Glock G40 10mm: One Mean Mother F’er 

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At the 2015 SHOT show, Glock announced that the Glock 40 would be a 10mm long slide, the internet erupted with crying for a single stack 9mm. But not me! This was the Glock I had been waiting for. Since then I have been scouring the countryside asking every shop I stopped in if they had “that new 10mm long slide Glock”.  After being shown several .40 cal Glocks, my quest came to an end. I was lucky enough to find a Glock 40 MOS (G40) at a nice little gun store in the Outer Banks of NC when I was on vacation last week. After a couple agonizing days waiting for USPS to get it to my FFL, I picked it up and took it to the range.

The G40 is a 10mm long slide with Glock’s MOS optic mounting system. It a Gen4 Glock so it comes with 3 magazines and interchangeable back straps. It sports a nice 4.5 lbs trigger with a clean crisp break.  The G40 has a full 6 inch barrel with a 8 inch sight radius and thick 1.12″ slide, which is quite a bit larger than the other Glock long slides.  It was designed and marketed for hunting but I wanted it for … well because it is awesome, and it will make a handy woods gun.



Right off the bat this thing is a monster. It makes G34s look small. I have a couple of 1911s and a 44 in the stable and the Glock 40 dwarfs them all. My local gun shop Gordon’s Sports Supply was kind enough to let me take a comparison picture of it next to a G42 380.

The largest Glock and the smallest Glock.

To the range

This monster can seem a little intimidating at first. But I can assure you it shoots like a dream. The recoil is surprisingly mild; of course I was shooting “normal” factory loads, nothing too hot. I was expecting it to be closer to my 44 magnum but it felt comparable to a 1911.

The long slide at the very least makes me feel like it is more accurate. At 10 yards it makes a nice little 10 round group on my popper.


The G40 is certainly capable of long-range shots. The author however is not quite a long-range pistol marksmen.

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My wife sent some rounds down range with the G40 and was also impressed with its accuracy and manageable recoil. We burnt up around 200 rounds a mix of JHP and FMJ and despite some efforts to limp wrist it and not even bothering to give it a drop of lube,  neither of us had a stoppage.

Thoughts on the MOS:

As far as the MOS system I am going to hold off on that for now. For my purposes, I won’t be using it for hunting so irons are plenty and less to worry about. I plan on replacing the Glock OEM adjustable sights with 3 dot night sights as that’s what I have on the rest of my Glocks. The MOS adds a nice flexibility to the platform. If you do plan on using the G40 for hunting mounting  a red dot optic would be very handy. Chances are I will end up installing something sometime down the road.

 

 

Carry 

Holsters are limited for the G40 right now presumably because it is so new. The slide on the G40 is the same width as the G20 1.12″  as opposed to the slimmer 1 inch slides of the other long slide Glocks. I reached out to Raven Concealment Systems, who unfortunately informed me they will not be making a light compatible holster for the G40. This is a shame as the G40 with a Surefire X300 ultra would make an outstanding camping gun.

I shifted my holster search to leather holsters and ordered a Simply Rugged Cuda Holster which will likely be my go to holster for this handgun. I have one of their Sourdough Pancake Holsters that will function OWB, IWB and is compatible with their chesty puller chest harness which is handy for carrying large handguns.

A Home Run:

Cheaper Than Dirt, who only briefly shot the G40 at the shot show, complained that the iron sights are too low and did not co-witness with the dot. Because of this, they so boldly claim the G40 is “not a home run“. Well, as CTD often is, they are wrong. If I must use a baseball analogy

this monster is such home run people in the stands are going to start heading home before the 7th inning because the game’s won. Its accurate, powerful, versatile , easy  and just plain fun to shoot.  If this is a set up you are interested in, using higher suppressor sights is a pretty easy solution.

I’ve been carrying the G40 for a few days in a VG2, around the office and really is not that difficult to carry. It is no Glock 19, but of course it is no Glock 19.

If you are on the fence if the G40 is right for you, I can without hesitation say it is. I’ve only had this Mean Mother F’er for a week or so and it is quickly becoming my favorite handgun.


  


  
  
  

Glock 40: First Look at a G40 10mm Long Slide

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To the annoyance of every gun counter guy between Northern Ohio and Southern Florida I’ve asked “do you have that new 10mm long slide” at every gun shop I’ve stopped in since the G40 was announced.

Well, I finally found one at a nice little shop in coastal North Carolina,the Gun Shack OBX  In a few days I’ll take her to the range for a full report. In the meantime, here are some pictures I grabbed before it was packed up and shipped to my FFL.

It’s a little larger than I had anticipated (that’s what she said) I was expecting something closer to a G34. I have a surefire X300 ultra waiting for a host gun this one should do just fine. I’ve ordered a Cuda from Simply Rugged, I have one of their holsters for my S&W 29 which I like very much. I’m hoping Raven concealment will make a light compatible holster for the G40 in the not too distant future.

Some gun shop pictures before it was shipped off:


  

Will this take the place of my 4″ S&W 29 as my favorite “woods gun?” I suppose time will tell how lucky I feel.

Summer Slump: August 600 AGG at KFGA

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OK, it’s not that bad I just thought it would be a catchy title. Due to a conflict, I had to take a month off from the Garand Matches, but I was able to make my clubs NRA service rifle match this weekend. It was an absolutely beautiful day for shooting, high 70s sunny, with a light tail wind. It really is much nicer to shoot when the weather is comfortable.


I started off strong in off-hand, and was able to crack the 90s on the first 10 rounds. However, I had one too many 7s in the last 10. I am really starting to get comfortable with off-hand. I don’t mean to alarm anyone but it’s becoming my favorite string.  I’m doing a better job calling my shots. I knew  both of those two out of the black were trouble as soon as they left the barrel. For XTC I am working with my data book and documenting my call for each shot. Perhaps if I can call some of these before I pull the trigger I can keep more points.

I am happy with sitting. The light was changing during the string of fire. I’m blaming the vertical stringing in my otherwise nice group on that.

I still seem to be in a slump for prone. For rapid fire I was too low and pulled some rounds right. The former I am still going with the weird light at Kimberton, the latter I need to work on cutting out some of my slop in rapid.

Slow prone at Kimberton is challenge due to range conditions especially this time of year. For most of the string it was dark down range with a bright sun on the firing line. This makes seeing your shoots difficult and at least with my old eyes the halo on the front sight can get aggressive. I sooted my sight again before the stage and still had issue with the halo.

In the end I was about to squeak into the bottom end of expert class scores but not where I wanted to be to pull my scores up enough from last month’s 86% to get an expert card. There are 3 NRA matches left at KFGA and one at New Holland. I’m going to have to cram to get that last fraction of a percentage point in time to make expert by the end of the season.

Magpul M3 Sand PMAGs: Beach Tactics Testing

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NOTE: Tactical words bolded for high speed low drag reading.

On a recent surf fishing trip, I brought along one of Magpul’s new sand color PMAGs. I ran this peice of kit through rigorous high speed low drag trials to see if it is up to the tactical demands of a surf fishing operator.Initial testing indicates that these PMAGs are less noticeable on the sand than black PMAGs 40s. 

Scientific trials were conducted by placing a black PMAG 40 and a Sand PMAG 30 near the edge of the surf where beachgoers were likely to walk. 

Observations indicated that subjects (n=1) were 100% more likely to trip over the sand colored Pmag. Therefore it is assumed that sand colored PMAG are 100% less visible in a beach environment. 

Subject was interviewed after the experiment and was quoted as saying “I hope you got that because I’m not doing it again” 
Where did my AR pistol go?

 
Oh there it is.

   

  
   
         

  

New Holland NRA 800 AGG XTC

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After Perry I decided it was time to start getting a little more serious about the black rifle. I’ve signed up for 3 CMP EIC matches in September and this NRA match.

It was seasonably warm, clear, and sunny with just occasional light wind. A great day for shooting.

I started in the pits with relays 3&4. Relays 1&2 shot off hand and the rapid stages first. 

  

Then we did a pit change and moved to the 200 yard line for off hand and sitting. I had trouble finding the 10 ring in off hand. The first string I ciricled it in the 9 ring before I finally located it in the 10th shot, it was in the middle. In the end I did ok in off hand, nothing spectacular but I didn’t screw anything up so I’ll consider that a win. 

After my shooting buddy shot his off hand stage I moved back to the firing line and shot sitting. I learned durring the sighting shots that I needed a couple more clicks of elevation. Lights up sights up! 

Sitting went  well but I still need to tighten it up a bit. We packed up after sitting and moved back to the 300 yard line for rapid prone. 

I’m a bit disappointed in my prone performance in this match. I  like rapid prone it’s a familar distance, and a comfortable  position for me and I should have been able to post a nice score. But I struggled in the first stage with a sloppy group and a low zero,  while I tightened up my group in the second stage I had not come up, or left, up as far as I needed to.

We hauled back to the 600 yard line and shot first. Fatigue was starting to set in and I was haveing some focus issues that cost me too many points. I also let my eye stain and a problem in the pits get into my head, which hurt the last 10 rounds   I should be stronger on my belly  at 600 especially when there was no wind and it’s a berm I’ve spent plenty time practicing on.

  

Post match changes 

Since this match I’ve installed a .072 front sight post to try and prevent the focus issues I had last weekend from happening again. 

  

I took it out after work and I am happy with the change. It is definitely easier to focus on. I briefly installed a .42 rear aperture instead of the .38 but, I didn’t like it any better so, after cleaning it good, I put the .38 back on. 

The .38 rear sight and the .072 front sight post seem to be a winning combination for me. I’ve been playing with using a blinder over my left  eye to cut down on the spasms my eye has when it’s over stressed, this I am not yet sold on but I’m will to try it out for a match and see. This weekend I am back at Kimberton for a NRA 600 AGG, hopefully some of these changes help!