Glock 43X and 48 Improvements

When Glock launched the Glock 17 in the early eighties, they brought a revolutionary pistol to market which featuring several unique innovations. From humble beginnings, Glock has grown into a handgun giant with a global turnover of $500 million in 2017 while commanding a 65% share of the US handgun market. Glock’s pistols have by and large remained unchanged over the past 4 decades, so they are instantly recognisable despite being into their fifth generation. To say that Glock has a lot of skin in the handgun market would be an understatement. Glocks have an enviable reputation for producing ultra-reliable and durable pistols. What Glock cannot afford is to bring a lemon to the market. An unreliable pistol would be catastrophic for the reputation of the brand.

As such Glock tends to be somewhat conservative in their design, sticking to what has worked for them. Consequently, Glock pistols tend to be rather utilitarian, favouring function over form, with these new pistols being no exception.

It is not all sunshine and roses though, and Glock could certainly improve their pistols in certain respects. While some of the recommendations can be seen as nit-picking - such as the trigger undercut - others are essential upgrades. This is especially relevant as these pistols are Glock’s entry into the hotly contested high-capacity compact carry pistol sector.

Sights

The sights have been a long-standing complaint about Glock’s pistols. If you plan on installing a red dot sight, skip ahead to the next paragraph. The factory sights on the G43X and G48 are the standard polymer sights that Glock have doggedly stuck to for decades. The rear sight has the squared white U outline, combined with the standard white dot front sight. While these sights are adequate, they certainly are not optimal, nor are they as durable as steel sights. Glock sights are nowhere near in the same league as the sights found on other contenders in the concealed carry gun sector, such as the Sig P365 or Springfield Hellcat which both offer excellent sights straight from the factory. As these are self-defensive pistols, I believe it is mandatory that these pistols should be equipped with a set of high-quality tritium night sights, such as the Mepro Hyper-Bright or Trijicon HD night sights which are quick and easy to acquire in any lighting conditions thanks to the brightly colour ring around the tritium vial on the front sight.

Grip

The grip texture on the Glock 43X and Glock 48 has been muted to ensure carry comfort should it be being carried against bare flesh for extended periods. In my opinion, though, this is an aspect that lets these new pistols down.

The new rough texture frame introduced on the Gen4 Glocks was a significant improvement over the grip texture found on the Gen3 Glocks. I wish Glock had stuck with this for the Glock 43X and Glock 48’s, rather than the dulled-down grip texture they decided on. This muted grip texture allows these pistols to squirm in your hands especially if your hands are sweaty or while ripping through a magazine as fast as you can pull the trigger.

Glock could also have gone with more of a wrap-around type of texturing rather than their standard side panels, front and back strap texturing. There are arid areas between the side panels and the front and back straps that could have benefitted from extra texturing. Additionally, the texturing could up come higher on the side panels to just below the slide stop lever - as the Talon stick-on grips do.

This is however easy and relatively cheap to fix with the addition of a Talon or Ultigrip stick-on grip in rubber or granular texture. The rubber grip texture is generally favoured over the granular texture which is too aggressive against the skin for most people.  

Undercut

While we are on the subject of ergonomic improvements Glock could have undercut the trigger guards of these new pistols allowing for a slightly higher grip on the front straps of these pistols. This undercut would also solve what has become commonly referred to as “Glock knuckle” – a callous which forms on the first joint of the middle finger of the dominant hand for Glock owners who shoot their pistols a lot. This callous is formed by the curve of the trigger guard rubbing against this part on the finger. While by no means a deal-breaker, it would have been nice if Glock had decided to address this on these new pistols and would have given their marketing department another feature to highlight.

Controls

While the magazine catch is reversible on both these pistols it is a pity that Glock has not chosen to add an ambidextrous slide stop lever to both the Glock 43X and Glock 48 pistols as this would have made these into fully ambidextrous pistols.

Rails

Not so much of an actual con, but rather a cautionary note: Be advised that the Glock 43X and Glock 48 have slimmer frames and consequently narrower rails which means only specific weapon lights will fit these skinny Glock pistols. These weapon-mounted lights have been designed specifically to fit on the slimmer frames of these new Glocks. So, if you own a weapon-mounted light that fits on a standard frame pistol, it is more than likely not going to fit either of these slimline pistols.

No Limits Aftermarket

Due to the huge popularity of Glocks, there is no shortage of accessories or replacement aftermarket parts designed to improve performance and ergonomics. Accessories include extended magazines, holsters, magazine pouches, weapon-mounted lights and lasers to mention but a few items. There are a plethora of replacement aftermarket parts available for Glocks, ranging from sights through to triggers, recoil guild rods and springs sets, after-market slides and barrels as well as magazine catches and slide stop levers. You can replace just about every part on your Glock pistol should your heart so desire! (And CFR approves – ed.)

The sweet-looking Glock 43X featured below is a perfect example of just how extensively a Glock can be customised. Recoil magazine took a standard Glock 43X and optimised it extensively to turn it into what they refer to as the “Glock 19 Slim” thereby enhancing the performance, capability and capacity turning it into a very capable carry pistol! So, what did Recoil replace?

Well, it would be easier to list what they did not replace.

For starters, the Glock slide was replaced with a Gray Ghost slide which had been cut to accept a mini RDS sight (this was before the MOS version of the G43X). The slide was mated to a Shield RMSc mini red dot sight with upgraded glass lens. The factor polymer sights were replaced with a set of high visibility night sights, while a threaded match grade barrel designed to accept a mini compensator was dropped in to replace the factory Glock barrel. The recoil spring assembly was substituted with a stainless-steel guild rod with captured spring.

A custom trigger was fitted along with replacing the trigger parts for a far better trigger with lighter pull weight, crisper break and shorter reset. The magazine catch was replaced with an aluminium mag catch for use in conjunction with the high-capacity Shield S-15 aftermarket 15 round magazines - more about these in Keeping up with the Micro 9's.

To round off the package some enhancements were done to the frame. Including a double undercut to the trigger guard and the stippling to the front and back straps of the grip. Just for good measure Recoil Cerakoted the frame grey to match the Grey Ghost slide. While all this result in a very attractive and distinctive looking pistol, to have all these mods done would poke a rather large hole in the pocket of all but the most well-heeled person.  

Click on the link below to read the full story and to see all the pictures.

Recoil Magazine Glock 43X

Editor's note: This series has been written by an independent journalist to highlight the full range of options available for the Glock 43X and 48. Not all of these are currently available from Jizni.