The Glong gets a (much-needed) Update
One of the models that has been around since almost the beginning, the first Glock 17L, or “Glong” pistols – so named because they have an extended 6-inch barrel and corresponding 8.9-inch slide rather than the standard model’s 4.5/7.3-inch barrel/slide – was introduced as a first-generation gun back in 1988.
Moving up to Gen 2 in 1990 and Gen 3 in 1998, the pistol has been stuck in a world where Boyz II Men and Chumbawamba were still in the Top 40, largely replaced by the similar but more practical/tactical G34.
Well, that is until last week, when the G17L leaped over the Gen 4 standard and went right to Gen 5, complete with a Glock MOS optics plate cut at the 2024 NRA Annual Meetings in Dallas.
Yup, it’s back.
Other updates include the new-style Glock Marksman Barrel (GMB), a better trigger, and the deletion of the oft-detested finger grooves on the grip, replaced by the company’s more modular grip frame that accommodates a series of interchangeable backstraps.
More in my column at Guns.com.