Many have heard the tenants of defensive shooting or have taken a course that discussed the most important principles. These courses usually play out by practicing a set of drills on stationary cardboard or steel targets. Hands down, this approach can help you learn and perfect your movements. But you’ll never paint the complete picture unless those targets start shooting back at you. That is where products like the Umarex Glock 17 paintball gun come into play.
The Umarex Glock 17
Naturally, no training can involve participants firing live ammo at each other, so alternate methods needed to be derived. Paintball guns became the staple for this type of training (often referred to as force-on-force). However, their inherent design vaguely resembles a firearm, and they operate quite a bit differently as well.
This paved the way for the invention of conversion kits that would enable real guns to fire gunpowder-propelled paint rounds. But alas, these kits are expensive, and the ammunition can cost upwards of $1 a shot.
It was around this time that we turned to air with Umarex leading the charge for air-powered paintball guns that looked and worked like the real thing. These pistols started showing up at training institutes around the globe and have been well received by all those that have used them.
Initial offerings were designed after its sister company’s Walther PPQ, a well-received pistol in the firearms realm. These guns slung .43-caliber, paint-filled balls that were powered by an inexpensive burst of C02. This makes the total investment per trigger press just a few cents.
Fans of the system begged for more designs with Glock sitting squarely at the top of the list. Well, in the closing days of 2021, Umarex penned a deal with the Austrian manufacturer and delivered exactly what was asked for, a Glock 17 replica that operated on its signature CO2 paintball system.
Train As You Carry
The G17 paintball gun was an important addition to the lineup, largely because of its obtuse grip angle. When presented, Glocks point differently than guns that are built with the sharper 1911-style grip angle. So in other words, if you practice with a PPQ but carry a Glock, things aren’t going to transfer over in real life.
As an instructor and perpetual student of the gun, I was excited at both the introduction of this gun and the chance to undergo a bit of force-on-force training. I got a sneak peek at the gun at the 2021 Athlon Outdoors editorial Rendezvous held in Victor, Idaho. Afterward, Umarex then sent a pair so I could get a closer look at what they were all about.
The Scoop
When the guns arrived, I spent a little time in my basement getting to know them and how they operated. For starters, they were dead ringers for a Gen 5 G17. The controls, safe-action trigger, and sights were true to the original. Likewise, every cut and contour, right down to the grip texture and cocking serrations, were a match.
The Umarex version even comes with the interchangeable backstrap system that Glock was admittedly late to adopt. The magazine houses eight paintballs and one 12-gram CO2 cartridge, which gives them a realistic weight and reloading procedure. We measured the trigger with a Lyman Digital trigger scale, and it came in at 7 pounds, 4 ounces. This was on par with the other two Glocks that I compared it against.
Immediately afterward, I taped a cardboard IPSC target to my basement wall and dumped a mag into it from 10 yards to get an idea of its accuracy standard. I’ll say this, for what’s essentially a musket, it put every shot into the A-zone, proving its effectiveness in spades.
Next, I fired 10 shots over a Caldwell G2 Chronograph and determined an average velocity of 339 fps. This is nearly exactly what is advertised. I liked that the slide cycled with each trigger press and that it locked open after the last round. These things only added to the realism.
Taking One for the Team
Satisfied with the gun’s performance, all that was left was to find somebody willing to shoot me in the face. With that, I placed a call to my buddy Michael Sclafani to see if he had a little time to spend together on the range.
Mike is a competitive shooter and spent more than ten years in the Marine Corps sorting out that mess in the Middle East. Today he trains shooters from all walks of life. Some might call us competitors, but only poor instructors compete for business.
The best of us learns from each other and grow our respective brands with the time we spend together. After all, if your training is effective and unique, smart students will seek to learn from both of you. However, if you’re just regurgitating the same garbage that’s been disproven since the 70s, you’re going to find yourself penniless.
Up Close and Personal
Once we met up at the range, we ensured that there weren’t any real firearms in our training pit or on our person. Afterward, we inspected each other’s G17s to confirm that they were paint-firing versions. We then passed the guns back and inspected them for ourselves.
This might sound extreme, but we have all seen what can happen when just a drop of complacency is introduced into the practice of pointing “prop” guns at people. With safety confirmed, we laid out a quick plan to cover basic drills. These involved close contact, shooting from cover, and operations in front of the muzzle, except all now with a skilled shooter firing back.
Training For Real Life with the Umarex
We started with close contact engagements, and the first thing we talked about was creating space. When training with live firearms and paper targets, this is often ignored. This is because it’s tough to conduct safely with a group of students. However, with paint guns, it becomes a non-issue.
Mike pointed out that if a threat pushes a semi-auto into your chest (or vice versa), it gets knocked out of battery and won’t fire. We found that the Umarex Glock 17 operated on this principle too.
So, step one is to backpedal as you draw your pistol. He also demonstrated how important it was not to push off of the threat. They will either flex or move, putting you off balance. Getting two steps in between you and the threat creates more than five feet of space. This allows enough time to draw and fire effective shots, all before they realize what is happening.
We also had time to play with the whole “draw on a drawn gun” thing and confirmed what we already knew. You’re not going to make it. We gave each other eight attempts to try to beat the guy with his gun out. It ended with paint on the chest every time. For those that shoot USPSA, we can sum it up like this—your draw time has to be faster than the other guy’s split time.
On the Move
Moving on, we turned our attention to shooting from cover. We have always trained and shot stages around barricades, but we never see what exactly we are showing the target. So, to check it out, we positioned ourselves at perpendicular sides of a CONEX box and got to work.
I started things off by showing Mike that he exposed just a little too much of his thigh. A cheap shot, yes, but a powerful lesson for both of us. I paid for it though, as he popped me every single time he pied me out from around the corner. This taught me precisely how much of an advantage cover provides.
When Mike was behind cover, only about a quarter of him was exposed. Meaning that I couldn’t effectively hit him through instinctive point-shooting, I had to build some sort of sight picture. However, in the time it took me to find my sights he had already placed one (or more) shots either into my chest or my pelvis.
It was during this drill that I also first experienced time dysmorphia. This is the phenomenon of losing track of events due to stress. There was at least one occasion where Mike asked me if I got a shot off, and I simply couldn’t remember. This is why you don’t immediately say anything after a defensive engagement.
Wrapping Up the Training
We wrapped things up by working on suppressing a threat while one man (or an entire fireteam) moves into position to flank it. This involves laying down cover fire while the other guy runs past your muzzle to get to a better vantage point.
Working with paintball guns opens these doors as the potential for loss of life or limb is eliminated. This was the most casual of our drills. The only thing that wound up with paint on it was the wall that covers a clay-throwing machine.
Final Strokes
Working with Mike and the Umarex G17 taught me a lot of valuable lessons that day. First, sights are useless inside of seven yards. If you can’t land a shot just by pointing, you are in a lot of trouble. Second, cover is invaluable. In most cases, if you aren’t behind cover, you ought to consider moving towards some. Third, pelvis shots are not given their due in defensive training.
This area of the body is loaded with arteries as well as the primary bones for locomotion. If your threat takes a hit there, he/she is likely going to the ground, even with a sub-caliber. Not only that, it’s huge and your gun passes it on the way out of the holster.
Aside from the training, the equipment was equally impressive. We each fired close to 75 shots off of a single CO2 cartridge, and they didn’t show any sign of slowing down. The ball’s velocity was high enough that we couldn’t see them, and while they didn’t hurt as much as getting hit with a powder-propelled sim round, there was certainly enough “motivation” not to get tagged.
Overall, I’m glad for the experience and will be seeking out more opportunities to train and practice with the Umarex Glock 17. I feel it is more realistic than simply just punching paper.
For more information, please visit UmarexUSA.com.
Watch Tactical Life and Ballistic magazine editor Linas Cernauskas have a Umarex Glock paintball battle with one of our content creators.
Umarex Glock 17 Specs
Caliber: .43 round balls
Action: Single action, CO2 powered
Capacity: 8 rounds
Velocity: 339 fps
Sights: Fixed
Weight: 1.6 pounds
Overall Length: 7.95 inches
Barrel length: 4.21 inches
MSRP: $349.99
This article originally appeared in May-June 2022 issue of Tactical Life magazine. Get your copy or digital subscription at OutdoorGroupStore.com.
