The maker of one of the most popular handgun models in America announced today it is set to release a new pistol sure to meet the demand of concealed carriers who want a solid punch in a reliable, smaller frame.
The new Glock 43 is a single-stack 9mm that sports a 3.39-inch barrel in a one-pound package and delivers all the craftsmanship and reliability that the company has become known for.
Grand View Outdoors was at Glock for the media release of the G43 in early March and had an opportunity hammer over 150 rounds down the little 9mm. It is the single stack 9mm we have all been waiting for from Glock.
Not too small, not too big but just right.
It’s as if the .380 G42 and the Glock 26 had a love child with a slim profile closer to the G42 but with the height and length roughly the same as the G26. From my perspective it is a fantastic compromise which delivers a great shooting defensive pistol while remaining slim without the bulk.
The smaller G42, G43, and G26 pistols are only about .25 inches different in size. The new G43 is only .25 inches longer than the G42. There is a .125 inch width difference between the G42 to the G43 and another .125 inch width increase from the G43 to the double stack G29. As a guy who carries the G26 a lot, I was surprised how much fatter in the waist and in the hand the G26 felt after shooting the G43.
If I were asked to describe the G43 in one quick sentence, I would say "the G43 is basically a single stack G26." The G26 is technically about .125 inches longer, but otherwise they appear dimensionally identical when you stack them on each other.
Glock’s G42 was not the smallest .380 on the market by a long shot. Like the G42, the G43 is still not the smallest micro 9mm out there, but its a manageable size. In talking with Glock, the design focus was similar to the G42 in that they were not striving to make the smallest gun possible, but more specifically the smallest gun people could still shoot well.
Like every micro 9mm I have ever fired, I did find that my hand moved around from shot to shot to find a better grip. It became a “fat stumpy hand around small thing” gripping exercise, which inevitably leads to swapping between thumbs forward, Israeli tucked thumbs and support hand finger guard grip to find the best hold.
By contrast, female shooters locked in on the G43 and were hammering out rounds. The guys with bigger and fatter hands seemed to all do the unconscious grip shuffle we all do with tiny little guns.
As much as Glock has done to mitigate recoil and improve control, the G43 still is shooting a hot 9mm round out of a small pistol, so Newtonian physics still apply. After approximately 150 rounds I was done with shooting the G43. It was quite a bit of shooting for a small pistol and I felt it.
Yes, we can all breath a sigh of relief that Glock does have ears and can listen to what the streets are demanding —the single stack 9mm from Glock has arrived. My initial experience with the new Glock single stack 9mm validated that it is everything we all were are hoping for in a Glock produced package. Glock has noted that G43 accessories coming will include a pinky extension magazine base and an extended capacity magazine at some point.
Specs:
- Length: 6.26 inches
- Width: 1.02 inches
- Height: 4.25 inches
- Weight: 16.19 ounces
