Glock 30 Grip Modifications

The Glocks that feel the best in my hands are the old Generation 2 guns on the 45/10mm frames. They are just big enough to fill my hand and their straight grip angle prevents me from having to twist my wrists down to get a sight picture, like I do with the 9mm/40 frame guns. 

The addition of finger grooves to the 9mm/40 frames, was actually an improvement as far as I was concerned; and I soon learned to wrap my fingers over those ridges and use that little extra girth to offset the odd grip angle inherent in those guns. On the 45/10mm’s this was unnecessary in my opinion, Glock should have left that grip alone. The G30’s fat little grip is plenty short and adding finger-grooves to it was absurd. 

I have a G30 and love it; it is as reliable as any Glock should be and it may be the most accurate one I’ve picked up. They dehorned the front of the slide on these guns and despite its slightly-thicker slide, they carry better IWB than my 23 did.

5 rounds of Tula 230 Grain FMJ, 25 Yards

But what I really wanted was for my 30’s grip to give me the familiar handshake my old Gen 2 G23 did, while retaining the large frame’s superior pointing qualities. I decided to reduce the girth of the grip a little by removing the ridges on the front strap. I used a 4×36 belt sander, a Dremel sanding drum and the same outfit’s red ‘3M’  style polishing wheel.

I have also never liked Glock’s exaggerated trigger guard, which is good at nothing but being in the way. So while I was at it, I decided to round it off.  It was ultimately clearanced to make room for the knuckle of my middle finger.

 So modified, the little .45 still fits every holster I have for it and it clears my old Safariland 27 easier with the rounded trigger guard. The absence of finger ridges makes it much easier to attain a firing grip, even in a rush. This minor modification yielded big improvements in its handling qualities and ‘shoot-ability’.

I had my right shoulder rebuilt in early December and being right-handed, my weak-hand shooting has received a much needed tune-up. This has opened my eyes to a few things, one of which is the importance of gun fit. And yes I have said ‘Adapt to the gun’ in the past. My left hand has taken a beating over the years and it don’t adapt as well as it used to. I noticed when shooting the G30 from it, that damn little hump at the back of the grip felt like the biggest part of the whole handle. So I set about reducing it enough to better engage the whole backstrap. Changing the dimensions of the Glock grip involves application of heat and there are various ways to go about this. I lit a torch, played the flame on the hump until it smoked and mashed it into the grip. The result was effective if not pretty and the pistol was immediately more comfortable in hand. The goober of melted plastic was re-contoured with a Dremel sanding drum. 

This accomplished a couple of things. I essentially moved material down and in, rendering the plug irrelevant. It also straightened the grip and made it point like a short fat 1911. I noticed the trigger guard was riding my middle finger heavier, so I undercut that just a little more and that balanced it out perfectly.

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About all that remained was to finish it. I considered Talon’s rubberized stick-on grip but I really like a grip smooth enough for it to slide right into a firing grip. I took a soldering iron and pecked at the the lower backstrap, then ran the 3M wheel over it to knock the tops off. The process was repeated on the now fingergroove-less front strap and a small portion of the front of the trigger guard, where old dinosaurs like myself still occasionally put the index finger of the off hand. There’s still a little clean-up and border work to do.

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It worked out real well. Dryfiring produced far less disturbance of the sights and a few live-fire drills confirmed the improvement; fast hits from the holster came substantially easier. I discovered I could even shoot it with my loose ‘bullseye’ grip and retain perfect control of the gun. I am sure happy with the way it points and feels and that was the whole purpose of the exercise.

 

 

 

 

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2 Comments

  1. Sarge author

    January 11, 2015

    I figure grip modifications on a Glock are like plastic surgery on a real ugly girl… can’t hurt and it just might help.

  2. rjf415

    December 29, 2015

    nice job…Recently, I’ve been hearing that many would like to see Glock get rid of the finger groves, I too like the Gen 2 frame…

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