not Kimber prices as per above stupid comments. G34 Gen 4 MOS was 765. So the real issue is if the extra 135 bucks is worth it to you for Gen 5?
What… $900 for the G34 and $700 for the G26? When did Glock start thinking they were Kimber?
What he said^
I was interested until I saw the price.