Shooting the Glock 19 clone

My Glock 19 clone.

This report covers:

• Problem
• Ian confirmed
• Let’s shoot!
• Trouble up front
• Ouch!
• Accuracy
• Timed fire
• Sights
• Target was close
• Trigger
• Lubrication
• Summary

Today I shoot the 9mm Glock 19 clone firearm for the first time. You guys always say I’m the great enabler. Well, reader Ian McKee enabled me into this one. When he wrote last year about the Glock 19 clone he got for under $200 I bought one, too.

I’ve had the pistol for many months and I used it to test SLIP 2000 EWL, which I reported in the piece titled, What does a break-in mean? But there was a problem.

Problem

The problem was the SLIP 2000 EWL eventually made the Glock clone so smooth that it destroyed a video I planned to film. New Glocks are difficult to disassemble and I found an easy way to do it, but while practicing for the video the SLIP got the pistol so smooth that my special way no longer worked. The good news is the gun now disassembles as it was designed to.

Ian confirmed

Ian has shot his clone at least 1,200 times, which broke it in. I had never shot mine that was the same model, but the SLIP 2000 made it just as smooth. He brought his pistol up from Houston to show me and we compared them. Both racked (pulling the slide back all the way until the pistol cocks) similarly. I think his trigger was a little crisper, but once again, I’d not fired a round through mine.

Let’s shoot!

So I recently went to an indoor range and ran a box of ammo through it. This is that report.

The Glock 19 clone on the range. Those Magpul magazines hold 15 rounds.

Trouble up front

When I released the slide the first round failed to chamber! I ejected it and tried to chamber round two. Again a failure. Was it a bad magazine? The mags are from Magpul and are supposed to be the best on the market, but things do happen.

When the first round from the second magazine also failed to chamber, I thought back on my days of shooting new handguns and remembered they sometimes don’t work right at first. The CZ75 SP01 I have had the same problem. I have even had 1911s that had chambering problems when new!

All it took was hitting the rear of the slide with the heel of my hand and the round chambered. That’s a trick I learned years ago and it does work well. Just keep your trigger finger away from the trigger when you do it. After that I had about 8-9 more failures to chamber before they stopped and then everything worked as it should.

Ouch!

Ian told us the clone’s grip is a little aggressive. That’s like saying using the Braille method for welding can hurt. This little pistol is a punisher! My Sig P365 is smaller, lighter, has less recoil with the same cartridge and is just as accurate. 

Accuracy

The clone is accurate, though after my hand had taken about 25 rounds of punishment I started sniping, which means pulling the trigger rapidly in anticipation of the recoil. When I do that my shots start going to the left. And like a dummy it was then that I remembered to shoot the silhouette in the head.

My Blue Man group.

Timed fire

I also shot faster toward the end of the session. Instead of waiting to see the sights aligned on target I simply shot about every second and a half. I did this because at this point I was familiar with the pistol and it was feeding reliably. I really pulled some shots to the left when I did this!

Sights

To be fair the clone’s sights are not for precision. They are for defense and as long as I hold center of mass, they will work. My P365 can put them all in the head at defense distances, and if I take my time so can my CZ75. The sights on this pistol, though, are a bit cruder.

Target was close

The silhouette target was only 21 feet, or 7 yards (6.4 Meters) away. That used to be the maximum distance for defense training though that distance has now increased.

This was just a familiarization day, plus as mentioned the clone’s sights are just for defense and not for precision. I am considering making the pistol a truck gun but it will have to function a lot more reliably with many more rounds before I do that.

Trigger

Ahh—the trigger. It’s a typical Glock trigger which means it feels like dragging a garden rake through a pile of pebbles. But a day after the shooting session I tried dry-firing the trigger and I see that it is now crisp. It’s not up to a good 1911 trigger, but for a defense pistol it’s right where it needs to be.

Lubrication

After shooting 50 rounds I disassembled the pistol and was surprised to find all the parts dry. I thought this SLIP 2000 EWL was an extreme weapons lubricant that didn’t move around under the stress of firing. Then I looked closer and saw that the lubricant had moved onto all the mating surfaces where it can do its job. When I applied it there were blobs of the stuff everywhere. Now it is evenly distributed.

Summary

Today’s report focused on the Glock 19 clone, but I was using the handgun as a testbed for the SLIP 2000 EWL lubricant. Until I disassembled the pistol after shooting I had no idea what the lubricant would do, but now I have seen it in action. I have to say it is holding up quite well! This is a product I believe airgunners need to be aware of.

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