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View Full Version : The Austrian P80- Before Glock Took Over The World



MistWolf
11-16-13, 01:09
I was going through a box of old books and came across a copy of Small Arms of the World 12th Edition printed in 1983. On page 221 is an entry for "Glock 9 x 19mm Pistol" It says

Early in 1983, the Austrian Army announced the adoption of a new handgun. This weapon was developed by the Vienna firm Glock. Following the decision of the Austrian Army to select a new pistol, the Austrian authorities also decided to limit the competition to Austrian designs. The Glock pistol, which embodies a unique combination of plastics and stamped steel, won out over the Steyr-Daimler-Puch GB Pistole. No additional data was available at the time this edition went to press

That's it. That the whole of the entry. The photo shows a Glock marked on the left side with the company logo and "82", "9mm" & "GLOCK AUSTRIA". On the right side it's marked "AA-000".

The Austrian Army accepted the Glock as the P80 in 1983. In the following year, Denmark became the first NATO country to adopt the new pistol. It was always assumed that the first Glock was named the 17 because the magazine held 17 rounds but I found some sources that claim it was made from the 17th drawing. According to the Glock timeline, a company was formed to bring the Glock to the US and began it's meteoric rise the following year. The first Glocks didn't have a metal plate for serial numbers, something the BATF soon required. Gun control advocates cried that the new plastic pistol could not be picked up by metal detectors and would be used by terrorists to hijack jetliners. Of course, the slide is steel and the frame uses steel inserts, more than enough to set of metal detectors and is easily distinguished by x-ray, but the outcry lead to legislation requiring firearms to contain a minimal amount of metal.

Since that enigmatic entry published in 1983, the Glock has made quite an impact, not just on the firearms world, but pop culture as well, starting with Bruce Willis explaining the evils of the ceramic Glock P7 in one of his Die Hard movies. I wonder if the author ever looked back on the paragraph he penned and think about the dramatic changes the "Glock 9 x 19mm Pistol" brought about since?

JB13
11-16-13, 08:21
I think that is a neat little piece of history.

Omaha419
11-16-13, 08:24
Good find!

Slater
11-16-13, 12:17
I read somewhere that the Glock 17 was Gaston's 17th patent.

brushy bill
11-16-13, 14:20
I read somewhere that the Glock 17 was Gaston's 17th patent.

I believe that was in Pete Sweeney's The Gun Digest Book of the Glock, but I can't locate my copy at the moment to confirm.

MistWolf
11-16-13, 14:50
I read somewhere that the Glock 17 was Gaston's 17th patent.

I read that here- http://glock.pro/glock-pistols/358-glock-pistol-history-evolution.html

It's funny how much gets obscured with time

Bigun
11-16-13, 21:50
I fired my first Glock in 1987 along with the AUG while shooting with German and Austrian troops . The AUG was cool but I dont remember being to impressed with the Glock, definately didnt believe they would cause a revolution in hangun design. The German P1 was way more accurate, the 1911 we carried was just bigger and more of us had Faith in the .45 cartridge than the 9mm. The main thing that impressed me was the capacity of the magazine, compared to the 1911 it seemed like you could shoot it forever. I thought the field knife and shovel were cool too.LOL I carried my 1911 until 89 and didnt see a M9 untill outprocessing through Dix. Funny part is the M9's looked to be in worse shape than our 1911's.