How Glock Accessories Can Make You A Better Shooter

By Kristen Baird


The Glock 9 mm semi-automatic pistol is regarded by many as America's favorite handgun. Using the right Glock accessories can make shooting easier. First, it is essential to understand the basic principles underlying all firearms. At its simplest, a gun is a closed metal tube with one end open and the other end, which is rounded, drilled with a tiny hole to accommodate a flammable length of fuse. Gunpowder, a mixture of potassium nitrate, charcoal, and sulfur, is placed into the closed end of the tube (the breech). The earliest functional model of this apparatus was the cannon.

When the fuse is lit, the gunpowder ignites, creating a large volume of very hot gas. The pressure on the cannon ball as a result of the gas is greater than the atmospheric pressure coming in through the open end, so it is propelled out of the tube at a high rate. Note that it is the momentum of the cannon ball (mass times acceleration) that causes the damage at the other end; the projectile itself does not ignite or explode.

The problem with early handguns was they could only fire one shot at a time, after which the operator would have to clean and reload the weapon in order to fire the next shot. Enter the revolver, which only had to be reloaded after every fifth or sixth shot. The bullets sat in a revolving chamber, which advanced one shot each time it was fired. The revolver came along in the 1800s.

Revolvers were nice, but people still couldn't kill each other quick enough. They needed the semi-automatic pistol. Instead of a revolving cylinder that only held six shots, pistols relied on bullets placed in carriers called magazines that were placed in the handle, or the butt, of the pistol. Larger pistols could hold as many as 15 bullets.

The trigger action in a pistol is also lighter than that of a revolver. The down side of the semi-auto pistol is that it has a capacity to jam, a feat that is nigh impossible for the revolver. Lastly, automatic pistols fire bullets automatically as soon as they load into the chamber.

The Glock is an example of a semi-automatic pistol. Designed by engineer Gaston Glock in the late 1970s, the Glock semi-automatic answered the needs of the Austrian army, in need of a new sidearm. Glock owned a company that had made a success out of manufacturing things like grenades and knives using plastic. He and his engineers got together and entered a design using a plastic frame and other parts made of steel.

Satisfied with what the Glock team came up with, the Austrian Defense Ministry ordered 25,000. Widely considered America's favorite hand gun, the Glock is made in all major calibers, of which the 9 mm is the favorite. Among the accessories available for the sidearm is the magazine. The Glock magazine holds more ammo than magazines of other gun manufacturers.

What is intriguing about the Glock magazine is the difference between those made for use in European military and law enforcement agencies, and the one preferred by American users. The practice of allowing the magazine to drop onto the ground is frowned upon by shooters in Europe, while the Americans insist on it.




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