THE GLOCK VIDEO | Why this Green Beret chooses Gloc

If you have followed Tactical Rifleman for a while and seen a few of our videos, you have probably noticed that I usually carry a GLOCK pistol. Many people, viewers, other instructors, military/LE/civilian alike; all like to say that I should carry something else. Now, you should note that my Safariland ALS Holster has a ‘connector” that allows me to swap holsters quickly. I have matching Beretta M-9, SIG 226, and 1911 holsters that will quickly plug right into my belt. So, if a military client shows up for a class with a different gun, I’ll set my kit up to reflect what the students are running. Give me a few days on my back yard range, to brush up, and I can run all the same drills with each of these other pistols. Training with the Beretta adds “Double Action” and decocking steps to the drills. The Navy’s SIG 226 adds the same but with slightly different steps. The Marine Corp’s new “1911” Combat Pistol adds an exterior manual safety, single stack mags, and a ton more time reloading. All are great pistols, and all our courses can be ran with them (and all other pistols).
That said, the easiest pistol to train new shooters on will always be (to me) the Glock Safe-Action Pistol. It’s very easy to get new students to focus on the basics without having all the extra steps included with decock levers, etc. Easy to train is important, but still not the most important to me.
Hands down the most important attribute of any firearm will always be RELIABILITY under combat situations. That brings us to why I always carry a GLOCK. These puppies always run. I have seen Berettas break slides. I have seen 1911s and SIGs both jam when a little muddy or dusty. I have never seen a Glock shit the bed for being muddy or dusty.
I actually got my first Glock-19 at a 3-Gun match in Idaho (MGM Ironman) , after a guy was bragging that you NEVER have to clean a Glock. He said he had OVER 30,000rds through his G-19 and it still ran great. Divine Intervention is awesome to watch, because God has a great sense of humor. The very next stage of the match, this guys Glock locked up and jammed. He got mad (and embarrassed) and THREW the G-19 over the berm. After the stage was over, I walked around the berm, cleared the pistol, and removed the slide. It was insanely dry and caked with 30,000+ rounds of carbon. I wiped the slide clean with a gun rag and hit it with a few drops of gun oil on the contact points. After reassembly, I ran a few rounds through it, and it ran like a champ. When I walked back and tried to give the guy back his pistol, he apologized for showing a bad example in front of my 12yo son. He told me to keep the pistol. We have since become lifelong friends and have learned a lot from each other. (Sorry, Sonny, but I had to share your story). Moral of the story, is that these Glocks can take a lot of abuse without a lot of maintenance. I have been to the Glock Armorer’s Course, and am trained to completely strip one of these down. However, they don’t need it. Simple field stripping and cleaning every 3-5,000rds, and you can keep your Glock running great indefinitely. FUnny story… I finally pulled G-34 apart about a month ago, when I realized it had been about 8,000rds since I last cleaned it. When I lifted out the trigger bar, there were little stalagmites and stalactites of carbon all over it. It looked fury. Funny shit. Don’t wait that long. Clean and lube your Glock regularly and she’ll never let you down.
So, this video I wanted to defend why I carry a Glock, but I also wanted to talk a bit about some of the other cool features and history of the Glock family of pistols. Many people have never seen a G-26, next to a G-34. with the same mags. Many people had never heard of the .45GAP, let alone know WHY Glock designed the cartridge. There are lots of great cartridges out there that never caught on. The .45GAP is one of those, but it did have great features. Just like the 6.8mm carbine cartridge, if SOCOM had leaned towards the .45GAP, the world would be different today. We’ll see is 300blk can survive the next decade.
I know that the new G-45 is already out. However, when we filmed this video, Glock made me promise NOT to discuss the G-45 publicly until they formerly released it. So, this video was actually filmed months ago, and we had to bump it back down the schedule. Sorry about that. Still, I love my Glock, so I figured we would save this video release for the Christmas holiday weekend. More free time for you to sit through my long-winded ranting about my favorite blaster.
Thanks for watching. Strength & Honor, TR