Guns Palmetto State Armory Dagger Full Size: Glock 17 Clone Better Than A Glock 17? David Lane April 4, 2024 Join the Conversation The Palmetto State Armory Dagger Full-Size is another example of a quality firearm at an affordable price. But how does it stand up to real use and abuse? PSA sent us one to play with and after a couple of months and a lot of rounds, it’s impressive. In a world filled with Glocks, Glock-clones, and Glock-killers, the PSA Dagger might be the best of the bunch. SPECS There are a lot of models of the Dagger so exact specs might be slightly different depending on the threaded barrel or not, sight placement, sight type, optic cut, etc. But generally: Caliber: 9mm Action: Striker Fired Weight: 22.5oz (unloaded) Overall Length: 7.65″ Overall Width: 1.28″ Overall Height: 5.38″ (Without Mag) Barrel Length: 4.5″ Barrel Thread: 1/2×28 TPI Barrel Material: Stainless Steel Barrel Finish: Black DLC Twist Rate: SAAMI Spec 1:10 Slide Material: Stainless Steel Slide Finish: Black DLC Frame: Polymer, Black Safety: Striker Block Safety & Trigger Safety Magazine: Comes with One (1) 17rd Magazine DAGGER FULL SIZE VS. COMPACT While the PSA Dagger might be based on Gen 3 Glocks, they are not clones. The difference is kind of minor, but it’s there. Glock 19 barrel is 4.02 inches and 7.36 inches tip to butt. Glock 17, the full-size version, is 4.49-inch barrel and 7.95 inches tip to butt. While Glock 19 and Glock 17 share the same trigger components, the barrel geometry differs and is not interchangeable. You can get around this kind of with aftermarket parts or by upgrading to Gen 5 Glocks. The PSA Dagger is a little different. The Compact (comparable to the G19) has a 4.5-inch barrel and is 7.65 inches overall. Full-Size Dagger (bottom) and Compact Dagger (top) The Full-Size (comparable to the G17) also has a 4.5-inch barrel and is 7.65 inches overall. Unlike Glock, the Dagger FS and Compact are almost entirely interchangeable, the major exception being that the Full-Size requires longer magazines than the Compact. Compact slides and Full-Size slides are the same, it’s really only the grip that is different. End of the day, the Dagger delivers a barrel on par with the Glock 17, but a slightly smaller overall size. Going from a Glock 19 to a Glock 17 adds less than half an inch to the grip (0.4 inches), going from the Compact Dagger to the Full-Size adds 0.6 inches Overall heights are basically the same. ON THE RANGE I have nothing interesting to say about the Full-Size Dagger. It just worked. About 400 rounds of mixed 9mm ammo through the factory barrel and nothing interesting happened. Magpul magazines, Glock magazines, and TorkMags all worked perfectly with zero malfs, zero stoppages, and nothing interesting to talk about. Ammo was a mix of 115gr Magtech Steel Case and S&B 124gr FMJ, both provided by AmmunitionToGo.com — big thanks to them for the supply. If you’ve shot a Compact Dagger before, this is basically the exact same thing except with a slightly longer grip. For my hands, the longer grip is a little easier to get a good hold of, but it doesn’t make a huge difference either way. The texturing on the grip is skateboard-ish, though not as rough as a normal skateboard texture. It is extremely grippy once you clamp down on it, but it doesn’t feel rough when you just rub it against your skin. Overall, I really like it. It also has the same texture as the compact Dagger. Just like with the Compact, I don’t love the two-piece hinged trigger on the Dagger but that’s a minor issue. The trigger feels okay and has a good break and reset. It isn’t a competition trigger by any means, but I would call it better than the stock trigger in my Gen 3 Glock. FLAVORS Both sizes of Dagger come in basically any configuration you can think of. For this round of review, I went with a threaded barrel and an irons forward slide. Optic was from Swampfox and worked great. Irons forward of the optic cut isn’t super common, but it is the setup that works best for me. Giving up an inch of sight radius doesn’t make a lot of difference, especially for back-up sights, but getting the majority of the irons out of my way when looking through the optic is just more appealing to my eyes. The threaded barrel isn’t of much use to me at the moment, but as soon as some form 4s come through… LOOSE ROUNDS This is my 3rd Dagger pistol and combined I have almost 2,000 rounds down range. The good news is that they are boringly reliable. No matter what ammo, what mags, what drill, what competition, or what optic, the Daggers just work. 100 percent. The bad news is that they are boringly reliable and it’s hard to find anything exciting to talk about. The price point of the Daggers is extremely appealing and if you want a budget gun, these are a great option. But frankly, I think the price hides just how good these pistols are. Even if they were double the price, they would still be completely worth it because they are fundamentally great pistols. They aren’t fancy, they aren’t flashy, but they work hard. 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