The Glock Gen 6 is here. I joined a group of roughly 80 or so writers, Youtubers, and gun content creation folks at Glock headquarters in Smyrna, Georgia, to get hit with the bit unveiling. We went in blind; Glock told us nothing other than a time and place, but as we pulled into the parking lot and glared through the windows, a big Gen 6 sign stared back at us.
The day was filled with everything. A factory tour, presentation with engineers, training reps, law enforcement reps, and beyond, gave us the rundown of the Glock Gen 6 series pistol and then swore us to secrecy! Until now. The Gen 6 is finally here, and it surprised me, and I think it’ll surprise the majority of shooters and Glock fans.
Breaking Down the Glock Gen 6
The meat and potatoes are what you’re here for, right? Let’s dig into it. The Glock Gen 6 will premiere with three models for the American market. We have the classic Glock 17, the fan favorite Glock 19, and the cult favorite, the Glock 45. This will be the initial rollout, and what guns are coming next in terms of models and calibers wasn’t up for discussion just yet.
Advertisement — Continue Reading Below
The European market will also receive the Glock 49. When asked why the Glock 49 wasn’t coming to the American market, the answer was simple. No one purchased the Gen 5 G49, so they didn’t see much of a market for a Gen 6 model. My first question was, why no 47? I liked the ability to swap Glock 17 and Glock 19 length slides onto the 47.
The answer was easy; we don’t need it anymore. The Glock 17 Gen 6 slide can drop onto the Glock 19 Gen 6 frame and vice versa. The slide of the G45 can do the same. Why exactly does the Gen 6 do differently than the Gen 5?
Advertisement — Continue Reading Below
Surprisingly a lot.
It took Glock around five years of development to bring the Gen 6 to market. It was a joint project between the American Glock company in Smyrna and Glock in Austria. The company did everything from measuring the hands of every Glock employee to sending American and Austrian employees back and forth.
The Gen 6 features a mess of new features, and we’ll work our way from the bottom to the top.
Advertisement — Continue Reading Below
The Glock Gen 6 Frame
The grip now features a palm swell for better ergonomics. Glocks have also felt a bit like holding a board, and that’s not the case with the Gen 6. Holding a Gen 5 and Gen 6 side by side felt almost like holding completely different guns. The gun does integrate a more aggressive magwell that makes reloads easy and quick.
Glock has introduced the RTF6 texture, which is fairly aggressive and now goes all the way up the frame. It’s grippy and much more aggressive than the Gen 4, 5, or anything since the RTF2. The trigger guard now features an aggressive undercut that blends well with the large beavertail at the rear of the gun. No more Glock knuckle or discomfort when seeking a high grip on the gun.
You no longer have to use a series of backstraps to achieve an aggressive, high-beavertail. The gun comes with two additional backstraps to better customise the frame to your hand, but they don’t affect the beavertail.
Advertisement — Continue Reading Below
If we move to the slide stop, we see fencing put around the bottom. This fencing is designed to help prevent shooters from pressing up on the slide stop and accidentally locking the slide open. This was added to the gun due to its beavertail and trigger guard, encouraging a higher grip on the gun.
If we move forward, the trigger is not a flat-faced design. It’s easy to reach and prevents the rubbing that occurs on the trigger finger when shooting into those higher round counts.
Advertisement — Continue Reading Below
From there, Glock added a thumb rest, like a gas pedal, on each side of the frame. Gas pedals are becoming increasingly popular, so Glock has just integrated one. To avoid holster issues, they didn’t add bulk to the sides of the gun, but rather scalloped it into the frame.
Gen 6 Slide
The frame is the real star of the show, but the slide got a few changes, too. It integrates some of the same Gen V series changes to mitigate the use of Glock switches, but there is a lot more than that. The Gen 6 brings a new optic mounting design. The MOS plates are long gone.
Advertisement — Continue Reading Below
Now the gun comes with a set of three space fillers that have your recoil bosses. The polymer filler falls into place, and the optic screws directly into the weapon, supported by the recoil bosses. Connecting directly to the gun eliminates stacked tolerances from the equation.
The optic system will be able to use several optic footprints, including Trijicon RMR, Leupold DPP, and C-More. Glock redesigned the extractor depressor plunger channel to avoid longer optic screws from interacting with the extractor and causing failures.
Advertisement — Continue Reading Below
The slide features front- and rear-slide serrations that are deeper and more aggressive. They taper near the top of the slide and feel fantastic. Glock has ditched the dual recoil spring for the original single spring design.
Range Time With the Gen 6
We got the opportunity to shoot the G17, G19, and G45 a fair bit. They loaded magazines as fast as we could shoot them. We were limited to 7 yards, so I can’t give a full range report or review, but I can say the frame changes make a big ergonomic difference.
This was the first time I used a gas pedal on a gun, and I like it, I like it a lot. It took a little practice to get used to it and to remember to push my thumb out to find it, but man, does it make the gun a flat shooter. All the guns had dots. I had no problem drilling one hole in the target.
Advertisement — Continue Reading Below
The dot jumped up, but fell right back down on target. The gun felt flat shooting. They allowed us to shoot fast, and I did just that, for an entire mag dump. I ran it as fast as I possibly could, and the dot jumps and seems to barely leave the lens before coming right back to where I want it.
The shots from my fast-firing groups were close to touching. When I slowed it down, I created a quarter-sized group with six rounds. That’s accurate enough for me. It made me want to stretch the gun’s legs out and take it to 25 yards and 50 yards to see what it can do.
There were 20 shooters in my group, and I didn’t see a single malfunction. I didn’t hear of any when talking to other shooters who went before and after us. The same nine guns remained on the line the entire day and went through several thousand rounds. We were told there were 4000 rounds for each group of shooters.
We didn’t finish our 4000 due to time constraints, but the box was getting close to empty.
Glock Gen 6 Rises
This might be the most significant transition from one generation to another. Glock has been developing the Gen 6 for half the time the Gen 5 has been in production, and it shows. Glock has always been a bit slow to make changes, but the Gen 6 doesn’t feel like they took anything slow.
While it’s a lot of changes after seeing Glock’s factory and going over their QC procedures, it’s evident they didn’t just whip this together. Each change was tested extensively and sometimes scrapped and restarted to get the Gen 6 up and running.
The last question is, when can you get one? Glock told us that by the time SHOT Show rolls around, they will have guns in stores. It’s not quite a Christmas delivery, but you can celebrate the New Year with a new generation of Glock.
WHY OUR ARTICLES/REVIEWS DO NOT HAVE AFFILIATE LINKS
Affiliate links create a financial incentive for writers to promote certain products, which can lead to biased recommendations. This blurs the line between genuine advice and marketing, reducing trust in the content.
