Keeping a two-year promise, Franklin Armory this week announced the long-awaited G-S173 is ready for a hungry market.
The Nevada-based company first brought the Glock 17 binary trigger system to SHOT Show in 2022, simply appearing with it on the range with no prior announcement or teasing campaigns. Consisting of a selector-switch-equipped slide with a companion two-position binary trigger, it offered both a very G18-style aesthetic (while being NFA compliant) and a crowd-pleasing ability for binary fire – which allows the user to fire a round both on the pull of the trigger and the release.
The company's booth was mobbed with the curious coming to see the recently patented G-S173 system, mounted on a stock Gen 3 Glock 17. It offered the simplicity of either standard one-round per trigger pull or binary fire with a planned MSRP at release of $899.
Sure, some may shrug at the concept, but the "Thing" from Franklin Armory hit a cord with lots of folks, and it wound up being our most popular story of the year – highlighting a serious interest.
Rather than just "spray and pray" giggle time kinda fun on the range, such triggers have a very valid application. When used properly and with sufficient training, users will see much reduced split times and produce tighter groupings, especially when running controlled pairs.
Then came a wild year and, by the time the 2023 SHOT Show came around, Franklin Armory was still ironing out the G-S173 concept and getting ready to put it into standard production. Guns.com was sure to stop by to see the improvements. This included a fire-mode indicator on the rear plate of the slide that allowed the user to visually confirm if the pistol was in binary mode, without having to turn the gun to check the selector. The selector switch was also minimized and given deeper detents for a more positive tactile and audible "click" to let the user confirm it had been thrown.
Now, as of Oct. 16, 2023, the Franklin Armory G-S173 is no longer vaporware and is ready for market.
A Closer Look at the Production G-S173
Franklin Armory managed to get us an early production G-S173 kit, which is set up to install on a Gen 3 Glock 17 9mm. As exhibited at past industry events, it is selectable between semiautomatic and binary with the ability for the user to safely cancel the binary release round if desired.
The slide is feature-rich, and, even forgetting the binary aspect of it, is an upgrade from standard Gen 3 G17 slides including front and rear AmeriGlo Tritium night sights, high-tactile front and rear slide serrations, and a factory optics cut for micro reflex dots. It also has a serrated top stripe to cut down on glare.
The manual covers the installation process in 16 illustrated steps and a video is being made to accompany it. In short, all that is needed is a three-pin Gen 3 Glock 17 frame (sans trigger assembly), along with the barrel and recoil spring assembly for the same.
The only tool needed for the installation is a single 5/32 punch (although a 5/64, 5/36, or 1/16 punch will work in a pinch). Then run the dry fire function test to verify, load up lots of mags, and head to the range.
Price, when first brought up in 2022, was supposed to be $899. The actual MSRP at introduction hasn't changed.
We're slapping ours into an old scratch-and-dent G17 as this is written and will have an update piece in a few weeks with how it works in the field.
