I picked up a G43 in 2015 and figured I would carry in retirement, with it retiring my G26. I did just this until the Sig P365 came out. Since then I also added a Springfield Hellcat to my collection. The G43 hasn't been carried in over 3 years. The G43 retired my G26 and the P365/Hellcat retired my G43. I even ended up selling my G26.
In light of this thread I shot a 43 and 26 side by side today.
Recoil is not that different between the two to me. The little size of the 43 causes the tip of my trigger finger to drag on the trigger guard, but it’s whatever.
I can shoot 43 one handed better than the 26, but the 26 I can definitely control better with a two handed grip.
I think they’re both in no-mans land as they too bog to be tiny and too little to be big, but I like both. Up
Have you changed your mind about selling the 43? If so what do you plan to replace it with?Originally Posted by M2CattleCo
TL/DR: in my XL hands, the 43 requires far too much work to for me to remain consistently competent with it. I sold it and have never missed it.
I bought a 43 to replace the j-frame as my bellyband pistol as that was my mode of carry under a tucked shirt at my NPE work. (I'd attached a Fricke Zach inside the 'holster' pouch with a Chicago screw; very secure & reassuring to have the trigger protected.) I generally carried a 19 when I was away from work, but I was dutiful about shooting the 43 at every range session...a nearly weekly occurrence in the pre-kid/abundant ammo days and thought it a fine little shooter.
When we briefly lived in NC, it was my edc in a JM AIWB with a V/TD 8rd mag and I felt quite well armed. Work then took us to a fairly shitty part of MI about 30min from Detroit, the 19 became the daily choice once again and I went months without touching the 43. I drove to a range to rent a P30L and needed to bring a personally owned pistol to prove to the staff that if I were suicidal, I wouldn't need to rent their pistol or travel to their range to do the deed, so I'd tossed the 43 in the range bag.
After shooting the P30L (with maybe the longest, heaviest DA I've ever encountered), I got the 43 out and proceeded to shoot by far and away the shittiest group I'd fired in 20+yrs...just a friggin 9rd shotgun pattern. Dismayed, I immediately drew my 19 and fired a tight little 5rd group in the head box, sighed in relief that I hadn't suffered a stroke or something, reloaded and shut down the session.
Sure, shooting is a perishable skill, but I've many times gone long stretches without firing my 1911/G20/revolvers and never saw the kind of performance degradation as I did that day with the 43. A security gig took me to CA for 6mos once and I didn't fire a shot the entire time, though I did dry work, of course. Upon returning home, I accepted a reserve position with a small department and had to shoot their simple qualification course almost immediately. My prep consisted of 250 dry presses the night before the qual and I shot a 282/300 on my warm up run. The RO insisted I use that as my first of 3 runs to save him time and I followed it with 2 runs of 299/300 with a G19 I hadn't fired since driving to CA.
Nope. The ones I want to sell are just extras.
I still think that the 43 is a better J-frame if you can shoot it and it definitely has a use for me as an AIWB carry when I don’t want to carry.
My opinion.
I still find the 43 useful. It's small enough to meet my NPE ankle carry needs. I can swap uppers and have a standard 43/43x, a 43/43x with RMSc, a 48 length comped upper with an optic on the 43 or 43x frame. I can hide it under a normal-fitting tee shirt, AIWB.
It's a Glock. I trust it. I shoot it better and appreciate the extra firepower over mini-revolvers and it's notably thinner. If I can carry a bigger gun I do. If I need a small one that I am confident will work when I need it to, and not work when it's not supposed to, the 43 has a place in my world. My carry guns have SCD's. I will take that over the few extra rounds offered by some of the newer offerings that I feel have less robust safety features.
For whatever reason, I could not get along with a G5G26. Probably didn't give it enough time, but it didn't seem to fit my needs enough to make the time investment. Maybe I will try again down the road. I won't be going back to Sig again.
[QUOTE=cornstalker;1265294]
It's a Glock. I trust it. I shoot it better and appreciate the extra firepower over mini-revolvers and it's notably thinner. If I can carry a bigger gun I do. If I need a small one that I am confident will work when I need it to, and not work when it's not supposed to, the 43 has a place in my world. My carry guns have SCD's. I will take that over the few extra rounds offered by some of the newer offerings that I feel have less robust safety features.
[/QUOTE
This wins the G43 thread. It mirrows my thoughts on the G43
I still enjoy my J frames for particular applications. However for actual shooting as has been stated the 147 grain HST round is much more pleasant to shoot out of the Glock 43 then the Speer 125 grain plus P out of my J frame revolvers.
Each have their own applications in my experience but as has been stated it is a Glock and it works like it is supposed to when it is supposed to
How perishable would you consider J-frame skills vs. those needed for the G43? You said you bought the G43 to replace a J-frame, so that seems like a fairer comparison than your G19 performance. Though, your experience certainly does illustrate that it can take more work to maintain the skills needed to shoot the smaller pistols well.
I carried a 442-2 for years before I got a G43.
I’m an outlier but I have always been able to shoot J-frames well. I get along just fine with DAO ones.
Back when I still had a 442-2 I could put 5 in 6” at 25 yards with it. I can’t do that all the time with a 43, but I get pretty close with one that I have setup with DeFoor black on black sights.
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