The Glock 48 was something I was very excited about when it came out. At the time, I had swung back to carrying appendix inside the waistband and I found that it did not conceal any better for me than my Glock 19.
Now, I am back to carrying inside the waistband at about 2:30 in my every decade cycle of change. Thanks to the opportunity of this site, I have been enjoying shooting more interesting guns than just what I use at work. It helps that I am nearing retirement and one day, in a few years, I can carry whatever I want again.
I saw that Rapid Engineering offered a backstrap that corrected the Glock grip angle to that of every other gun in the world, save those oddballs, like the Luger, classically styled Ruger Marks, and the Laugo. My thought was that if this worked, I might be able to shoot cool guns on the weekend while still carrying something that I was authorized when off duty without suffering through the issues I have with switching grip angles. Picking up a Glock 17 on Monday, is no big thing, since I just pull the muzzle down on presentation until the dot appears or the sights align. (I may look at a Rapid Engineering backstrap for that too.)
I quickly found that the Rapid Engineering backstrap does not make the Glock 48 point exactly like a 1911. However, it does mitigate the angle enough that I can pick it up and put the muzzle directly on the target after living the Hi Power life all day. It is also relatively inexpensive.
This is the third G48 I have had. I had an original silver slide model which I traded for a black slide version with the marksman barrel and breech face cut. As I dove into optics full-time, I went in different directions.
This new one is the MOS model and I ordered a DPP Titanium plate to mount a Holosun EPS. The Holosun EPS is a bit larger than the slide but it offers a nice big window and I think it is a very slightly better optic than the EPS Carry. I added a 10-8 Performance rear sight and a Wilson Combat .245 high tritium front sight with a green insert. This allows a perfect iron sight picture in the bottom of the window should the dot fail. I always put Tango Down slide stops on my small frame Glocks so that the slide can be locked open for stoppage clearances and released for reloads with ease.
The final additions were some Talon Grips Pro Tape and a Tau Development Striker Control Device. I like pushing up on a thumb safety or thumbing a DA hammer when holstering a pistol. The SCD allows me to thumb the slide and feel if something has impinged the trigger. It doesn’t stop the trigger but you can feel it push against your thumb. Langdon Tactical manufactures and distributes the SCD now.
It took me 10 rounds of ball and 12 rounds of Hornady 135+P Critical Duty to zero the gun at 25 yards. A week later, I finally had some actual range time and I shot a modified 5 Yard Roundup.
I had done very little dry practice before the Roundup attempt, about 10 reps from the holster the day I did the zeroing. The gun is pretty easy to shoot. It has a crisper break than the Gen 5 guns. It is more like the Gen 4s. I am tempted to put a connector in it to put some roll in the trigger but since I am using it to transition from Hi Power/ 1911s maybe I should leave it alone.
Checking accuracy was something I was nervous about. My experience with the P365XLs and Fuse was that they were good but not exceptional. I was pleasantly surprised by the G48’s 25 yard accuracy with Critical Duty, so I shot a group at 40 yards with my wrists braced across a sandbag on the tractor front end loader bucket with Atlanta Arms 115gr Elite JHP holding the top of the black.
As a general rule, small guns recoil more than big guns. I was hoping that the G48 would perform nearly as good as the P365 Fuse. It is slightly smaller and lighter than the Fuse and so I expected less performance.
The Rapid Engineering backstrap makes the grip significantly longer front to back and the Talon Pro grip tape adds significant traction. Without the backstrap, I find the G48 to be squirmy and hard to shoot. The difference between this and the Fuse, for me, is that the G48 is slightly shorter in the hard to conceal grip length and required cheaper buy in, including all the modifications. I could argue that the 365 series has a better trigger but overall the performance between the G48 and Fuse is about the same with a slight edge in accuracy to the Glock.
The G48 with Rapid Engineering backstrap has something about it that allows me to shoot it well enough, without much practice. I intend to put more practice into this gun and qualify with it as an off duty gun to replace my G19G5. It is thinner in the waistband and the magazine is thinner, making it overall easier to conceal. The 10 round magazines worry me not at all compared to the higher capacity guns.
In addition to over 150 rounds of ball, this G48 has been reliable with nearly 200 rounds of Hornady Critical Duty 135 +P, Winchester RA9BA 124+P, and Winchester RA9TP 124+P. There have been issues reported with the small frame Glocks and carry ammunition so I wanted to check this one out, carefully. I have not seen any issues with anything other than 147gr loads in any of them at work. The 147s caused many problems in many different Glock 43s before we learned not to use it. I rarely see stoppages with the Glock 43X or 48s on the line though it is generally only 50-75 rounds at a time through no more than about 100 guns with only around 20 being +P carry ammunition. Feeding JHP ammunition is also something that the 10 round magazines in the larger Glocks (17, 19, etc) have trouble with which can be a concern if you live or travel through a capacity limited state.
I will be continuing the test and am hoping that it makes the transitions from the weekend fun guns I might carry around the property to an authorized off duty gun I wear to town less of an issue for me.
The G48 as it is now set up is a legit 2-3 bad guy gun and lighter than what I have been carrying. It is accurate and I can shoot it well enough to feel good about taking it somewhere dangerous (like gas stations, grocery stores, and other places criminals go to prey on the rest of us).
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