Glock 33 Review – The Best Subcompact .357 Pistol

The Glock 33 is one of the least common Glocks out there. However, when I heard a friend talking about a Glock that shoots .357 SIG, I had to go check it out for myself. Since then, it’s been a staple in my wife’s concealed carry lineup, and a weapon that I also carry from time to time.

Packing such great terminal performance into a small frame Glock is really unbelievable. The round performs exceptionally well in a target with the proper ammunition, and the size of the weapon makes it extremely easy to conceal.

You can expect a lot from Glock, and this weapon does not disappoint. Read on for our full Glock 33 review.

Take one look at this weapon, and you’ll immediately what it’s for. It’s very short in stature, and for this reason, it’s extremely easy to conceal. Due to the fact that the weapon shoots the excellent .357 SIG round, this weapon would also be decent for home defense.

We’ll talk a little bit more about some of its shortcomings and its pros, but this weapon is definitely aimed for self defense and concealed carry.

>> Glock 30/30sf/30s Review
>> Glock 26 Gen 4 Review
>> Glock 17L Review
>> Glock 22 Gen 4 Review

The weapon measures 6.49 inches long, 4.17 inches tall, and 1.18 inches wide. It has a 3.42 inch barrel, and it weighs 21.89 ounces. The magazine capacity is 9+1, but there are optional extended mags available.

As you may have noticed, this is the exact same size as the Glock 26. Similar to the Glock 26, the Glock 33 has some of the same issues as that one.

The weapon is obviously very small and light, so you will have no issue concealing it. The fact that it’s so short means that you don’t have much handle to conceal. There simply isn’t much that can protrude out.

Similar to what we said about the Glock 26, the short size of this weapon does make it difficult to grip though. We will talk more about that in a later section. Right off the bat, the Gen 4 version of the Glock 33 has the rough textured finish and modular back strap, so that may help the grip.

As with all Glocks, this weapon is extremely easy to clean and maintain. All that you’ll have to do is pull the slide back slightly and pull down on the slide lock of the weapon. It really couldn’t be much easier. There are extremely limited internal parts, so you don’t even have much to clean. Glocks can take a little abuse, but we recommend cleaning it after you shoot it each time.

We’ve talked about this with Glocks before, but they are some of the safest weapons on the market. Many people don’t necessarily agree about this, because the weapon doesn’t have a manual thumb safety. The only manual safety Glocks have is a trigger safety.

However, many people don’t know about the internal safeties in Glocks. They have two separate internal safeties, and are essentially drop proof. The weapons will not go off if you were to drop them.

Safeties on Glocks is a point of contention. Some people like a thumb safety, but our opinion is that the weapon is as safe as you can handle it. Thumb safeties aren’t necessary for a safe weapon. As long as you handle the weapon safely, there is nothing to worry about.

Reliability is another story. There’s nothing to argue about the reliability of Glocks. It is accepted throughout the firearms market that Glocks are some of the most reliable weapons available.

Like we said before, Glocks can take a little abuse. They really don’t have to be cleaned as often as some other weapons. We still recommend doing it, but your Glock will always fire, no matter what.

A quick Google search of “Glock torture test” will give you an idea of what a Glock can take. Long story short, it’ll work, for years and years to come.

We talked briefly about this before. The handle of this weapon is very short. Due to this fact, it is a little bit more difficult to hold and grip.

The weapon has a decent amount of recoil, largely due to the fact that it is shooting .357 SIG out of a subcompact weapon. That’s a good bit of power in a light frame.

The small grip makes it somewhat difficult to control this recoil. We found that we had to reset our grip after many shots. As a result, our shooting wasn’t extremely accurate, and we weren’t able to accurately shoot as fast as we would like.

However, this isn’t related to the reliability of the weapon. As we already mentioned, this is a very reliable weapon. Our shooting issues were only due to the small grip, and could easily be overcome with some practice.

Glocks have tons of upgrades out there, which is one fact that many people love about the weapons. They are some of the most commonly upgraded weapons, because there are so few internal parts. It’s really easy to replace almost everything in the weapon.

This list is just a start of some of the common accessories and upgrades. It is not all inclusive by any means, but it is a start at some of the first things we would consider for a new Glock 33.

One extremely easy upgrade is a grip extension. This will fix some of the issues with the shootability due to the grip size that we talked about. It’s a very inexpensive upgrade, and could pay huge dividends. You can check out this grip extension from Pearce Grip:

We would also recommend a new set of sights, specifically some night sights. This will help with target acquisition, especially in a low light situation. In terms of night sights, you really can’t beat these Trijicon Glock night sights:

If you want to make the weapon more enjoyable to shoot, you should upgrade the trigger. Glock triggers are acceptable, but you can vastly improve it for not that much money. We recommend this trigger group from Apex:

If you want to make the weapon much more customized, you could replace the frame or the barrel. These upgrades will cut down on weight, while the improved barrel will make the weapon shoot more accurately. We like this Polymer80 frame and this Lone Wolf barrel:

This is a quality weapon that is suitable for concealed carry. It shoots the excellent .357 SIG round out of a subcompact frame weapon that is extremely easy to conceal. Hopefully this Glock 33 review has been helpful to you, and you’ve learned a little bit about the weapon system.