Glock 42 Initial Impressions

As I mentioned in my previous post about testing your carry guns, I purchased a Glock 42. Now that I've put a few rounds through it, I want to provide my initial impressions. This is not a review. I've only fired 200 rounds through it, which isn't enough for a proper review in my opinion. These initial thoughts may change as I get more trigger time with the gun.

The first thing I want to mention is the intended use case for this gun. Here in the Upper Midwest winters require layers of insulated clothing. I typically carry in an inside the waistband holster. Unfortunately an inside the waistband holster isn't readily accessible when you have several layers of winter gear over it. Therefore, I like to carry a small pistol in the pocket of my winter jacket. This is the use case for which I bought my Ruger LCP.

The LCP is fine. It fits in a pocket and goes bang every time. But there are three things I really dislike about it. First, it physically hurts my hand to shoot. You might think that I'm being a bitch, and you're probably right. But pain demotivates me from practicing and limits how long I can practice when I do. Second, the gun doesn't point well for me. This is mostly because I'm so used to Glocks and Glocks have a different grip angle than the LCP. Three is related to two. The sights are all but useless. They're tiny, black, and milled into the slide so they can't be changed. Useless sights are fine for most self-defense distances if the gun points well. The LCP doesn't point well for me so the useless sights are a problem.

The Glock 42 fixes all three of these issues. So far I've fired 50 rounds each of Magtech 95 grain FMJ, Hornady 90 grain XTP American Gunner, Speer 90 grain Gold Dot, and Federal 90 grain Hydra-Shok. The Hydra-Shok ammunition I bought, unlike the ammunition to which I linked, isn't listed as low recoil, but the bullet weight and type is the same as is the listed muzzle velocities.

I shot the Magtech and Hornady ammunition during my first range trip. The Magtech functioned flawlessly. I had three failures, two failures to feed and one failure to extract, with the first of two 25-round boxes of the Hornady ammunition. The second box functioned flawlessly. Three failures out of 50 rounds doesn't fill me with confidence. My initial plan was to use the Hornady ammunition as my carry load. This was due to the ammunition performing well in both Lucky Gunner's ballistic gel test and Shooting The Bull's ballistic gel tests. But even the best performing ammunition in the world isn't effective if it doesn't feed reliably in your gun. This is why it's important to test your carry guns with the ammunition you intend to carry.

Based on the two tests, I bought the Federal Hydra-Shok and Gold Dot bullets to test in the gun. The Hydra-Shok performed better between the two, but the bullet shape was similar enough to the XTP that I wanted to have a backup. Gold Dot bullets have a more rounded profile, closer to the profile of an FMJ. I figured if the Hydra-Shok didn't feed reliably, the Gold Dot might fare better. I shot 50 rounds of each during my second range trip and all 100 rounds functioned flawlessly. Hydra-Shok will be my carry ammunition for this gun unless future tests reveal reliability issues. Gold Dot will be my backup if I have difficulty finding Hydra-Shok in the future.

The Glock 42 is a very nice shooting .380. It's slightly larger size compared to the LCP seems to reduce felt recoil. Since I'm used to Glocks, the 42 points well. I'm not a big fan of the stock Glock sights for defensive pistols, but they can be changed out. As I have done with most of my other carry guns, I installed Trijicon HD XR sights on the 42. I like these sights and I'm accurate with them.

The trigger on the Glock 42 is a Glock trigger. If you hate Glock triggers, you'll hate the trigger on this gun. I don't mind Glock triggers so I like the trigger on this gun. The gun came with two magazines. Neither has a finger extension. I ordered a few Glock magazines with finger extensions. The added extension lets me get all three fingers on the gun, which is nice. I wish the finger extension was also an ammunition extension, but the magazines with the finger extension only hold six rounds, the same as the magazines without the extension.

The trigger combined with the low felt recoil and usable sights means I can fire follow up shots quickly and accurately. I forgot to bring my shot timer on both range trips so I don't know how fast I was able to perform follow up shots. My perception is that it felt slightly slower than what I can do with my Glock 43X MOS. I'm definitely able to fire it faster than my Ruger LCP. My groups are about half the size of the my groups with the Ruger LCP.

I encountered an issue with charging the gun. When I insert a loaded magazine into the gun when it's empty, I have to really rip the slide to reliably charge it. If I try to charge the gun by pressing the slide stop down or I ride the side even a tiny bit as it moves forward, the first round frequently won't load. Another issue I encountered is the slide doesn't always lock back on an empty magazine. Neither of these are major issues for me. The slide on my Ruger LCP by design doesn't lock back on an empty magazine so I'm used to this with .380s.

Overall I like the Glock 42. It's a significant upgrade from the Ruger LCP.