Glock Custom Ideas

I have many friends and family members regularly asking why I make modifications to my firearms. "Why did you do that to your Glock? It was fine before." I always reply, "Because it’s my gun and I wanted to." I’ve recently started my gunsmithing hobby and am in the middle of attending an online school for some extra information.

Everything else I have learned from books, online and magazine articles, and from visiting local shop owners happy to talk and answer questions with a fellow gunsmith—although I think the link between us as veterans may be the real reason they put up with me. This article is more for those athome gunsmiths and do-it-yourself- The coil-type trigger spring and trigger bar is at the top left. ers preferring to learn on their own.

As to the "Why?"—the first question anyone choosing to customize an already-working firearm will likely get—this isn’t a question you need to answer to anyone but yourself. For me, the answer is easy as I just like working on my guns and I like the idea of improving something. My Glock is my go-to home defense gun and for this reason I want it to be the very best that I can make it. Your reason may differ from mine merely wanting to is reason enough. Let’s begin by looking over the handgun.

I bought my Glock used from a local gun store in San Antonio. The first thing I noticed was that it had seen some shelf time, being pretty well covered in dust held on by some kind of gunk. A good cleaning with some Hoppe’s Elite Gun Cleaner was my first step. I took the pistol apart down to the frame and slide, inspecting for any damage. Satisfied that I purchased a solid gun with no problems, I looked for things that could be better. The first thing I put on my list was the recoil spring.

The guide rod from the factory is plastic and I could bend it with my hand. This seemed a failure waiting to happen, plus replacing the guide rod with one made of metal along with a fresh recoil spring should provide better stability. Given how much I shoot my Glock, I didn’t want to worry about wear and tear on a plastic part. The current GEN4 Glocks use a different recoil spring than previous models, consisting of a dual spring design to improve recoil and control of the firearm.

I selected a simple stainless steel design but there are other options, including light weight light weight titanium units if you are feel-

Have a plan first! ing fancy and have the money. The process of changing these out is very easy and can be done with a simple field strip of the weapon and a little working of the action. The next part on my list is the barrel. While factory Glock barrels are good, I use mine for both home defense and shooting sports. Where a threaded barrel and/or a muzzle break increases length, making the pistol more difficult to conceal and carry, I’m looking for multiple uses. For me, a muzzle break is an ideal touch.

There are a number of options here but Lone Wolf Distributors (LoneWolfDist.com, make the units I like best. While many Glock aftermarket barrels are listed as pre-fit drop in, nothing is perfect. I recommend Gunsmithing Pistols & Revolvers 4th Edition by Patrick Sweeney, having found this book to be informative with solid descriptions and illustrations. Most shooters desiring firearm modifications want an improved trigger pull.

With Glocks, the advice is often limited to replacing the connector, trigger spring, and firing pin, however, factory parts can be polished for improvement. Patrick Sweeney also goes over this in his book. By polishing the connector (the lower tab on the trigger housing group) the trigger pull can be lightened. This requires a honing stone ( I used a standard India stone), a good vise, and plenty of lighting. My first mistake was polishing just the top of the connector, making it flat.

That did lighten the trigger pull from 5.5 pounds to 4.7, but the trigger was very choppy and felt like it hit a wall and then slipped over through the pull. After disassembling and inspecting again, I could see that it was flat and made a corner that the trigger bar would catch. I carefully rounded out the edge, resulting in an even smoother pull and dropping the weight down to nearly four pounds even.

For any further weight changes, the only choice is to replace the connector with one that has a different angle along with a trigger spring of lesser weight. If you or your customers prefers a trigger pull more like a doubleaction revolver with a consistent weight through the whole pull, a New York trigger, as used by the New York Police Department, is what you are looking for. This unit replaces the coil trigger spring and slips into the space below the trigger arm.

Standard Glocks use coil typically yielding a 5.5 pound pull that remains constant over the entire trigger travel. The N. Y.1 trigger as first requested by NYPD when the department transitioned from issue revolvers to Glocks, increases trigger pull weight from 5.5 to 11 pounds. The N. Y.2 trigger spring is even harder, continuous, revolver-like increase of the trigger pull weight from 7 pounds up to 11. I plan to cover these in detail in a future article along with shooting comparisons.

The last topic I’ll cover is stippling, the process of melting the polymer frame to improve purchase while shooting. Done correctly, it can also add a nice, unique look to the pistol. There are a growing number of people doing this at home and goofing up their pistols, prompting them to want anew one. If you’re going to try this, be ready to own up to the work you did as it’s not easy getting anew serialized frame without buying anew gun.

While I’ve received comments that my first attempt came out great, it actually didn’t. My first attempt at stippling taught me to find something else to practice on first and to pick the right tool. I used an old wood burning tool shaped more like a pencil and this made it hard to burn straight down at a consistent rate. I would instead recommend a tool with either a pistol grip or curved tips. The other problem was how hot it burned.

Without any temperature controls, I was forced to stop after an hour or so and let the tips cool off because they would become loose, making it hard to control and burning more of the polymer then I wanted it to. This works best with a plan and a design already laid out. I have some random looking designs on my Glock and that’s because they were random little lines and dots mashed together the starting to make one big mess. Finally, be careful how deep you make the burns. There only needs to be a shallow burn.

Anything deeper makes sharp edges for the hand. This is uncomfortable and led to lots of filing work before I could tolerate to grip the firearm again. On the plus side, this procedure to eventually yield much better purchase than before, which was the desired result and a silver lining to this failed project. Unless you are like me and can take a lot of jokes at the range, let a professional take this one—at least until you get a plenty of practice.

These are simple modifications that any gunsmith and most shooters can make to customize their Glock to better suit their shooting. AG