Gen 3 to Gen 5 G19 jump — does the trigger worth it for carry work?

Question

Minnesota winter carrier switching from shotgun to Glock for concealed carry. Strong-side OWB setup. I've got a Gen 3 in hand at a good price, but Gen 5s are in stock locally and the price gap is closing.

I've been reading that the Gen 5 trigger is notably cleaner out of the box — less takeup, crisper break. For someone building a trigger press from scratch (no bad shotgun habits to unlearn), does that cleaner baseline actually matter, or am I paying for the ambi stop and night sights I don't need yet?

Dry fire with snap caps tells me the Gen 3 isn't gritty, just... looser. Real question: does a beginner pistol shot benefit more from a better trigger feel early on, or is it a nice-to-have that doesn't change the learning timeline?

Dale Schuster · Accepted Answer

m.delacroix nailed the reset numbers—that's solid work—but you're also buying a gun sight-unseen from whoever had it before. Gen 3 pricing advantage evaporates fast when you're at the FFL counter looking at a trigger bar with wear patterns that shouldn't exist on a carry gun.

I move these across the counter. "Good price" on a Gen 3 usually means someone traded it in because they upgraded, or it sat in a case for eight years, or—and this happens—it saw some use nobody's talking about. You don't get to see the manufacturing date code until transfer, and by then you're deciding whether to eat the transfer fee.

Gen 5 at "price gap closing" is actually the play here. It's new, traceable, and if something's wrong with the trigger you haven't built a carry habit around it yet. You're not paying extra for night sights you don't want; you're paying for the option of installed tritium later without a gunsmith visit.

The 1.2ms reset matters less than knowing your gun's history. That's not theory—that's what I see when someone brings back a "good deal" Gen 3 at six months because the trigger started grinding.

Check dates on both before you decide. If the Gen 3's from 2009 and running clean, fine. If it's from a police trade-in batch? Different conversation.

Nick Johansen · Answer

m.delacroix's measured approach here is what I needed to hear. I've been reading forum posts that make the Gen 5 sound mandatory, but also seen plenty of "just buy the Gen 3 and train hard" takes, and counter_rat's right that used gun history matters—I wasn't planning to buy blind.

The reset time data settles something for me: it's not about the trigger being "better" in some abstract way, it's about measurable dwell between shots. That's the kind of thing that compounds when you're at 500 reps, 1,000 reps. I'm coming from shotgun where follow-ups are a different animal entirely, so I don't have muscle memory that'll compensate either way.

Counter_rat's point about the Gen 3 I'm looking at sticks, though. I can inspect it before transfer—check the manufacturing date, run my snap caps through it dry, actually see the trigger bar condition. If it's clean and the date code shows it wasn't dropped into service in 2008, I'm not sure the 1.2ms vs. 1.8ms reset is worth the extra cost for carry-specific work.

But if I walk into the FFL and that Gen 3 feels like it's been through something, or the gap's actually small enough, the Gen 5's traceability wins. New gun, no surprises, ambi stop I'm not using *yet*—that's real insurance for someone building the habit from scratch.

Thanks both of you for the specifics. That reset measurement was the actual data point I needed.

Margot Delacroix · Answer

I ran trigger reset times on both platforms last month during a dedicated dry fire block — 50 reps each, snap caps, consistent grip. Gen 3 averaged 1.8ms reset; Gen 5 split to 1.2ms. That's real, and it stacks over volume.

Here's what matters for your carry build: reset feel affects shot-to-shot splits more than first-shot performance. Your draw-to-first-shot lives or dies on presentation and sight picture, not trigger quality. But strings of follow-ups? A crisper reset means faster reacquisition without fighting the gun.

For someone starting clean with no shotgun baggage, the Gen 5's baseline advantage is efficiency, not necessity. You're not unlearning bad habits; you're building clean ones. The Gen 3 will teach you everything the Gen 5 will — just with slightly longer dwell time between rounds.

If the price gap is under $75, take the Gen 5. You get the ambi stop (unused now, valuable later), better night sight options, and that measurable reset delta compounded across thousands of reps. If it's $200+, the Gen 3 covers your actual carry need. Neither will slow your learning timeline.

Caveat: this assumes both guns run clean out of box. Check for burrs on the Gen 3's trigger bar if it's been sitting. That can spoil the measurement entirely.