Lone Wolf made its name with its GLOCK and other pistol replacement parts. It’s one of the biggest names in GLOCK aftermarket upgrade gear, offering everything you need to customize your stock GLOCK or build yourself a non-GLOCK GLOCK to fit your needs and wants.
With the uncertainty that comes from doing business under the most anti-gun administration in American history, it’s become more important to diversify beyond just parts, though. That’s why Lone Wolf began making complete pistols about seven years ago. Their latest entry into that market is the compact-sized Dusk 19.
This is a new, ground-up design that gets just about everything right and addresses most of the issues some people have with the Austrian company’s pistols. That said, this can’t really be described as a “Gucci GLOCK.” There aren’t a lot of lightening cuts in the slide, the barrel isn’t gold, and the Dusk 19’s price doesn’t start with a one.
The Dusk 19 is a well-designed, nicely executed take on a 15+1 compact-sized pistol with a grip size and angle that will please more people and a contour that will fit more hands. Lone Wolf hasn’t gone crazy in the aesthetic department. The Dusk is just an attractive, very practical handgun that has all the features the typical pistol buyer is looking for.
That means in addition to the 15+1 capacity and (roughly) 4.5-inch barrel, there’s rail space on the front end (standard Picatinny, not GLOCK proprietary) and the Dusk is optic-ready.
This is basically a GLOCK Gen3 design on the inside. That means a single-coil flat recoil spring. If you prefer a dual recoil spring like those used in later generation GLOCKs, you’re good to go. Lone Wolf has designed a removable liner in the front of the dust cover that you can take out to give you more room for a dual coil recoil spring.
Lone Wolf has given the Dusk a RMR pattern mount so there’s no shortage of very capable red dot sights to choose from.
If you’re still a red dot skeptic, that’s okay, too. Lone Wolf gives you the option of ordering your Dusk 19 with a variety of sights from standard height white dots to lower third and suppressor-height tritium night sights. Threaded barrels are also available.
These are the lower third version with a Night Fision tritium vial in the front blade.
The Dusk 19 has a G34-style slide release lever. That little rounded triangle molded into the release lever is a big improvement over the standard Gen3 G19 slide lever. It’s a big help to those of us with smaller hands.
Lone Wolf has molded in a nice undercut for a higher grip behind the Dusk 19’s flat-faced trigger shoe. There’s plenty of room inside the trigger guard for a gloved finger.
As for feel, I also have a GLOCK 19 Gen5 and the trigger pull is very comparable. That means both are big improvements over the more sponge-y pull of the Gen3 trigger. The Dusk pull weight averaged 4 lbs., 10 oz. with a short, audible reset.
The Dusk 19’s grip is very aggressive. On the plus side, the pistol simply will not slip out of your hand in the rain or if you’re sweaty. The only down side is you’ll want a holster that gets between the Dusk and your skin. At a minimum, you’ll want to wear a t-shirt. You can, of course, always take some fine grit sandpaper to the side that rides against you to tone it down a tad.
Speaking of holsters, thanks to the Dusk 19’s GLOCK compatibility, you have thousands to choose from. The Dusk 19 fits nicely in every G19-compatible holster I own including this OWB Kydex model from BlackPoint Holsters.
I only needed to adjust the retention screw a little on a couple of them. Most of the G19 holsters I own accommodated the Dusk 19 just fine as is without messing with the retention. That includes a Safariland SafariVault duty holster I own. Suffice it to say, you’ll have a hard time finding a GLOCK 19 holster that won’t work with the Dusk 19.
I ran the Dusk at the range with a variety of 9mm ammo including 115, 124, and 147 grain brass-cased ammo (I haven’t tried steel cased). Both FMJ and JHP of a few variations. After a good lubing and an initial break-in period — 50 to 100 rounds — it’s run flawlessly.
Lone Wolf packs the Dusk 19 with a single 15-round magazine from KCI a Korean manufacturer. I wasn’t familiar with them before getting this one. I ran it along with GLOCK brand mags and Magpul clones. They all ran flawlessly.
What Lone Wolf has done with the Dusk 19 is design a very versatile, configurable, capable compact-size 9mm pistol that’s as close to an all-purpose gun as most people will ever want or need. It’s small enough to carry every day and big enough for a home defense role. It has first-rate components that many will see as a step up from stock GLOCKs and it’s eminently reliable. In short, you really can’t go wrong. Which is why this is likely to be a very popular pistol.
Specifications: Lone Wolf Dusk 19 9mm Pistol
Caliber: 9mm
Overall Length: 6.95 inches
Height (without sights): 4.61 inches
Upper Width: 1.00 inch
Lower Width: 1.14 inch
Magwell Width: 1.23 inch
Non-Threaded Barrel Length: 3.90 inches
Non-Threaded Barrel Height: 4.94 inches
Weight (without magazine): 19.8 oz.
Price: $649 as tested ($549 to $699 depending on options)