It seems that the debate/argument/flame war re the 1911 vs the Glock shows up almost every day…with the Glock fans insisting that their toy is the far superior design.
But, if they knew just how much of it is 1911…and how many of its features were borrowed/stolen from not only John Browning…but many of his contemporaries, they’d be a little shocked.
Let’s count the ways.
The locked breech, short recoil operation with the tilting barrel and front slide dismount is Browning’s. The fact that it HAS a slide is Browning’s idea. He pioneered the sliding breechblock in 1898, and it appeared on his 1900 Model.
Action spring under the barrel? Yep. Browning again.
The double camming surfaces on the lower barrel lug and the frame-mounted cross member used to raise and lower the barrel…ditto. He used that on his Grande Rendement, and it reappeared when Dueudonne Saive used it on the High Power. Ditto for the barrel’s integral feed ramp.
The double column/single feed position magazine? Browning again…on the Grande Rendement.
The striker can be attributed to Hugo Borchardt and Georg Luger. Pre-staging it is traced to the Roth-Steyr.
Button actuated magazine catch/release? Borchardt and Luger.
Synthetic frame? Heckler and Koch had that covered over 30 years ago.
It seems that the only real innovation is that all these borrowed ideas are combined into one pistol. Well…that and the safety mounted on the trigger…and that led to the term “Glock Leg” being coined.
So, when the Glockers come atcha with this superior, innovative design…educate’em…and be prepared for heads to explode.
FWIW: A hinged trigger safety was offered by Iver Johnson on one of its “hammerless” revolvers back in the 1890s, nearly 90 years before the introduction of the Glock 17.
Gaston Glock as an inventory or innovator , your choice, took the best ideas simplified them and produced the best selling pistol of all time. Drop safe, trigger safety, firing pin block . Glock 19 best selling pistol of all eras, including 2021.
If the other guys had put their guns together with only 30 or so parts would Herr Glock be in the gun business today?
Had a Remington R1 which malfunctioned often. Traded it in on a Glock 21 Gen 4. The Glock works. Every time.
You compare glock to one of the worst firearms to come out in the last 10 years. Not the greatest comparison.
There has to be some good qualities in a Glock pistol for shooters world wide to choose it over many other great guns consistently year after year. Perhaps reliability?