As a review for those who have just joined us, the Glock pistol design is a striker-fired design. When the trigger mechanism is at a position of rest, the striker is partially precocked. The amount and percentage of this precocked condition is open to interpretation, but let's just say for the sake of argument that it is precocked a little less than a third of its travel length. With action of the trigger pull, the striker is cocked the remaining distance of its travel before the striker is released by action of the sear and allowed to engage the primer on the chamber round. All Glock pistols are incapable of recocking the striker if the round in the chamber fails to fire. Therefore, the operator must cycle the slide and chamber a fresh round to recock the striker assembly. This process will eject the dud round from the pistol.

(Inset) The magazine for the Glock Model 38 holds eight rounds of .45 GAP ammunition. Finger grooves are molded into the front of the grip section of the polymer Glock Model 38 frame. The Glock Model 38 follows the same size and design criteria as the previously seen Glock 19, Glock 23 and Glock 32.

The Glock system has proven extremely popular with law enforcement, military and armed security worldwide. Much of this popularity can be traced to the design's superb reputation for reliability. The relative low number of parts for the Glock design makes it one of the more reliable semiauto handgun designs on the market for the past two decades. The only instance of a malfunction in all of the testing of the sample Glock 38 was one instance in which the slide locked open prematurely on a partially emptied magazine. It happened only once, and I tend to believe my thumb may have become positioned under the enlarged competition-style slide-stop lever and inadvertently engaged it.

Another big advantage to the Glock design is it operates pretty much like a double-action revolver. Just point the gun at the target, align the sights, and pull the trigger. There are no external safety levers either on the frame or the slide. The trigger safety is pretty much self-explanatory. Shooters new to the Glock system should thoroughly understand that keeping their finger out of the triggerguard is the same as engaging a manual safety, and inserting their finger (or any other object) inside the triggerguard is the same as disengaging the manual safety on a traditional semiauto design.

WHY .45 GAP?
The introduction of the .45 GAP cartridge caused many commentators to question the need for this round when it was compared to the traditional .45 ACP cartridge. Initially, the .45 GAP was supposed to be limited to projectiles weighing 200 grains or less by the first ammunition company to load it--Federal/Speer. But shortly after the round's introduction, Winchester found a way to load the traditional 230-grain bullet in the extremely short case of the .45 GAP and still achieve the velocities seen with .45 ACP.

Essentially, as loaded by both ammunition firms, the .45 GAP is loaded to the pressure level of a +P .45 ACP. In testing the Glock Model 38, some surprising results were seen when examining the chronograph results. In comparison to the full-size and longer-barreled Glock 37, the Glock 38 fired a couple of the test loads at the same speed or even a wee bit faster.

The Lawman 200-grain TMJ load recorded 956 fps from the Glock 37 while the same load from the test Glock 38 ran 980 fps. The Winchester 230-grain loads, both the WinClean BEB load and the Ranger "T" load, ran slightly slower, with the difference being between 20 and 35 fps. But in terms of accuracy, the test Glock 38 clearly preferred the Winchester Ranger "T"; this load consistently shot the smallest groups by a wide margin.

Considering the difference in barrel length of the two Glocks, the difference seen in the lower velocity is a small price to pay for the overall reduction in size of the Glock 38.