Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns The Glock 19M

A new one on me, here I was thinking my Gen2 19 was the be-all and end-all ('cept fer that front sight flying off one day) so I've been out of the loop.

The regular Gen4 apparently isn't good enough for the FBI (and apologies if this is old news to everyone else)...

A crowned and rifled barrel and ambidextrous slide releases on the M version, better rounding of the front of the slide too.

A good comparison here.... https://www.swatmag.com/article/fbi-issues-new-pistol-glock-19m/

[b][i]GLOCK 19M
To comply with the FBI RFP, Glock had to provide a full sized and compact pistol, along with training pistols, and had to make some substantial changes to the gun.

I had the good fortune to spend some time with an FBI issue G19M and compare it to a Generation Four pistol. The issue pistol exhibited the following changes and features:

No front-strap finger grooves
Conventionally rifled barrel, crowned at the muzzle
Stronger trigger safety pin
Enhanced locking block and rails
Longer recoil spring assembly
Enhanced ejector
Improved trigger
Enhanced firing pin safety and spring
Ambidextrous slide releases/stops, both shielded
Stronger slide lock lever spring
Improved magazine base pads
Flared magazine well
Cut-out in grip to facilitate easy removal of stuck magazine
AmeriGlo sights
Safariland ALS holster
Four back straps
Externals and internals coated with NDLC
Other upgraded internal parts

from the article:
"Its hammer-forged 1:9.84 twist barrel is “conventionally” rifled, but is reportedly a “Polygonal Hybrid.” Its polygonal barrel has a groove in it, which is supposed to result in better accuracy. Perhaps another reason for the change is to give the agents deploying overseas the option to fire lead bullets if that’s the only ammo available. The M model’s muzzle is crowned, again for improved accuracy."

So, seems like they are admitting that a traditionally rifled barrel is more accurate (aside from the lead bullet issue), I wonder why not switch all of their barrels to this design? Why stick with the polygonal rifling at all?

All of that was speculation on the part of the author, and is old news now that turns out to not be fully correct anyway. These guns were essentially what the gen 5 G19 is now; and have been out in public long enough to show real field results. All of the gen 5 pistols use the new rifling style, including the little G43. It turns out the new barrels are not particularly more accurate than previous barrels though, unless you happen to pick a more accurate gen 5 barrel and a less accurate older barrel. The results can flip the other way as well. That may be a result of quality control more than the particular rifling style, but both styles can be accurate with good quality examples.

With that said, I do like the new hybrid rifling in the gen 5 barrels and it works well. It's not worth buying a new gun for it, but there's nothing bad to say about it either.
The only functional difference I've been able to see is the new hybrid rifling is a little more tolerant of softer cast bullet alloys, but that doesn't impact most shooters.

How is it different from the standard Gen 5 Model 19?

I'd take your Gen 2 over the current version.

This follows the 17M, which had the bonus feature of the slide flying off when dry fired. Kinda like the hood popping open on a Ford when you put it in park.

Glock the new Kek tec.