glock 19 mods for wife - advice

[drdirk]

Ladies and Gentlemen:

A few years ago we bought a Glock 19 for my wife. It does not have a rail and came at the time with one of those "law enforcement only" magazines.

Although my wife shot well enough to get her CCW, she really is a bad shot and this prompted me to think about two mods that may help her:

Tigger: Compared to my 1911 or Ruger the Glock trigger is really heavy. Not sure how heavy but way too heavy for my taste as well.

Q: What is the recommended way to reduce it. Lot's of stuff on the web but before I spend money on this I was wondering what you guys recommend. We are looking for a reasonably light tigger that still is safe for CCW and home defense. Not looking for a trigger job, just a normal pull. The gun may have some kind of CA or NY trigger. Just don't know enough about Glocks.

Slide release: Does Glock make extended slide releases? Or do I need to buy them form an aftermarket place? She has a problem to release it or keep the slide open with her long nails.

Thanks for any advice to make this more suitable.

 

[Shane Tuttle]

Drdirk,

In time, I believe you will get a wealth of information in this forum. I believe it's the best all around site. However, if you don't, go to www.glocktalk.com

There's some pretty dedicated glock owners there. I bet you would get some easy answers from here or there. I know the Glocks are easy to modify and if you spend a little time and a couple of bucks on a book or two. Aftermarket parts are plentiful and inexpensive. I also think the work is relatively easy to learn and do. I'm willing to go out on a limb here and speculate that you might have the NY trigger job. IIRC, that's about a 10-12lb pull. Glock enthusiasts can tell you more accurate info, but that's my take.

 

[SIGLOCKAUR]

Their are indeed some strange trigger set ups on the Glock and something does sound wrong. The standard Glock trigger is set at between 5-5.5 lbs.. It is a simple matter to buy a 3.5 lbs. connector for the trigger and do a little light polishing and quickly drop the trigger pull to 4 lbs.. That is if all the other components are stock. If not some spring changes will be in order. And yes Glock makes extended slide release set up for their guns. A good place to look is a company called Lone Wolf. They specialize in Glock parts and should be able to set you up with all you need. One thing. Glock now only sells OEM parts to Glock certfied gunsmiths. Talk to Lone Wolf they'll set you up. The Glocks are a cinch to work on BTW.

 

[drdirk]

Thanks for the replies. I will certainly look into the 3.5 connector. If I had to guess I would say the gun now is in the 10 lb range so 5 lb would be a huge improvement. Again, nothing fancy we are looking for, just think that a 10lb trigger does not belong on a gun!

 

[Ozzieman]

Good Glocks/Bad Glocks

There are so many things that can give person problems with accuracy; I would start looking at basics before I would start modifying the gun.
The question I would ask is how is she with the 1911.
With my wife when we tried a 19 she just didn’t like the gun. But when I let her choose one for her self she picked the Glock 26.
The other thing is the size of her hands can make a real difference on how a gun works for her. The 19 is a big grip and if she has small hands that can be a real problem.
You haven’t said what her problem is other than a bad shot. In the training that I have done over the years most problems that women have had is that there simply scared of the gun. This in most cases comes from lack of experience. This is not to put women down, one of the best shooters I have ever seen was a 19 year old girl with a 1911.
What distance is she shooting?
What I would suggest is to start her off with a good 22 semi auto. The thing to remember is that if you can’t shoot well with a 22 you’re sure as heck not going to shoot well with a 9mm.
An acquaintance came to me with the same problem. Wife couldn’t hit the right side of a barn from the inside.
He had taken her out with a model 19 Smith and Wesson with some 357’s and made her shoot half a box through it. It made he so uncomfortable shooting she just closed her eyes and pulled the trigger.
I had her out for one session and started with a Ruger Mark 11 and after she shot a full box she was doing very well. Before the day was out I had her shooting a 1911 and having fun at it.
Again before I would modify the gun look more toward what her problem is.
If she has little experience, I would start her off at 7 yards and once she has that down then work her out.

 

[JohnKSa]

Here's a picture of two Glocks with yellow lines pointing to the trigger springs. The one on the right has an NY1 trigger spring installed, the one on the left has a standard trigger spring. The NY2 would be orange rather than beige, if memory serves.

If your trigger spring is either of the NY trigger springs, changing to a stock spring will make the trigger feel a good bit lighter.

Here's a picture showing the connector. If you look closely where the (very) thin yellow line is pointing you should see a minus symbol "-". That means it's a 3.5lb connector. A stock connector will not have any markings and an 8lb connector would have a "+" marking in that spot. If you have the heavier (8lb) connector installed installing a standard (5.5lb) connector would lighten the trigger a bit.

If neither an NY trigger spring nor the heavier connector is installed then perhaps the gun needs to be lubricated per the instructions in the manual.

And if it's all stock and properly lubricated and still has a trigger that runs about 10lbs, it needs attention by an armorer. Something's messed up.

 

[allenomics]

This is news to me. I thought all G19's came with the 5.5lb trigger. Even the official Glock site on the Internet indicates 5.5lbs.

 

[ATW525]

The heavier triggers are generally intended for law enforcement agencies. The NY1 trigger spring was originally for the NYSP, and the NY2 trigger spring was for the NYPD. However the springs are readily available for anyone to buy and it's not uncommon for people to swap them out. The NY1 spring and 3.5lb connector is one of the more popular arrangements.

 

[Merkaba]

mod

get her to 'mod' her nails so they aren't so long

 

[JohnKSa]

I thought all G19's came with the 5.5lb trigger.

Since he says that he only received one magazine and it was an LEO marked magazine, I'm surmising that the G19 he has is an LEO trade-in. That makes it possible (though not terribly likely) that it could have a trigger other than the standard offering.

Just trying to cover all the bases.

 

[Wildalaska]

Does it fit her hand? 70% of the bad shooting in this world is attributeable to poorly fitting guns IMHO

WildandglocksaretheworstAlaska

 

[drdirk]

Thanks for the good advice. I was able to confirm that this used to be a LE gun with a 10 lb trigger! It also came with a LE only mag. I am amazed that they make cops use 10 lb triggers! Frankly, I had a hard time hitting much with it at 50 ft. In general my wife likes the gun. At least more than my 1911 although I think with my reloads the 1911 is easier to shoot.

We will try to put a lighter tigger in to make it 5.5 lb at least. 10 lb is just stupid in my opinion.

She is not really scared of guns but has a hard time locking the slide back with the slide stop. I think a larger one may help her. I guess with long fingernails it is a bit difficult.

She shoots ok with a 22. Not great but ok. She has a Texas CCL and we are getting her ready for her renewal test. I guess I am lucky, she is not anti gun but is one of those reasonable people that believe that a gun in the house is a safety ADVANTAGE.

 

[Desertscout1]

This what we have done to my wife's 19 (although the pic is of my personal CCW). It has had the grip reduced and chopped, extended mag and slide release, forward "cocking" grooves, DuraCoat, night sights and a trigger job.

Or,


for the ladies



you could try this one....

This one is a little extravagant but it brought a pretty penny at the NRA auction last month!

 

[9x19]

DrDirk,

If you need a standard connector, PM me your address, as I have a handful of them and will send you one free of charge... might even have a standard return spring as well... but will have to check on that.