The Drawbacks of a Subcompact Single-Stack 9mm

[NH Shooter]

Longer hands and fingers:

Geez, you make trigger reach look easy! The Beretta looks perfect.

[Duelist]

Geez, you make trigger reach look easy! The Beretta looks perfect.

Yeah, it is. I can pretty much shoot anything I decide to, even though the G42 kinda drowns in my palm. I never really thought I had particularly large hands, because my father and his father had hands at least half again as wide as mine, but length? Guitar students have actually cried trying to do what I can do on a guitar neck, and I had a female NCO hit me (on the shoulder) after pistol quals. The only way she could shoot a Beretta was to thumb cock it.

The G42 is actually my wife's. She can't shoot the Beretta DA without compromising her grip, and the G26 is only marginally better. The G43 puts too much boisterous recoil in the web of her hand. THe G42 is her Goldilocks gun: just the right size so she can confidently run all the controls, the springs don't intimidate her or make her feel like the gun is going to jump out of her hands while she loads or unloads it, and she can control it and not get beat up shooting a box of ammo through it.

I'm going to get at least two more. My daughter likes it for all the same reasons my wife does, and the third will be a backup/deep concealment gun for me and a spare for them.

[breakingtime91]

I also usually shoot single stacks better also.. small hands, it is hard for me to get a good grip and reach the trigger with shifting the gun in someway. I was messing with the MP 2.0 yesterday’s and was pretty surprised by how small the grip felt

[Pistol Pete 10]

Uh....................................Little guns are not as easy to shoot as big guns. Not anything new here.

[Rex G]

Uh....................................Little guns are not as easy to shoot as big guns. Not anything new here.

This depends upon the size/length of one’s hands, fingers, and thumbs. I like a full-length grip frame, to fill my long hand all the way to the heel of the palm, but a long reach to the trigger, or a wide frame, to enclose a double-column magazine, can be a significant challenge, as my fingers and thumbs are not long.

[Bodhi]

Uh....................................Little guns are not as easy to shoot as big guns. Not anything new here.

For me it’s weight and size. A lesson in physics 101. I sold one of my 43’s recently with no plans to acquire another. And I’ll sell my working (in rotation, the other was nib in the safe) 43 once I have my replacement pistols (working on selling all my Glocks). All my semis are doublestacks and 2 of those are subcompact. The shootability and the ability to take larger magazines (spare mag on belt) supersede comfort, etc. In the Glock world, for me, there was nothing the 43 could do that the 26 couldn’t with a hair more effort inside the belt.

[OlongJohnson]

There's more to it than size, I think. I've never managed to dry fire a Shield without the front sight jumping up and to the right, but I can at least hit with an LCP Custom, which is considerably smaller. And I have USP45-sized hands.

Recently had this confirmed again.

Handled a Dan Wesson Valkyrie Commander. A beautiful firearm. However, as I am reminded every time with full-size 1911s, I found once again that when I was firmly gripping the front and back straps, the grip panels lacked contact pressure. Enough that I could relax my grip only slightly, look down between the right side grip panel and my palm and see daylight.

Then, over the holiday, I dragged the little Browning 1911-22 out of the safe to take to a fun range session. As a reminder, it's an 85 percent scale 1911. The smaller distance between front and back straps allowed my grip to close up, generating a satisfying pressure on the side grip panels. The range my friends went to has a two-second rule, so no real tests could be run, but in general, I shot it just fine, given the tiny sights and extended mid-travel creep.

It's not just size, it's overall geometry, and how it works with your hands.

[Biggy]

Larry Vickers review and thoughts on small sub-compact pistols. The G43 and Shield : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdYH2M7CJN4&t=217s

[Cypher]

I've never fired a Glock 43 but I owned a Shield for a couple of years.

I had a couple of issues with the Shield from the beginning. I never really felt comfortable with the capacity and I felt that the grip was a little small in my hand although I could shoot it well.

The deal breaker for me was the morning I was walking my dog and got surrounded by 5 weed heads who were staying with a neighbor. Nothing happened but I decided I just wasn't comfortable with less than 12 rounds and got a 9C.

I have always been on a restricted budget with regards to my gun "collection" and one of the biggest advantages (for me) of the 9C over the Shield was that I could use my M&P9FS magazines in the 9C if I needed to.

Having said all that in March of this year I traded in the 9C for a Glock 19 and became a "Never carry anything smaller than a Glock 19 guy". I will also say that the fact that Glock Magazines on sale are about 10 bucks cheaper than S&W magazines on sale is a deciding factor for me.

[JHC]

I also usually shoot single stacks better also.. small hands, it is hard for me to get a good grip and reach the trigger with shifting the gun in someway. I was messing with the MP 2.0 yesterday’s and was pretty surprised by how small the grip felt

I marvel at how well a G43 can be shot. I would love to see a 43L released that added a half or 3/4" of barrel and enough grip maybe eek out 10 round capacity. My two have the best Glock triggers stock I've ever had.