Glock Model 43 durability

[Lloyd Smale]

mines probably up over 2k. Its never missed a beat with anything jacketed or cast. runs like, well a GLOCK! Im not going to war with a small 9mm pistol on my hip. So round count doesnt mean much. What matters is the first one or two go bang every time. Try to find one case where a civilian shot 10 rounds defending himself. Most likely if your in a gun fight and you dont stop it in the first two shots your probably going to the hospital or morgue. I carry a gun like a 43 or shield and dont even carry a spare mag. To me its about like carrying a 5 gallon gas can in the back of my pickup in case I become so stupid that 25 doesnt get me to the gas station. Guess a guy could carry a 10 round gun two spare mags and a 380 in an ankle holster with 2 spare mags and be prepared for an all out war. I dont live in a city or even go to one. I live in an area where ive never even heard of any ccw holder needing to use his gun. No need up here to get out of bed and sling an ar15 over your back. Heck id feel just fine with one of my lcps in my pocket and even sometimes DARE TO GO OUT INTO THIS DANGEROUS WORLD with a naa 22 and forgive me but occasionaly go out with a belt clip knife. A Glock 43 is a FINE ccw gun. Probably not many any better for the job. Only thing ill say about mine is price. I payed 500 bucks back in the day for it. Sigs and hellcats go for about the same. Back when i bought it i could buy 2 smith shields for the same price and have 4 of them today. 3 9s and a 45. to me there every bit as good as any of those guns at a much lower price.

[LUCKYDAWG13]

Glock should go back and revamp the magwell to except the G43 X and G48 magazines so you could stick a 15 round mag in it or carry one for back up

[Petrol & Powder]

Glock should go back and revamp the magwell to except the G43 X and G48 magazines so you could stick a 15 round mag in it or carry one for back up

They already did that, it's called the G26

OK, I'm just kidding, I know the difference. The real attraction of the G43 is that single stack design and overall slim design. Yeah, you could gain a few more rounds in that single stack configuration if the magazine was longer, like say in the G48 OR if it could acept a longer mag. However there comes a point where the overall size of the gun IS the primary concern, even eclipsing the possibility of greater capacity.

I don't think Glock was thinking capacity when then designed the G43. I think they were (finally) seeking to build the smallest pistol they could that was chambered in 9mm Luger and was reliable.

Glock was losing sales to competitors that were offering pistols in that class. It almost seemed that there was an internal company resistance to building a single stack 9mm.

[35remington]

My brother has a well documented 8K and counting through his before relatively inexpensive 9mm ball in generic boxes became unobtainium. He has fixed or replaced nothing. Some slide wear from kydex but nothing else worthy of note.

Flawless with all and some hollowpoint testing. Save for Winchester “Made in USA” brand steel case brown box FMJ with the rough zinc anti corrosive coating on the case. That would fail to extract about four rounds per fifty. Did the same in a Shield, an EC9s and the Ruger 9mm carbine of recent vintage. We stopped using that.

Little evidence of any wear on the gun due to shooting. His 43, that is.

[Lloyd Smale]

They already did that, it's called the G26

OK, I'm just kidding, I know the difference. The real attraction of the G43 is that single stack design and overall slim design. Yeah, you could gain a few more rounds in that single stack configuration if the magazine was longer, like say in the G48 OR if it could acept a longer mag. However there comes a point where the overall size of the gun IS the primary concern, even eclipsing the possibility of greater capacity.

I don't think Glock was thinking capacity when then designed the G43. I think they were (finally) seeking to build the smallest pistol they could that was chambered in 9mm Luger and was reliable.

Glock was losing sales to competitors that were offering pistols in that class. It almost seemed that there was an internal company resistance to building a single stack 9mm.

yup i like mine just the way it is. I dont worry about these new 9s like the hellcat and sig that hold 3 or 4 more rounds. Never heard of a civilian ever needing to shoot that many in self defense. proably 95 percent of conflicts are over with one round and maybe some rare ones with two or three. Your not a soldier or a police officer thats going to be in a prolonged fire fight. Even that said police got by with 6 rounds for decades and the military got along with 7. Nothing wrong with having more but it isnt a feature im willing to pay 50 percent more for.

[LUCKYDAWG13]

It would just be nice to have the same compatibility with the G43 and G 48 as the G 26 G19 G17 is all

[txbirdman]

I like the single stack Glocks better than anything they’ve put out. Thought about getting a G48 or G43X with the Shield mags to replace my highly bubba’d G19. I’ve tried most everything to get that G19 to work for me. Including Apex trigger and modified grip frame but no joy. Still it’s a great pistol but I carry a Sig P365 instead. Bought the Sig when they first came out and it’s been flawless. Carry it every day with Alabama pocket holster (10 rnd) or Hume belt slide (12 rnd). Saw a video the other day about a deputy being attacked by a guy with a club. Took 12 rounds to stop the guy. Average number of rounds to stop a bad guy are just that. Reminds me of the statistician that drown in a lake that was only an “average” of 6 inches deep. ��

[Idaho45guy]

Never heard of a civilian ever needing to shoot that many in self defense. proably 95 percent of conflicts are over with one round and maybe some rare ones with two or three. Your not a soldier or a police officer thats going to be in a prolonged fire fight. Even that said police got by with 6 rounds for decades and the military got along with 7. Nothing wrong with having more but it isnt a feature im willing to pay 50 percent more for.

Another perspective...

[Lloyd Smale]

Another perspective...

all that proves is you can find someone that wants to be on youtube to say about anything. Just like the chev guy bashing the ford guy. I say show me the money. Show me real world stats where civilians shot more then a couple rounds in self defense. Its VERY rare even to find a carreer police officer that has let alone someone like me. Im not lugging around a full sized gun and two extra mags all day long when the worse crime in this area is probably some welfare trash trying to steel a shirt from walmart. If im out in public and have a lcp in my pants pocket i feel more then comfortable. A shield or 43 glock or something simular? Im ready for anything any civilian is going to face. Bottom line is if your facing a threat to your life (which you must to be legaly shooting) then if you dont put the guy down in a couple rounds chances are hes going to put some in you and there going to carry you away. Training means a heck of alot more then what caliber you have or how many rounds. Even that isnt the total answer because I believe youve been in combat and you know as well as i do that when the bullets are flying it weeds out the wanabes wearing camo head bands that talk the talk from people that walk the walk. 50 rounds do you no good if your shaking like a leaf and wetting yourself. bottom line is if you fit into that catagory (WHICH MANY DO) that 15 round mag can be a dangerous thing. but as usual you post something derogatory EVERY time i post. Tell you what. You use what you want and ill use what i want. You give your advice and ill give mine. I guess its up to the other members to decide whos to take. But your childish constant attack show your true colors. You just cant stand not being THE GUY!

[Petrol & Powder]

We're getting awfully far afield from the issue of durability, but I'm going to weigh in here.

I think intelligent people understand that discussions concerning handgun capacity very quickly devolve into unwinnable arguments - FROM EITHER SIDE OF THE DISCUSSION.
For every hypothetical argument proponents of high capacity can put forth, the people holding the opposing can counter. And that works both ways. The "low capacity is adequate" crowd can put forth hypothetical scenarios that are equally prone to challenges from the other side of the fence.
The same holds true for anecdotal evidence. For every account in which low capacity was adequate, the high capacity crowd can offer a story where more capacity was needed.

I will say that one can create a training scenario that favors a shooter with a high capacity gun. That doesn't mean you will always need a high capacity gun to survive every possible deadly force encounter. Nor does it mean that a low capacity gun will always be inadequate. It just means that particular course of fire favors a high capacity gun.
A trap shooter can shoot a perfect round with a gun capable of shooting one round at each target. But if you're shooting doubles, you pretty much have to have a gun that is capable of at least two shots before being reloaded.

I think we can all agree that if a situation arises in which you need a firearm for self-defense; it is far better to have a gun than to not have a gun.
We carry handguns because you cannot go through life holding a pump action shotgun or AK-47 at port arms 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We wouldn't get much done if we had to hold a long gun in both hands all the time.
The compromise is a handgun, usually a concealed handgun.

Is high capacity desirable ? - YES
Is high capacity ALWAYS practical ? - NO.

The reason small guns exist is for ease of carry and concealment. That is an intentional compromise and a calculated risk.

If you KNEW you were headed into a deadly force encounter, your very first option, and your very BEST option, would be - Simply DON'T GO !
I don't believe that people who select low capacity handguns for self-defense are making an uninformed, reckless decision out of ignorance. Nor do I believe that people who select a higher capacity handgun are making that decision based on unrealistic fear or sheer paranoia.

[Petrol & Powder]

And while we're on the topic of handgun capacity, allow me to make another point.
The fact that someone fires a lot of rounds doesn't prove that a lot of rounds were absolutely needed to end the encounter.

Comedian Ron White has a standup routine about being ejected from a bar by several bouncers. He said, "I didn't know how many of them it was going to take to kick my ***........but i knew how many they were going to use"!

A person facing death is under extreme stress. Putting a few more holes in the guy that's trying to kill you isn't evidence that you HAD to fire more shots, it's just evidence that you fired several shots. It's not as if someone under extreme stress is going to fire one round and pause to see if it had the desired effect.

[onelight]

Reliability merges with durability at some point . If you have a thread like this and you don't have a bunch of folks telling of all the problems they had and how the gun broke , and several with 1000 rounds or more and it's a Glock I'd say that is a pretty good sign

[Papercidal]

Mine has about 6,500 rounds through it with no issues, is way more comfortable to pocket carry than my j frame and has 3 more rounds on tap.

[Petrol & Powder]

Thanks Papercidal.

[Lloyd Smale]

there a great gun and up there with the best on the market for ccw carriers. Pretty tough to argue it. That said it might not be for everyone. Choice in a carry gun is a very personal thing. Some have no problem carrying a full sized 1911 or a glock 17. Some like a smaller gun thats right in the middle like a 43 or a shield or hellcat or something similar. Some think thats to big and to much of hastle and carry a lcp or a alloy j frame in there pocket. Some even think thats to big and carry something like an naa 22lr. ME? i use them all depending on the situation and where i am and what clothes im wearing. Bottom line is any of them is better then a stick or a knife. but the middle ground guns and add to that the J frame thing seem to satisfy more people then the rest combined. One things for sure. I dont know a single person that chose a 43 glock that felt he made a bad choice. Durability?? There a glock! Enough said!!

[dougader]

I pocket carry a j-frame S&W and a G43... usually at the same time. There are pluses and minuses about both but I find them equally easy to pocket carry.

I've had mine for several years, but could only hazard a round count.

I had a P365. It's a wonderful little pistol that - despite being rated for +P ammo - would not handle my carry load, the Federal 124 gr HST +P. Flattened primers and recoiled like I was firing 9mm Major loads with a 175 PF. Sold the P365 and kept the G43... despite the superior trigger and larger round count of the P365.

The G43 handles the HST +P load with aplomb. With a Taran Tactical +1 base plate I'm at 7+1. Two spare mags with +2 base plates and I've got 16 additional rounds. Not bad for a trip to the market for eggs and milk.

[Petrol & Powder]

The Glock 43 was introduced in the spring of 2015. It took a while for it to be really available, so I'm going to say it has been around roughly 5 years.
I have NO doubts about the reliability of the G43. It is unquestionably a reliable pistol.

The ONLY way to determine the durability of an item, is through the passage of time. We now have about 5 years worth of time with the G43 and the reports on durability seem very positive.
Thanks to all that responded.

[osteodoc08]

I’ve got a 43X. My most perfect CCW to date. I’ve had it over a year. Maybe 2K down range with 135gr plated and 5.3gr of BE-86. No hiccups, malfunctions, jams. Nothing. It just runs. Certainly 2k for a modern pistol is nothing, it’s my only sample of 1.

[FergusonTO35]

Biggest thing I like about Glock is they stick with one design and just upsize or downsize it according to needs. Ruger has become really bad about discontinuing an auto pistol right about the time that it has all the bugs worked out and has earned the respect of the shooting public. Then they roll out something entirely new that is probably no better than what they had before and maybe worse.

[Plate plinker]

Biggest thing I like about Glock is they stick with one design and just upsize or downsize it according to needs. Ruger has become really bad about discontinuing an auto pistol right about the time that it has all the bugs worked out and has earned the respect of the shooting public. Then they roll out something entirely new that is probably no better than what they had before and maybe worse.

Agree very much. Seems some companies change everything so it is back to square one if you switch models. That would be frustrating.