In the past, I have reported about the Glock 19X 9mm pistol, explaining why, despite its quality, it failed to win the U.S. Armed Forces contract to replace the Beretta 92F/M9. A live-fire range report was conspicuous by its absence from that original article, so let’s compensate for lost time. 

A Quick Recap: Glock 19 and Glock 19X History & Specifications

Debuting in 1988, the original Glock 19 9mm autopistol was the second handgun in the Glock pistol product line.

As the immediate successor to the full-sized Glock 17, it offered a delightfully compact pistol that sacrificed a mere two rounds of capacity. As such, it presented the shooter with a 15-round magazine capacity equal to that of full-size “wonder nines” such as the Beretta 92 and the SIG Sauer P226. The G19 was an immediate success with law enforcement and private gun owners alike. 

Fast-forward to January 2018, and the G19X’s failure to win the U.S. military’s XM17 handgun trials did not deter Glock from introducing the pistol to the civilian market at that year’s SHOT Show. This pistol was essentially a hybrid, combining Gen 5 features with a Gen 3 slide and frame.

As the manufacturer’s official info page on the G19X puts it:

“GLOCK's first ever ‘Crossover’ pistol, the GLOCK 19X, combines the best features of two of its most popular and most trusted field-tested platforms. The full-size GLOCK 17 frame and the compact GLOCK 19 slide have joined forces to produce the ideal pistol for all conditions and all situations. The 19X comes in the coyote color with the first-ever factory colored slide, finished with an improved nPVD slide coating to prevent corrosion. Additional features include the GLOCK Marksman Barrel (GMB), no finger grooves, ambidextrous slide stop levers and lanyard loop. Included with the pistol is a standard 17-round magazine, two 17+2-round magazines and coyote-colored pistol case.”

The gun has a barrel length of 4.02 inches, an overall length of 7.44 inches, an overall length of 1.3 inches, an empty weight of 22.05 ounces, and a fully loaded weight of 31.39 ounces. 

Shooting Performance – and an Introduction to RMR

As luck would have it, a buddy of mine who’s a recently commissioned U.S. Marine Corps officer owns a Glock 19X.

Merrily we ventured, along with his lovely wife, down to the excellent Silver Eagle Group indoor range in Ashburn, Virginia, to put this pistol through its paces earlier in the year. 

I should mention that in lieu of the traditional iron sights, my friend’s G19X had an aftermarket Trijicon RMR (Ruggedized Miniature Reflex) reflex sight, which is arguably the ultimate refinement of the red dot laser sighting system for handguns. Gabriel Suarez of Suarez Tactics is a particularly strong advocate for the RMR system. 

For my evaluation, I purchased 50 rounds of CCI Blazer Brass full metal jacket 124-grain ammunition. I set up my accuracy testing as follows: 15 rounds of head shots at 7 yards, 10 rounds of torso shots at 15 yards, 15 rounds of head shots at 25 yards, and 10 rounds of torso shots at 15 yards. I fired from the Classic Weaver stance and used the ICE-QT paper target. As is typical of Glock, reliability was flawless. As for accuracy…

At 7 yards, the rounds gave me a damn-near-perfect cluster centered right between the eyes of the target, with only one round apiece straying ever so slightly to the left and right of the bridge of the nose, but still counting as solid head or facial shots. At 15 yards, I must include Frankie’s confession that he had only just installed the RMR on his pistol and hadn’t had it properly zeroed yet. Accordingly, all of my rounds stayed within the 5-zone and would have counted as good solid chest hits against a real-life bad guy, but the shots were definitely straying a few inches high, with only two landing in the 5x tiebreaking scoring ring. 

At 25 yards, the lack of calibration on the RMR and the accompanying high trajectory of the rounds relative to my point of aim became really pronounced. Only three solid strikes reached the center of the face or head, six were peripheral hits to the hairline, and six were outright misses. At 50 yards, as Tony Soprano might say, “fuhgeddaboutit!”  I was lucky to land four hits in the 5 zone, one in the 4-ring (a pelvis shot), one in the 2-zone, and the rest were total whiffs.

In the near future, I would be curious to re-test this pistol with the RMR properly zeroed. I would also like to test-fire one with the old-school iron sights, as the accuracy potential is clearly there. And hopefully by then I will have upgraded my 3-year old Rx eyeglasses!

Want Your Own?

Sighting issues with the RMR setup notwithstanding, I still recommend the Glock 19X without hesitation. Brand new specimens are currently listed at a price range of around $599.99 and up depending on if the firearm is modified. 

About the Author 

Christian D. Orr has 33 years of shooting experience, starting at the tender age of 14. His marksmanship accomplishments include: the Air Force Small Arms Ribbon w/one device (for M16A2 rifle and M9 pistol); Pistol Expert Ratings from U.S. Customs & Border Protection (CBP), Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE), and the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC) Criminal Investigator Training Program (CITP); multiple medals and trophies via the Glock Sport Shooting Foundation (GSSF) and the Nevada Police & Fires Games (NPAF). Chris has been an NRA Certified Basic Pistol Instructor since 2011. 

Image Credit: Creative Commons.