Glock 43X MOS Review

The Glock 43X is the reverse stretch of Glock pistols. Glock took the wildly successful Glock 43 pistol and stretched the grip to accommodate a newer 10 round magazine. The Glock 43X became a very popular concealed carry pistol and opened up a new market for Glock slimline pistols. We will explore its various features in this Glock 43x MOS review.

The Glock 43X has recently gotten a welcome addition in the form of a MOS model. The new Glock 43X MOS is hitting shelves now and will likely be a huge hit.

Glock 43X

MOS stands for Modular Optics System. This pistol bears the name MOS, but the MOS system on these guns is much different from the standard MOS system.

The standard system comes with a multitude of plates to accommodate tons of red dot optics.

The Glock 43X is a superbly small handgun, so it can’t accommodate bigger red dot sights. This MOS system is cut for the Shield RMSc pistol red dot.

This is one of the smallest pistol red dots on the market, and the footprint of the optic is quickly becoming popular.

This opens it up for the Shield RMSc, SIG ROMEO Zero, SwampFox Sentinel, and Holosun 507k, and a few newer models hitting the market hard and fast.

That’s not the only change Glock made to the 43X series pistol though so let’s dive in and check out the Glock 43X MOS and how Glock made a micro fighting pistol a bit more capable.

While these new small optics have yet to prove themselves, they are becoming increasingly popular. Especially when you pair it with a great Glock 43X MOS holster.

Fit and Finish

A big change Glock made to the Glock 43X MOS was changing the slide color from stainless steel to a traditional black nDLC finish. The guns came out in a black finish prior to the MOS series, but the MOS series will be exclusively nDLC.

This diamond-like coating is ultra-strong and proven to be durable on the vast majority of Glock pistols. The hardness level is extreme, and it doubled from the older tenifer finish.

I can’t lie, I like the stainless steel coating, and I think it makes the plain Jane, Spartan Glocks stand out a little, but I understand the change.

Stainless looks good, but the black is less reflective and will create fewer reflections on the lens of your red dot optic. The black finish gives the gun a more discrete look and allows it to disappear a bit better under a cover garment.

Silver does tend to stand out a bit more than most.

The frame is the traditional Glock black polymer frame. It’s a bit blocky and plain, but looks professional and is molded precisely. The Glock frame isn’t fancy but is perfectly suitable and well made.

You won’t see issues with the frame’s molding marks or texture.

The appearance of the Glock 43X demands a black optic to keep the black on black theme going. Luckily, black is the most common color in the tactical optics world. It’ll also match your shoes.

Specs

The Glock 43X MOS is a superbly thin and lightweight handgun designed with concealed carry in mind. The G43X MOS has an ultra-short barrel, and this makes OWB carry possible and makes the 43X MOS easy to carry IWB and AIWB (Appendix Inside the Waistband).

The overall length is 6.5 inches long, and the overall height is 5.04 inches, including the magazine.

The overall width is a slightly chunky 1.10 inches, and the slide is .87 inches wide. The gun weighs 23.07 ounces fully loaded. The gun isn’t the thinnest option, but it’s still exceptionally easy to conceal.

The gun is remarkably balanced, and those of us who want something small and light to carry but still want a full grip will love the Glock G43X MOS.

As you add an optic, the gun’s height and overall weight will change, but not significantly. The modern micro red dot is a super small and lightweight design that barely adds bulk to your firearm. The G43X MOS is one of the smallest optics-enhanced guns on the market.

The gun comes with ten-round magazines, and it cannot take magazines made for the G43. This cuts off a lot of extended magazines made for the G43. However, a company called Shield Arms makes a 15 round magazine that fits flush with the G43X MOS and Glock 48.

This adds five rounds of flavor to your Glock series pistol. I have no personal experience with these magazines, so I cannot speak to their reliability, but they do seem to be well-loved by Glock 43X MOS and Glock 48 owners.

Ergonomics

The Glock 43X MOS offers a much better grip than the original G43. The longer grip fills the hand better and allows the gun to fit the 10 round single stack magazine with ease. Another major improvement is the slight beavertail that provides some protection for my hand.

Me and Glocks sometimes don’t get along because I’m a victim of constant slide bite from the Glock series. The Glock G43X MOS is different and provides a nice little overhang that allows me to have a nice high grip and keeps my hand from getting bit.

The Glock 43X MOS is a very simple gun. Glock has a reputation for making guns as simple as possible, and admittedly simple is good in a pistol designed for combat. The 43X MOS features three safety devices, but not a single one is a manual safety.

The only thing close to that is the trigger safety, which will not allow the trigger to fall without a complete and purposeful press. This keeps things quite simple and allows a shooter to have a gun they can instantly engage with without much thought behind it.

The G43X’s hand-filling design does help with recoil and control. The grip allows you to comfortably control and handle the gun.

It’s much more comfortable for rapid-fire training and long days at the range than the standard 43. This is a must-have for an optics-enhanced gun.

A real grip ensures you can hold the dot steady and take full advantage of all the benefits a red dot has to offer you.

The G43X MOS isn’t perfect ergonomically.

One of the issues with the gun is the slide lock. With a good, thumbs forward grip, the slide lock will be pinned down and fail to engage when the gun is empty.

This might be a problem associated with my sausage-like fingers, but it’s one that plagues every Glock I’ve ever shot, including the G43X (non-MOS version).

That’s the life of dudes with 2XL sized hands.

Features

Red Dot Cut Out

The star of the show is clearly the gun’s ability to utilize an optic. An optic on a handgun might seem silly to some, but they’ve been proven by reputable trainers around the industry to be a drastic improvement on your handgun’s potential.

A dot equipped handgun is faster, more precise, and allows a shooter to hit targets at further distances with ease. On the G43X MOS, the optic makes a ton of sense.

Small guns typically have a short sight radius, and the presence of a dot completely erases the sight radius issue. This allows a small gun to be as precise as a large gun. Although learning to use the red dot takes some extra practice. It’s well worth the investment in the end.

The red dot cut cuts in the slide aren’t the only big change.

Picatinny Rail

Glock also added a small Picatinny rail on its new G43X MOS model. This small Picatinny rail allows users to attach any number of devices. This includes lasers, small lights like the Olight Mini Valkyrie, or even training devices like the MantisX.

The Picatinny rail is a nice touch, and as red dots and lights become more mandatory on guns, more companies will embrace small rails on their carry guns.

The G43X MOS also comes with most of the updates Glock made for the Gen 5 guns. This includes a high visibility follower in the magazine, a smooth finger groove-less design, front serrations, and a reversible magazine release.

The front serrations are an important touch and allow you to easily manipulate the slide when the gun is wearing a red dot. They’ve been on the gun since the original G43X and are more important on the MOS system.

Front serrations ensure you can manipulate the weapon without gripping the optic. You can grab the optic to manipulate the slide but you’re likely to smudge oil from your skin on the glass when you do so. A smudge-free optic works much better.

The below image shows a big thumbprint on the Swampfox Optic.

Shooting Characteristics

The Glock 43X is a weirdo, and the MOS model is also still a weirdo. The short slide combined with the compact-sized grip makes the gun interesting, to say the least.

The Glock 43X MOS fills the hand nicely, and the beavertail extension allows for a nice high grip on the gun. This allows you to maximize control over the gun and keep it on target, even when firing rapidly.

The original 43 used to bite the hell out of my hand, and I hated it. I would start flinching just a bit between each and every shot. That is long-gone with the Glock 43X MOS.

The iron sights are like all Glock iron sights, and they are made from plastic and kind of suck. Toss on a red dot and replace the sights with suppressor height sights for co-witnessing asap.

The recoil is minimal, especially with 115-grain loads. You’ll feel a bit more snap with self-defense loaded +P loads. This snap is notable, but not uncontrollable or even painful.

It has some jump and kick to it, but it’s not like a 357 from a snub-nosed by any means.

The gun cycles just about anything you could put through it. The G43X is built to the same standards as all Glocks, and a big part of that is reliability.

You can say a lot about Glock pistols, but you can’t say they aren’t reliable.

They eat everything without complaint and just keep on going even with poor maintenance.

You can say the trigger is average at best, the grip is blockish, and the magazine release needs to be bigger. All are very true, and the Glock 43X MOS carries all the issues the regular G43X has.

The good news is these problems are very small in the grand scheme of things.

Concealment

As a gun designed for concealed carry, size matters, and the Glock 43X MOS is not necessarily a big gun, but it’s not the smallest either.

The G43 is admittedly easier to conceal just by design. However, the G43X MOS is far from difficult to conceal. However, the addition of an optic will make it a slightly bigger gun height-wise.

The G43X’s light weight makes it a comfortable gun to carry, and it won’t sag or pull at your waist.

It’s a gun that’s easy to forget you’re even carrying. The G43X MOS disappears easily under a T-shirt. The shorter barrel design allows it to be comfortably carried OWB, and that’s my preferred method of carry.

The shorter barrel means you won’t have to wear a tall shirt to make it disappear.

The gun is also quite comfortable for appendix carry and traditional IWB. IWB is typically an easy way to carry almost any gun, but AIWB can be trickier with long guns.

I haven’t mastered AIWB with a full-sized gun just yet, but a nice short gun like the G43X MOS is the perfect AIWB companion.

All in a Day’s Work

The Glock 43X MOS is a helluva upgrade to the G43X. The presence of a rail and optic allows the gun to step into the territory of full-sized guns. The extra presence of an optic and light makes the guns all the more capable, and Glock made some wise choices with the Glock 43X MOS.

The Glock 43X MOS is a very capable, but also easy to conceal weapon. With the right holster and belt combo, you’ll be able to pack the G43X, spare magazines, and a good attitude due to your comfortably concealed weapon.