Glock rolled out the red carpet in Georgia for a select group of media last week to peek at its new manufacturing facility and guns for 2024. While we can’t deliver any photos of the new manufacturing space, we can tell you it’s pristine and in line with every other Glock manufacturing facility. 

The company even converts American 60-hertz electricity to European 50-hertz electricity to run its imported machinery – while it’s far from cheap, Glock says this is what’s called for to maintain consistency across continents. 

Perfection lies in the small details. That said, let’s check out some of the newest offerings from Glock.
 

The Austrian gun manufacturer continues to update its lineup to the Gen 5 family, which started a couple years ago and now extends to the Glock 29 and Glock 30. Virtually everything about both guns will remain the same, minus the stylings.

Both will lose the finger grooves from the Gen 4 family, as well as adding front slide serrations.
 

Both guns have a 10+1 capacity and are slated to begin shipping in early 2024. On the range, these guns were well received by the members of the media who were there to cover the event. With the current 10mm resurgence, people were consistently drawn to the G29. 

Before going out on the range, everyone nervously eyed the little G29 with looks of near-resentment – the collective thought being that this little gun was going to deliver a heck of a recoil and jump out of the hand a bit. 

The reality was anything but that. It turned out to be enjoyable to shoot with the Federal 180-grain loads we had on hand. In fact, the recoil was only slightly more noticeable than the G30 next to it.
 

The one downside of the G29 was that it did feel a little jumpy in the hand, less so because of the recoil, and more so because of the magazine not offering a spot for the pinky. This leaves only three fingers to place on the grip, and it’ll be a lot jumpier once you add hunting loads to the little compact. To that end, everyone agreed that this would make a fantastic backcountry hiking gun because of its light weight and potent chambering.

The G30, in contrast, offered a little less snap on the recoil side of things but also had a magazine with a base pad. That gave a nice place to get a full grip on the gun, so shooting this one felt slightly more controllable. 
 

Hands on the G49

Glock also rolled out the newly announced G49 for the media at the event. While the gun was announced in early November, this was the first time that many of the attendees got hands on one. This MOS pistol is topped with a Holosun 507Comp green dot, which made for a nice companion on the range. 

While users have been making their own homemade versions of this gun with a G19 frame and G17 slide and barrel, they can now purchase it directly from the manufacturer. The advantage is a longer barrel and sight radius with a shorter grip – the best of both worlds for accuracy and concealability. 
 

Distributor Exclusives

Glock also showed off several distributor-exclusive pistols. We were given a chance to look at all of them, but two really jumped off the page for us. The first was the G44 TB (threaded barrel). This compact trainer just got a lot more fun to shoot, because now you’ll be able to spend some quiet time with it. This was, without a doubt, one of the most popular guns on the range that day, as even the non-suppressed version got a lot of love. The G44 TB also wears a fiber-optic front sight, a first for the factory.
 

The other exclusive that caught our eye was the G17L with original texturing. This is reminiscent of the Glock P80 that dropped a couple years back, and we’re sure this one will sell just as fast. It features the original grip texture, a lightening cut in the slide, and a longer barrel and slide than the original G17. 
 

Conclusion

With a new manufacturing facility coming online and new products rolling out the door, the future is bright in Smyrna for Glock. Be sure to keep checking back as we take a deeper dive on some of these pistols in the coming months.