Some small platforms and practice

[Glenn E. Meyer]

Today, I decided to go to a nice new indoor range and wring out some of my smaller guns. We've pretty strong evidence that folks who are trained can shoot them reasonably well but with a drop in performance as compared to the full sizes models. Since, I sometimes drop on of them in my pocket, time to shoot some. I prefer to carry a Glock 9mm of various flavors.

So:

1. SW 432 - That's a six shot light weight 32 HR mag. Fired some Fiocchi SW Long FMJ. Sweet hearts to shoot. Reasonable accuracy and groups but my old eyes having a touch of trouble with the fixed sights. Even with a little orange front sight paint, old is a pain. I'm fairly certain I can get COM hits at reasonable house distances or street if not an extreme situation. Then a set of Federal 85 gr. 32 Mag. Again no trouble, recoil not a problem - I did note a big flash from that stuff. Conclusion, reasonable pocket gun for sloth like EDC or a bug.

2. SW 642 - Nice trigger - rounds were 158 gr Monarch Semi - JHP. Recoil was a touch unpleasant. I could hit stuff. Usual caveat for folks who buy these and never shoot them or give them to wife with a stiff round. Maybe I will join the wadcutter club. WWB wasn't that troublesome. Good pocket gun.

Conclusion - between the two Js - I think I'll carry the 432 more.

3. SW 632 - that's a SS 3 inch compensated J frame. No problems with the Long or 32 HR Mag. Fun to shoot. Double taps easy. Then some Federal 327 mag. Surprisingly, that had some kick to it. It was LOUD in the indoor range. I can shoot 100 WWB 230 gr 45 ACP and feel fine. I wouldn't want to shoot 100 of these.

Conclusion - fun gun - not an EDC carry. I might carry it in the woods as a backup for whatever (no grizzly in TX). Easy gun to shoot for beginners with the lighter loads.

4. Glock 42 - Sigh. It's troublesome. I can shoot it well to make a single hole in a close target. BTW, I shot at 3 yards as I was just playing with the rounds and not trying an accuracy test at a longer distance. More interested in sights, trigger, ammo, double tap ease.

It's been back to Glock once as it was a horror out of the box. So:

a. It went through 50 rounds of some crappy Monarch Brass FMJ with one failure to feed and one stovepipe.
b. Hornady Critical Duty - went through a box of 25 and it jammed on almost every mag. Stovepipe, double, didn't feed (this is with different mags, no difference). Bah. Two mags of some Sig HP 380 that I had demonstrated the same behavior.

When it ran, it was great and easy - recoil is trivial. My old eyes can see the sights. But do I keep it and just shoot FMJ? That's been argued for the 380. I think I will shoot out the ammo I have for it and then decide it's fate. If it goes Bye Bye - I won't go for another 380 - since I'm an old fart, I will fart round with the J frames for my pocket.

Side comments on the range: It's a new indoor range in San Antonio on 1604 and NW Military. Clean and well kept. You have to watch a safety video if you are there for the first time, which is a good idea. Nice lanes with automatic controls and some turning scenarios. The RSOs are very pleasant and helpful. Fun to talk too. The sales staff is new and some are not the most knowledgeable
about techy stuff. They are kids, so cute. When the nice RSO took me to my lane, and I attached my target - I saw that the metal clip holding the target had lead splash on it. Then I looked up and saw lots of them on the ceiling above the lane. I said: Jesus! She said - Yeah, and we've been open just a month.

Glad I'm not a RSO - that must be scary. Nice idea - they have a sink inside the lane complex so you can wash up before you go out to the main store lobby. That's nice. As I was throwing away my paper towel - I saw a bunch of live rounds in the trash. Huh? I told the RSO. They went to dig them out.

All in all a nice day.

Conclusion - I like carrying my 9mm Glocks and shoot them better. I shoot and like my SW 1911Sc Commander better than the little guys. It's tad big to carry, IMHO. As Karl Rehn and others have pointed out you can shoot the little guys decently but have some deficit. New folks really would have to practice beyond the 50 rounds once a year at three yards. The little guys are pocket gun and Bugs.

I didn't shoot my NAA 22 Short mini - maybe I will?

[LSP552]

Glenn, is your G42 one of the first runs? The later really seem to run well and I have one with over 1,000 without a single problem. They have become popular at my old agency for backup/off duty and I don't hear of any real problems. I shoot the little gun significantly better than my 642. As a result, its kinda become my primary cargo/gym shorts pocket gun/lounge around gun. It won't replace the outer coat pocket role the 642 excels in

Completely agree that with practice its possible to shoot the little guns pretty well.

[Totem Polar]

My first G42 (very early: first day ship) was always plagued with random stoppages. The one I have now (recent) is 100 percent.

The first one almost made me swear off new Glocks for life, but my wife took an interest in shooting it, so I got her the newer one.

FWIW.

[Glenn E. Meyer]

Yeah, the G42 is one of the first ones and I did send it back to Glock for a fix. At first, it wouldn't fire the very first round out of the box before jamming as tight as the mummy's tomb. Then it fired out of battery.

After the fix, it still is funky. Whether I want to get a new one? I will ponder that. A friend had to send his back but it seems to work. When it shot, it did shoot well and was nicer than the 642.

Decisions, decisions! I suppose there is a way to ID new manufacture of the Glocks.

[Doc_Glock]

Yeah, the G42 is one of the first ones and I did send it back to Glock for a fix. At first, it wouldn't fire the very first round out of the box before jamming as tight as the mummy's tomb. Then it fired out of battery.

After the fix, it still is funky. Whether I want to get a new one? I will ponder that. A friend had to send his back but it seems to work. When it shot, it did shoot well and was nicer than the 642.

Decisions, decisions! I suppose there is a way to ID new manufacture of the Glocks.

I would encourage you to hold Glock's feet to the fire. I have two 42s and they are amazingly my most reliable Glocks with any sort of ammo. I get HK reliability out of them. Something is off with yours.

[Clusterfrack]

Good thread. A couple of days ago, I ran the Gabe White drills with my LCP.
https://pistol-forum.com/showthread....l=1#post637977
I was encouraged that I could shoot that little gun at the Dark pin level on all of the drills except 2H, and even scored a Light time on one 4B2H run.

To be honest, I really hate the LCP. It's a cheap, ugly gun with a crappy trigger. I don't like anything about it other than its size. But when I can't carry anything larger, it's comforting to know that I can shoot it capably.

[Totem Polar]

Decisions, decisions! I suppose there is a way to ID new manufacture of the Glocks.

You can always do what I did and just get one with a different color frame. We know that the grey and bronze G42s are post-teething.

[Malamute]

Regarding the 38 spl Js, if even the wadcutters arent fun to shoot, you can shoot 38 Short Colt loads in them. A 125 gr bullet at 700-ish FPS. Im tinkering around with reloading them. Havent shot them enough to get a feel for them yet, but they are fun to shoot. Several guys on the castboolit forum report they load them for wives or kids/grandkids that arent experienced shooters, and they are well received. They are also used for backyard shooting by some. Probably not in town, but less noise, recoil, and wear and tear on the gun. They shoot a little low in the guns Ive shot them in, but not by a large amount.

[lwt16]

I own 2 Glock 42s and one of them was a little troublesome at first. Several stovepipes with WWB .380 and it needed hotter ammo to run 100 percent.

I tried two things: I polished the feed ramp and left the slide locked open for a few days while it sat in the safe. I then bought up all the hot ammo I could find at the time (which was Perfecta .380/Fiochhi) and shot a few hundred rounds through it.

That pistol now eats everything. Carry load of choice is Speer Gold Dots as they are peppy. Runs them fine.

The other G42 I have eats anything and always has.

[DacoRoman]

This reminds me of my experience in the last Hackathorn class I took. We shot one of the days with our BUGs. I was using a s&w 638. After that class, I retired it and got a G26.