Concealed Carry Handguns – August 2019

The upgrades are

obvious when com-

pared to a stock

Glock 19.

M

any of my firearms in

my younger years were

built by me to save

money. Later on, it was

to build something that no one else

had or in other cases a repair or resto-

ration effort. Nowadays, I do it for fun

or for “winter projects” when it’s too

cold to enjoy shooting outside.

This time I decided to tackle a Glock.

I have no problems with factory

Glocks, except for maybe their plastic

sights. Apart from that, they are

reliable working firearms that do

their job well. That was until a few

years ago when I looked around and

saw what other people were doing

with their Glocks. For the first time,

I saw untapped potential in these

strikers-fired, polymer-framed pistols.

I have since built a few Glock 17s

and a 43.

I decided to tackle what is probably

the most ideal Glock for self-defense

and concealed carry: the Model 19.

The G19, Third Generation, is practical-

ly an open source design these days,

much like the AR-15, 1911, Remington

700 and other classic firearm designs

of yesteryear. There are enough

custom and aftermarket parts that fire-

arms such as this are the equivalent

of small block Chevy engines from the

automotive world.

SOURCING PARTS

For a slide and barrel, I went with

Rival Arms. I was not familiar with the

brand, but a few of my friends “in the

know” gave it their highest recom-

mendations, so I knew I chose wisely.

The company recently revamped

its offerings and its new parts had

strongly caught my attention. I chose

a spiral fluted threaded barrel and a

windowed slide. These cutouts on the

slide are said to make the barrel cool

more effectively, which is more of a

factor if you are running a suppressor.

Looking to the frame, I briefly con-

sidered building one from an 80%

lower when I realized that I could find

a perfectly good Glock frame on the

secondary market for a better price

and it would eliminate the search for

parts and getting the frame to 100%.

A police trade-in G19 frame turned up

for a righteous sum and it included

the bulk of the parts that I needed.

That probably saved a few hours and

a few choice curse words in frustration

if I had to run down all of the miscel-

laneous parts.

Some of the other parts that I needed

included the slide plate and the guide

rod/recoil spring. I sourced these from

Rival Arms and found each one to be

a true drop-in fit. Rival Arms provided

all the internal parts of the slide as

well. Each little piece felt as if it had

been custom made for this Glock as

opposed to being mass produced.

28 CONCEALED CARRY HANDGUNS • FALL 2019