{"id":411191,"date":"2023-10-06T13:00:38","date_gmt":"2023-10-06T18:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gunmagwarehouse.com\/blog\/?p=411191"},"modified":"2025-08-22T14:57:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-22T19:57:09","slug":"can-the-glock-17-and-glock-19-share-magazines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gunmagwarehouse.com\/blog\/can-the-glock-17-and-glock-19-share-magazines\/","title":{"rendered":"Can the Glock 17 and Glock 19 Share Magazines?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Glocks are everywhere. To say they are the world’s most popular semi-automatic pistol may be putting it mildly. There are good reasons for that. Glocks are simple, rugged, and they just plain run. Maintenance is easy, especially since they all have the same basic design features. If you can run one Glock, you can run them all. And it doesn’t hurt that they are relatively inexpensive. Another plus is that magazines are easily found and often compatible with several models, depending on caliber and capacity.<\/p>\n

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The Glock 17 started it all. (us.glock.com)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The two most common Glocks are the Models 17 and 19. They are Glock’s oldest civilian models and are chambered in 9mm Luger<\/a>, the world’s most popular pistol caliber. Their popularity, price, and the 9mm chambering mean new shooters often choose them as their first handgun. This leads to questions about magazine compatibility. We’ll address that momentarily, but let’s first look at how the guns are different, which aids in determining compatibility.<\/p>\n

The Glock 17 Pistol<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The Model 17<\/a> is the original Glock. You might wonder why inventor Gaston Glock designated the first Glock pistol as the “17.” Good question, and one I asked myself at one point. I assumed it took him 17 tries to get it right, but the answer is much simpler. The Model 17 was Glock’s first firearm patent, filed in 1981, but his 17th<\/sup> patent overall. So, he called it the “Glock 17.” The gun also has a 17-round capacity. I can’t say whether that factored into the designation.<\/p>\n

On a side note, you “Die Hard 2” fans may be asking, “But what about the Glock 7?” Also a good question. Unfortunately, like many things conjured by the minds of Hollywood screenwriters, the porcelain Glock 7 isn’t real. Never was. But its description in the movie sparked a panic about supposedly “undetectable” firearms that built on gun controllers already referring to the polymer-framed Glock as a “hijacker special.” That morphed into the current hysteria surrounding so-called “Ghost Guns.” And really? A porcelain<\/em> gun?<\/p>\n

\"1981
Drawings from Gaston Glock’s original 1981 patent. No porcelain anywhere. (guns.com)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Anyway, the Austrian military adopted the Glock 17 as the Pistole 80<\/em> (P80) in 1983, and it became wildly popular among civilian shooters, who loved its simple reliability. But the 17 is a full duty-sized pistol, with a 4.49-inch barrel, an overall length of 8.03 inches, and it’s 5.47 inches tall. Those dimensions make concealment a challenge. Glock heard those concerns and went to work on a “compact” model.
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