Why wouldn’t Glock make a compact 9mm? Because they don’t have to. The Austrian gunmaker’s American arm is selling everything Gaston’s mob makes. OK, maybe not the Glock 36 single stack .45. But as borepatch.blogspot.com reports from a chance encounter with a Glock marketing maven, the Austrian armorer has a year’s worth of production—some 1.2m guns—on backorder. That’s with its current factories running at 100 percent capacity. In other words, even if Glock wanted to make the handgun that everyone and their mother would buy, they can’t. Not in sufficient quantities to meet demand. Not without slowing production on other models already in production. In financial terms, what would be the point of that? Why spend the money to design, test and re-tool if you don’t have to? Only one factor could change that short term: a huge military contract. Or a desire to promote the brand. Watch this space. And hope for a change. So to speak. [h/t Thomas Paine]
They already make a single stack Glock 9mm.
They call it a Kahr P9.
Precisely.
There are a bunch of single stacks way more Glock-like than any Kahr.
The main felt while firing difference is in the kahr vs the glock trigger pull. Long smooth double action vs a short crisp trigger pull. Both are quite lovely in their respective categories, but very different compared to each other.
No,actually it is called the S&W Shield.
I know – I have owned all the Glocks (still own four), owned every version of the Kahrs (in 9mm only) and still have two. But hwne the Shield came out, and I handled one, there was no other choice. Bought two.
The S-A XDS may be in the running, too. I see they showed a 9mm at SHOT this year.
Or you could save 200-250 bucks and get a Kahr CM9 or CW9.
I don’t think many of us use our Kahr subcompact nines for championship target shooting so the PM9 no longer makes much sense.
I prefer the feel of the single stack pistol. Fits my hand better. If glock made a single stack 9 I would give it a try. Like the Gunsmith that enlightens us from time to time, I see the glock as a pistol that is functional but won’t break my heart if the cops take it after a DGU. The main reason I own Sigma. Functional gun with no emotional attachment. And very little monetary investment.
If Im going to go with a single stack, Id prefer a metal frame. I can shoot with just my strong hand alone and two handed with my off hand just fine but single hand with my off hand? Lets just say Id rather have a little extra weight
Interesting point. Hadn’t thought of that.
Glock USA is also not selling the .380 variants because of our import laws, sadly.
…why on earth would the .380 version be off-limits every other caliber they make is okay?
ATF Factoring Criteria for Imported Weapons. must score 75 or better apparently. Google it. it’s very very stupid.
The only reason Glock has a .380 is that in many countries the handguns are very restricted and restrictions apply to calibers as well. Italy doesn’t allow citizens to have 9mm, for example. It’s limited to police and military.
The Republicans should pass legislation to repeal this kind of thing. At the very least, it would send the message that “compromise” on gun control would have to consist of something other than unilateral surrender.
I hear though that there’s no point in owning the .380 glock anyway, it’s a direct blow back and it kicks just as hard as the 9mm. and the .380 glocks 25 and 28 are the same size as the 17 and 19 respectively.
now, LEAs are allowed to import them…. so if a police agency imports them, then sells them as surplus at auction, theoretically you could possess one. my guess is that’s never happened or happened so rarely it’s not talked about
erik, you are correct. the .380s are the same size as the 9mm pistols. really no benefit.
Small correction, the 25 and 28 are the 19 and 26, respectively. They are indeed straight blowback.
Robert, thanks for the link.
I didn’t post the entire conversation (because they haven’t announced yet), but he did say that you should watch for an announcement around June or so. Not trying to be coy, just promised that I wouldn’t let the cat out of the bag.
You might be right, but I’m not going to take your word for it.
I think that the real reason we haven’t seen a Glock single stack 9mm has more to do with Glock’s underlying operating system.
The Kahr uses a totally different trigger mechanism than Glock that allows them to offset the trigger bar and save quite a bit of space in the machinations that fit into the space between the bottom of the slide and the top of your hand. The Kahr is a much simpler system without any of the Glock’s striker pin pre-set, but it is also much smaller.
Glock, like most other gun companies, has one operating system that they basically re-package. I’m thinking that they looked at making a single stack 9mm and realized that their recipe of caliber/barrel/mag size changes using their standard OS simply wouldn’t make for a dramatic size change compared to the 19 or 26. It might not take a clean sheet development, but I’m betting the single stack 9 is a serious reach for Glock’s R&D department (who haven’t really done any major changes to the basic Glock OS in over 20 years).
“In other words, even if Glock wanted to make the handgun that everyone and their mother would buy, they can’t. Not in sufficient quantities to meet demand. Not without slowing production on other models already in production.”
This is the situation in which S&W finds itself, and exactly why it is virtually impossible to currently find a S&W Shield.
I bought a M&P shield 9 two weeks ago at one of the larger local gun shows, but was real lucky. There were only three M&P shields at the entire show and they were all gone with in half an hour of the doors opening. Luckily I showed up early. Yes, I admit I had to pay a premium, but I did get it for less than what I had been seeing on gunbroker.com and gunsamerica.com.
A single stack 9mm compact pistol – why?
Time to enlighten you-remember how the big companies are backing out of New York? Glock never said anything to that-why? well let’s look at this carefully…….If we begin to manufacture a single stack=we will have a New York, Cali, Massachussetts, and “any other state who wanna change their law” legal gun. Glock gotta keep all the bases covered.
It has become very hard to find Glock 10 round mags lately, too.
Well Naz, it’s damned hard for a skinny old guy like me to conceal my SR9 but the CM9 conceals about anywhere.
Ok. Point taken. 🙂
I thought the advantage of Glocks were highest amount of capacity in the least amount of space (besides reliability and easy maintenance). Why reduce firepower by having a single stack? To each his own I guess…
I find single stacks to be much more concealable on my body type in summer garb like t shirts. Like my government 1911 is more comfortably concealable under a t shirt than my glock 23 (except for the weight of course).
The first rule of a gunfight is to have a gun. A single stack 9mm could be thinner and thus concealed easier for some people.
I would love a single stack .40 s&w from glock. The walther pps shoots and carries well for me.
Regardless of mag limits or not I would really be into 10+1 single stack 9mm or .40 s&w.
Does anyone who lives in a mag restricted state know (given a 10 round mag limit for example) if 10 + 1 is legal?
In California it is. I’m not basing this on a personal examination of the legislation, but all pistols you can buy come with 10 round magazines, which all allow for one in the chamber. However I’m not entirely certain that actually *having* that extra round in the chamber is legal, but I’ve never heard it mentioned or heard of anyone prosecuted for it.
In short: I’m pretty sure it’s fine here…for now.
I love my Glocks and they’re fine just the way they are. I bought the G36 and I really wanted to like that little sucker because it was slim and it was a great fit for my hand. The only problem was that it sucked big time. I may have bought the LEMON version of the 36, but it was a worthless piece of S***. I would have been killed for sure it I ever had to use it in a DGU. That suckers long gone to someone who thought they could make it work. I told them it was useless and that it only belonged on the range, cuz it could get you killed on the street.
My Glock 36 only works reliably with premium 230 grain defense ammo. The local Glock armorer told me that american specification 230 ball ammo is downloaded for accuracy and lower recoil. My pistol is two months old with 400 rounds fired and the trigger needs to be replaced because the pivot pin for the safety lever has backed out half-way. I’m not very happy with particular pistol. I chose it for the light weight and single-stack narrowness.
I love my 36. Accurate as hell and I can’t recall ever having any reliability issues with it. I did buy it used though so maybe it had already gone through its break-in period.
I don’t have any problem with my 26 or 19 iwb and I’m pretty small at 5’8 and 155lbs. The percentage difference between these and a single stack is large but compared to my 32″ waist it’s not a big difference. A slim holster like the crossbreed can help. I actually like the larger grip on the double stacks since my hands are pretty big.
Greg has it right above: the ATF “sporting purposes” point system for imports. Despite the existance of a Glock plant in GA, the frames and slides are still made in Austria, and must be imported, and thus meet the point system.
SaysUncle has a breakdown here: http://www.saysuncle.com/2005/12/15/on_gun_laws_that_are_dumb/
A single stack Glock the size and weight of a PPS/Shield/XDs/Kahr would not meet the minimum points, even with the ‘target sights’ that get changed out, and the ‘target trigger’ the G26 needs to pass. I also doubt they would slim down the blocky 1.18″ slide, because that nearly defines the Glock (they trademarked it, and use it to sue airsoft companies that profit from Glock’s popularity).
Also, as others have noted, Glock’s current models are flying off the shelves. Why mess with success?
Generalized Glick question:
Why is it that one may import a new gun with no manual safety – e.g. A Glock, but not an antique, such as a Tokarev?
Oh, yeah – never mind. I forgot there for a moment: bureaucratic stupidity.
:/
The argument for a single stack 9mm is concealment. A basic Glock is thicker than anything I want to wear IWB. A 1911 fits well but is overly long, and even in commander weight is an issue. Thus the polymer single stack pocket 9’s. As they say, the first rule is have a gun. There are times when the choice narrows to either baking under a cover up garment, not carrying, or carrying something a bit smaller and lighter than is ideal, I choose the latter.