A quick look on popular social media sites such as Facebook or Instagram will yield plenty of photos of highly modified modern pistols worked over by shops such as Boresight Solutions, Salient Arms, ATEi, and others. I don’t think it is debatable that the guns look damn sexy, but do these guns really need all that fancy, and expensive, work to be truly serviceable?
Take a look at the pistol above. This pistol started out as a Glock 17 RTF2 that had nothing more than aftermarket sights (10-8 Performance brass bead front and .140″ notch rear), a factory minus connector, Apex extractor, TangoDown mag catch, and a metric sh!tload of trigger presses. It was one of my favorite pistols to shoot because it was pretty accurate and extremely reliable. But when the opportunity to get some fancy machining done to it by ATEi, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity.
So now the pistol’s been back a couple weeks and I’ve had the opportunity to shoot the heck out of it on the range. Honestly, all that fancy work does not really affect the shootability of this gun. It shoots no better or worse with all that fancy metalwork. Where the work comes into play is during manipulations. Loading, unloading, and chambered round verifications become easier thanks to the secure grip the vertical serrations offer (especially the front ones.) Yes, that finish on Glocks and M&Ps is slick. Anyway, through welding and fancy CNC machining, ATEi deleted the stupid fish scales on the rear and replaced them with aggressive vertical serrations. The top serrations are not much more than cosmetic, so while I like the look, that’s not a “must have”.
With the above in mind, 99% of the population would be best served by getting a good set of sights, shooting the heck out of their modern pistol, and spend the money on ammunition and a SIRT Pistol from Next Level Training. But if you have the resources to eek out that last 5% of performance and ease of handling out of your pistol, then look to do these types of mods.
Fancy plastic guns, fancy 1911, do we need either. That is like asking a gearhead, do you really need those $500 aluminum high rise valve covers? Well no you don’t, but if it makes you a 1/10 of a second faster in the 1/4 mile or 1 milisecond faster in a gun match or God forbid a real gunfight then yes you need it. Plus, it just looks cool.
I find that Glocks need, at most, some front cocking serrations. I had Mark Housel machine some in when I had an ATOM mount installed. Anything more than that is pure cosmetic and excess. I like excess, mind you, but it ain’t cheap.
Those top serrations are very much for function. They allow one handed slide maniputation. While holding the grip of the gun, push the top of the slide aginst your thigh or chest. Push firmly and quickly push the grip to manipulate the slide. The reason this is popular is that those that have gone through training such as taught by MDFI, find that it gives you more options to make sure you can keep your pistol running as fast as possible.
I’m very well aware of the one handed manipulation methods above, but the necessity for this, along with catching the sight for one hand manipulations, is sometimes overstated, (yet I use Hilton’s sights almost exclusively.) If you have the resources, go ahead and get it all done. My point is that for most shooters they would be better served shooting the heck out of the gun and learning the limitations of the gun and themselves before dropping hundreds of dollars into mods.
Tim, I totally agree. Get the basics down first. Basics ,basics ,basics, basics and basics. Once you got that then maybe do up a tactically cool pistol with a couple mods that actually do something .
Just an opinion.
I agree with Tim. Master the fundamentals before you start worrying about cosmetic enhancements. Besides, you can fix the grip issue on the slide for free by simply not using so much hand lotion. This new generation is getting soft.
“This is my [Glock]. There are many like it, but this one is mine.”
I absolutely agree: the various serrations are totally unnecessary — unless you ever need to remedy a weapons malfunction one-handed…
If the only reason you own a gun is to punch holes in paper targets, such things are excess–mere frippery! However, if you intend to use that firearm for the defense of yourself and your family, modifications such as top slide serrations begin to make a LOT of sense.
Not only so, but I’ve found the “fancy machining” offered by ATEi is not nearly as expensive as some would have us believe.
Learn and become fast with any stock out of the box weapon. Then decided if and what modifications would help you drive the weapon no matter what comes your way.Im all for mods to our lead throwers, im even more for people to practice, shoot, ect with them first.
Great article Tim as always.
R.White
I wholeheartedly agree master the gun as is first.way too many people rush to “upgrade” guns with a lot of stuff they don’t need instead of spending the money on ammo for practice which they do need, especially new shooters. While I am sure there is a right and wrong way to approach modifications, in the glock in particular I have seen modifications often adversely affect the reliability the platform is known For. I frequently preach your glock is not and never will be a fifty yard bullseye 1911 so don’t go out to try and make it one. I have seen aftermarket parts cause glocks to choke than all other causes combined.
I was recently at a shooting competition where there were a couple of amputees participating. One of them was shooting a Glock with pretty much the same serration as the picture above so he could operate single handed. He racked the slide by putting the slide against his short. So yes they are functional.
You can easily rack the gun by placing it upside down on virtually any solid surface and applying a little downward pressure. Then just push the frame forward. It’s simple, fast, and works irregardless of sights, serrations, etc…