Glock 44 Review: Is It Worth It?

Glock introduced their first rimfire pistol with the Glock 44 in 22lr.

Was this a smart move for Glock? Is the G44 a good pistol? Below we go into depth into this hands-on gun review to see if this pistol is worth it.

Glock 44 Background

Glock makes the most popular handguns in America – there are more Glock pistols in the market than from any other manufacturer. And, the Glock 19 (compact-sized 9mm Glock) is Glock’s most popular model because it’s just the right size and capacity balance between a gun to shoot at the range and concealed carry.

As a testament to the popularity of Glocks, there are a mind-numbing amount of aftermarket parts for upgrades to Glocks. Multiple companies have even come out with 22 LR rimfire conversions for Glocks.

Why would someone want to have their Glock fire the diminutive 22-long rifle cartridge? Easy – shooting 22 long rifles is cheap, fun training, while also being easy to silence. This makes it the PERFECT pistol for teaching someone new how to shoot a gun.

The G44 is Glock’s first rimfire pistol. Why have they waited so long? One reason might have to do with the fact that it is very difficult to make a striker-fired rimfire pistol. That’s why almost every other rimfire pistol we know of, even if it’s a replica of a striker-fired centerfire gun, has been made with an internal hammer (except for the Taurus TX22 pistol).

Glock 44 (22LR) Features

1 22 LR Glock Marksman Barrel

A non-fixed barrel rimfire! Truly innovative.

2 Front Slide Serrations

Thankfully Glock is continuing this trend on their new pistols.

3 Polymer/Steel Hybrid Slide

To reduce weight for a rimfire but retain the durability of steel, Glock is using a unique design.

4 Glock 19 – Sized

This results in training familiarity with the most popular Glock pistol and holster compatibility.

5 10-Round Magazine

The G44 magazine comes with a easy-load tab and round count indicator.

Glock 44 Review – Our Take

Despite what many others think online, we think that this is a REALLY smart move for Glock and we’ll be purchasing one for ourselves.

Why do we think a plinking Glock is a great idea?

First, 22’s are a TON of fun to shoot. Second, when we teach a new shooter to shoot, we love to start with a rimfire to help them get used to shooting a firearm. And third, if we’re going to be using a 22 anyway (whether for plinking, training, etc.) why not have a 22 pistol that is the same size and has the same features as a full-sized firearm? You’ll be getting great practice and you can use the same holsters!

We also can’t pass by how affordable 22 ammunition is as well!

I really wish more manufacturers would follow this lead… we’re looking at you, Sig. By coming out with a 22 trainer, Glock is going to take back some serious market share. I’ve slowly migrated away from Glocks lately but this alone is really enticing me to go back – a Glock 22 trainer is AWESOME!

Striker Fired Rimfire Pistol

We mentioned above that it is very hard to make a striker-fired rimfire pistol. So hard, in fact, that we only know of one other, the Taurus TX-22.

Why is it so tough? If the striker-fired pistol is already fully cocked (like a Sig p365, Smith and Wesson M&P, or Springfield XD) then the recoil spring on the slide must be strong enough to pull the slide forward to feed the next round from the magazine and chamber it completely into the chamber AND be strong enough to pull the slide fully forward against the spring tension o fate striker which is being cocked.

Surely, a strong recoil/slide spring can be used but… then the spring is too strong for the weak 22 round to reliably cycle the gun.

The same problem exists with striker-fired guns that are partially cocked as you pull the trigger (Glocks)… if the striker spring is strong enough to fire the round, then it’s likely going to overpower the recoil spring that has to be light enough for the gun to cycle. It’s a balancing act.

This is why the rimfire Smith and Wesson M&P looks like the 9mm M&P from the outside (great for training familiarity and holster compatibility) but it is actually a hammer-fired 22 lr on the inside.
Glock can sometimes get picked on for their lack of innovation but, they make a pistol design that works very well (so why change anything) and we think that this striker-fired G44 is pretty darn innovative.

In fact, we’re blown away that Glock came out with features that most everyone else hasn’t been able to incorporate into a rimfire pistol thus far.

Polymer and Steel Slide

Along with potential spring issues on a rimfire semi-auto pistol, there comes an issue with slide mass.

If you didn’t know, most centerfire semi-auto pistols have a locking function that locks the action while the pistol is fired and which must be unlocked prior to extraction or ejection. Rimfire pistols, on the other hand, are typically direct blowback (spring tension and slide mass only) and don’t have a locking mechanism because the diminutive 22 LR is too weak to unlock an action.

This is why 22 pistols have very light slides. To get a light slide, many manufacturers use junk metal, zinc, aluminum, or something other than steel. Of course, this reduces the pistol’s durability but a steel slide would just be too heavy.

Glock took their patented design of a polymer/steel hybrid slide that they use in their simmunition guns and brought it to this pistol – another innovative idea!

Barrel

The barrel on the Glock 44 is fairly novel in that it isn’t fixed to the receiver like most 22 pistols and instead is installed in the slide effectively like its full-powered counterpart.

Besides being accurate and reliable, there’s one feature that we want to see on all 22 LR firearm barrels: THREADS TO MOUNT A SILENCER!

Glock kinda’ missed the mark here.

The Glock 44 does not come with a threaded barrel, however, Glock does sell a Glock 44 threaded barrel as an upgrade. However, the threads aren’t 1/2×28 (by FAR the most popular thread rate for 22 silencers). Instead, you’ll have to use an adapter from Glock to convert AND extend their M9x75 threaded barrel (what were they thinking???).

Glock should offer a 1/2×28 threaded barrel option from the factory so that it can actually be used without an adapter. I get that M9x75 might be popular in Europe, but where is their target market for this pistol?

Trigger

The trigger feels like…well…a Glock. This is great news for us (and bad news for others).

Some people just hate Glocks. If you’re one of them, this isn’t for you because the Glock 44 is exceptionally Glock-like.

However, for the rest of us that can appreciate Glocks, this is great news because getting a trigger to feel like an actual Glock is GREAT for training!

Accuracy

We tested the accuracy of the G44 with three different brands of 22 long rifle ammo: Remington Bulk Ammo, Federal Bulk Ammo, and CCI Mini-Mag 22 LR.

I shot a group of five shots for each brand of ammo standing off-hand at 10 yards. Not the most scientific method, but I’m a big believer in finding out what a gun actually does do vs. what it could/should do.

The average group size I shot was 1.39 inches and the best group I shot was with Remington Bulk ammo and it measured 0.77 inches.

Here are the stats on our Glock 44 accuracy results:

Reliability

Our first experience with the Glock 44 was when we shot it at the SHOT Show 2020 media day. From our experience, we can tell you that the Glock 44 ran GREAT! We fired it as fast as we could in a timed challenge and we watched MANY people shoot the Glock 44 without fail. The number of rounds fired through these guns (even by mid-day) was staggering and they were still going strong whereas plenty of guns from other manufacturers were already failing (and the Glock 44 was one of the most popular firearms there).

However, once we finally purchased one for ourselves and took it to the range, we started noticing some troubles.

The first few magazines full of Remington bulk ammo ran great! Everything we had experienced at SHOT was being reproduced at the range – this little plinker was a fun gun.

However, after that, we started having repeatable issues with feeding the first round out of the magazine. For the next 20-30 magazines we shot with various ammo, the top round nose-dived into the front of the magazine and therefore caused a failure to feed more than 50% of the time.

Oh no! The gun that we claimed was reliable was anything but. It appeared that either the magazine spring was too weak or that the angle of the follower was not correct – the top round of a fully-loaded magazine “sagged” a bit and was not firmly held against the feed lips. We could manually lift the round into position, but sometimes the force of the slide trying to feed the round would cause it to nose-dive again.

As far as the rest of the magazine went, we had very few issues (no more than I’d expect with any other 22lr semi-auto pistol). I did notice, however, that the slide of the G44 operates… softly. It does not cycle nor close with authority and I can see this being an issue.

We left the range that day bummed because we wanted the Glock 44 to be a success. Without cleaning the pistol, we returned to the range to test it some more, and, to our surprise, the Glock 44 ran great.

Sure, there are still occasional rimfire pistol issues: we had one stove pipe fail to eject and one fail to fire (which could have been the ammo) for the whole range session. That’s pretty good in my book.

Apparently, the magazines need to be “broken in?” Perhaps the plastic feed lips are causing too much drag when they’re new so that the slide pushing on the base of the round makes the bullet tip down instead of having the cartridge slide?

We’re not sure why it works better now but there was a noticeable period wherein there was a problem with magazine-induced malfunctions for a couple of hundred rounds that seem to have resolved itself.

G44 Pros and Cons

Glock 44 Ammo

Glock 44 Starter Pack

So, you’re planning on picking up a Glock 44? If so, you’re going to need more than just the gun to make it safely go bang. You’re going to need proper protections, extra mags, and something to clean it with at the end of a long day at the range. Here are our recommendations:

• Gun Cleaning Kit: Otis All Caliber Elite Range Box on Amazon or build your own personalized cleaning kit with premium components.
• Shooting Glasses: All it takes is one piece of rogue hot brass, and you’ll learn the importance of shooting glasses. But not all glasses are built the same. See our recommendations for the Best Shooting Glasses.
• Hearing Protection: Firing a gun without wearing proper ear pro can be very dangerous and detrimental to your hearing. Find out the best hearing protection for you in our full-length review.
• Storage: Check out our article on the Best Biometric Gun Safes
• Targets – If you’re wanting a great resource for shooting practice or zeroing your optics on your optics rifle or pistol, download our FREE Sighting in Targets below.

Glock 44 Upgrades and Accessories

There are many options available to accessorize the Glock 44. However, if we had to choose only a few options… Here are our picks.

Glock 44 Accessories

1. Streamlight TLR-7 Weapon Light		White LED produces 500 lumens IPX7 Waterproof Low Profile	Check Amazon
2. AmeriGlo GL-436 Hackathorn Sight Set		Ameriglo Sights Are Machined From Us-Made Bar Stock Steels Cnc-Machined Steel	Check Amazon
3. Glock 44 Magazine		Factory OEM Magazine Suits Glock G44 .22LR pistol 10-Round capacity.	Check Price
4. Glock G44 22lr Threaded Barrel Kit		M9 x .75 RH threaded barrel .500-28 Adapter included Thread Protector	Check Price
5. Pineworld Biometric Gun Safe		Reliable Biometric Scanner Sturdy and Well Built Cheaper Than Most Biometrics	Check Amazon

How to Care for Your Glock 44 22LR

Glocks are generally regarded as one of–if not, THE–most reliable handguns available on the market.

However, the Glock 44 does NOT share the same design or internal operation as other Glocks. Rimfire semi-auto firearms are notoriously finicky if not maintained well and 22 LR ammo is filthy (especially bulk ammo).

You are going to need to clean and maintain your Glock 44. This is an excellent video showing you exactly how to break down this gun, so you can clean, lubricate, and put it back together safely.

Glock 44 Important Links And Manuals

There are many Glock models out there. So, I have compiled some more info on the G44, take some time to check it out:

• Glock 44 Manual Download
• Glock 44
• Glock 44 Review