Glock 19 Gen 5 Review

The Glock 19 is the default answer in concealed carry, and it has been for long enough that recommending one feels like having no opinion. It is not exciting, it is not the newest thing, and it wins almost entirely on being unremarkable in every direction at once.

Fifteen rounds, a full firing grip, a size that carries and shoots, and more holsters, parts, classes and knowledge built around it than anything else on the market. When something eventually breaks you can fix it on a Tuesday instead of waiting three weeks for a part. That is the actual pitch, and it holds up.

The specs

• 9x19mm, 15+1
• Barrel 4.02 in, 1:9.84 right hand twist
• Overall length 7.28 in
• Height 5.04 in
• Width 1.34 in
• Weight 23.99 oz with an empty magazine
• Trigger pull in the 5 to 6.5 lb range
• Polymer U-notch sights, rear adjustable
• nDLC finished slide
• Street price generally somewhere around $550 to $650

What the Gen 5 changed

The finger grooves are gone, which is the change people notice first and the one that quietly fixed the gun for a lot of shooters, because the Gen 4 grooves either lined up with your hand or they did not. The slide stop is now double sided, so left handed shooters get a gun that works properly rather than one they work around. The barrel got a new rifling profile, the trigger assembly was redesigned, the locking block area went from two pins to one, and the frame grew very slightly.

The practical catch is that the Gen 5 will not take earlier generation triggers, so if you are coming from a Gen 3 or Gen 4 with a parts drawer, some of that drawer is now decoration.

How it shoots

Softer than it has any right to be for the size. The weight sits low, the bore axis is reasonable, and a full firing grip does most of the work that a compensator has to do on a smaller gun. Accuracy is good rather than remarkable, and the limiting factor on a stock gun is the sights rather than the barrel.

Reliability is where the reputation stops being marketing. A review that ran roughly four thousand rounds through a Gen 5 reported zero malfunctions across multiple ammunition types, with the only hiccup being some chambering hesitation in the first thousand rounds that disappeared as the gun broke in. That is the pattern with these, and it is the whole reason the platform is the default.

What is actually wrong with it

The sights are plastic, and on a gun you intend to carry they are the first thing to replace, so budget for that on day one rather than pretending it is optional.

The junction where the trigger guard meets the frame is angular and it will rub a knuckle raw over a long session, which some people fix with ten minutes of smoothing and others never notice. The nDLC finish flakes at the edges under hard holster wear, which is cosmetic rather than functional. The slide stop is minimalist enough that some shooters ride it with their support hand.

The fair verdict is that the Gen 5 is a set of incremental improvements rather than a reason for a happy Gen 4 owner to spend money. If it is your first one, buy the Gen 5. If you already have a Gen 4 that fits you, keep it.

What I run on mine

• Glock 19 Gen 5 MOS
• Aimpoint Acro P2
• SureFire X300T-B Turbo
• Radian Ramjet
• Tier 1 Concealed Axis Elite

The Acro P2 is a closed emitter, which is the entire reason it is on there. An open emitter dot lives in a hole in your waistband collecting lint and sweat all day, and you find out about it at the worst possible time. The Acro is sealed, it holds zero, and the window stays clear.

The X300T-B Turbo is there because you cannot shoot what you cannot identify, and the Turbo throws further than a standard X300, which matters more outdoors than people who only train in a lit indoor bay want to admit. The part that gets skipped constantly is that a weapon light is not a searchlight, because anything you point it at you are pointing a gun at. Checking a noise in the house is a handheld light job. If you carry a weapon light without also carrying a handheld, you have built half a system.

The Ramjet is the part people argue about. It flattens the gun so the dot comes back down faster, and it costs a little velocity, a little concealment, more gas in your face from a compressed position, and carbon that needs cleaning on a schedule. I take that trade. Plenty of people should not, and a stock 19 is not a worse carry gun for skipping it.

The Tier 1 Axis Elite is half the system, which is not how most people think about a holster. It carries the whole rig with the comp and the light on it and it stays where I put it. A good gun in a bad holster is a gun you eventually stop carrying.

The verdict

Buy it, replace the sights, and stop reading reviews. The Gen 5 is the most boring correct answer in the category, and the only real argument against it is that everyone already knows that.

One honest note before you decide it is too big. A 19 with a light on it is a lot of hardware inside your waistband, and whether it carries comfortably has more to do with your build than with the gun, which is worth being honest with yourself about before you go shopping for something smaller.

We link to third party parts referenced in our builds. This site does not handle transactions for any part listed above. Opinions about specific products are our own experience and preference, not claims about any manufacturer. Specifications are as published at the time of writing and change between production runs, so confirm current figures with the manufacturer. For reference and educational use only, and nothing here is training. Get hands on instruction from a qualified instructor before carrying. Laws vary by state and they change, so confirm what is legal where you live.