Glock 19 and Glock 17 Recoil

[Ben86]

Is it weird that I enjoy the recoil impulse of my Glock 19 over my Glock 17? I'm not sure I can describe it well, but the Glock 19 is more of a joy to shoot. With the G19 I return to target faster and the perceived recoil seems to be less. I find this odd being that the G19 is lighter and has a shorter barrel.

I guess some factors could be that perhaps G19 fits my hand better somehow and the lighter slide results in less weight being thrown around during recoil. Maybe the smaller frame has less flex. The recoil assemblies of both have about the same amount of rounds through them and are fairly new.

I'm kind of at a loss for an explanation. Has anyone else experienced something similar?

 

[ATLDave]

Go check out this series of blog posts: http://re-gun.com/tag/flat/

 

[plouffedaddy]

It's not strange at all. The reason I like shooting my G20 with hot loads so much is because it's fun I like being reminded of the power of these tools sometimes....

 

[GLOOB]

There's another big factor at work, IMO:

The hump on the G19 is higher. This effectively increases the grip angle for someone with average sized hands. This is easily noticeable to me. My thumb hits the slidestop on a G19 unless I grind off part of the tab. My thumb easily sits above the slidestop on a G17 or a G26 or a G21SF. The G19 also clearly points the highest if presenting each pistol with eyes closed, back to back.

Greater grip angle results in a lower bore axis.

This is probably one reason why the G23 has such a reputation for snappiness. Low bore axis is good up to a limit. Heavy recoil and low bore axis isn't necessarily a good combination in a lightweight handgun. But the same angles work really well in 9mm for most shooters.

So you might prefer the G19 over the G17, yet prefer the G22 over the G23. That would not be surprising, at all.

 

[Ben86]

So you might prefer the G19 over the G17, yet prefer the G22 over the G23. That would not be surprising, at all.

Although the recoil of the G23 is brisk I still prefer it to the G22. It just handles better for me. I feel like the bump on the back strap hits my palm perfectly. This probably is one reason why I find them to be more controllable.

I just found this realization interesting because it flies in the face of convention wisdom about which gun is more shootable (bigger+heavier=less recoil supposedly). I find the muzzle flip on the G19/23 to be less than the 17/22. I think that's kind of odd.