We’ve been loving police trade-in firearms lately and today we wanted to highlight a very common law enforcement sidearm models, the Glock 22 Gen4 chambered in .40 Smith & Wesson. From the FBI to countless police departments across the United States has used a G22. Glock itself has even touted that the G22 was the most commonly purchased handgun by Law Enforcement.
HISTORY OF THE CARTRIDGE
The G22 Gen4 draws its lineage back to the 1986 Miami shooting with the FBI, which sparked a search for a caliber and handgun model. The FBI realized that they were outgunned and in need of semi-automatic firearms that packed more of a punch. With a set of very specific requirements, the FBI entered handgun trials to find a new semi-automatic handgun that fired a round that could mimic the performance of the .38 Special +P semi-wadcutter round that was used by the agency.
After the trials, the handgun that met the performance expectations was the Colt Delta Elite chambered in 10mm. This led the FBI to pursue the 10mm round, briefly adopting the cartridge until it was determined that it was too powerful, causing issues with agents passing their shooting qualifications. Smith and Wesson would offer a solution in 1990 by trimming down the casing of the 10mm round, creating what we now know as .40 S&W, and releasing the Smith & Wesson Model 4006.
GLOCK RISES TO THE OCCASION
With the new powerful, yet controllable .40 S&W cartridge catching the eyes of the FBI, Glock wasted no time in producing a handgun to compete for the FBI contract. Since .40 S&W had similar dimensions as the popular 9mm cartridge, it was easier for Glock to scale up their 9mm models and chamber them for .40 S&W, rather than rushing to design a whole new model Glock with custom dimensions, as they did with the G20 in 10mm to compete with the FBI’s earlier obsession.
The G22 and G23 were born in the early 90’s, basically being the .40 S&W version of the G17 and G19 respectively, offering a duty sized and compact carry gun to compete to serve as the main sidearm for the FBI. In 1997, the FBI officially adopted the .40 S&W Glock models to serve as their main service pistol. This led countless other police departments and federal agencies to also adopt the models, leading to massive popularity for this firearm.
SNAG A PIECE OF THE SURPLUS
This G22 Gen4 represents one of the modern renditions of the model, being duty-sized for open carry and offering features such as finger grooves for ergonomics, an aggressive grip stipple for a rock-solid grip purchase, Glock’s backstrap system to customize the size of the grip, a large magazine release that is reversable, and a double recoil spring to aid in keeping the muzzle flip down.
The past decade has seen many law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, return to the 9mm round. With modern ammunition and the performance capabilities of self-defense cartridges, 9mm has re-established itself as the king of law enforcement contracts and this has led to the .40 S&W Glocks to hit the surplus market. Glock 22 Gen4’s such as these, are now up for grabs, and we have secured some under our Police Trade-In page, giving you the opportunity to acquire a piece of LEO service history!
