Speaking of police use
The Knoxville Police Department is ditching its fotay caliber Glocks and going with .45ACP Sig Sauers. They’ll be carrying more magazines now. Also:
But Rausch noted the Glock has a life of four years while the Sig Sauer is expected to perform for 10 years.
For serious? They’re getting a decent gun, don’t get me wrong. But additional magazines, more expensive guns and a bogus claim of gun life seems, well, expensive.
January 23rd, 2013 at 8:38 pm
Dang, I hope this doesn’t mean the supply of hardly-used, sub-$400 4-yr-old service Glocks is going to dry up now.
January 23rd, 2013 at 8:53 pm
I don’t know that the 10 year service life is unrealistic. I’ve always thought a 4 year service life for the Glock was a gimmick to keep a healthy market in used low mileage Glocks going. Many have less than 2000 rounds through them at that point.
January 23rd, 2013 at 9:00 pm
Where in the hell do they come up with a life span for a gun? Wouldn’t round count be a more accurate measurement than years? And, where did they get 4 and 10 years? Sheer idiocy. KPD’s firearms folks should resign.
January 23rd, 2013 at 9:08 pm
“The chief said hollow-point, 230-grain ammunition for the .45-caliber weapons will be made special for the Police Department.”
I am also curious about what is so special about their 230gr hollow point ammunition that it has to be custom made
January 23rd, 2013 at 9:19 pm
Well if you don’t spend all of the allotted other peoples money every year you might not get as much next year!
January 23rd, 2013 at 10:26 pm
OMG! My Glock is expired!
And yet it still smells fresh and gunpowdery.
January 23rd, 2013 at 10:30 pm
They are trading in their Glocks and some 1911’s that Swat carries for the Sigs. The actual cost after the trade in is less than 14,000.00. And the state agency I work for changes weapons about every 10 years.
January 24th, 2013 at 12:13 am
I would guess 500 rounds a year would eat up the 2000 round springs in the Glocks in four years. Course you could just give the twenty dollar spring sets to the officers to change. But with Sigs some armourer will have to change the springs as part of a service plan.
Glocks are the best in the world because a ten year old can detain strip a G-17 after watching youtube.
January 24th, 2013 at 2:04 am
Several years back, when I was an undergrad at UT, I was helping make a student film where we had KPD send officers to several shoots so that nobody would think we were, for example, actually robbing a gas station.
One of the officers and I spent a chunk of time talking one of these evenings, and he complained that the department wouldn’t allow him to carry his .45 caliber Glock. Apparently he had been forced to use his service weapon on two occasions to that date, and both times he had been underwhelmed with the performance (apparently at the close range involved both times, the bullet overpenetrated and wasted a good deal of its extra energy).
I have no opinion on the switch from Glock to Sig, but at least this officer and others like him may feel better about finally having .45’s.
January 24th, 2013 at 2:20 am
I’ve always preferred SIGs over Blocks® anyway.
.45ACP..because JMB didn’t make a .46 😉
January 24th, 2013 at 9:25 am
“For serious?”
Think accounting life, not the firing range/duty life.
January 24th, 2013 at 9:44 am
This is going to make the KPD a little less professiono.
January 24th, 2013 at 10:12 am
Most PD guns are fire less than 200 rounds a year. I’ve never worked for a department that had qualification standards that required anything more than that. When you look at big departments, ammo cost can easily exceed $100,000 or more a year for qualification. A four year life span on a Glock is just total BS – Unless you shooting 25,000 rounds a year.
January 24th, 2013 at 10:39 am
Gee, and Sig just announced at the SHOT Show their new P227, a DOUBLE STACK in God’s Own Pistol Caliber. See Jay’s Blog for details.
Guess the Chief should have waited.
January 24th, 2013 at 10:42 am
So Sigs have a different accounting lifetime or they just are cooking the books in Sigs favor?
January 24th, 2013 at 10:43 am
I think they are referring to the abuse on the gun from .40 vs. the lower pressure .45.
Four years seems short, but .40 puts a ton of strain on the firearm when it’s packed down to a 9mm-weapon size package.
You still, though, would need to fire a TON of rounds per year through that Glock to wear it down in 4 years though.
January 24th, 2013 at 11:10 am
A four-year span sounds about right. That’s how often most cops clean their guns.
It’s just like rich people and dress shirts: when it gets dirty, throw it away and buy a new one!
January 24th, 2013 at 1:45 pm
FOUR YEARS!?!
I’ve had my Glock 19 since 1996 and it was used when I got it. Still shoots fine. I doubt seriously that those LEO’s shoot enough to put that much wear and tear on one of Mr. Glock’s pistols.
January 24th, 2013 at 2:51 pm
I think Mike may be right.
January 24th, 2013 at 8:05 pm
Well, I’d think that going to a 9mm Glock would be cheaper and ammo costs less too. But I wouldn’t complain if my dept gave me a P220. Great gun. Our local PDs shoot .45acp Glocks. Perhaps the big Glocks were just to big for smaller officers.
January 24th, 2013 at 8:31 pm
Since SIGS are much more expensive, a longer life makes the cost per year sound more reasonable.
From the other direction, claiming a longer life makes spending so much more money sound reasonable.
January 24th, 2013 at 11:11 pm
Four year gun life?
That is strange. I put well over 100,000 rounds through my Glock 17 in IDPA.
Now the .40 is harder on the gun but only 4 years? Are they saying those cops shoot 10,000 rounds a year practice?
Sure.
I suspect it’s just an excuse to go to another cool gun. I really doubt a .45 ACP is that much better than a .40 S&W.
Well don’t worry, it’s only tax payers money and that grows on trees (well at least Ted Gunther thinks so as he wants to print alot more.)
January 25th, 2013 at 1:46 am
Four years? What are they doing, shooting 1000 rounds a day and then dumping them in buckets of salt water between shifts?
I’m asking because that’s what I’ve been doing with mine and its fine going on 15 years now.