Glock 17L Review – The Best Entry Level Competition Shooting Pistol

The Glock 17L is the first pistol that I ever shot in a competition with. I don’t shoot many competitions anymore, but when I first got started, I was borrowing a Glock 17L from a friend of mine. My experience with the pistol was great.

For people who don’t know, there is actually a wide variety of different pistol competition shooting. There’s multiple different competition formats and organizations that put them on. Some of them are limited to only Glocks. We won’t get too much into the specifics of competition shooting, other than making some basic recommendations that would allow you to be more successful in a competitive shoot with a Glock 17L.

In this article, we will have a full Glock 17L review.

In case anyone is unaware, the L in Glock 17L refers to the fact that it has a long slide. Immediately, this should clue you in to this being a competition shooting pistol.

However, it is still a firearm, so I imagine you could use it for home defense and whatnot, but the primary focus of this pistol is definitely, without doubt, competition shooting.

If you’re looking for other pistols for different uses, Glock makes pistols for just about everything. Be sure to check out some of our other reviews of some of Glocks great pistols.

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This competition gun shoots 9mm, which is extremely common for this type of shooting. It is an accurate round, and it is relatively inexpensive to shoot.

As for the measurable sizes of this pistol, it has a 6.02 inch barrel, is 9.57 inches long, 5.43 inches tall, and 1.18 inches wide. The weight is 23.63 ounces, and the magazine capacity is 17+1.

There are a few things here that play into competition shooting. For starters, the barrel length is great, and the pistol is very balanced considering how long the pistol is. For competition shooting, this is huge, because it will allow you to have continued, accurate shooting.

The height of the pistol also plays into this. The grip size is extremely comfortable, which allows for an extremely firm grip. Anyone who is into accuracy shooting will tell you how paramount this is.

However, the pistol is still a Glock. There are a few features that come along with this brand name, such as durability, reliability, and ease of use. We will talk about the reliability shortly, but let’s take a minute to talk about the ease of use.

When we talk about the ease of use, this is a lot more than just using the pistol. Sure, Glocks are extremely intuitive and easy to aim. But, they are also just as easy to take apart and maintain. This is an aspect of firearms that isn’t commonly thought about.

Many people don’t take maintenance into consideration when purchasing a firearm. I have personally sold or traded two different pistols because I didn’t like how annoying it was to take them down. You will never have this issue with a Glock, to include the Glock 17L.

As with all Glocks, the Glock 17L does not have a thumb safety. For many people, this only becomes a problem when you’re trying to draw the pistol with extreme speed. In many competition shooting scenarios, you start with the pistol already drawn, so this would not be an issue.

However, if you do have to draw the pistol for some type of competition shooting, all it takes is a little practice. As long as you understand how to safely handle the pistol, Glocks don’t present any additional concerns, in our opinion. Thumb safeties give some people too much confidence, and could actually lead to more safety concerns.

All Glocks have internal safeties to prevent against accidental discharge in the event that you drop the pistol. This is a safety measure that not all will consider, but is extremely important.

Even in a competition setting, where you’re likely to be shooting a good bit week after week, this pistol will last for years to come. The reliability of Glocks is unquestioned. As long as you treat it right, it will last for tens of thousands of rounds.

As we talked about, maintaining the pistol is extremely easy. This will add into the reliability of the pistol.

These were my two favorite aspects of the pistol. It is extremely comfortable to hold, and the grip is a great size, regardless of the size of your hand. Considering the length of the barrel, you will be surprised how balanced this pistol feels.

Shooting the pistol is a breeze. It cycles naturally and the recoil felt is next to nothing. For those long days at competitions, this is a huge plus. Sometimes, these long slide pistols can feel kind of forced to shoot. That’s not the case here.

The comfortable grip and the improved trigger of the pistol make for this exceptional shootability. These are two of the biggest pros of this pistol, especially for its designed use. The trigger pull of this pistol is only 4.5 pounds, which is way better than some of the other Glocks.

This is an exceptional entry level competition gun, with plenty of room to upgrade. We will talk about that momentarily.

All Glocks are extremely easy to upgrade. However, with this one being a competition pistol, it is even more important to upgrade it. If you would like to be a good competition shooter, we recommend the following upgrades to start.

For starters, you definitely going to need a holster. One great option is the Serpa from Blackhawk:

The Glock 17L is an excellent entry level competition shooting pistol. It is extremely enjoyable to shoot, and does so pretty accurately. Being that it is a Glock, it’s extremely easy to upgrade and is very reliable. The pistol is easy to use, and very comfortable.

While you probably won’t be the most accurate shooter in your state with this pistol, it’s certainly good enough to get your foot in the door. With a little extra money, you can easily make yourself a very competitive shooter.