Guns are a lot like shoes: different types serve different purposes. Just as you wouldn’t play soccer in dress shoes, you shouldn’t hunt pigs with a pocket pistol. Which is why the GLOCK product lineup has expanded from The One Gun to Rule Them All to 27 models in six sizes, shooting seven calibers. Which three are the must-own GLOCKs? Assuming you’d own all three, they are . .
1. GLOCK 43
Gun buyers had been clamoring for small, single-stack GLOCK since 1847 (or thereabouts). When the Austrian gunmaker finally answered the call, you could hear gun guy groans from California to the New York island. .380? Seriously?
After Gaston’s mob first sold a few gajillion GLOCK 42’s they released the 9mm GLOCK 43. Despite being several centuries late to the 9mm pocket pistol party (as the malcontents whined), the six-plus-one capacity GLOCK 43 was, and remains, an enormous hit.
And why not? As TTAG Managing Editor Dan Zimmerman wrote in his five-star review, “the G43 is just the thing for shooters looking for a small, reliable, comfortable, acceptably powerful everyday carry gun.”
Whether he’s wearing a Brioni suit, full-on Western wear or sweat pants and a wife-beater T-shirt, Dan the Man usually totes a G43. As does our friend Foghorn, whose sartorial splendor knows many limits. Both men could carry almost any gun they wanted (provided I paid for it). ‘Nuff said?
If you can find a way to carry a GLOCK 19 on a daily basis, there’s no need to own a GLOCK 43. The 15+1 capacity G19 is the ultimate all-rounder, suitable for carry, home-defense, target practice and competition.
That said, the 10mm GLOCK 20 is the brand’s best pig killer. And as I’ve pointed out, there are at least three good reasons not to own a G19. But there’s at least one important reason to have and to hold a G19 from this day forth: reliability.
While all mechanical objects can fail, the GLOCK 19 is Toyota 4Runner reliable. And durable. Unless your name is Jon Wayne “Pistol Kryptonite” Taylor, a GLOCK 19 will remain perfectly functional even after Geneva-convention defiling torture testing.
But wait, there’s more! So much more! G19 owners can spend their hard-earned money on a farrago of holsters, lights, lasers, red dots, barrels, triggers, grip mods, magazines and other stuff, creating a stylactical GLOCK 19 that fits their every need.
The GLOCK 30SF sits somewhere between the G43 and G19. Like the G43, the 30SF is small enough to carry — though a bit porky around the middle (hey who isn’t?). Like the G19, the G30SF is home, home on the range — though expensive to feed. And the G30SF’s well-suited for home defense — though relatively limited in terms of capacity (10+1 or 13+1).
So why bother? Especially when you could round out your GLOCK collection with the aforementioned 10mm G20, ideal for bear protection, hog elimination and range time S&Gs.
Because the GLOCK 30SF is chambered in .45 ACP — the caliber that steals men’s souls and sleeps with their women. Better yet, the GLOCK 30SF is one of the softest shooting .45 caliber handguns money can buy. Which makes it extremely accurate. Which makes it extra-special deadly and a whole lot of fun to shoot.
It’s also worth noting that millions of gun owners live behind enemy lines, where state-based statists (who gotta state) limit handgun magazine capacity to 10 rounds. If you’ve only got ten rounds, they might as well be .45’s. The G30SF fits the bill.