Sixth: Glock 21SF - Changing Minds

Up until this point, I was pretty much a Glock hater. I never doubted they were good guns, but it felt like I was holding a brick. Which is something I hear rather often. So when I sold off my Sig P226, I found myself needing a new gun to carry at the shop. All of the employees at that gun shop were armed, and I was heading toward a management position, so going unarmed wasn't an option. And nothing I already owned fit the rules of the shop for what we could carry.

I quickly began saving money and looking into guns that fit the bill. Somewhere during this period of time Glock released their slim frame models - which we correctly guessed were a sort of tester for their generation 4 guns. Our first one arrived at the shop - a Glock 21SF.

This Glock was the black sheep of Glocks. Being the largest frame Glock makes, it now also became one of the slimmest. The first batch released came with an ambidextrous magazine release and a 1913 (picatinny) rail. The last two features were useless to me, but the slim grip made it so I could get my hand wrapped around it comfortably.

And I was pretty much sold. Not long after that I brought my own home. I was tickled to find I could shove it into the leather holster left behind by my Sig's departure. It wasn't a glove fit, but it went in and stayed.

I drove from the gun shop to an IDPA match. As I say, we cut the seal on the box at the match. I don't usually recommend shooting a gun you haven't cleaned yet, but Glock comes with a break in fluid inside they don't recommend you clean off, so I figured... go for it. And the gun proved it's worth right there. I did not place in the match. But the gun shot very well. Even after we both took a nice roll in the red Carolina red clay. Wiped it down, made sure the barrel was clear, and kept on shooting. No problem.

Two weeks later I was at the firing range with this same gun when we got some bad ammunition. An over charged load had made it's way into the box somehow (factory ammo) and blew the gun clear out of my hands. It actually slammed into the wall behind me, but I was out of that range before it hit the ground. Nothing like a "pop... pop... BOOM!" to make you need to sit down for a minute! The gun came out just fine. Inspections were done by Glock certified armorers and we were on our way.

To this day, this gun still sits on my hip at the gun shop. It's been a few years now, since 11/12/2007. I'm not shooting matches as much as I used to these days, but I still trust this gun with my life daily. No burps or hiccups since day one. And now I'm one of the Glock armorers, too.