Glock 19 vs the 17 for prepping

Hi Fernando, I know you’re a huge fan of the Glock 17 for prepping and even EDC but I would like to make a counter argument that the Glock 19 has an advantage over it’s larger brother for prepping. While the 17 is a solid gun, it can only ever accept magazines made for the 17 while the 19 can accept both the 19s and 17s magazines. So if you buy a 19 you’ve essentially doubled the possible available magazines you can buy or find for your gun and all it cost you was a bit of barrel length and a bit off the bottom. So if you’re CCWing a 19 you can have a 15rnd magazine in it to reduce your printing while having an extra glock 17 mag on your belt or in your bag.

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I like the Glock 19 very much. As you say the size is about perfect, especially for smaller frame people. The grip is basically the same thickness as the Glock 17, only shorter, so I don’t feel it gives any particular advantage to people with smaller hands. But being smaller, lighter, there’s less gun to swing around for smaller people and its also easier to conceal.

I will say though that I like having a bit more grip real estate as in the Glock 17 and I at least don’t feel that the Glock 17 is all that harder to conceal. Again, for smaller frame people or people that dress a certain way, maybe tighter fitting clothes, the advantage in concealment may be worth it.

I also find that having less barrel length gives me a shorter distance between sights. I group better when precision shooting with the Glock 17. The longer barrel also gives you a bit more velocity and power and of course, you have two more rounds in the Glock 17 vs the Glock 19. Sure you can use Glock 17 mags in the Glock 19, but it defeats the purpose of having the smaller gun in the first place.

I feel all of this doesn’t compensate the rather small tactical advantage of being able to use both G17 and G19 mags, especially considering that the Glock 17 is the most prolific gun of the two.

Either way, both are excellent guns and if a given person feels the Glock 19 is better for them then I’m perfectly fine with that. You can’t go wrong with the Glock 17 or its slightly smaller version.

FerFAL

Fernando “FerFAL” Aguirre is the author of “The Modern Survival Manual: Surviving the Economic Collapse” and “Bugging Out and Relocating: When Staying is not an Option”