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There were several things FBI wanted in their new pistol, and Glock 17M seems to have met the conditions. According to the info from Primary and Secondary forum,
-Finish is "tougher"
-Traditional lands and grooves rifling, not polygonal.
-Barrel lug is a bit more behind, and the recoil spring assembly is longer, and the notch is reinforced
-Improved trigger similar to G42 or 43
-no finger grooves
-Flared magazine well, and cut in the bottom front of the grip
-magazine lip has more protrusion to the front
-ambidextrous slide lock
-firing pin safety plunger is oblong/rectangular instead of round
-bigger tang
When you looks at some photos, it becomes a bit easier to see some changes.
First, here is the photo of right and left, from Military Arms Channel
The front of grip is not free of grooves that quite a few people did not like. The grooves were added to get the importation points from long ago times. Also, the magazine well has cut in the front. This cut allows shooter to grab the magazine if it gets stuck in the magazine well. This feature has been on G22 for quite a longtime. The serration is not that different from that of Gen 4
Glock also went back to 2 pin set up instead of the 3 pin set up most of Glocks are coming out with these days. The original Glock design had 2 pin setup, one just above the trigger guard to hold locking lug, one in the back to hold the trigger group
Glocks are known for their polyognal barrel, but for some reason 17M uses traditional rifling.
17M barrel on the left shows slightly recessed barrel lug.
Inside of the slide, you can see firing pin safety plunger looking rather longer than usual design.
And now inside the frame. The most prominent change is addition of slide lock on the right. It was one of the requirements for FBI contract, and Glock managed to find a way to add that. Notice the bar for the right slide lock is close to trigger bar. This probably moved the trigger bar inwards a bit, and necessiated the newly designed safety plunger.
It is hard to tell if the slide lock is an one piece part or not, but it won't be surprising if it is. It also raises question of the new barrel lug's position. Could the barrel lug had to be moved due to the new design?
According to Military Arms Channel, the magazine is slightly different previous Glock magazines, but older magazines still work well for 17M
Glock is not really known for setting trend in recent years. The company had to be dragged in to making interchangable backstrap design, and if it weren't for the FBI contract, this gun probably would not have been designed.
Currently, there is no words on when this will be available on the market, or even if it will have the same features. The Firearm Blog reports that the 'Gen 5' is in process of being trademarked by Glock.
