A Glock is a brand by Austrian manufacturer Glock Ges.m.b.H. It is a polymer-framed, short recoil-operated, locked-breech semi-automatic pistol with a Glock slide.
The firearm entered the Austrian military and police service in 1982 after rigorous trials deemed it the top performer in reliability and safety.
Glock pistols are the company’s most profitable line of products. The company supplies the armed forces, police forces, and security agencies in 48 countries. Civilians also choose for competition and recreational shooting. They also preferred it for home defense, both in concealed or open carry.
Gaston Glock, the company’s founder and head engineer, had no experience with firearms design or manufacture. The company had experience in working with advanced synthetic polymers. So, when it designed its first pistol prototype, the Glock 17, it was the first ever to have a polymer frame. It also introduced ferritic nitrocarburizing as an anticorrosion surface treatment for metal gun parts including Glock slides.
History
The Austrian Armed Forces announced 1980 that it sought to replace their World War II–era Walther P38 handguns. Glock learned about the Austrian Army’s planned procurement and assembled a team of handgun experts in 1982. Their job was to identify the best characteristics of a combat pistol. Glock had a working prototype within three months.
The prototype combined established mechanisms and traits from previous pistol designs. In addition, the plan was to use modern manufacturing technologies and synthetic materials to keep it cost-effective. It outperformed eight other pistols submitted by five different manufacturers.
Glock submitted Glock 17 (the 17th patent of the company, not the 17th iteration of the pistol) samples for assessment trials. After passing all the exhaustive endurance and abuse tests, the Austrian military and law enforcement adopted the handgun into service in 1982. They called it the Pistole 80 (P80), with an initial order for 25,000 guns.
Adoption Beyond Austria
The Austrian trial results sparked interest in Western Europe and overseas. The US had plans to replace the M1911 since the late 1970s. The US Department of Defense expressed an interest in the new gun in 1983, receiving samples for evaluation. The DoD invited the gun manufacturer to the XM9 Personal Defense Pistol Trials, but the company declined. The DOD specifications required significant retooling of production equipment and sample submissions within an unrealistic time frame.
Meanwhile, joint Norwegian and Swedish trials passed the prototype, accepting it into service. Norway called it the P80, while Sweden called it the Pistol 88. The Glock 17 also surpassed durability standards by NATO, becoming the standard sidearm in 1988 with NATO Stock Number 1005-25-133-6775. By 1992, the company had sold 350,000 pistols in more than 45 countries, including 250,000 in the United States.
Find Glock slides at https://www.sylvanarms.com.