About to take the Glock plunge. Any info?

Glock magazines are pretty cheap to be honest. I don't really see a reason to buy an aftermarket.

I also prefer gen 3.

if your getting a .40 get the gen 4 you will want the dual recoil spring glock .40 is the stoutest recoil ive ever shot

Also, what companies make reliable high quality mags other than Glock?

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KCI G17 mags are perfect, IMO. I'd think the G22 mags are good, as well. OTOH, they're G19 mags are a little shorter than standard, which makes them a bugger to load all the way.

Sometimes you may get shoddy springs, but you can buy replacement springs, either Glock or aftermarket, and still save a bit. You'd have to do the math to see if it's worth it. The price on the KCI mags has come up a bit since they were first introduced.

i prefer the gen 3 but honestly have not had any first hand experience with the gen 4. from what i have heard, the gen 4 problems seem to be centered around the 19 and 17 so the 22 should be no problem. as for mags, i would stick with glock OEM. honestly, i dont find recoil to be all that much of a problem.

i would suggest that you stay away from lead bullets in a factory glock barrel. some people have said that they dont have a problem with them but i prefer to not roll the dice if i dont have to. if you reload then i can personally recommend berrys plated bullets. not much more than lead and all orders over $50 ship for free. if you dont, then i would just go with winchester white box or federal; whichever is cheaper. my gen 3 G22 shoots best with 180 grain loads, YMMV.

as for barrels, it seems that if someone just wants to shoot lead or do a caliber conversion, they go with the lone wolf barrels. if you want to get every last bit of accuracy out of your aftermarket barrel, bar-sto seems to be about the best choice (again, no first hand experience, just passing on what i have read/heard).

I was like you I never really cared about Glock until I bought one. Since then it's become my favorite pistol, and it sure isn't because it's got a pretty face.

If I was going to buy a .40 cal it would be something other than a Glock, but B/F I go on let me say that I have a prejudice against .40 Short and Weak. I'm a 10mm kind of guy, and I know quite a few people with .40 cals, and in all honestly .40S&W is a fine round, but Glock is a fine gun, and there are tons of people on here and everywhere else that try to find reasons to hate Glocks for no other reason than they hate the brand Glock. I'm just not a .40S&W guy. With that said other than the new Gen4 9mm recoil assembly problems, the most complaints by far that you here about Glocks are .40 cal Glocks. Many consider .40 cal Glocks to be very snappy/uncomfortable guns to shoot.(atleast you hear these things over the IE) With that said everyone I personally know with a .40S&W Glock really likes it, and has nothing but praise for the gun. Hell I know someone who Gator hunts with a G27.

The 22s are nice but look into the 23s as well either way dont forget to pick up acouple 31 round mags

If it's not comfy in your hand now, you're not going to grow into it.
I made that mistake , ONCE.

AFS

Any reason why the 40SW?I would rent one before buying one.I tried a glock in a 9/40/45 cal and found the glock 22 way too snappy for my taste.

I would and did choose 9mm Glocks over .40 caliber Glocks for a number of reasons.

In my opinion, this gun design is at its very best when chambered in the original design caliber.

If you REALLY want a .40 caliber pistol, my suggestion is to take a very hard look at the H&K USP line of handguns.
These were designed and built for that caliber and are probably the best hands down design for it.

Is it immediately comfortable?

If not; desist.

I own Glock models: 17, 19, 20, 22, 23, 26, 27 and 30SF. All have performed essentially flawless through thousands of rounds each and I like them all. Glock did replace my 30SF's trigger bar and my Gen4 19's RSA at $0.00 cost to me and since then, all has been well with them.

I have at least five Glock mags for each pistol. I have two KCI mags for my model 17 and other than somewhat anemic springs they have been flawless with approximately 500 round fired from each. I did replace the OEM springs with Wolff +10%. But given you can find Glock mags from $20-$30 depending on the supplier, I see no reason to ever buy anything but Glock. They're cheap and Glock will replace them if they fail. Did that a couple of times.

I have five Lone Wolf barrels and all have given very reliable service. I did find they didn't like MY hard cast SWCL bullets so I stopped casting them and went with a TCL hard cast bullet. Functioning with this bullet profile in all LW barrels has been 100% and accuracy has been very good.

Just FYI, my hard cast bullets with a Brinell scale reading of 18 do not lead either my Glock or LW barrels. A patch with solvent will leave the bores bright and shiny. Whether or not you shoot hard cast alloy (not the same as pure lead) through your OEM barrel is your choice. I've never used soft lead and believe that to be a no-no in any firearm unless MV is kept to 650-750 fps.

Lest I be tagged a Glock fanboi (which I don't really mind) I also own a 1978 vintage BHP, Ruger KP-90, a 1911, two Ruger .22 autos, an S&W 411 & 1006 and several revolvers of various caliber and design. I just find Glocks cheap, simple, easy to clean and maintain and generally a superior value for a combat weapon.

I took the plunge a little more than a year ago and my opinion of them was the same as yours. I got the 27 gen 4 because of the grip is a little smaller and felt better in hand. I bought the pistol because it fit all the criteria the best. I have grown to really enjoy this gun. The only thing I have done to it is I put meprolight sights on it. At 22 yds. I have been able to shoot three inch group off hand. I am convinced that the pistol is capable of better than that. I have no plans to replace the barrel or anything. As for ammo it will shoot anything 100%. I have not shot lead through it because I don't see a need to. As for price for a new 22, $500 to $600. Let me say this. I have heard alot of people say that they really prefer the 23 over 22. They just say they shoot it better and that it feels better. One last thing. If you give the Glock a fair chance you will come to like and appreciate it. My Sig P226 is still my favorite but the Glock is a strong second.

If you are contemplating between 40S&W nd 9mm, I would recommend the G22 with a 40-9 conversion barrel (best of both worlds). I practice with cheaper 9mm in G22/G27 and use factory 40S&W JHP for SD/HD.

Definitely go with Glock factory magazines. When the spring wears out, I replace them with Wolff extra power springs. After spring replacement, I also check the wear on the mag follower and replace if I have feeding issues.

If you plan on reloading for 40S&W, I am sure you have heard/read about KB issues, particularly with 40S&W. By Gen3, Glock 40S&W barrels have improved case base support at the ramp area, so it is less of a concern, but I still keep my reload charges below high range load data to give me some buffer head room.

My push for Lone Wolf 40-9 conversion barrels (I use both replacement and 40-9 conversion barrels in G22/G27) is two-fold:

1. Lone Wolf barrels have just about the tightest chambers I know and the tight chambers minimize case bulge that can stretch and weaken case wall. Spent cases from Lone Wolf barrels are also very easy to resize as the case hardly bulged.

2. For shooting lead bullets, unlike the rounded hill/valley polygonal rifling with longer leade (space the bullet jumps from case neck/chamber to the start of rifling) in the Glock barrels, Lone Wolf barrels use the standard square cut land/groove rifling with shorter leade that provide better bullet-to-barrel seal.

I do shoot lead bullets out of factory Glock barrels but will inspect the barrel for leading/fouling buildup every 200-300 rounds and clean as necessary. With Lone Wolf barrels, I can shoot 500-1000+ rounds and the barrel stays free of leading.

As to Glock naysayer comments, I would suggest you range test various range rental guns and do your own comparison shoot. I usually recommend for people to select pistols that they can shoot accurately and fast. Do the comparison and let your holes on the target be the judge.

KKM, EFK Dragon, or Storm Lake barrels.

Skip the LWD.

If you are seriously considering buying a Glock....
RUN, DON"T WALK to the nearest psyco ward and CHECK YOURSELF IN!!!

With all the other stuff said, I might add for a Glock 2nd generation .45ACP:
Cleaning: I clean the slide & barrel the conventional way, but use dish soap, a toothbrush and an air compressor to clean the lower half. First after removing the slide & barrel, I rinse the frame, etc. under the faucet, then spray the whole works with a soap and water mix, scrubbing with a tooth brush. It gets rinsed again, then blown with compressed air, then left in the sun for a short bit. When I put it back together, a small bit of oil on the slide rails, and it's good to go. Crazy? I've been doing it this way for over twelve years, who knows how many rounds of anything that would fit in the chamber, and so many draws from a Kydex holster that the finish is wearing off the slide.
I load plated bullets, Wolf primers, and AA # 5 powder.
This gun just keeps going, and going.........

I have a G22c gen 3, it is has a ported barrel and slide. If you plan on using it for concealed carry, you will need to go with gen 3 because the RTF on the gen 4 will catch on to your shirt and cause it to ride up. The single best mod you can make on a glock is installing a fulcrum trigger. The only issue I have ever had with a glock is the trigger pull and the fulcrum trigger is incredible. I have shot the gen 4 g22 and I didn't notice a difference in the recoil, the grip does make it a bit more manageable, but after a few hundred rounds through a gen 3 it won't matter.

Once you go Glock, you never go....
no wait... that was something else.

I like the 10mm but .40 is much more readily available and cheaper where i'm at.

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Buy a 20 and get a .40 barrel. Not only is it two guns in one for only an extra $130 or so, but it also gives you a stronger platform, and the aftermarket .40 barrel has the case support needed to prevent a KB.

I recently bought a 20, it is and will be my only Glock, purchased because sooner or later the odds will catch up when I'm hunting, and I'll bash my very nice S&W 1006 into a rock or somesuch. I'd rather trash an ugly, soulless current production gun than a semi-classic (even though the S&W is stronger) or my very pretty Witness Limited.

As an aside, though-before you buy a 20, hold one; Few people I know find the grip size of the standard 20/21 agreeable. I have large hands and still find them chunky (I think more because of the blocky shape than the circumference). I Can't really speak for the SF variants.

don't buy aftermarket glock mags.

What do I need to know about the different generations, and which one(s) are in your opinions better/worse than the others?

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The Gen3 and Gen4 .40's are great. You'll hear a lot of people bash Gen4 but the only real problems have been with 9mm. Recent production Glocks of both Gen3 and Gen4 may have an extractor that fits too tight, you can replace it with another and if that spare is still too tight you can polish the spare until it drops out of the slide freely upon depressing the firing pin safety during detail strip of the slide.

Also some slides may have the extractor cut-out in the slide cut too far forward toward the muzzle which will result in the extractor losing the case rim and the casing will drop down to the magazine, but still eject mostly reliably though in various directions. The only fix for that is a new ejector that they're only putting into Gen4's to help raise the case mouth earlier during ejection. Some Gen3's have the problem as well, but at the moment Glock isn't putting the new ejector into Gen3's so Gen3 owners like myself will just have to wait until the new ejector is available in Gen4 trigger housings online, then swap ejectors into Gen3 trigger housings. The only way to spot a slide that wasn't cut correctly is to take a spent casing and compare how it fits under the extractor. My G23 ejects fine, I took a spent casing and slid the rim under the extractor and there's hardly any gap for the rim to slide rear-to-muzzle between the breech face and extractor claw, I took the extractor out of that slide and put it into my G27 slide with the same spent casing and there's 1mm or slightly more of a gap for the spent casing to slide rear-to-muzzle between the breech face and extractor claw. That's the only way to spot a slide that has the problem.

If you want a Glock that's nearly guaranteed to be free of both of those problems, I'd buy serial number prefix LHD and earlier alphabetically.

And lastly, the latest .40 magazines may have failure to feed caused by excess plastic. There are little protrusions under the front of the feed lips that may stick too far into the magazine and slow feeding. I had one, I removed the left protrusion(as if looking from the rear) and shaved the right protrusion according to this drawing and now it works flawlessly: http://i51.tinypic.com/2a649he.jpg
Some people had to remove both protrusions entirely, others only had to use Wolff +10%XP magazine springs, some had to do both.

What is a decent price for a new G22...?

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Average retail in my area for civilian-priced with fixed plastic sights varies between $530 and $570 for Gen3, between $550 and $590 for Gen4.

What ammo do you guys find works best with your glock 22s? (I do know that
Glock's polygonal rifling may have problems with unjacketed lead).

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I don't have a G22, but American Eagle, Speer Lawman, PMC Bronze, and all defensive loads I've tried so far through my G23 and G27.

what aftermarket companies make the best replacement barrels

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KKM and Bar-Sto. Bar-Sto is expensive for a good reason. Most aftermarket barrels will require some fitting in certain areas, factory Glock barrels will not. If you plan to shoot only jacketed bullets, I'd go with Glock factory. If you end up getting a Gen2, you can't use a .357SIG barrel in most Gen2 .40's. Only the latest production Gen2 .40's had the extra metal extended inside the frame from the front frame rail insert, along with the longer rear frame rails, to handle .357SIG. Only Glock would be able to tell you if a specific Gen2 .40 has those features, and lately they've just gone to the blanket statement of telling people to only shoot the caliber their gun came in no matter what Generation. Gen3 and Gen4 will handle .357SIG just fine.

Also, what companies make reliable high quality mags other than Glock?

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Aftermarket magazines are hit or miss, mostly miss. I have two KCI 29-round .40 magazines and they won't even hand-cycle rounds. The stack of rounds locks up about midway through and I have to slam the magazine into my hand to get the stack to rise up again. I tried it with Glock factory springs, same thing. After seeing that I didn't even give them a chance at the range. The feed lips gouged the cartridges so I had to smooth them out with a 1000 grit ceramic stone, there was excess plastic everywhere possible, and they're packed with vaseline from the factory.

I am a confirmed 1911 person but recently acknowledged that Glocks are excellent tools and bought a Gen 3 19 and a Gen 3 23. I don't find a meaningful difference in recoil between the two. I have been shooting 165 and some 180s in the .40. I'm not giving up my 1911s but am enjoying the Glocks now that I've opened my mind up a bit.

I take regular classes in our area from a police officer who mentioned recently that he sees departments switching away from .45 and .40 back to
9mm. Our local department recently announced replacement of all of their issue sidearms from .40 to Glock or S&W 9mm, officers' choice (and said the S&W was leading 60% to 40%). Their rationale for the caliber switch was that improvements in 9mm ammo has leveled the field among calibers and their qualification scores are noticeably better with the 9.