Picked up a new Glock the other day. A Glock 44 which is a .22 caliber version of the Glock 19. Why? Because with 9mm at around forty cents a round, I can practice my pistol shooting technique for 1/10th that.
Look, good pistol shooting includes having the bullet hit the target, no two ways about that. But before that happens you need to grip, draw, present, acquire a sight picture, squeeze the trigger while maintaining that sight picture, and do followups. Doing that at forty cents per round adds up in a hurry. You don’t need full power 9mm for acquiring a sight picture….22 works just fine and it lets you know when it does (or does not) hit the steel plate if you got your sight picture correct. Same for your draw and presentation. And since the G44 fits the same holsters, mag pouches, etc, as the G19 it makes sense to use it for training.
What do I do with it? I practice drawing from concealment, getting a good sight picture, and placing the shot on the steel. Repeatedly. Over and over and over. And then do it from weak hand. And then from different positions. And practice mag changes. And..and…and.
These are all things that go towards improving and maintaining skill. If you can do it on the cheap, then absolutely go that way. I have .22 conversion kits for my G3 clones, my AR’s, and now for my Glock.
So how does the Glock stack up against some of the conversion kits on the market? The only one I have any real experience with is the Tactical Solutions kit from about ten years back. As I recall it was tempermental. This Glock 44 fired about 350 rounds, half of which were ancient Winchester Western, and had exactly 2 failures to fire. I attribute that to the sometimes sketchy nature of rimfire primer compound application. No failures to extract or feed, which kinda surprised me. Accuracy at usual pistol distances was surprisingly good. Sights were Glock adjustable white-dot and they worked fine although for true replication of your carry gun you might wanna drop some ‘real’ sights on it.
Mags are ten round, and two come with the gun. You’re definitely gonna want more. This thing was a blast to shoot. It is easily my favorite Glock and I’ve got a buncha drastic plastic in the safe…but this one is just downright fun.
Worth paying price of a 9mm Glock? To me, yes. Let’s say it saves me $.30 per round in practice ammo. That means it’s paid for itself after around 1200 rounds, or $50 worth, of .22 ammo. But more importantly, I can go spend and hour at the range doing nothing but draw-shoot-draw-shoot for an hour and be out less than $30.
I’m a Glock guy when it comes to the pistol I’ll run out the door with when the apocalypse gets here. That means I need to practice shooting it in all sorts of conditions…strong hand, weak hand, oblique angles, from retention, etc. Odds are pretty strong that any real-world episode will not be like standing patiently on a shooting line squarely facing a non-moving target. No, it’ll be fast, close, and using whatever position gets the sights on the target as quick as possible… and for that, you have to practice. Thus…the Glock 44.
Dealer prices was $319, and with shipping it as about $345~. Totally worth it.
Couple friends and I went with the Mantis X2 dryfire units for cheap practice. Only real downfall is requiring a light bearing holster so you can do draws. Sure there is no recoil but it doesn’t lie to you if you shot sucked.
Five 10-rd. magazines sounds about right….redclay7
I see Pro-Mag do a 18 round magazine and are meant to have a 25 round one out, just one thing I’d like to point out – They are made by Pro-Mag, not in the top 50% when it comes to mags.
got one when they came out…they are fun to shoot for sure…most of the ytubers advise 40 gr or above to reliable cycle…i didn’t have any issues with mine the times i’ve taken it to the range…good gun for kids to learn to shoot…
I’ve had my G44 around a year, been great.
The only issues with mine was when I let a 9ish year old boy at the range try it, with dad’s permission of course.
He limp wristed it a bit until I explained what was happening. It ran fine after that. He absolutely loved it, probably putting 80-100 rds downrange.
We’ve fed it whatever cheap bulk ammo was being used without issue.
I didn’t get quite the deal CZ did but his gun prices over the years are generally lower than what I see locally. If it hasn’t paid for itself vs 9mm for my G19 it’s close.
Steelheart
*Amazingly*, 22lr is suddenly very abundant and affordable – ~$0.07/round at wallyworld.
Guess it’s time to stock up again.