Glock G44: Firing Range Report

The author tests the Glock G44 and is pleasantly surprised.

April 14, 2022 By Brad Fitzpatrick

I’ll admit I had reservations before testing the Glock G44. I’ve evaluated other semiauto rimfire pistols designed to be doppelgängers of a brand’s center-fire offerings. Makers typically lighten the slide, often via alloy, to produce a low-cost blowback-operated pistol—often with the result that the guns looked similar but didn’t offer the same reliability. Since the G44 is nearly indistinguishable from the G19, I wondered if that’s what Glock had done. It had not.

The Austrian brand was late to the rimfire party, but it spent that time doing its homework. The slide is not alloy. The base and rails are made of steel while the top portion of the slide is polymer. The slide design makes this gun light and—spoiler alert—it is well balanced and functions with a wide range of .22 LR ammo, something that cannot be said about other .22 twins of larger pistols.

For example, I expected CCI’s low-velocity Quiet-22 would give the Glock fits, that it would lack sufficient energy to cycle the slide. Nope. In fact, there were no issues with the CCI ammo, and as the accuracy results show, the G44 very much liked that round. Through more than 200 rounds of testing there were three failures, but there was nothing like the frustration that accompanies shooting a fickle rimfire.

G44 pistols come with Glock’s Marksman barrel, which has more aggressive polygonal rifling, a target-style crown and tighter chamber specifications.

Disassembling the G44 is just like fieldstripping a G19. The dual captured recoil spring is precisely tuned to the blowback action, and the G44 uses the same Safe Action trigger system. Oh, and in case you’re wondering how the G44 got its name, here’s a quick aside on Glock nomenclature. The number that corresponds with the pistols has nothing to do with caliber but rather the patent which applies to it. The G44 is Mr. Glock’s 44th patent.

Just how close is the G44 to the G19 dimensionally? The slide length, height with magazine, overall width and slide width are identical. The pistols’ overall lengths are within 0.1 inch. If you’re wondering if that means the G44 will fit in G19 holsters, it does, and the G44 magazine is sized to fit G19 mag carriers. The stippled Gen 5 grip on both handguns is identical.

One area where these two guns differ, though, is weight. My G19 weighs 30.2 ounces with an empty magazine. The G44 weighs just 14.6 ounces, meaning the G44 has less than half the mass of its centerfire twin. Both guns do come with Gen 5 front and rear slide serrations, ambi slide stops and reversible magazine releases. Accessories designed for the G19 rail will fit the G44.

The G44 ships with two 10-round polymer magazines and four interchangeable backstraps— two with extended beavertails. Suggested retail price is $439.

As stated earlier, I was happy with the G44’s performance and accuracy. The trigger broke at just over six pounds and has the familiar take-up and tension that is standard on Glock pistols. But that didn’t stop this gun from producing some fine groups at 25 yards, including a five-shot cluster measuring 1.09 inches and another that was very close. On average, though, the G44 shot groups between two and three inches at that distance.

There’s a cutout in the rear of the chamber to allow chamber inspection, and the window is just large enough to see the rim for the cartridge.

You’ll find none of the angular, modern grip geometry found on Walther or HK pistols here. The Glock’s grip is square and utilitarian, but the controls are easy to manipulate. Magazine spring weight is suitable, stout enough to make the rounds feed properly but not a burden to load, and dual tabs on the magazine simplifies the loading process.

One thing I didn’t like about the G44 was its polymer sights—although I don’t like any Glock sights that well. The white-outline rear notch/white dot post front is pure Glock, and while it works for defensive shooting, I wish it was more precise. The rear sight is adjustable, though, and you can replace the sights if you wish.

Glock’s motto seems to be: Do one thing and do it well. And the G44 is done well. It looks and feels—aside from weight—much like the G19, and it’s a reliable copy that offers cheaper practice with less noise and muzzle blast. Glock was late to the rimfire lookalike party, but the G44 was worth the wait.