Glock's New Model 42 Will Be a .380 ACP?

So, it appears that Glock's new model 42, to be revealed in January will be a .380 ACP.

And it appears to have the following specifications:

• 5.94 inches in length
• 4.13 inches in height
• .94 inches is width
• 3.1 inch barrel
• 13.4 ounces in weight
• 6+1 round capacity

If this is correct, rather than an internet hoax or disinformation from Glock, it is a curious choice.  I know of no one that was asking for Glock to produce a single stack .380 but a lot of people who were asking for a single stack model 19 or slightly smaller pistol.

If the .380 ACP is their choice then the size and capacity of the model 92 are not at all remarkable.  Let's compare it with other pocket pistols:

	Glock  42	Kahr	Taurus 738	Kel-Tec PF9	Kimber Solo	Taurus 709
Caliber	.380 ACP	.380 ACP	.380 ACP	9mm	9mm	9mm
Length	5.94”	4.9”	5.25”	5.85”	5.5”	6”
Height	4.13”	3.9”	3.25”	4.3”	3.9”
Width	.94”	.75”	.80”	.88”	1.2”	.92”
Barrel	3.1”	2.53”	2.84”	3.1”	2.7”	3”
Weight	13.4 oz	10 oz	10.2 oz	12.7 oz	17 oz	19 oz
Capacity	6 + 1	6  + 1	6 + 1	7 +1	6 +1	7 + 1

As you can see, there are 9mm pocket pistols the same size or smaller.  It is about the size of the Kel-Tec PF9 that holds 7 rounds of 9mm as opposed to the six round magazine capacity of the Glock 42.  

Just doesn't seem to make sense to me.

Taurus TCP 738 .380 ACP

OK, you might be looking at this and thinking "Hey Joe, in case you haven't noticed it's the middle of winter.  Why are you reviewing a .380 pocket pistol?"  The answer my friend is blowing in the cold wind:  you want to buy it now so that you have several months to practice with it and become proficient before shorts and sandals season is upon us.  Also, you can start carrying it now as a back-up gun.  I believe it was the late, great NYPD gun fighter Jim Cirillo who said "If you need one gun, you probably need two" and this makes a dandy second gun.

Let's delve into the specifications.  With the Taurus 738 TCP here's what you get:

• A 6 + 1 round capacity
• A weight of 10.2 ounces
• A 2.84 inch barrel
• An overall length of 5.25 inches
• A height of 3.25 inches 
• A width of .8 inches
• A smooth double action with a trigger pull of 4.8 pounds.
• Very small fixed sights

Let's start with the sights.  They are very small but they get the job done.  This is not a long distance shooter although at 40 feet it gave me a large grouping that would all be center mass hits.

The front sight blade is angled so that the ambient light shines on it making it a light gray in contrast to the darker rear sights.

There is a nice curvature to the back strap which makes the pistol sit well in your hand and puts the web of your hand underneath the rear of the slide which helps you keep control of the little pistol during recoil.

The magazine and slide releases are very flat.  They are easy to operate while helping to keep the overall package as flat as it can be.  The slim design along with the 10.2 ounces in weight make this pistol very easy to carry all day long in your pant's pocket.  You'll also note that I have opted for two accessories to improve the pistol's shootablilty.  The first is the Pearce finger extension that easily slides onto the 738's magazine.  It still does not allow me to get three fingers on the grip but I can get two on it which makes the pistol more comfortable and accurate to shoot.  The second accessory is a Pachmayr grip glove which gives me a better purchase on the grips and makes accurate follow-up shots faster. 

So, let's take a look at the targets:

Here's 7 rounds of Hornady Critical Defense 90 grain FTX ammo shot at 21 feet.

Here's 13 rounds of Mag Tech 90 FMJ ammo shot at 21 feet.

Here's 17 rounds of Mag Tech ammo shot at 30 feet.

And here's 20 rounds of Mag Tech ammunition fired at 40 feet.  Certainly a larger group but they all would have been solid hits.

When I went to the gun shop looking for a pocket carry micro .380 ACP I was looking for three qualities: light weight, value for my money, and a good trigger pull. There were plenty of micro .380's on display but the smooth 4.8 pound trigger pull on the 738 TCP along with it's lower price sold me.  It's not too early to think of what you might want to carry in the Spring and Summer and I would urge you to take a look at the Taurus 738 TCP.

Kel-Tec PF9 9mm

In the December 2nd edition of Gun Digest, The Magazine, I reviewed the Kel-Tec PMR 30 and found it to be a great pistol.  It handled well, was accurate and it was a ton of fun to shoot.  I found the quality of the pistol to be greatly improved over the PF9 and P 3AT that I owned in the middle of the last decade.  Because of this I was interested to find out if the fit, finish and accuracy of the PF 9 had also improved.

I spied this light blueish-gray framed specimen at Arnzen ARMS for a scant $259.00 and this price-point is the hallmark of Kel-Tec which has always been to provide reliable protection at a value price.  

So here's what you get for your $259.00:

• A five pound trigger pull
• Easy to reach and flat controls

• 12.7 ounces in weight
• 5.85 inches in length with a 3.1 inch barrel
• 4.3 inches in height
• A width of 0.88 inches
• A capacity of 7 + 1 pounds
• A large white dot on the front sight

• Two smaller white dots on the rear sight which is adjustable for windage.  The elevation is adjustable by purchasing a set of 4 shims which are available on the Kel-Tec website for $13.00.

All in all this is a light weight, small pistol that is easy to carry and rides well in most pant pockets.

So here's the verdict:

It is much improved from the version I owned years ago but not quite up to the level fit and finish of the PMR 30.  However, you can pick up a PF 9 for a whole lot lot less than you'll pay for a PMR 30.

As a reminder, the  PF 9 is a hammer fired pistol and is not striker fired as you might normally expect of a small polymer framed pistol.  The five pound trigger pull is very smooth with no stacking.  The reset is not as clean as I would have hoped.  Upon releasing the trigger less than a quarter inch you will hear a slight "click", however the trigger is not reset.  You have to let it out almost all the way until you will hear and feel a louder, more positive "click" and know that it is ready to be pulled again.

Other than that there are no surprises with the PF 9. For my taste the .88 inches in width is a little thin.  I remedied this with a rubber grip sleeve which gave me a little extra width and a little more to hang onto during recoil.

Time to see the targets and review the accuracy.

The target above was shot during the "getting to know you" period and shows 21 rounds at 15 feet.

At 28 feet the 31 rounds opened up just a little bit, but not much.

The 25 rounds fired at 40 feet opened up further but they still would all have been solid center mass hits.

The Kel-Tec PF 9 manual states that the pistol is rated for +P ammunition, just not a continuous diet of the hotter stuff.  All in all this pistol provides reliability, accuracy, good handling and ease of concealment for a value price.  These are all good qualities to have in a pistols that means business.

The Noir 9mm

It was chilly in Los Angeles, not cold, just chilly.  I was born and raised in the Mid-West so my joints don't turn to guava jelly when the temperature dips to 48 degrees.  I was walking up Fairfax about 7:30 at night when my head began to clear.  The cool air helped me put the pieces together.  It had been raining off and on all day.  I like the streets in L.A. after a light rain.  The pavement cools and brings the oil up giving the streets a silver-white shine when the street lights come on.

My day started at 2 PM when an assistant director over at Paramount, who owed me a favor, called and woke me up.  He told me he had referred me for a job and that I should be at some over-paid, self-important producer's office at 3:30.  "Over-paid and self-important producer" is there any other kind I mused?  My AD friend admonished me that this would be a big paying job and I should be prompt.  "He probably won't see you until at least 4 o'clock but he'll know if you're one minute late and he won't like it!"  Since I hadn't had a paying case in weeks and the studios paid well and their checks didn't bounce I decided to jump on this case before they offered it to the Nick Adams Agency.

As I hung up the phone my brain suddenly brought up a 24 year old memory from Navy boot camp and I could hear my Chief yelling that we had "10 minutes to shit, shower and shave".   I decided to see if I could still do it.  I couldn't.  45 minutes later I left my bungalow apartment, stepped into my almost paid for Sea-foam green Chevrolet and rolled down Western Avenue until I got to Melrose.  I took a right and passed Wilturn and Van Ness Avenues before turning up N. Bronson and parking in the front lot.  

I then presented myself to the studio policeman at the Bronson Gate.  He looked me over twice, checked the clipboard and then just like Santee Clause he checked the list twice to see if I was really cleared to see Mr. Swanky Producer.  He even called the producer's receptionist to triple check.  "OK" he says "but before you go in, we don't allow private dicks to bring heaters onto the lot."  "You'll have to leave it with me and I'll lock it in the guard house drawer until you come out".

"Relax" I tell him as I open my coat "I'm not packin' anything today".  "Yeah?" he says, "what pawn shop is it in?"  Little did he know how right he was.  If he had pinched my wallet he would he would have found a pawn ticket for the Sunset Loan company written for a blue steel .38 Smith & Wesson.  I still had 45 days to bring them the cash before they moved it from their vault to a showcase.  What he didn't know was that my Colt .32 was wrapped in a handkerchief and stuffed low into the right front pocket of my trousers. 

"Thanks" I said "I'm glad to see that you found work after Sennett stopped making those Keystone Cops flicks!"  As I slowly walked toward Producer's Row he growled back "Go shit in your hat wiseass".  Another satisfied customer.

I made my way over to the producer's office which was nothing to speak of from the outside however, on the inside, it was an art deco masterpiece.

After traversing a long and wide reception room the general secretary, Miss Lindsay, pointed me to a very art deco bench just inside the open entry arch that was facing an art deco statue of a nude woman.  I didn't like sitting there and facing her and I didn't like sitting with my back to the open entry room.  

True to his reputation the swanky producer kept me waiting for about forty-five minutes.  I heard the general secretary's phone buzz and she then announced that producer extraordinaire, Alfred Lindestrum, would see me now.  I stood up and walked the 10 paces to the office door where it immediately opened by a Mr. Cox who introduced himself as Mr. Lindestrum's personal secretary.  He ushered me over to a cosy little set-up in front of a fireplace consisting of two chairs separated by a small table which faced a coffee table with a couch behind it.  I sat in the chair closest to the fireplace and Cox took the chair next to mine.

The room was certainly as elegant as art deco could be.  I later found out that all of the furnishing were original art deco pieces from the late 1920's that had been purchased as props for films shot during the art deco period.  Before the war they were all packaged up and stored in the Studio's massive prop house until Lindestrum discovered them.  He had the studio designers and carpenter's redecorate his office turning it into an art deco paradise which cost Lindestrum next to nothing.

When Alfred Lindestrum strode into the room a few moments later I was a little disappointed.  Due to the furnishings I was expecting to meet "The Great Gatsby" but instead my client turned out to be a dowdy man in his 60's with a big mustache, a receding hairline and wearing a nice chalk-lined suit.

For the next hour and forty five minutes Lindestrum sat on the couch and entertained us with his life story, one that Cox had undoubtedly heard many times before.  He explained how hard his formative years had been and how those rough and tumble experiences turned him into the tough business man that he is today.  Several times during the discussion he mentioned how he valued honesty, integrity, respect and loyalty.  Experience taught me that whenever someone spends that much time extolling the virtues of honest, integrity, respect and loyalty it is because they possess none of those characters themselves and you can expect them to be dishonest, disrespectful and disloyal.  


After hearing about these virtues for the fifth time I interrupted Mr. Lindestrum, something that he is probably not used to, and told him that he might want to leave some time to tell me about the case he was hiring me for.  Basically it was a simple snoop job, but a snoop job that he was offering me $10 grand to take on.  His pitch was simple.  Janice Evans was his handpicked ingenue of the year.  One of his talent agents saw her at the Miss Beehive pageant in Utah, swept her up and deposited her at Lindestrum's door. From there his studio team taught her how to walk, talk, sign an autograph, put on her make-up and how to dress (and I would imagine how to undress when she was needed to do that).  Lindestrum was afraid that his investment in Miss Evans was either going to walk out of Paramount or get involved in some scandal that would kill her career and tarnish his own as well.  He explained that over the past six weeks she had frequently been late coming to the studio and some days did not come in at all.  On some of the days when she made it in on time she was a wreck.  It was obvious that she had been out drinking and was then suffering from a tremendous hangover.  Lindestrum then opened a folder and dealt out half a dozen 8 X 10 photos on the coffee table in front of me.  He placed them face down so that I could see that they had all be stamped by the MGM publicity department.  When I turned them over I found that they were all publicity photos of MGM stars out on the town at Chasen's, The Brown Derby, The Coconut Grove, Ciro's or Earl Carroll's.

On each photo Lindestrum drew a circle around one of the faces in the background with a red grease pencil.  Each of these faces belonged to Janice Evans.  There wasn't much of a way to tell who she was with but Lindestrum suspected that an executive at MGM was ordering his minions to wine and dine Janice to either to convince her to sign with MGM or to get her involved in a scandal to ruin her promising career at Paramount.  Now, Eddie Mannix, the head of production at MGM, certainly had a shady background but this seemed like a venture that was way below him.

This type of a snoop job should take about 2 days, maybe 3 to tail Evans and her paramours in order to figure out what is going on and get some good photographs as evidence.  Worst case scenario this would cost about $2,000.00.  So when a man is offering up $10K for a $2 Grand job it makes me wonder what else he is expecting for his money.  With the studio crowd they certainly want this to be kept quiet and if anything illegal is uncovered they want to be notified at least an hour before you show up at the police station to turn your evidence over to the cops.  So maybe that's a $4 Grand job. The only other thing I could think of was that he also wanted me to throw a real scare into whoever was doing this.  It almost seemed like Lindestrum was reading my mind because at this point, while my mind was pondering the offer, he reached into his suit coat pocket and pulled out a Colt .45 automatic pistol.

I was upset with myself that I did not notice that the weight of the pistol was pulling his suit coat down on his left side.  Lindestrum them gestured to the pistol with his head and said "If anybody gives you any trouble or if you find out who is behind this I want you to make sure they clearly understand that it would be in their best personal interest to back off".  He then told me that he had heard that my .38 was in hock and asked if I needed to borrow his .45.  I was impressed and more than a little disturbed that he knew about my revolver.  I told him I would be OK.  He then wrote me out a check for $500.00 to get me started and bid me farewell.  

I was walking out of the studio about 6:45 PM still trying to make sense of the whole situation and thinking I might be better off passing on this job when I walked through the N. Bronson gate.  I heard the guard holler "Hey Shamus".  I turned toward him in time to just get a glimpse that this was not the same guard a spoke to coming in when a sap cracked across the side of my head.

To be continued....

Walther PPQ M2

OK, pay attention as this is one you should have for three reasons:

1. Accuracy
2. Ergonomics
3. Speed

Now, you may be asking yourself "Hey Joe, what's the difference between the original PPQ and the PPQ M2"?  Well, I'm glad you asked that question because I am prepared to answer your question.

The original PPQ utilized an ambidextrous paddle style magazine release which did not go over well with the U.S. consumer so they changed to to an ambidextrous standard grip frame mounted mag release button and renamed it the M2.

Before I get too caught up in the superlatives let's go over what you get with the PPQ:

• They come chambered for the 9mm or .40 S&W.  My test specimen was the 9mm.
• 4 inch barrel
• A published trigger pull of 5.6 pounds although my pistol's pull is coming in at 4.12 pounds
• A capacity of 15 rounds
• Overall length of 7.1 inches
• A height of 5.3 inches
• Width of 1.3 inches
• Weight of 1.5 pounds
• 3 dot sights

• With an adjustable rear sight

• Tenifer treated slide and barrel (remember Tenifer is a hardening treatment and not a metal finish)
• Front and rear slide serrations
• Ambidextrous slide release
• Accessory rail
• 3 passive safeties
• Ambidextrous magazine release
• Ergonomic grip with wide finger grooves and replaceable back strap inserts
• The PPQ is also available with a five inch barrel

There are several factors that contribute to the shooter's ability to effectively shoot a pistol.  The first factor (and these are in no particular order) is how the pistol fits the hand and heres what I mean by that:

• The pistol feels "good" in the hand both in terms of the grip and balance.  It should feel like an extension of your hand and arm.  The interchangeable back straps on the PPQ will help you get a good fit along with the bore axis which sits low in your hand.  
• The pistol shouldn't move around in your hand during recoil.  The finger grooves on the PPQ along with the wrap-around texture of the grips will ensure that the pistol stays in your grip during firing.  This will also help you make quick and accurate follow-up shots.
• The controls on the pistol should not require you to change the position of the pistol in your hand in order to manipulate them. The only controls on the PPQ are the slide and magazine releases and they are within easy reach of my thumb.

The second factor is the trigger pull and the pull on the PPQ is fantastic.  My specimen measures an average of 4.12 pounds.  The published trigger pull is 5.6 pounds which should not cause you to pull your shots to one side or the other.

The last factor is the sights and the sights on the PPQ are easy to see. The rear sight is wide which helps you to quickly pick up the front sight and it is also adjustable for windage.

So let's see how she shoots!

The first five targets were all shot at 21 feet:

Here's 15 rounds at 30 feet:

Here's 25 rounds at 40 feet.  The group opened up but all would be center mass hits.

Here's 23 rounds fired at 50 feet.  The group is not substantially worse than the 40 foot target.

Here's 15 rounds fired at 75 feet.  Two rounds missed the target but all in all this is not bad 75 foot shooting for me.

If you're a fan of striker-fired polymer framed defensive pistols this has the best trigger, best ergonomics, and best accuracy of any of it's competitors.  I am seeing it available online in a wide range of prices with a starting figure of $529.00 ranging upward to $739.00.