Race Gun Glock - How much is the difference between a modern practical rifle and a racing rifle? I decided to do a very unscientific test and find out for myself what the difference is for me at the current skill level. Perhaps the first thing to understand is the definition of each.
In my opinion, a practical modern gun is one that is small enough to carry and big enough to shoot without amradation in baseline performance. For me personally, this line starts at the Glock 48 or Sig P365XL and goes up to the Glock 17 / HK VP9 / Sig P320 sized pistols. This can be different for everyone. When I get to a gun like a Sig P365 or a Glock 43 I start to notice a drop in performance mainly due to the size of the grip. I have large hands and the subcompact pistol is low to hold. They certainly have their place and can be effective, but for me personally, they are becoming more difficult to shoot. For the purposes of this article, the example pistol carried is a Gen 5 Glock 19 MOS with factory trigger, Holosun 509T light and Streamlight TLR7A carried in an Inside the Waistband holster at 3 o'clock.
Race Gun Glock
So what is gun racing? This word comes from the world of competition and is used to describe a pistol that focuses entirely on performance without regard to concealment, sometimes weight and in some cases apparently reliability. They are usually compensated, have red optics, hold a lot of bullets and usually have a trigger set at two pounds or less. They are often set on the ragged edge of reliability, have a large magazine funnel to aid reloading and are generally impractical for anything other than gaming. He did well in his purpose, but his performance. An example is Staccato XC with 1 pound 14 oz trigger, Holosun 509T and Surefire 300XU-B which in other guns to increase the weight and make it fit in the holsters than anything else. The holster is Philster outside the waistband with no retention.
Glock 17 Custom Competition Pistol
My unscientific way to find the answer to this question is to run several exercises with two pistols and note the differences in overall times, draw time and any differences in accuracy. I ran through the drill. The first is a version of the classic Bill Drill where you respond to a signal, draw from the holster and fire six rounds as fast as you can. In the version of the drill I took, it is from 8 meters to the steel target zone C. This drill focuses on the speed of the draw and recoil management at high speed while maintaining acceptable accuracy. I went speed focused on this version and took any hit on the plate. To quote the great Ricky Bobby "I want it fast."
The next drill is one I'm developing for an upcoming Aman CCW project that I call the 3-2-1 drill. This aims to be more accurate and still requires back-management and some small changes. Targets are printed on 8.5 x11 sheets of printer paper. It is fired from five yards and requires a reaction to the signal, drawing and firing three rounds into a large rectangle, two rounds into a medium square and one round into a small square. The small box is only at 1.5 "so at 5 meters you have to pay attention to win. I did not measure the crack in this one.
The last drill was a plate rack at 10 yards. There are six 6" round plates in the rack. This requires quite a bit of accuracy compared to the Drilling Bill and you have to manage the transitions.
Both guns run 100% with no issues. So what did I learn? Answer: The first thing that jumps out is the method of drawing the largest factor. My hidden draw is not good and my open draw is good. When you look at the results of the time I spent shooting after the gun was removed, there is no difference between the guns. It's kind of a Captain Obvious deal that hidden is slower than open for most people, but I know I'm .3-.4 slower when hidden and the time difference when not shooting is huge. But there are differences, so we'll dive into them specifically.
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Bill Drill: A small and basically useless difference in split times. The biggest difference here is the accuracy of the target. Staccato is so smooth that I can cover the group with my hand in most runs while pulling the trigger as fast as possible. Shooting a Glock at the same speed results in more spread on the target and sometimes flying off the edge of the target. This can certainly be handled with more grip but my point is that a dedicated rifle has a huge advantage for this type of shooting. That speed is at the edge of my abilities.
3-2-1 Drill: Answer: The main thing I noticed is a better trigger in the XC which allows me to push the speed in tighter shots without having to focus so much on pressing Good trigger with Glock. With the Glock in the last little square, I had to see a good picture and press the trigger without moving the gun. With Staccato it is more to see the point on the target and press the trigger. Also XC does not require a lot of recoil control in some parts taken as it basically slides back and forth without vertical movement. A fixed point in the window. With a Glock it requires more focus and dedication to the grip and trigger.
Plate rack: Shifting is easier with the XC because it stays smooth during transitions. Another example of comp and spring version is used as intended. The Glock 19 doesn't move much but it does more than a custom rifle. Another important difference is the trigger. Glock needs attention for a good sight picture, a stable grip and a good trigger press. With XC I saw the point on the white, press the trigger and transition to another plate with much less focus required in the process and more margin for error in pressing the trigger not-so-big.
Conclusion: I don't think there will be a big difference between the two performances for me. In my opinion it is true. It works out about what I expected and the biggest difference between the gun is the trigger and how much flatter XC shoots. Unless you have taken a series like XC, it is hard to describe. Almost all the people I let shoot the gun have the same reaction "It's like cheating." With a super light trigger and it really doesn't move much at all, it's an easy gun to shoot as well.
Custom G34 Race Gun
I can shoot basically like a quick shot with a Glock but it requires more attention and focus on the process when you give any kind of standard accuracy in play. The process of gun racing is not just about the margin of error. Overall, I'm happy with the results because they show that affordable carry guns in real life are not far from impractical race guns and there are no restrictions on impractical methods.
Another point is that the cost benefit ratio for me will go up when I go through the Glock 19 / Holosun 509 combo. The cost of the Glock and point and plate is under $1000 altogether. Staccato is $ 4300 with $ 300 dot, $ 140 plate and need $ 70 magazine. The XC actually costs five times more than the Glock. That's not to say XC is overpriced because it's not in my opinion. My favorite handgun is a very nice handgun.
My point is that in many areas it seems that once you get to a certain level of performance, costs start to rise rapidly for small incremental improvements. You can really buy some performance in my opinion but if you don't put in the time and effort of training to expand and understand the change of equipment it is a false path to improvement. My final thought on this little experiment is that race rifles are a blast but modern pistols are reliable pistols that you can rely on in real life without giving up.
Justin is the Content Manager for CCW Safe. He was a lifelong shooter and competitor
Picking A Handgun For Competition
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