SSE choice: G17L or G41

[crufflers]

I have a gen3 G21 and a G41 and what you heard is not true. The G21 shoots softer than the 41 using the same ammo. I do not have a gen4 G21 to compare but I would assume both models of G21 are similar.

Since you have both, can you compare them a little here? Range report?

[heidad01]

I know these two glocks are different in caliber.

If you have a choice of only 1 of them for SSE, which would it be?

G17L or G41

Note: The poll has a typo (my mistake): it should be G41 instead of G21.

Depends on what you are looking for.
The G41 is the same as a Glock 34 but in .45 acp. And, yes it does kick a bit more than the G21 and it is lighter too, but it is closer to an all around gun than G17L.
Glock 17L is just waaay too long for anything except target shooting and competition like IDPA and the like. G17L is much harder to find than G41.

You are the man, which do yo like better?

[armsbearer]

I have both gen 4 g21 and g41. I should have just gotten the g41 and then get g21 and g20 uppers and if I have the $, a .50GI conversion system.

[Ranger20]

The 41 would be my pick... It's what the 21 should have been in the first place... and I love the 21 ....

[heidad01]

I have both gen 4 g21 and g41. I should have just gotten the g41 and then get g21 and g20 uppers and if I have the $, a .50GI conversion system.

I do not get this. Let's say you did not have either, then you got the G41. so far so good. Then you go and get the G21 and the G20 uppers. What were you going to do with these uppers??

[ke6guj]

I do not get this. Let's say you did not have either, then you got the G41. so far so good. Then you go and get the G21 and the G20 uppers. What were you going to do with these uppers??

the frame for the G20, G21, and G41 (all in Gen4) are identical. if you buy one complete gun, you can buy the two other uppers and then swap them as you see fit.

so, if you had a G41, you can decide you want to shoot 10mm today and put on the G20 upper and tada, you now have a G20. I did the reverse, bought an FDE G20gen4 and will get a G41 upper for it. I did that because Glock isn't offering the G41 in FDE yet.

[crufflers]

Depends on what you are looking for.
The G41 is the same as a Glock 34 but in .45 acp. And, yes it does kick a bit more than the G21 and it is lighter too, but it is closer to an all around gun than G17L.
Glock 17L is just waaay too long for anything except target shooting and competition like IDPA and the like. G17L is much harder to find than G41.

You are the man, which do yo like better?

I like the Glocks that are a little different... the 17L is only .7 inches longer than a 34. Not exactly a 10" clown gun, IMHO, hahah... and not front heavy like some .22 target guns I have shot.

I am pretty sure I still want a gen4 17 though

[someR1]

G41

[crufflers]

I did the reverse, bought an FDE G20gen4 and will get a G41 upper for it. I did that because Glock isn't offering the G41 in FDE yet.

That's a great way to go. I already started shopping for my Gen4 G20 upper.

The question I have is where do all these uppers come from and what happens to the frames ? I know some start out as NIB complete guns.

[SandDiegoDuner]

Ok since you asked nicely...

A little background first, the first Glock I purchased was a G35 in December 1998 or 1999 as a birthday gift for myself. A friend of mine already had a G21 at the time and his friend had a G17. Shooting together at an outdoor shooting spot was my first experience with the G21. Just about everyone knows that 40s&w pistols have a quicker snappy recoil pulse. My friends G21 just felt smoother was more of a push into your hand when being fired. His friends G17 felt like my G35, as it should being based on the same exact frame. Shooting 9mm was like the 40 but with what felt like half the recoil. I knew I wanted a G21 and a G34 at some point. A number of years passes and Glock came out with the slim frame model 21 in 2007. I was in Vegas and stopped by a gun range to blow a bit of money and they had a new SF model 21 and I had to give it a go. It felt awkward in my hands and I don't know why but it felt like it had more recoil than the standard full frame model. So 7 years rolls by and Glock comes out with a practical/tactical 45acp we all know as the G41. I already had both the original P/T models so I had to get the G41 to round out the collection.

So now to the comparison between the G21 gen3 full size frame. The G21 and G20 both feel great in my hands and have the smooth push into your hands recoil feel that allows you to shoot them well. The G41 feels more snappy akin to the G35. I think Glock lightened the slide so much on the G41 to speed up its cyclic rate or to help feed the big pills into the chamber that it ends up having a snappy feel to it. I am not a fan of putting bandaids on grips to make them feel better and the pin on backstraps on the gen4 models are just that. I currently have the medium beaver tail backstrap on the G41, it feels the most like the full size G21 grip to me. The large backstraps feel more rounded at the back and doesn't feel quite right. The pluses of the gen4 models are the texture of the stippling is way better than the prior models. The magazine release is what Glock should have had from the start. The ultimate Glock would be a combination of the stippling and mag release from the gen4 and the grip size of the full size gen3 models. I should note that I have hogue slip on handall grips on my G34 & G35.

Shooting wise, the accuracy of the G21 for me is better than the G41. I have changed over the connectors to factory 4.5# models so the triggers are virtually identical on all my Glocks. The G41 groups just a little larger at all distances until you reach 20-25 yards where the sight radius helps improve center mass hits. I may just need more time shooting the G41 but for now I keep my G20/21 as the home protection go to pistol of choice.

[ke6guj]

That's a great way to go. I already started shopping for my Gen4 G20 upper.

The question I have is where do all these uppers come from and what happens to the frames ? I know some start out as NIB complete guns.

for the most part, they split up complete guns and sell the complete upper separate from the complete lower. some people need lowers because they f'ed up the first one iwth bad stipling or something, or need one for a mechtech upper. Others want uppers to do conversions.

so, dealers buy complete guns and split them up. adding up the prices of the separate items is often more than MSRP for the original gun.

[crufflers]

Shooting wise, the accuracy of the G21 for me is better than the G41. I have changed over the connectors to factory 4.5# models so the triggers are virtually identical on all my Glocks. The G41 groups just a little larger at all distances until you reach 20-25 yards where the sight radius helps improve center mass hits. I may just need more time shooting the G41 but for now I keep my G20/21 as the home protection go to pistol of choice.

Nice write up, thanks. I didn't have a Gen4 full size frame and also wanted the slim slide on the 41, those are the things I am after. Also, I do prefer not to have to do anything to my grip. I love the RTF2 texture and I hope I love the Gen4 texture. I am not a fan of pinhole stippling or handalls, except the Boresightsolutions stuff. Talons do the job and come off easy, but I prefer surface texture that works. I may send off one gen3 frame to boresightsolutions soon - just have to decide which one.