Best Stock Glock Ever Made- - Glock 45 COA Review.

Today I'm reviewing the Glock 45 Mullet Barbacoa. Sounds really gross, by the way, but this is a Glock 45. It's the mullet of the gun world. It's backwards. Big, fat, hard to conceal butt. Smaller slide, shorter barrel, reduced velocity, but for some reason everyone, including me, loves this gun, and I cannot understand why. This is also a COA. At least I call it a COA, but when I did that at the Glock booth at SHOT Show, my friends corrected me and said, Coa, idiot. So I started calling it the Barbacoa, and they asked me to leave. As you guys are aware, Glock sporadically sponsors TFBT. Oh, ----, here we go. Can I finish? As you guys know, Glock sporadically sponsors TFBT, and is, in fact, the only gun sponsor we've had in the past year or two. I'm telling you that for transparency's sake, so you know of any potential conflict of interest, but I will also tell you this. I bet Glock came aboard the HMS Short Shorts because I've always been a fan. My very first concealed carry gun, Glock 33 and 357 over 20 years ago, and I don't think I've ever owned fewer than like two or three Glocks at any point in the past two decades. I was a civilian Glock shill before I became a professional Glock shill. I say all that to tell you today, only six months late, that I'm reviewing the Glock COA series of pistols. I got a sneak preview before SHOT Show, but I couldn't talk about them until I was actually at the show, and on top of that, I don't even think it's worth talking about right now because there are rumors flying around as we sit here today that Glock is fulfilling a massive military contract with this pistol, COA pistols, and thus isn't able to fill orders, so the Glock subreddit's crawling with links to people who can actually find them in stock. What is the Glock COA? Oversimplified, these are stock Glocks with a small but robust red dot optic already installed, but it's much, much, much more than that I will explain. First, let me get a quick word with the guys out there who aren't into Glock pistols. Come here. I can't fix you. No one can fix you. You are a broken, subhuman piece of trash, a garbage person. Are Glocks slightly more expensive than competing pistols? Are they made out of half plastic with mediocre triggers? Sure, but they're also some of the most reliable handguns I've ever seen in over two decades in the firearms industry. I'm only half-joking here. There are legitimate reasons to not like Glock pistols, but the important things to me, safe, serviceable, reliable without needing any modifications, and as you will see, they shoot pretty damn well too. The only mods I've ever done to my personal Glocks were, you guessed it, adding an optic. Now Glock is going to take care of that for you with this package. Now, let me talk to those of you who don't like red dots. If this is a duty pistol, if this is a competition gun, you have basically zero reason to not have a red dot unless it's like a budget issue. For concealed carry, I'll level with you. Red dots, they add a little weight. The Koa only weighs 1.7 ounces, which is insanely light. Red dots also tend to add width and height, which for me, I carry strong side in a dress shirt with a tuckable holster. It means that I actually get an annoying little hump in my shirt right where the optic is. The Koa's optic is mounted so low to the slide that it minimizes that problem, although it doesn't quite eliminate it, but that's because Glock's new mounting system, the A-mount, it basically wedges the optic base into the slide. This keeps the mounting height extremely low while still giving you a very, very sturdy footprint. The benefit is that you can actually co-witness your standard height iron sights through the optic without needing suppressor height sights. If your optic dies or if you forget to turn it on, you can still use your irons right through the window on the Koa. Incredibly, the Koa optic has the same field of view as the Aimpoint Acro, but the optic sits completely flush with the sides of the pistol, unlike the Acro on my favorite B&T Glock 19, which hangs over a little bit. It's flush with the slide, as you can see here, but it has the same size window as the Aimpoint Acro. Pretty impressive. And this gun shoots really well just right out of the box. And like the Acro, this is a fully enclosed emitter, so water, lint, debris can't get in and ruin your sight picture. Anyone who's carried with an open emitter optic knows lint is way more annoying than you would think it would be for a carry gun. I've used the Koa a number of times now. It's got an easy, non-distracting reticle. On the flip side, I've used red dots like, I think it's the, yeah, the RMSC Shield, the HEX series that came on some of the Springfield pistols. They had a weird, slow, I guess, refresh rate where you can see the light pulsing. Auto brightness was ----. Brightness in general, just not impressive. The Koa, being Aimpoint branded, performs the way you would expect from one of the more trusted optic names out there. So I'm not saying that non-red dot guys need to convert today. I've had to draw a gun three times living in the most dangerous city in America, New Orleans, which is three times more than I ever expected I had to. And if I had to shoot in those situations, I wouldn't have needed a red dot. In all three, the belligerent drug addict in question was basically, like, arms reach a little bit past that. I might not have needed sights at all. If that's your mindset, like, I might not need a red dot because the average encounter range, I can't say you're wrong, but as someone who resisted red dots for a long time, I'm glad I switched. I'm significantly more accurate, and I would also like to think faster with a red dot than with irons. Relatively rapid fire accuracy at seven yards, right there, 20 rounds into the five, like... So how much accuracy do you need in most concealed carry situations? That depends. Maybe you live on the prairie. Maybe you live in a tunnel in the Indochina Peninsula. It's a personal decision. What I can say is that I definitely shoot better with a red dot. I can also say they add weight, they add cost, they might add size, depending on what you get, but if you want a reliable, well-built handgun, you either want a red dot, or you're maybe thinking about getting a red dot, I think the Glock 45, well, not necessarily the 45, any of the pistols really is the one to get. Price-wise, combo runs between like $850 and $1,000, and acro costs like $500, $600, a Glock runs like $600, so this is a pretty good deal. This isn't just two things in the same box, it's a complete purpose-built system. Like me, Miller Lite $5 craps and Faye Valentine were made for each other. A DM, Sage Dynamics, on Twitter asked what he thought. He hasn't gotten his hands on one yet, but if you're still on the fence, maybe wait till he puts one through hell, he's probably gonna, like, bash it against random stuff, like the door frame of a 1989 Ford Fiesta or some ----. As for which model to get, I told Glock when they asked which one I wanted to review, I said, just send me which one you guys like the best. They sent me the 45. I would probably get the Glock 19, safe bet for almost anyone, small enough for concealed carry, big enough to serve as a duty pistol. My guess is Glock probably sells two 19s for every other model combined. The Glock 45, which I reviewed, makes no sense on paper. It's got the compact slide in the barrel from the 19 with a full-size frame of the 17, but people love it. This is my partner, Sam, here at Neutral Ground Gun Company and also my civil union partner. Sam, what did we think about the Glock 45 COA? It's a Glock 45. I mean, you know, have plenty of experience on Glocks. The sight itself is great. It does give you a little bit more window than, like, a traditional RMR. We had a Glock 19 COA in stock for all of two days, and then it was gone. Are these hard for us to get right now? A little bit. It is a great gun. It was the semi-finalist with the SIG P320 for the Army's MHS trials as the 19X. It takes 17 round flush-fit mags. They also will work in the 19, though, but 19 mags won't work in the Glock 45. Still, it's awesome. I'm not going to try to talk you out of it because for some reason this thing shoots. 30 rounds all into a, I don't know, two-inch, three-inch hole. The only plausible explanation that I've received is something about the shorter, lighter slide cycling faster while having a full grip makes this gun eminently controllable, but we'll talk about that in a couple of minutes. The Glock 47, basically a 45 frame with a full-size 17 upper, but you can swap uppers and lowers with the 19 and mix and match, which is a really nice perk. Basically, you can buy it like two guns. You buy this, you buy the Glock 19, and you can make four guns out of it. So, what's shooting the Glock 45 COA like? It's like shooting a Glock, exactly what you'd expect. Red dots can be a little bit tricky, like trying to grab that last dill pickle out of the 10-gallon Sam's Club jar. As mentioned, the COA, despite its small size, has the exact same window size as an Acro, so finding the dot, follow-up shots, pretty easy in my opinion. Dot, press, done. 30 rounds. Ignore it. This is from the 5.7 we were shooting earlier. You can see it's a little tiny, like 22 rounds, but look at that. 30 rounds, 7 yards. Scary good. And even under speed, groups are tighter than classic firearms KIA's t-shirts. Okay, maybe not that tight, but pretty close. Son of a bitch! But still, I mean, guys, come on, come on. That's pretty good. Like, what more do you need than this in terms of accuracy if you're carrying this as like a duty gun or a concealed carry gun? Do you need to put a fancy trigger in this thing? I would suggest not. I would suggest you need to get your ass to a range, preferably the Neutral Ground Gun Company in Araby, Louisiana, and get your ass some practice. Durability-wise, you've got name point, plus Glock. This is like Toyota collaborating with, I don't know, DeWalt. One of the most reliable handguns of all time, in conjunction with the manufacturer of some of the most reliable red dot optics of all time. Battery life rated in years, not hours. And because it's enclosed, rain, lint, or the crumbs from your pocket Doritos, no problem. Just wipe off that cool ranch dust and start Baja blasting. So who's this for? If you already own a Glock and a quality enclosed optic that you're happy with, I'm not sure you're getting much more out of buying a Koa. Although, if it were me, I would still strongly consider ditching my current setup and going with this. If anything I said to you in this review kind of spoke to you. Like, for example, if you're using an open dot, are you using the kind of unimpressive, kind of not that great MOS plate system? I would say this is primarily for people looking for their first serious duty or concealed carry gun, or for those looking to get into red dots for the first time. Again, yes, am I over the moon about this configuration? But it's still relatively new, and as I said, if you already have a trusty Glock and a red dot setup, I wouldn't be in a huge rush to try to track down a replacement, especially since they're going for top dollar, the Koa pistols are right now, since they're so hard to find. And after all, I could end up with egg on my face a year from now if we find out that there's some sort of issue. It's unlikely, but it's always a possibility. I know there's at least one comment below already. Somebody who's made a smart-ass quip about the first generation Aimpoint Acro. They did not do so hot. And for that matter, even the current P2 had its fair share of complaints online, but myself personally, I've got several of them. I've never had an issue with either Glock or any Aimpoint I've owned, but all I can do is truthfully tell you what my experience is, and you can make the decision for yourself. And I guess you got to remember my truth tainted a little bit by Glock fanboyism, but hopefully you'll forgive me for that, since I freely tell you about it. Guys, thanks for watching. If you want to support us, think about going to subscribestar.com slash TFBTV. We give away 2,000 bucks worth of stuff every single month. Thank you to our sponsors, Top Gun Supply and Ventura Munitions. Top Gun Supply, your online shooting sports superstore, and Ventura Munitions, one of the best online ammo retailers out there. But thank you most of all for watching, and take care.