By Joe Berk
I visited with good buddy TJ of TJ’s Custom Gunworks a few days ago. I’m having TJ work on my Smith and Wesson Shield (we’ll post that story in a future blog). While I was there we talked about the poor trigger pull inherent to striker-fired pistols, and TJ mentioned his custom Glock. He showed it to me and I was blown away. It is beautiful. I’ve seen custom Glocks before, but nothing like the pistol you see here. This one is in a class all by itself.
TJ calls this pistol the Rock Glock for good reason: Check out the granite-speckled, multi-color Dura-Coat finish. The pictures are good, but they don’t do the gun justice. In person, it is visually arresting. Stunning. Beautiful. There are probably more adjectives I could use, but you get the idea.
TJ’s Glock started life as a Glock 22. Here’s a partial list of the custom features TJ incorporated:
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- Custom Glock 34 9mm slide
- Match barrel with MWG compensator
- Double-textured grip stippling on the front strap and trigger guard
- Custom contoured slide release (it provides a much easier lock and release)
- Extended magazine release
- Doctor red dot optical sight-scope
- Custom Overwatch aluminum trigger
- Match connector
- Full action and reliability work
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Like all of TJ’s custom handguns, this one is not simply a collection of drop in off the shelf custom parts. TJ does a full customize, fit, and polish on everything (the custom parts and the mating Glock components). The Rock Glock is old world craftsmanship applied to modern weaponry. The man is a perfectionist and it shows in everything he does. It’s what keeps me coming back to TJ when I need (or want) custom work done on my handguns.
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Interestingly, TJ kept the factory Glock striker (the firing pin) in the Rock Glock. He finds them to be much better made than aftermarket strikers. Kudos to Glock on that.
Check out the grip area (both front and back) and the trigger guard. They are deeply stippled to assure a rock-solid, zero slip grip.
One of TJ’s purposes on any project is to assure absolute reliability. That’s not hype. I’ve experienced it with all the guns TJ’s modified for me. Part of that includes recontouring and polishing the feed ramp on semi-auto handguns. Check out TJ’s touches on the Rock Glock’s feed ramp.
TJ let me dry fire the Rock Glock and I was impressed. He told me that the stock gun had a 6.5-pound trigger pull and it was rough. The Rock Glock now has a 3-pound trigger pull and it is buttery smooth.
It was a good visit and I’m eager to get my Shield after TJ works his magic on it. You’ll get the full report here on ExNotes when I do.
More on TJ’s artistry is here.
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That feed ramp is beautiful. At the target range I can’t hit anything with a square body gun. I need to see the barrel, then I’m okay.
The only thing I see is the front sight.
Well, you know how to shoot 🙂
I’m good at faking it.
WOW!
Joe, I must say, I expected one of your stories about a personal experience with a President on Presidents Day.
It’s not too late.
We don’t do politics, Tom.
When it comes to handguns TJ IS the best. After finding out about him in via several of your articles in EN I looked into it and it turns out he was right around the corner from where I was then working. He has done several for me and I enjoy and cherish everyone. He really went to town on one of my Beretta Brigadier’s and I call it “the masterpiece” because that is what it is. And I have said this once and will again – the problem with guns that TJ has done is that you tend to lose interest in the rest of your non- TJ’ed guns. But, you likely won’t mind because everytime you go to the range you will be loving life. They literally make you a much better shooter.
^ What he said…
Thanks for commenting, Bob. Eager to get my Shield back for just the reasons you mention.