GUN TESTS GRADE: A-

$359

Our sample G44 arrived in the typical Glock hard case with two magazines, small screwdriver, cleaning rod and wire bore brush, and four modular backstraps. It incorporates Fifth Generation pistol features — Marksman Barrel, flat front grip strap, modular back straps, front slide serrations, rounded muzzle, ambidextrous slide stop, flared magazine well, and reversible magazine catch. The G44 also has an adjustable rear sight, but neither screw is marked with an indication arrow. Another gun with adjustable mystery sights. The elevation screw is farthest to the rear, and the windage screw is closer to the muzzle. Turn the windage screw clockwise to go right, counter clockwise to go left.

On one hand, we felt the G44 is well suited for inexpensive plinking and as a trail gun, but it is also sized for serious training for those who use a G19. The G44 is similar in size to the G19 Gen5, and it can use the same holster and magazine pouches as a G19. That means users do not need to change out a holster and mag pouches when moving up to a 9mm. The G44 breeds a familiarity and natural transition into a G19. There are differences between the G44 and G19. The most obvious is the G44’s weight of 14.64 ounces unloaded; an empty G19 Gen5 weighs 23.63 ounces. Width of the G44 is 1.26 inches, the G19 is 1.34 inches wide. Both pistols are 7.28 inches long and 5.04 inches high. Dry-firing a G19 and then a G44, we could not tell the difference in triggers. The G44 has a typical Glock trigger.

The G44 operates using a simple blowback mechanism like the G25 and G28 380 Auto pistols built for foreign markets. All other Glocks available in the U.S. use a short recoil-operated, locked-breech system. With such a large assortment of 22 LR ammunition available today, Glock designed the G44 with what they call a hybrid slide to reduce slide mass and increase reliability. The hybrid slide is made of both steel and polymer.

The G44 magazine is different from the typical Glock magazine. G44 magazines incorporate ridges on the back of the magazine body. These ribs give the user tactile feedback, which identifies it as a rimfire magazine, not a centerfire magazine. The back edge of typical Glock centerfire magazines in the U.S. are smooth surfaces.

We found the G44 magazine simple to load and easy on our thumbs. Holding down the follower button on the magazine did not require a lot of effort. We noted the magazine only holds 10 rounds, so the pistol can be sold in restrictive states. We hope Glock uses all the space of the double-stack magazine to create a 20-round version soon. The slide-retraction effort was similar to a centerfire Glock’s and required 12 pounds of hand effort.

We started to throw lead downrange by first using a range bag as a rest to test the accuracy of the G44 with target set at 15 yards. This is not a performance target pistol, and that’s fine because the G44 performed quite well for not being a target pistol. Our best five-shot group measured 0.44 inches with Federal AutoMatch Target. We would be pretty happy with this except we had numerous light strikes with this ammo, as mentioned earlier. The Winchester ammo had a few failures to feed, but when we got it to run, our best group measured 1 inch. With Remington Thunderbolt, our best was a 0.68-inch group and a 0.57-inch group with the Blazer. We had no issues with these two brands of ammo. All ammo showed very acceptable accuracy. Recoil was minimal, and some users thought the grip had too much girth. The G44 is based on the double-stack G19, and some thought a 22 LR based on the G48 or one of the other single-stack models would be great addition.

Because the controls are sized like a G19, it was easy to run the G44. The magazine catch is oversized and easy to manipulate, and the slide stop was easy to access and manipulate during a reload.

Our Team Said: The G44 is lightweight, accurate, and easy to operate. The trigger was typical Glock and offered consistency. The cost is high compared to the others, but if you are a Glock fan or G19 owner, this is a great, low-cost training option because the two pistols are similar and use the same holster and magazine pouches. We knocked the Glock down a half grade because did not come with a suppressor adaptor like the KelTec and Taurus. You can get a dedicated threaded barrel at the Glock store ($155; store.TeamGlock.com).

Range Data