REVIEW: GLOCK 30 Gen5
The full-size GLOCK 21 above is significantly larger than
the G30 below, though each fires the .45 ACP.
Both of these guns are Gen5.
Product reviewers should give total disclosure on their biases and prejudices before the evaluation. Very well — the GLOCK 30 .45 Auto has been my favorite GLOCK since its introduction a quarter century or so ago. It fired 11 rounds of my favorite defensive pistol caliber; it fit my hand a little better than other GLOCKs at the time of its introduction; and it was utterly reliable and preternaturally accurate for its size and barrel length.
I waited more eagerly than most for its introduction in Gen5 format. It has what I think is the best trigger system GLOCK has ever put in a “street carry” pistol and I was primed to love it when it finally came out. So, my impressions should come as no surprise …
Mas’ G30s collection (from top) — first year production with
Tarnhelm grip trim; same butt stock, G30SF, Robar
Custom G30S and the 30.5.
First Glance
In “GLOCKspeak,” a fifth-generation GLOCK 30 is a G30.5. The Gen5 does away with the finger grooves I tolerated more than liked (I resent a pistol telling me how to hold it). The Gen5 has the shorter trigger reach of the SF and Gen4 pistols that preceded it, which is a good thing, and the adjustable backstrap panels of the Gen4. It also has a reversible mag release like the Gen4, making it easier for not only southpaws but us right-handers with arthritis who can simply dump the mag quicker with the trigger finger. The Gen5 treatment includes what the manufacturer calls the Marksman barrel, with conventional rifling supplanting GLOCK’s traditional octagonal format with .45s and hexagonal bores with other calibers. All the 30.5 lacks in “newness” is an MOS treatment for an optical sight — and doubtless it’s coming soon.
My test sample weighs 26.35 oz. with empty mag in place on my scale. Trigger pull weighed 6.36 lbs. average at the toe, 6.85 lbs. at center, less difference between the finger placements than with earlier generations of GLOCK triggers. You feel firm resistance at the beginning of the pull, flowing into a slightly greater resistance and then a very clean break. The large GLOCK trigger guard is particularly amenable to a gloved hand, one reason the G30 is a favorite carry in cold weather in magazine-limit jurisdictions.
Cold weather means heavy clothing. Even the best hollow points can plug and turn into ball with enough inert matter packed in their cavity. If my hollow points are going to turn into ball, I want them to turn into a big ball, ergo my preference for .45s in low temperatures.
Winchester Ranger-T 230-grain JHP, 25 yards, G30.5.
On The Range
I tested accuracy from 25 yards with a Caldwell Matrix rest on a concrete bench, measuring both the whole 5-shot group and the best three hits therein. The first measurement shows what it can do for experienced human hands under ideal conditions and the second approximates what it would do for all five from a machine rest. The late Charles Petty and I validated this twenty-some years ago for American Handgunner magazine and it’s a whole lot easier for our readers to shoot on their own and compare their results with ours.
My first GLOCK 30 twice gave me 5-shot groups of 7/8″. I can’t do this on demand but with the best ammo I suspect the guns can. The first five shots from the 30.5 out of the box were with Remington 185-grain JHP. They punched four holes in 1.45″ when I honked the fifth shot and spread the group to 2.65″ but the best three were in 1″ even. “Best threes” were 0.85″ (2.20″ for all five) with my preferred carry load for a lightweight .45, Winchester 230-grain Ranger-T and another 1″ even for best three with Wilson Combat 200-grain JHP. Winchester flat point 230-grain ball also gave exactly an inch for best three — I don’t remember this ever happening three times in a row before! — and 3.39″ total. Suffice it to say the 30.5 lived up to my accuracy expectations.
Recoil was soft for a .45 ACP, which has been true of the G30 series since its introduction, although the light-slide 30S can get a little snappy. Only one of our testers felt a finger pinch between the 10-round mag and the butt during firing. Our test team had an unusual composition this time around: Master Instructor Herman Gunter III brought three of his grandchildren to the range for one day of the test. Brooke is 14, Benjamin is 12, and Daniel but 10 years old. Young kids with full power .45s worry you? Not if their dad and their grandpa have trained them right.
The only problem they had was depressing the slide release lever (it was unusually stiff on our test gun) so they simply completed their reloads with a slide tug. None of them had a problem with the recoil and Brooke noted that it kicked less in her hand than an expensive lightweight Commander format .45 she shot the same day.
To show how controllable a G30 can be with full power hardball, Benjamin was also recovering from a limb injury on his support hand side. At four yards aiming at a ¾” black paster, he grouped his shots so tightly the paster was shot away. “What do I shoot now?” he asked, finger safely off the trigger. “Shoot the hole,” answered his grandpa — so the boy did.
Shooting Under Time
I ran the 30.5 out of a Ted Blocker #5 holster through a 60-shot timed qualification encompassing both dominant and non-dominant hands, several speed reloads, cover positions and distances from four to 15 yards. For years, the G30 tended to come sighted for a six o’clock hold with a post-in-notch sight picture. Test sample serial number CCRV549 broke the previous pattern, hitting low with a PIN (post in notch) sight picture but was “on” with a “drive the dot” sight picture.
The round white ball on the front sight being lower than the sight’s top edge, such a sight picture will always hit higher. I brain-farted and at 15 yards reflexively went back to PIN, lowering the shot placement and extending the group size to about 7″. Worse, I honked one shot outside the A-Zone by about a tenth of an inch, costing me a point. My own GLOCK 30s had always given me 100% qual scores in the past. The 99.7% this time was entirely my fault — I hadn’t shot a G30 for a year, the last time being a GSSF match in Tallahassee in 2023 where a 30SF had earned me a prize gun in the Major Sub event.
Let me tell you something. When a wheezy old geezer only drops one point with a type of .45 he hasn’t shot for a year, it tells you you’re talking about a very forgiving pistol. I shot it some on the Bianchi Plate Rack, which constitutes one-third of every GSSF match. Out of the box it gave me about the same scores that have won GSSF’s Major Sub division for me more than once in the past.
Bottom line? I paid the ultimate gun-writer compliment and gave GLOCK some money instead of sending the gun back. This one is staying in the stable. The G30.5 is a keeper. If you shoot one, I strongly suspect you’ll say the same thing.
