There has been a recent glut of Glock Gen 3 clones hitting the market at a variety of price points. PSA and Anderson covering the budget market, Polymer 80 is hitting the mid-market, and now Adams Arms is swinging in to provide the high-end option with the AA-19. Adams Arms is well-known for producing piston-driven AR-15 rifles, so handguns were a bit of a new stretch. The Adams Arms AA-19 is Glock 19-sized and does come complete with all the fancy features you expect from a Gucci Glock.
The Adams Arms AA-19 – In Living Color
What are those fancy features? Well, you get the fancy slide with all the work done up on it to make it look quite nice. Up front, they trimmed some slides away to lighten things up. At the rear, it’s optics ready, but you have to purchase the Adams Arms optic plates to match your particular optic.
The sights are the Ameriglo Defoor sights that keep things simple and blacked out. The barrel is threaded and suppressor or muzzle device ready. The frame looks like a Polymer 80 design with some Adams Arms touches. The frame features an excellent trigger guard undercut for a nice high grip as well as a slide bit defeating an overhang at the rear of the grip.
The grip is just a hair longer than a Glock 19 variant. I like this because, on a Glock 19, my pinky hangs off of half the grip, making it easy to pin the magazine in when I attempt a reload accidentally. The magazine release is also slightly extended compared to most gen three options. We also get a proper Picatinny rail for accessories.
The trigger comes from Tango Down and provides a flat-faced option with a rather nice trigger shoe and a great reset. It’s the Vicker’s trigger, and Vickers is, of course, Larry Vickers, famed Delta Force commando and firearms expert.
At the Range
The AA-19 ships with a single Magpul 15-round GL9 magazine. Simple but effective. I have a pile of G17 and various capacity 33-round magazines, so that wasn’t an issue. I loaded them up and let them fly. I like the all-blacked-out sights. I’ve become fond of the idea, and they won’t damn well. The only time I had an issue was with B8 targets. Lining black with black on a black target was tricky, but I guess if it was all black, then I was lining it up right.
The trigger pull was nice and crisp. It’s predictable. We aren’t getting a lightweight competition-type trigger. It’s a duty design that seems to remove some of that plastic-on-plastic feeling of a Glock trigger. Decent sights and a good trigger made accuracy a non-issue. It’s easy to pass the basics and score high on 10-10-10 drills, and even when fired from the draw, I was doing fairly well landing all in the black.
I backed off to 25 yards and locked into the chest of a silhouette target, and let it go. If the cardboard target had had lungs, he wouldn’t anymore. (9mm knocks lungs out, right?) The AA-19 lands shots where you want them as long as you can do your part.
Controlling the AA-19
The ole AA-19 was plenty easy to keep on target and fire rapidly. Like any Glock-style firearm in 9mm, you won’t be worrying much about recoil or muzzle rise. It’s pleasant and easy to shoot, kind of like driving a Honda Civic. You know what to expect. Keeping the gun low and on target while shooting won’t challenge you.
Even newer shooters won’t be intimidated by the recoil or muzzle rise. More experienced shooters will be easy to snap back down and on target in a flash. Blasting away with the AA-19 is never tiring, and it’s pain-free, thanks to that overhang. Outside of the Gen 5 Glocks, every other generation eats my hand up with slide bite.
With ammo prices being what they are, I may have purchased some cheap remanufactured ammo. I know it’s a risk, but sometimes the price is too good to pass up. With that in mind, the AA-19 didn’t seem to mind the remanufactured ammo or craptastic steel-cased stuff. It shot it all. It also had no problems with various mags from Magpul, Glock, ETS, KCI, and more.
Worth the Squeeze
The MSRP of the AA-19 is 999, but when you break down the various components, it doesn’t seem out of line. Of course, you are not picking your own gadgets, gizmos, and parts. If you prefer to have professionals deck out your Gucci Glock this is the way to go. I would include one of the plates to attach an optic, but that’s just me. With the AA-19, you are only an optic, light, and compensator away from being as decked out as it gets.
