Glock 17 Vs. Glock 34 Which to Buy?

hey everybody how's it going into daily shooter and today I'm gonna try and tackle a question that I've been getting for a long time and that's which one should I buy a Glock 17 or a Glock 34 let's go and check them both out [Music] now there's several different reasons why I think this is such a popular question but I think one of the biggest ones is because they are so similar I don't think the differences are so major that people look at these and they just can't figure out which one to get because they're so different from one another I think it's because of their similarities that people kind of have a hard time they look at these two firearms they say okay they're two full-sized firearms one's a little bit longer than the other one has a couple different minor features and stuff like that that might be different but for the most part they're both full-sized 9-millimeter firearms again talking about the 17 and the 34 so those people that are at the gun counter and they're looking at these two firearms what I would suggest and what I always do suggest is that first you ask yourself exactly what do you need this gun for now there's already plenty of 17 verses 34 videos out there so I want to try and approach this in a different context I want to approach this in the context that you've already decided what you need the firearm for and that it is a specific purpose for instance concealed carry open carry home defense competition and so forth and assuming that we already know your reason we'll go ahead and we'll break down these two firearms and which one would be best for your specific choice that way if you know what the firearm is you'll know what the positives and negatives are for each one for your specific purpose okay so let's go and start off by talking about open carry and conceal carry and which one of these firearms sort of lends itself better to either one or both of those carry methods and there's a reason why I'm lumping those carry methods together even though they're so different and I'll explain that here in just a second but let's say that you're walking up to the counter and that's one of your reasons for looking at this firearms now obviously if you're an open carrier one of the biggest differences between the 34 and the 17 which is the slide length isn't going to be a big issue for you if you're open carrying and the world can already see it it doesn't matter if you're carrying a Colt Python as far as size is concerned you can carry whatever you want but it's gonna matter to the concealed carrier so let's say that your concealed carrier and typically during the summer you have shorts and a t-shirt so you carry a small compact firearm like a shield or something like that but during the winter months you have a thick heavy coat on you want to outside the waistband carry so you want a full size firearm that's where the length overall length of the slide is going to be a big deal for you because the Glock 17 is still a very capable full-sized firearm but that lack of that extra inch is gonna be a big deal could be the difference between exposing the firearms especially if you're outside the waistband carrying because let's face it we put stuff on top of our cars we move around we do things we bend over and that extra inch could be what becomes exposed and if you live in a state that doesn't allow for open carry or something like that then you know that could get you into potential trouble if somebody that doesn't like firearms is around you so that extra inch is gonna matter to the concealed carrier not so much the open carrier now the slide length might be an issue but the frame length is not going to be an issue and that's because both of these firearms work on the exact same frame so it's the exact same frame meaning that the grip length the grip profile everything is gonna be exactly the same between the two firearms the only difference in the overall length is going to be in that slide now here is where I think some of the more major differences are going to be between these two firearms especially if you're talking about carry and this is why I lumped the two together and why I think it matters so much and that's because the Glock 34 is it was designed to be a competition pistol okay it was designed to have a longer sight radius it was designed with a couple other features that sort of make it easier to shoot and kind of easier to access the controls and one of the things that it gives you when you buy it even though it's the same exact frame are some extended controls one of those is Ian extended mag release so with that extended mag release the mag release sticks out even though it's small it's actually a significant amount versus the standard glock 17 when you hold the glock 17 in your hands you're talking about just an OEM glock 17 not something like this an OEM glock 17 you can actually feel that the mag release is is almost flushed to the actual frame itself meaning that some people with shorter thumbs or smaller hands would have to change their grip in order to drop the magazine in order to change it out right but with the 34 it extends out so that even people with smaller hands can still press that button and drop the mag the problem that I have there and this is actually something that's happened before is that while you're walking around while you're carrying your firearm either open or concealed you sit down you move you bump on things you know you do different stuff it is way more easy to hit that extended mag release and cause an issue with your firearm then it is with the standard 17 that does not have that extended mag release so what happens is is the let's say that the 17 has the mag release that is just standard and kind of flush with the frame as you're bumping it around you're not really likely to cause the magazine to come out okay but with the 34 because it has that extended magazine the extended slide lock slide release so forth you're more likely to hit that control and it let's say that there ever becomes a defensive scenario okay you're carrying the firearm like this you accidentally hit it and you don't notice you're going around through your day and not a big deal then you go to draw your firearm right it's not in and the magazine comes right out now you're gonna have a big problem and that's because of that extended mag release on the 17 you're not gonna have to worry about that for me that is a deal-breaker I will not carry a firearm that has an extended magazine release that kind of sticks out that far just for that specific purpose it just could cause too many problems and if you're a person that only has one mag on you and it falls on the ground now you're in trouble so to summarize even though in open carrier could carry a larger firearm with a longer slide I would still go with the Glock 17 for both scenarios based on the fact that it doesn't have those extended controls okay now let's talk about home defense and which one I think would be better for home defense you know this is a very common scenario where people will walk into a gun shop they want a full size handgun that you can use for home defenses for their own peace of mind and this is their nightstand gun this is their gun that they keep in a safe in their nightstand the gun they keep in a safe somewhere around the house or a tactical safe that's maybe located under your coffee table whatever the case is this is your primary go-to handgun and they want something that's full-size and they're looking at these two well I'm gonna start right off the bat and say that for that specific scenario I would go with the Glock 34 now the reasons for that and we're gonna be kind of talking about these in the context that they are both om factory guns so you're not gonna have an RM R on it they're both gonna come with factory sights so forth you know none of these upgrades yes you can buy a Glock MOS and you can add the RMR on one of the plates and so forth but today we're getting focusing on specifically as the guns would come om just factory sites and so forth the reason that I would go for the 34 in that case is because the extended controls are going to help you and not hinder you since you're not gonna be carrying it around getting in and out of a car or bumping it on things doing stuff like that it's gonna be mostly sitting in a safe somewhere where you can access it quickly you're not gonna have to worry about the controls being bumped but the controls are going to help you in the fact that it's gonna be easier to change that mag the extra length is gonna give you a better sight radius because again we're not talking about a red dot sight radius does matter and the extra barrel length means that your defensive ammunition has a better chance of expanding and penetrating its target so when you talk about hollow points and defensive ammunition velocity really plays a big role in how the ammunition expands once it hits that soft tissue for instance if you use a specific type of ammunition in a gun that has a short barrel where it's not able to achieve a specific velocity the ammunition is not going to fully open up and you're not going to get the potential that that ammunition has to offer so getting an extra inch in that barrel and the Glock 34 means look even if it's a winter time they're wearing a thick heavy coat some shirts underneath or whatever the layers that they have on are you're still going to be able to punch through it that ammunition is still going to be able to expand because that little bit of extra velocity that you got out of the 34 now people say well what does it really matter about having an extended mag release or something like that in the 34 if you're talking about home defense well try and keep in mind it's not always just one guy you know you watch a lot of this footage from you know home cameras and stuff like that sometimes it's three or four people coming into your house and sometimes these dudes are pretty persistent and so if you're kind of panicking and you're kind of pumping off rounds there's a good chance you're gonna have to reload and anything that will help you do that is going to give you an advantage and that's what I say go for the firearm with the most advantage better sight radius on the 34 extended controls longer barrel better velocity all that stuff is going to give you at least a slight advantage if there are multiple people coming into your house okay now let's go ahead and talk about competition now this one's obviously you're gonna have a clear winner it's gonna be the Glock 34 but that's because Glock actually designed the 34 specifically for people who are interested in competition so you're talking about a longer sight radius you're gonna get better and more accurate shots when you're talking about competition there are different classes that you can get into some allow you to have optics and some don't allow you to have optics so if you have an optic sight radius and be an issue but if you don't have an optic than sight radius becomes very very important now one of the biggest issues that I've seen in competition is when people need to shoot a steel target to move on to the next round they need to either shoot the steel target and knock it over or the steel target activates a different scenario within that particular competition phase before you can move on to the next phase and I've seen guys have to put two or three shots on one specific steel target with a 17 or a shorter barrel nine millimeter because it just didn't knock it over it didn't activate the target we're at 34 with just that extra inch of barrel is gonna give you a little bit more velocity especially if you're using something like a 124 grain or 147 grain projectile that extra velocity is gonna matter through that extra one inch of barrel and so you have less likelihood of being stuck in one specific spot when you're in a competition and being able to move on so there's also different controls you like we've talked about before you have the extended slide stop / slide release you also have the extended mag release and you also have a kind of a better recoil impulse with the Glock 34 because it's long because it's extended out there and it feels like the weights a little bit lower on the front you do get a better recoil impulse which means that you get a better follow up shot with the 34 it's minor it's not something that most people would even notice but it is there you also get a little bit better trigger in the 34 and I got to be honest with you I've shot multiple 34 so I really haven't noticed the better trigger in the 34 I know that there's some people out there right now that are probably thinking what an idiot but look I've shot several 30 4s and I've never really noticed a difference between the 34 om trigger and the 17 OEM trigger if there's a difference it's very very slight nonetheless the 34 now they can both be completely customized as you see here to work fine in competition but I think that you got the edge with the extra controls and stuff with the 34 you don't have to worry about spending the extra money that you would have to spend to make this a competition where the guns so I think when it comes to competition obviously the 34 is gonna be the clear winner now this last scenario is another really common one but probably the one that I struggled answering the most and that's you know person walks into a gun shop they are looking at these two firearms right here and they just want something for fun and gun they just want to pick one firearm that they can use to go to the range with they can go out shooting with their buddies and shoot bottles and cans and watermelons and whatever maybe it's an extra peace of mind for shtf but mostly it's just to go out and have a good time with their friends shooting and since I like both of these firearms and they're both completely capable firearms I really had a hard time picking which one I would get over the other and so I assume that somebody who's never owned either one is probably gonna have even a more difficult time so I started looking at some of these and I actually started leaning towards the Glock 34 and I'll tell you why that's because both firearms again have the same frames okay so both firearms have the same frames meaning that the 17 can accept a 30 for sliding components and the 34 can accept a 17 sliding components but as I started looking at aftermarket components and slides that are available I noticed there are a ton that are available for the 17 so you can get you know just aftermarket slides all over the place but not too many for the 34 so I started thinking okay the 34 is already got a cut in it it's really cool and as you can see it kind of shows the barrel through here I have a Zev dimpled barrel this is all stuff that I got from gunslingers arm recom I have the Lightning mag well and some extra stuff on here that just kind of kind of trick it out a little bit you know I'm kind of make it my own but nonetheless you know you have a slide here that's already kind of cut so it's already a little bit fancy if you want to you know upgrade the barrel or something like that but finding a 34 slide aftermarket you know mostly what I've seen out there stuff like zev and you're gonna spend more than you spent on the price of the gun in order to get it so I started thinking maybe it's better to get a 34 since if you ever wanted to convert it or you wanted to kind of switch it up there's so many 17 slides available that I would just buy a 17 slide and you can always slap it on so for instance we have a 17 right here this has a shadow system slide on it or I can take this alpha shooting sports slide this is a Glock 17 slide we can take our Glock 34 right here take our Glock 34 break this thing down take our 17 slide which has the RMR and everything else on it again very easy to find nowadays put it on our 34 frame which is technically a 17 frame - and now we have a 17 so I think if I had to buy one or the other do I buy a 34 or a 17 I think I'd have to go with the 34 just for the fact that you can get so many 17s on the market these days so it's going to break this down one more time here one other thing that I wanted to mention too is that when you're talking about a 17 just verify everything is safe here guys but when you're buying a 17 for those people that are wondering let's say you bought one for a competition and you're not able to knock over those targets and you're kind of having a difficult time and you don't want to have to spend that much money on a brand new slide or something like that you can actually take your Glock 17 block buy a Glock 34 barrel for it and even though you don't get the increased sight radius you can take that Glock 34 barrel put it right inside your Glock 17 like that take our recoil spring put that thing back in put it back on our and there you have a Glock 17 with a Glock 34 barrel so if you really want that extra velocity and you're looking for that extra kind of knockdown power when it comes to those steel targets well there you go there's a Glock 17 with the Glock 34 barrel on it works perfectly fine so you do have that option as well certain things to consider if you wanted to buy each one of these firearms or what you you know mypie it for regardless try and keep in mind it's the same frame so you really can't go wrong with either one if you're just talking about fun and gun anyway guys that is my comparison of the Glock 17 and Glock 34 and why I think one would be better than others in different types of scenarios and I hope this video was helpful and I hope that helped answer a lot of the questions that I've been getting on Facebook Instagram here on YouTube and so forth if you guys are interested in any of these parts again a CC art 15 on Instagram did the stippling on this one and a lot of these components came from gunslingers armor e-comm again this is an alpha shooting sport slide and for those people looking at this one right here this is one that I'm actually been working on review for months now this is a shadow system slide so definitely something worth checking out thank you all again very much watching I really do appreciate it please like subscribe and have a great day [Music]

Channel: undefined

Views: 334,837

Rating: 4.81741 out of 5

Keywords: glock 17, glock 34, glock 17 vs glock 34, 17 vs 34, glock, vs, versus, better, which is better, best, competition, new, gen 3, gen 4, gen 5, mos, slide, slide cut, rmr, trijicon, trijicon rmr, frame, interchangeable, compatability, compatibility, compatable, barrel, sights, trigger, magwell, upgrades, red dot, slide release, slide stop, magazine, mag release

Id: JKNWfVofH4s

Length: 16min 11sec (971 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 01 2018