When did a stock Glock 19 begin to think that someone had already done the frame work? The tradeoff that Glock 19 had long been known to make was easy to understand: buy a pistol that did not fit the grip well and had a trigger that generally required time (or something) to become reliable, and in exchange enjoyed a gun that ran with minimal drama. The Gen6 retains the same locked-breech, striker-fired operating system and the same simple manual of arms, but puts the “out-of-the-box” experience around that which previously took undercuts, beavertail accessories, and texture treatments. That is important since the majority of owners engage with their carry pistol far more in the manner of draws, reloads and dry practice than spec sheets.
The largest alteration manifests itself in the hand prior to the dropping of a single round. Its Gen6 frame geometry promotes a higher, more locked-in grip: an undercut trigger guard, more compliant tang, and a palm swell that alters the angle of the wrist and the extension of the fingers without coercing an aggressive position. Glock explains the objective as an ergonomics push directed by the user such as a larger beavertail designed to take the weight of that higher purchase without obscuring the slide travel. Together, all these tweaks cause the reduction of the micro-adjustment that many shooters unconsciously make on presentation and recovery of recoil.
Then there are the inbuilt thumb ledges “gas pedal” design except it is embedded into the frame and not mounted. They act as points of reproducible home to the support-hand thumb and also offer the firing hand a reference point to be used when drawing and in ready positions. The recoil produces a legitimate third point of leverage on that shelf, contributing to the explanation of why the first impression range sessions are reported to have flatter tracking at the expense of the supposedly simple ergonomic edits, such as the palm swell and the “gas pedal” shelf. The win method is consistency: the hands always go back to the same position, even as the pace is raised.
How “Glock” feels is also changed with the Gen6 trigger. A flat-faced trigger shoe makes the fingers change position and perceived force held constant and the pull weight remains in the familiar neighborhood. Unbiased testing gave it 5.6-5.8 pounds, and attributed the gain less to reduced weight than to geometry and repeatability, such as to a shorter reach to better control. Glock does not change the safety system of its triggers in order to make them less new, and the difference lies not in novelty, but in making older factory triggers feel mushy to some shooters.
The more subtle upgrade is texture, which affects all aspects such as the speed of the draw, recoil control, and carrying all day. The new RTF6 grip texture is supposed to be tractionable without being uncomfortable; it is supposed to be more “locked” up than the older patterns and not turn the gun into a belt-sander on the skin. Since most carry pistol owners have the majority of their life with the draw, that is no balance, but wearability.
The most mechanically consequential interface is the optics interface. Rather than the previous stack-up of plate and screws and tolerances, Gen6 is shifting to direct Mount design that reduces deck height and relies on polymer compression elements to ensure movement under cycling. Practically, that implies that the dot is nearer to the hand to be acquired faster and the mounting scheme addresses the long term issue of plate shift and screw drama with a significant number of plates. The system also causes differences in real parts; the redesigned extractor area to accommodate the new cut does not just slide up and down between Gen5 barrels and extractors.
Details more angled slide serrations, more practical flare at the magwell, and new control borders are like Glock check boxes, but they lean toward easier handling. What you are left with is a Glock 19 that is still running and behaving like a Glock, and that comes out of the factory more or less like what many shooters used to spend to assemble.
