Quote:
Originally Posted by Pooka
I am not a big gun person, but I have always heard that the main reason many of our police carry a Glock is due to the light weight compaired to an all steel unit.
It has to do with having to lug it around all day, and if you carry two or three even the hideout ones get heavy. Glocks are a high quality product, but it is the light weight that is their real advantage to the user (or so I have been told).
Also: If the weapon is alum. and the barrel is steel will the barrel ever seperate from the body? I mean, CZ makes some quality stuff, but will it last for years and years like, say, a Walther?
I think I am posting far more questions than answers here.
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Well, it's a combination of a lot of factors, not just the weight.
It's an interesting sum of design and engineering. THe gun is inexpensive because for one because it is polymer framed, which is less expensive to manufacture than a steel/alloy frame. Its design also contributes to the cost, as it uses a striker-fired mechanism which is simpler. Combined with using as many plastic parts as possible (Mr. Glock was already very experienced in manufacturing items with plastic) and reduced part count of the design, it came out cheaper and lighter than contemporary designs.
The simpler design was also easy to learn to use. Point gun - pull trigger.
Plastic meant less parts to rust. Using a special type of surface hardening made the metal parts like the slide and barrel extremely rust resistant also.
Mr. Glock's design used large tolerances to improve reliability, which also reduced costs by allowing parts to be made with larger tolerances. This had a pleasant side effect of most all parts being drop in with no fitting, simplifying repair and maintenance.
Accuracy is not match grade as priority was on reliability (these were after all designed for the Austrian army), but the resulting acuracy was adequate for most needs.
So it's a combination of price, user-friendliness, reliability, light weight, corrosion resistance and ease of maintenance, plus an aggressive marketing arm and service support that put Glock where it is today.
A steel barrel can work with an aluminum frame, no problem. It's all in the design and engineering of the gun.
And CZ is well known for their guns. Some consider the CZ75 the best 9mm service pistol out there. Tried and tested in battle and competition (IPSC/USPSA action shooting)