New higher-capacity Glock 43X excellent for personal protection

By R.K. Campbell | Contributing Editor

Glock has recently introduced a number of new handguns. The Glock 19x and the Glock 45 9mm have been successful handguns well received by the public. The Glock 19X and Glock 45 are service pistols but also well suited to home defense and for some, concealed carry. Now Glock has introduced two concealed carry handguns. These handguns give up little in handling and accuracy to larger handguns, are fast from leather, and offer excellent protection. The new handguns are the Glock 48 and the Glock 43 X pistol. The Glock 48 has been covered previously; the handgun covered in this report is the Glock 43X.

The Glock 43X is a compact but capable package. It is basically a Glock 43 with a longer grip. The grip treatment isn’t as aggressive as most of the larger Glock pistols.

The 43X is a variant on the Glock 43. The Glock 43X features a longer grip frame. This allows increasing magazine capacity to ten rounds. The pistol fits even large hands well by virtue of the larger grip frame but smaller hands are able to maintain a good hold on the 43X as well. The result is a handgun that is easier to shoot well and holds more ammunition at little cost in concealment. The pistol isn’t a pocket gun but an excellent concealed carry handgun well suited to carry beneath light covering garments. Specifications at the end of the page outline the differences between the Glock 43 and the Glock 43X.

Ameriglo sights feature twin ampules in the rear sight and a single ampule in the front, each containing radioactive tritium. The front sight is also surrounded by a bright orange circle.

The version tested features Ameriglo night sights. These sights are an excellent addition to a defensive handgun. Two tritium dots in the rear and a bright front dot make up these sights. An additional orange luminous dot around the front sight makes for excellent all around visibility.

The pistol is fast, very fast from the holster. It handles more surely than the Glock 43 because the 43X has more gripping surface. By the same token, the pistol exhibits good control and less recoil. While the Glock 43 isn’t a hard kicker the 43X is simply more comfortable. I have practiced with the pistol extensively and found it reliable with a variety of loads. You must be certain not to let your hands bump into the controls as you fire the pistol. The smaller frame and more momentum as the lighter handgun fires makes the pistol demanding of a firm grip compared to the Glock 19 type. The pistol was fired extensively with a number of loads including the Black Hills Ammunition 115-grain FMJ job, a great all around practice load. This full power loading makes for inexpensive training and it is accurate enough for most purposes.

The Ameriglo front sight is among the brightest and easies to acquire. It uses a standard tritium-filled ampule shock mounted in the front sight, surrounded by an orange dot.

The 9mm demands attention to detail in choosing personal defense ammunition. The 9mm Luger has a well-deserved reputation for poor results with non-expanding ammunition. A bullet that expands and offers a good mushroom will cut flesh rather than push it aside. The bullet should retain its weight, however, and expand only enough to leave a shank that insures good penetration. The balance between expansion and penetration is important. I train for the worst case scenario and that means the bullet may need to reach the vitals of an attacker heavily bundled in winter clothing.

Among the best choices is the Black Hills Ammunition 115-grain TAC +P load. This load uses a solid copper bullet that is weakened at the nose to ensure expansion while insuring penetration since the bullet is of solid one piece construction. This is quite a trick and the load expands consistently. Another all brass bullet is quite different. The Black Hills Ammunition Honey Badger uses sharp flutes on the nose of the bullet to cut flesh. These flutes also produce fluid pressure that creates a kind of storm in the body. Gelatin results are promising and penetration is excellent. These loads maximize the 9mm and give the personal defense shooter a reasonable chance of stopping a deadly assault with a minimum of well placed hits.

The author has trusted Black Hills Ammunition for many years. The 9mm versions maximize 9mm wound potential.

I fired a good quantity of these loads with excellent results. The 100-grain +P Honey Badger and the Black Hills Ammunition 125-grain Honey Badger offer considerably different firing characteristics. I like the faster 100-grain load best, although the 125-grain load is pleasant to fire. Function is excellent and so is accuracy. Most of my firing has been in fast paced combat shooting. Absolute accuracy is interesting, however, and we wish to be certain the piece is properly sighted. Firing from a braced barricade firing position at 15 yards the pistol proved capable of placing five rounds into three inches or less, sometimes two inches or less when I controlled the trigger properly. The Glock 43X is clearly well suited to personal defense and will made a good carry gun.

Holsters-

Since the 1791 Gun Leather holster is used to carry the author’s backup handgun. It was ordered in a left hand version. Note excellent pebbling of quality leather and smooth comfortable back of the 1791 holster.

Holsters for the Glock 43 will fit the 43X properly. I used the Smooth Concealment Holster (SCH) from 1791gunleather.com. This holster holds the Glock pistol close to the body and the belt clip takes a good bit out of the belt, insuing the holster is secure. I like this holster and it complements the light and fast drawing Glock 43X.