The Most Expensive "Glock" In The World – Russian Glock-T Pistol
While in the US and Europe, Glocks are often considered to be reasonably priced workhorses, in some other countries, having a Glock is a luxury and a sign of wealth and opulence. For example, in certain parts of Iraq, a Gen 5 Glock 19 retails for around $4000, but even that is not the most expensive offering in the world. Meet Glock-T, a Russian-made Glock derivative that currently retails for $5000.
Glock Pistols @ TFB:The reason it is so expensive is quite common – odd gun laws. In Russia, average civilians are not allowed to buy, keep and carry handguns. There is an exception called “award weapons” for politicians, state officials, and other people who are more equal than others, but that is another story.
For average citizens, if they want to carry a handgun, there is only one option – so-called “traumatic” (less lethal) weapons. Those firearms were specifically designed for the Russian market, they are chambered in proprietary calibers like 9х22,10X28, 11×22, and 45 Rubber.
Those rounds have very poor internal and external ballistics and generally are ineffective. The pistols are also quite unimpressive – numerous Turkish-made handguns and “traumatic” versions of classic Soviet Tokarev and Makarov, that are very collectible, but have low magazine capacity.
In this environment, people started despising “traumatic” pistols, calling them “rubbershooters” or “condomspitters”, referring to the fact that the actual projectile is made out of rubber. Many thought that the entire market for “traumatic” pistols is slowly dying and that nothing can shake things up and get people excited.
That was true until a small private company called MZVO and weapon design engineer Dmitry Chuchaev put together two simple ideas: 1) everyone wants a Glock 2) to keep R&D and production timeline reasonable, that Glock should use as many standard parts as possible.
There was one major challenge – the locking system of the Glock pistol wouldn’t work with low-powered “traumatic” ammunition. To deal with that, Dmitry Chuchaev designed a new barrel with a different locking mechanism that is compatible with standard Glock components and works reliably with extremely low-powered ammo.
The solution is similar to Glock 25, chambered in .380 ACP, which is very popular in Mexico. But even the most powerful “traumatic” ammunition, 10×28, is about three times less powerful than .380 ACP.
The new barrel for Glock-T also had to comply with numerous restrictions imposed by Russian laws: no rifling, no compatibility with any “real” ammo. Those restrictions are the main reason most “traumatic” pistols are extremely inaccurate, to the point that some pistols literally can’t hit a broad side of the barn.
I had a chance to test several Glock-T pistols on a few occasions, and the accuracy is quite impressive compared to other less-lethal pistols available in Russia.
At 5-7 yards it seems to be identical to my accuracy with a 9mm Glock, I just shoot through the same big hole. At greater distances (10-15 meters), you can still get all your shots in an 8-inch (20 cm) zone on the IDPA target. Not great, not terrible, especially if it is the only weapon you can legally carry. And it takes Glock mags, which seems to be the most important feature for any firearm these days.
Unfortunately, the importation process for parts, as well as R&D and production, tends to be costly in Russia, so the retail price for Glock-T is around $5000 dollars. But, for most gun owners, it is the only chance to have something that resembles a real Glock.
After Dmitry and his team began production of new barrels, they thought about another application for this design – Simunition handguns, designed for force-on-force training.
Simunition rounds have projectiles with paint, which allows you to shoot people in training and see where you’re actually hitting them. Just like “traumatic” weapons, Simunition rounds are extremely low-powered, which often negatively affects reliability.
At the moment, Dmitry’s Simunition handguns are still in the testing phase, my trigger time with them was limited, but in my brief experience, they functioned reliably. That being said, I never had a problem with original Simunition handguns when we used them in training.
They say necessity is the mother of invention. Unfortunately, in 21 century, the necessity for firearms design engineers is often created not by market demand or actual need for innovation, but by ridiculous gun laws that handicap weapons performance.
California complaint rifles, arms braces, bump stocks, AR “pistols”, 80% receivers… Less lethal Glock is more or less the same thing, just taken to a whole other level. And at the end of the day, let’s remember that it is up to us to decide how far those gun laws are going to take the industry.
The author would like to thank https://instagram.com/alex_shoot_gun for the featured picture of the article.
Vladimir Onokoy is a small arms subject matter expert and firearms instructor. Over the years he worked in 20 different countries as a security contractor, armorer, firearms industry sales representative, product manager, and consultant. His articles were published in the Recoil magazine, Small Arms Review, Small Arms Defence Journal, and Silah Report. He also contributed chapters to books from the "Vickers Guide: Kalashnikov" series. Email: machaksilver at gmail dot com. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Vladimir-Onokoy-articles-and-videos-about-guns-and-other-unpopular-stuff-107273143980300/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vladonokoy/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/machaksilver
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Here in Brazil any Glock pistol costs more than US$ 2000.
The cheapest models here are the Glock 17MOS and the Glock 19Mos both 5gen in the $2500 range. Sometimes you find the Glock 25 at 380ACP for about $2000 dollars because now nobody wants 380ACP guns here in Brazil anymore.
Models like the Glock 45 Gen5 Mos or the Glock 19X cost nearly $3000.
Other models only come under order, it takes about six months to arrive due to Brazilian gun legislation.
The Sig Sauer P320, SpringField XD, CZ P10, or Jericho pistols are in the same price range, other Sig Sauer P226 models are in the $4800 range.
You don't need to go to Iraq to pay an absurd price on a Glock, you can do that in Brazil.
Here in Brazil, only the government pays cheap in weapons.
The police in my state bought 40,000 Glock 22 Gen5 pistols with five magazines on each gun and paid around US$400 on each gun with the magazines and they even forced Glock to put in an external lock like the Glock pistol that competed for the pistol of the Us Army that the Sig M17 came out victorious.
Man I don’t know why all the hatin on less lethal options....As a person who’s been attacked at my home, with my gun within reach....And I still didn’t use it....1/Cause I practitioner of MMA and can confidently fight my hands, which I did....2/killing someone is an extreme response...Sometimes you want to escalate the situation, but not resort to something as extreme as killing ...It’s a litigation nightmare, and you might get away with it depending on the State, but your life will never be the same again..You will go broke defending yourself in court if you use a firearm....So having less lethal guns gives me more confidence to empty out a mag on someone point blank range if I feel I need to knowing I won’t kill the guy....BTW a few rounds close up by those rubber bullet in the face freaking hurts....