Nearly two years ago… and less than a year into Concealed Nation, I somehow convinced GLOCK to send me the G42 before it was officially announced. In the end, I got to showcase a great pistol and Concealed Nation was the first to publish a video and image. Not bad for business. Immediately following the announcement, the response on the newest addition to the GLOCK line was mixed. Really mixed . . .
It went from:
Yesssssss finally a baby-baby pocket GLOCK!
To:
It’s not a 9. Do not pass GO, do not collect $200. SMH.
As you probably know, many people were hoping for a single stack 9mm. That clearly wasn’t the case. Now, we also know that the single stack 9 came out a year later…the GLOCK 43.
Like it or not, many G42’s were sold (and continue to sell) and it’s become a favorite for thousands of people. Heck, I loved it as soon as I got my hands on it. But where do I stand now, almost two years later?
The first clue is this: The one that GLOCK sent to me had to be sent back to them. Bummer. Shortly after I did that, I went out and bought one. It was the new little brother to my G26 and G27, and they got along very well. Once I got a taste, I had to add it to my collection.
But what was I going to use it for? That was the big question I started to ask myself. Will it just be a range gun? Am I actually going to carry it? Is it going to sit on the castaway shelf in my safe?
The very first thing that I noticed when I picked it up for the first time was how nicely it sat in my hand. That was my biggest concern; that it would be too tiny to get a good grip on it. For me, that wasn’t the case. It’s a really nice-feeling pistol.
But would I carry it? Would I carry a single stack .380 vs. my G26 or G27? Yea, I did. And I do. For me, it’s perfect on a hot day when I’m wearing shorts and a t-shirt. It either goes IWB (below) or inside a pocket holster in my right front pocket.
Do I carry it all the time? No, absolutely not. Just like anything else, it has a time and place for usability. If I’m wearing a jacket in the dead of winter, I’ll be carrying my G23 instead. Will I also have my G42 in a pocket? Maybe. It depends on the day, really.
It’s also a great range gun. Sure sometimes .380 is hard to come by (or waaaaay too expensive), but the G42 is a ton of fun to take to the range for the afternoon and sling some lead. I’ve had more than a handful of friends pick it up, shoot it, and immediately have their minds changed about what they’ve heard. They are fans of the smallest GLOCK to date.
It’s comfortable, it’s slim, it’s small. It’s reliable. It’s a GLOCK. Want to WIN a GLOCK 42? We’re giving one away this month! CLICK HERE to enter!
I’ll keep my TCP which runs great and actually fits in my pocket. But “if you like your Glock you can keep your Glock”…
“if you like your Glock you can keep your Glock”…
But that is not what Obama is going to say.
That’s exactly what he’ll say, he just won’t mean it.
Male Bovine Excrement! Obama haters will fabricate ANYTHING to scare people. At NO time has President Obama proposed an action to “take” anyone’s firearms. Truth, not ravings from a gun-worshiping lunatic.
I am a responsible CCW citizen, loyal to God and Country. I am a former LEO. I first picked up a firearm at age 11. No credible source is calling for confiscation, and no action FROM a credible source has been taken.
There are extremists on the pro-gun and anti-gun ends of things in the debate. They must be summarily dismissed as non-credible. As reasonable moderates from both sides convene, in civil fashion, surely recommendations for reasonable firearm control will be the product.
+1 for the Alien Gear holster. Great simple design.
Hmm, I’ve always thought that the 42 only exists to make money. The 43 was released a year later because its the gun everybody wanted. If they had been released in the opposite order, the 42 would have flopped.
Brilliant marketing, Glock. I am glad a tiny Glock .380 exists but I think the vast majority of shooters would be better served by the 43.
I gave my wife a G42 as a gift. She loves it and would never carry my G26 or anything larger. better to have a .380 than nothing (she didn’t like the SigP238 I bought earlier).
To each their own; I purchased a G42 just two days ago, actually. For me, I wanted something small enough to pocket carry in dress pants, as well as something with softer recoil to use as an introductory pistol for newcomers. (I let my sister shoot my G19 and she said it hurt her hands after 50 rounds, so I didn’t think the G43 would be any good for her. She did quite well with accuracy, though.)
.380 sells in a lot of foreign markets where 9mm is considered a military weapon and not available to private citizens.
Better note this article is from Brandon at Concealed Nation and not from Zim.
When I’ve ended up at concealed nations website, they wont let me enter unless I give them access to my address book. Nope. Too expensive for a free contest, IMHO.
The advantage of a larger 380 is they are easy to hit with. In the 80s, a friend carried a Beretta 84. The 84 is still a great gun. The Walther PK380 and Ruger LC380 are also easy to shoot well. I often recommend newbys getting one of these after they speak of recoil and blast of a nine. Better to hit accurately with a 380 than miss with a nine.
Some graduate to a nine or bigger after getting more experience. Some keep toting the one they started on.
I have an 84 and like it-but that recoil spring is something. . .
I guess the Italians have a third hand for reassembly.
The blast and recoil of a 9? If you can’t handle a 9 you are either too young to carry or old and decrepit.
From seeing lots of younger folks shoot, I’d say many haven’t mastered the recoil and blast of a nine. A new shooter is often intimidated by the blast of round igniting. Their reaction is “like” recoil but it is not from the actual recoil impulse of the pistol. It takes a decent amount of practice to get to the point of ignoring the blast. Quieter cartridges with a lower recoil impulse are the easiest way to get that training. Probably why the 38 special is still popular with a lot of shooters. Target loads are quieter and seem to produce markedly less recoil.
I personally haven’t fired any nine that I thought had excessive recoil. That distinction goes to snub 357s with serious ammo.
The most painful pistol I ever shot was a Ruger LCP .380. If the mass of the gun isn’t proportional to the power of the cartridge, the recoil gets real snappy, real quick.
If someone complains about the recoil of a 9mm, a smaller .380 is not the solution. The solution is a larger 9mm.
I carry an LCP every day. ( My SR9 won’t fit in my pocket. ) I don’t consider it painful but everyone’s hand is different. If I shoot more than 100 rounds my hand gets tired from the tiny grip.
I have one. Like the author, it’s my hot weather/slim shorts gun. I have had two problems, but both are my fault.
1) With the grip being narrower than any other pistol I have owned or shot, it’s very easy to sling shots low and left if proper trigger finger placement and pull are not observed.
2) If I grip it too tightly, sometimes the slide fails to lock back after the last shot. If I don’t grip it like I’m trying to kill it, it has no problems. My wife has never had the fail to lock problem.
It has eaten every bit of .380 I have fed it and it’s boring to shoot, which is a good thing. I think Glock was aiming to make it boring, because it’s a good balance between size and recoil.
It’s ugly. It’s overpriced. Its wannabe cop fanboys are obnoxiously arrogant. It’s a GLOCK.
so you don’t have a gun,,,,,,? why hate a glock….it goes bang every time you pull the trigger…..seems like that what its supposed to do…..
I don’t own one, but otherwise this article pretty well sums up my feelings about the gun from the handful of times I have gotten to shoot one.
If I will ever get one depends a lot on whether I decide I want a low profile diminutive sized pocket gun or whether I just figure out how to EDC a fullsize-ish Glock 19 sized gun. Still undecided, but the G42 is a neat little gun.
Brandon gets it. Pocket pistols and subcompact are not primary carry guns. They are New York Reloads or for carry when you have clothing constraints.
Good review. I passed on the G42 in the hope based on rumors that a single-stack 9 would follow. It did, and I love my G43. Though I can see a use for the G42 for many people, the G43 has made it irrelevant to me. 3 weeks after buying it, I even sold my faithful Kel-Tec P3AT. A .380 is not a bad defensive caliber, but if I can have a sweet-recoiling 9 in virtually the same size, no contest.
But it’s a Glock…? I guess… I would take it for free.
There would be no point in entering. The gun is not on the roster in California, and the single shot exemption has been eliminated, so I could never take possession.
Living in Chicago, I thought the gun laws here were restrictive. I have always thought about moving to California to live to enjoy the warm weather and sunshine. But this gun roster business is oppressive stateism. While Chicago makes it tough to be a gun owner, I can own any handgun I want. It is hard to imagine wondering every time I touch a gun “will my government allow me to have this Glock?”
Chicago (and Illinois) gun laws aren’t nearly as oppressive as they used to be.
You can thank Otis McDonald, Michael Moore (no, not THAT Michael Moore), Alan Gura and the Second Amendment Foundation for that.
Brandon didn’t mention that the gun pictured has a Pierce grip extension on the magazine. Those things can make a little gun a lot more shootable, but they also make pocket carry more difficult.
I already have a 42 and like it a lot, so I would not mind adding another one, if the price was more reasonable than “become food for a spam machine”.
My wife and I just left a gun shop, as part of exhaustive quest for just the right self-defense weapon for her (NOTE: she is new to the concept of self-defense, and I am grateful she’s opened herself up to reality).
After firing numerous semi-autos and wheel guns, she’s decided on the Glock 42. This decision was made after consulting with, and shooting under tutelage of 5 – count ’em – 5 individual instructors. Took 5 weeks for this decision to be made, and I am confident that SHE is confident in her choice.
NOTE: cost was NOT a determining factor in her selection, and she is the Secretary of the Treasury in our house!
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