Well I finally took the plunge so to speak.....I have  purchased a Gen 3 Glock 19 and I must admit, I absolutley love the pistol...I have been a Beretta 92FS shooter for many years and truthfully I cannot come close to the size of the  groups or the ease of shooting with the Beretta that I have shot for over 12 years comapred mynew Glock 19. I  have come to realize that the Glock 19 is  the best personal defense weapon there is IMHO...I have been doing quite a bit of research about some minor upgrades for the Glock to make it even better...

The one item that i have seen repeated several times is changing to a stainless steel guide rod. Is this a  item that would be worth adding or just marketing hype ?   Any other ideas would also be greatly appreciatged.

They make a small improvement to muzzle flip due to the added weight in the front, but if you carry the weapon its not worth in IMO.  I just use factory guide rods for defensive handguns and use aftermarket  stuff for my competition guns.

I agree with Ruger556. I don't change anything about my personal defense firearms.

I think if Glock needed it, they would put one on at the factory.

Glock expects that their users shoot tons of ammo every year.  They are made for heavy use out of the box.  The guide rod is not a weak point by any means.

The guide rod serves one purpose - keeping the recoil spring captured during disassembly.



The guide rod is not necessary for the proper functioning of the gun.  Go watch the 1,000-round video by Tactical Response.  Right around ~950 rounds, the guide rod pops out because it melted from the heat.  Gun continues to fucction to 1000 rounds without a hiccup.



It adds weight, as said before, slightly improving balance and muzzle flip.  Serves no other purpose.  Save your money.

Thanks for the info..I guess I agree if it was needed, Glock would have made it to begin with...

I would do the 15 cent trigger job and night sights. After that look at a TRL-1s.

I've fired well over 250,000 of my reloads through my Glocks.  I do use Wolff steel guide rods (they're not stainless) in some of my Glocks, but primarily because I shoot a lot of different loads and even calibers through my Glocks.  As to "if it needed to be different, Glock would have made it so," that's pretty shortsighted thinking.  Glocks' engineers don't have the same priorities in designing recoil spring systems as an informed consumer might.  Does it really make sense that a 9mm G17 has the same recoil spring as a .357 Sig or .40 Sheitz und Weazel on the same platform?  There.  Now you have enough info to figure it out.  Why do you think the Glock engineers decided to use the same recoil spring in those different calibers??  

At any rate, I typically use a factory-strength recoil spring in my 9mm Glocks.  I use 20-22# springs in my G20 and G29.  I use  19-20# spring in my G21s, unless I'm shooting .40 Super  uncompensated, then I might go to 24#.  

Wolff Springs' guidelines for determining recoil spring weight make sense to me:  If your pistol is ejecting brass farther than about 8', then you could probably use a stronger spring.