Lone Wolf Arms DUSK 19 [Hands-On Review]

A Wolf in Wolf's Clothing

The Gen 3 Glock has essentially become the ultimate open-source pistol, with every component from frame to slide available in countless OEM and non-OEM configurations from many manufacturers. No longer must your pistol conform to Austria’s definition of perfection. Now you can have it your way, and many companies have released their own versions of a Glock-pattern pistol.

Lone Wolf Arms has been in the Glock game for decades, founded in 1998 as one of the OG aftermarket Glock parts providers. Over the years, you could always count on Lone Wolf for everything to build or modify your Glock, from barrels to connectors to parts and slides. They were also very early in developing their own alternative frame, the Timberwolf, with a grip angle that was more JMB than Gaston.

However, their bread and butter has always been parts and components, and with the bottom dropping out of 80-percent builds, Lone Wolf is expanding its business in complete guns.

DUSK 19

Lone Wolf incorporated everything they’ve learned and developed over the years into their vision of the perfect not-a-Glock pistol, starting with a 19-sized variant. They know the market’s crowded, so their objective is to deliver a premium gun with all the features you’d want at a reasonable price.

Let’s start with the frame. The new DUSK frame has all of the popular frame mods, plus more tricks up its sleeve. Lone Wolf’s original Timberwolf design brought a 1911-style grip angle to the Glock platform. The DUSK 19 comes with interchangeable backstraps for you to pick your poison — a flat one replicates the 1911’s 19-degree angle, while a rounded one splits the difference with Glock’s normal grip angle.

The rounded swells on the integral side grip panels help to fill your hand and mitigate the “like a brick” feeling that so many complain about with Glocks.

Other enhancements that provide a better grip on the gun include aggressive texturing on the front and back straps and side panels, a very significant trigger guard undercut, a small extended beavertail, a subtle toe kick at the end of the grip, and integrated thumb rests/index points on either side of the frame, just above and forward of the trigger guard.

For smoother reloads, the magwell is flared, and the magazine release button is enlarged like a Gen 4 Glock. Additionally, the dust cover has two Picatinny slots. Interestingly, you can swap out an adapter in the dust cover to accommodate Gen 4 uppers.

Moving on to the upper, the 17-4 stainless steel slide is nicely machined and contoured, with front and rear cocking serrations. It’s cut for an RMR optic footprint; you could argue that this is less versatile than Glock’s MOS system, but it’s lower profile and more robust with fewer screws to fail if you simply select an optic footprint and stick with it. The RMR footprint is a solid choice; there are so many compatible optics that you can surely find one that fits your needs. Nobody likes to read owner’s manuals, but note Lone Wolf’s warning about the length of optic mounting screws — make sure they don’t protrude into the extractor depressor plunger channel.

The slide ships with an aluminum cover plate installed, along with your choice of lower-third co-witness or suppressor-height Night Fision Stealth series iron sights. These come with a Tritium insert in the front sight and a plain black rear sight, just the way we like ’em. The corners of the rear sight are also bobbed, which many shooters appreciate. As you’d expect from Lone Wolf, you have several options for the slide finish — black nitride or PVD in colors such as flat dark earth, oil rubbed bronze, or graphite gray.

The barrel is 416 stainless steel and button rifled with a PVD coating; you can opt for a threaded barrel if you like. The trigger is Lone Wolf’s own design, with a flat metal trigger shoe and geometry tweaked in order to break when it’s at 90 degrees. Other enhancements include an extended take down lever, extended slide stop release, and a captured recoil spring assembly with a nitrided, stainless steel guide rod.

To maintain control over quality and tolerances, Lone Wolf’s making essentially everything themselves, except for the sights.

Fieldstripping the DUSK 19 follows the classic Glock procedure. First, remove the magazine and ensure the gun is unloaded. Pointing it in a safe direction, press the trigger to drop the striker. Retract the slide a tiny bit, then push down on the takedown lever. Release the slide forward, and it’ll come off the frame. Remove the recoil spring assembly and barrel, and you’re done.

KITTING UP

Packed with features, the DUSK 19 doesn’t need any modifications to the pistol itself, unless you want to opt for a higher performance trigger. We didn’t think that was necessary for a carry gun.

However, items that definitely are necessary include an optic, light, and holster.

For an optic, we fitted Swampfox Optic’s Liberty with a green dot. It sits comfortably in the RMR footprint, and the Night Fision sights co-witness in the lower part of the window.

SureFire’s compact XC1 weaponlight fits nicely on the DUSK 19, tucked in under the dust cover with minimal bulk. Its switches are convenient and intuitive, and it puts out 300 lumens from a single AAA battery.

Lone Wolf designed the DUSK 19 to match the key dimensions of Glock frames to maximize compatibility with holsters. Digging around in our holster drawer, many but not all Glock 19 and 17 holsters accommodated the pistol. We settled on a BlackPoint Tactical DualPoint designed for a Glock 19 with the XC1; it worked perfectly to carry all day.

The texturing on the DUSK’s side grip panels was a bit aggressive on our soft underbelly; if you find it bothersome, you could sand them down.

AT THE RANGE

We tested the DUSK 19 with a grab bag of various ammunition, from CCI, Federal, Winchester, and Global Ordnance’s Igman range ammo to defensive loads from Federal and Norma. The only malfunction we encountered was a failure to extract out of a 50-round box of CCI Blazer aluminum-cased ammo. The case stuck in the chamber, and we had to forcefully rack it out. All of the other ammo ran great.

Our favorite thing about the DUSK 19 is the frame. The rounded side panels are great; everyone should offer this. Combined with the rounded back strap, it made for a very comfortable grip. All the frame modifications contribute to a gun that feels great in hand, provides a secure grip, and is easy to run hard.

For those accustomed to Gen 3 Glocks with too-small stock mag releases or too-large extended buttons, the DUSK 19’s Gen 4-style, reversible mag release is a big improvement.

The trigger on our sample broke at just over 4 pounds, nice to see in a factory gun. Of course, it still feels like a factory Glock trigger, but cleaner and lighter with improved take-up and minimal overtravel. The flat metal trigger shoe is a nice touch.

While our DUSK wasn’t the most accurate Glock we’ve ever had, we had no issues drilling A zones with it. And the frame design contributed to good recoil management on multi-shot strings in our testing, like bill drills.

All of our testers liked the DUSK 19’s frame, though one who predominantly runs Glocks would’ve preferred an OEM grip angle. We’d love for Lone Wolf to offer a third, larger backstrap that mimics factory Glocks; they could easily do this and have their bases covered for all shooters. Our plump-handed tester was happy about the integrated beavertail; he adds beavertails to all his Glocks to avoid inevitable slide bite.

LOOSE ROUNDS

Lone Wolf has done an excellent job incorporating pretty much everything that one might want in a factory not-a-Glock 19, right out of the box. In particular, we really appreciate what they did with the frame. If you’re looking for an enhanced Glock-pattern pistol that you don’t need to upgrade, take a close look at the DUSK 19.

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