In 2014, when Glock announced the .380 ACP G42, a wave of disappointment swept over the country as– except for nerds who really wanted a banned-from import/LE-only G25– it seemed everyone wanted a micro-compact 9mm pistol instead.
Glock 42 with Streamlight TLR6 combination light. The total weight package with the gun, light, batteries and 7 rounds of 380 is 24 ounces. Pretty heady stuff for 2014.
The next year at the NRA Annual Meetings in Nashville, Glock made good and delivered the G43. I was there at the launch event and can vouch that the excitement was electric.
Having jumped on the G42 train early (don’t look at me that way), by the time the G43 came out I was already gun shy, no pun intended, and soon after Glock delivered the 10+1 capacity G43X (followed by the optics ready G43X MOS) to the market. This led to deals on lots of traded-in single stack G43s as folks went with the gently larger G43X and soon started buying extendo magazines/base pads to up the capacity even further.
Well, back in 2019, I finally took the G43 jump (not the G43X as I was intrigued by the short size of the original model) and picked up a Vickers Tactical edition which was a limited run that came complete with a Wilson Combat rear sight and AmeriGlo ProGlo tritium front, a Tango Down slide lock, enhanced magazine release, and Vickers +2 magazine extension.
Since then, I’ve found it has a lot of good things to recommend it, and few bad.
When coupled with a premium personal defense load such as Speer’s 124-grain 9mm Gold Dot Short Barrel JHP– which is designed to work in barrels as short as 1.9 inches while producing less felt recoil and achieving reliable expansion and penetration– you have a nice little carry set up. For reference, my G43, with 10 rounds of Speer loaded and the +3 Taran baseplate installed, weighs just 24 ounces and fits in the same places as my J-frame S&W while having twice the capacity. Don’t forget, you can always carry a flush-fit standard or +1 base pad in the pistol and a +3 as a backup.
More of what I have learned in carrying the G43 over the past few years in my column at Guns.com.
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