This advice sounds pretty obvious, duh.
We hear it all the time. Be sure to shoot whatever it is that you will be defending yourself with, so you are never taken by surprise. Personal defense rounds will have more kick than target rounds, for example. The smaller and more concealable handguns could have more recoil than the larger and heavier handguns using the same caliber and load...
Yet, in my recent experience I can tell you it does not end there. Let my story begin..
I was at the indoor range and shooting one of my favorite full size handguns (a Sig P320 X-Five Legion) at the “know your enemy“ setting on our target carriers... and I was certainly having a nice relaxing time of it too.
Just for grins, I decided to shoot my carry gun while I was there... I mean why not. I'm there, I'm carrying (as always).. and "they" say you should shoot what you carry. Now, keep in mind, I keep my guns loaded with personal defense rounds that are much more expensive than the target rounds I normally use at the range.
So when I shoot my carry pistol, I typically swap magazines because those defense rounds are so much more expensive than target rounds. However, I didn’t swap out the magazine at this particular date and time... and that particular nugget of information is critical for today’s story...
My carry gun of late is a Glock 43. A single-stack 9mm that is barely over an inch thick (1.06 to be exact) and 6.26 inches long - and yet still handles like a Glock, shoots perfectly, and is extremely reliable; which makes this bad boy absolutely perfect for conceited carry.
My only gripe, if you can call it that, is that my I have very large hands and the G43 is very small with its 6-round magazine. My favorite store, Glockstore, offers this terrific 4-round extended magazine which fits my large hand perfectly and extends the magazine to hold 10 rounds instead of the factory limitation of 6.
I mean it. This has such a truly phenomenal feel to it! I just cannot tell you just how great it is. I would want Glock to start offering it from the factory it feels so great. The below images compare my hand on the G34 with the "standard" magazine with the finger extension followed by the G34 with the Plus 4 magazine.
I do not normally shoot with the magazine that's loaded with my personal protection rounds, though... because they're so much more expensive than the rounds we all buy for target practice. The following image will hopefully illustrate the difference showing you two different types of defense rounds with hollow-tips designed to expand when they hit their target and do more damage; compared to a full metal jacket round that I would use at the range which does not expand nearly as much.
The MHP rounds on the left... $54.99 a for a box of 20. That's roughly 5 dollars per bullet. Pre-COVID-19 prices, it was around 1 dollar per bullet. The Hornady Critical Defense rounds on the right... $23.99 for a box of 25. That's roughly 1 dollar per bullet. The rounds I use for targets at the range are usually about 7 - 10 cents a round. That is a major price difference.
Back to my story...
So I draw my carry gun from my holster and fire one.. two... thr--- what the....??? that's it? It only fired two shots and stopped!
I dropped the magazine to see if there was a jam.. No jam.. Turn the magazine upside down and the bullets started to just drop out of the magazine!!! WHAT IN THE WORLD...?????
I jammed a screwdriver into the magazine, which freed up the spring and reloaded. Same problem... Load the magazine only with 6 rounds supported by the original factory magazine, and all is well. Loading more than the 6 rounds and the spring gets stuck in the extended section.
Thank the Lord above that I did not run into this in a real situation when I needed to defend myself!
Here's a video showing the problem (please ignore my crazy looking home office):
So.. I called Glockstore.. They are on a bit of an extended wait time right now due to the COVID-19 pandemic. When I did get through to a representative, they asked around and found out that this is a known issue!!
To their credit, they issued a full refund for the magazine. I do wish there would have a been a recall on the magazine, since it was a known issue, since it could have happened to me when I really needed to rely on these for my personal safety or the safety of my family. However, this is why you should always: test what you carry, including the magazines!!
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