Glock "+" Floorplates

Glock "+" Floorplates

     I've carried a Glock model 26 on and off since about 1996.  At the time it was the smallest pistol to hold more than just a hand full of rounds.  When I got mine, a co-worker who was a Glock armorer had one as well and traded me one of my flat-bottomed 10 round mags for one of his featuring a Pearce Grip finger extension.  This did not add any rounds to the overall capacity.  It was the waning years of the Clinton era assault on firearms after all, and "manufacturing" a magazine that held more than 10 rounds and was not marked LEO/Military Use Only could land even stalwart young officers such as ourselves in Club Fed ... at least in theory.  What the little pinky hook did was allow a full three-finger grip on the frame.  Also, if one tucked the piece on one's waistband "cavalry-style" (butt-forward) it served as some extra insurance that the piece would not slip down one's trousers.  I know, I know, but back then pretty much everyone in these parts (and, I suspect, many parts) carried off-duty by just stuffing one's weapon into one's waistband.  Not one of us ever shot our butts or privates off, and we never had a weapon fall out while exerting ourselves (or sitting in a restaurant).  I'm not advocating such, I'm just saying how it was back then.

     Fast forward a few years into my tenure as a detective and in a holster trade with one of my partners I wound up with  a 17 round mag from a Glock 17 he used to carry.  That put me on the losing side insofar as cash value, but I was actually quite happy with the acquisition.  It was a "Pre-Ban" mag prior to the sunsetting of that ridiculous law restricting magazine capacity.  Yes, it stuck out of the grip a bit, but on special assignments it gave me a very compact, fast-into-action pistol with 18 rounds on board of our issued 115gr +P+ JHP ammo.  The short barrel also gave much less leverage to a would-be gun-grabber than a longer barreled pistol.  I carried the Glock as backup and occasionally as a primary duty weapon, depending on circumstances.  

     I'm now retired but still carry daily both by virtue of 18 USC 926C and a lifetime permit from my state.  The Glock goes with me sometimes although at least as frequently it's some other weapon sharing space in my waistband or weighing down my pocket.  Whatever my daily carry happens to be, though that "baby" Glock is usually my go-to-in-the-night pistol.  It sits ready-to-hand each night by my bed with the trigger-guard cover in place (so it takes two hands to get into action ... just one more step to help make sure I'm wide awake) with the 17 round mag in place.  Several months ago, I got a X-Grip adapter to use with that 17 round magazine.  It gives the weapon a nice, rounded butt profile which is not only vastly more comfortably in the hand, but helps with concealment by rounding corners on which a shirt or jacket may otherwise catch.  Reportedly shooting the shorter pistol with the longer magazine in place begs for a jam due to finger pressure on the magazine.  After thousands of rounds I've never had that problem.  But with the grip, at least that's one less thing to potentially go wrong.  A couple years back, I made a nice trigger-guard cover out of Kydex which features a 550 cord lanyard.  A pull on the lanyard by either a support hand or having it looped over one's belt yanks the guard off the weapon making it instantly ready.  While in place, it keeps fingers and other items away from the trigger.  A very minimalist holster offered by many manufacturers, it's a vast improvement over our old method of just sticking it in our pants.

     The other day I noticed CDNN (http://www.cdnnsports.com/) had a sale on Glock brand plus magazine floorplates.  Now, this concept of getting extra rounds in by making a deeper floorplate is nothing new.  I knew several officers and a fed or two that used "+2" floorplates on their Glocks back in the late 1990s.  Again, once upon a dark and dreary time (pre-George W. Bush era) that was only legal if your magazine already held more than 10 rounds.  Now in a much more enlightened era (at at least one without an insane national magazine capacity restriction), I figured it was long past time I tried some of these.  I'd heard mixed reviews on the off-brand extra capacity floorplates but have only heard good reviews of the actual Glock brand models.  I've also been made to understand the original springs in the magazines are sufficiently robust so as to handle the additional force of the extra load.  I am hardly a spring expert, however, so keep an eye on your spring, as I'd hope you'd do anyway.  These new generation floorpates are now called simply "+" floorplates, by the way.  It seems some folks possessing Glocks chambered in .40 S&W or .357 SIG (whose magazines take the same floorplate) were distressed to learn that when they put the older extension onto their mags, the "+2" stamp on the bottom was not, in fact, a magical incantation which allowed them to violate the laws of physics.  You get two additional rounds in 9x19mm but with the fatter rounds of .40 S&W or .357 SIG you only get one extra round.  Either way, you get to get a full three-finger grip on the frontstrap for a surprisingly tiny bit of extra bulk. 

     I added one of these floorplates to my 17 round mag.  That way, if I have to grab it in the middle of the night, I have 20 rounds of 9mm Luger (currently Federal's excellent 124 grain +P+ JHP) on board ready to go.  If I can't solve the problem with twenty shots of near .357 snub level rounds, it probably was beyond my ability to solve with anything short of a full squad with long-guns.  This gives me all the same advantages I had when I used this setup for duty:  A small, fast-to-draw pistol with a barrel short enough to make a gun-grab more difficult, and with enough ammo on board (now two additional rounds!) to handle most anything I'm likely to be able to handle with a pistol.     

     The other floorplate I put on the magazine that was formerly the home to that Pearce grip finger rest.  That gives me 13 rounds on board in a very concealable and comfortable package.  In fact, that gives me only one round less than I get with my stock magazines in my old favorite, original duty pistol, my Browning Hi-Power.  My Baby Glock is not as elegant as that fine Belgian pistol.  It lacks the graceful lines and solid, all steel frame.  But my Glock 26 is lighter (polymer frame) and can actually (again, depending on the pants) fit into a pocket for discreet carry.  Sure, it's bulky and thicker than the Hi-Power, but overall it's easier to carry tucked up close to one's tender skin.  Just don't tell my beloved Hi-Power I said any of that, okay?  It's still one of my favorite pistols of all time.

    Just to check and see how concealable my pistol was, I used the trigger cover (550 cord looped over my belt, pistol tucked securely inside my waistband) and with the now almost silly looking 19 round magazine and grip adapter in place, hidden by a XXL Aloha shirt (quite popular here on the Gulf Coast  -- vanity insists that I note, although I'm hardly thin, I actually "fit" an XL -- the XXLs hide well though and after a couple of turns through the washer and dryer, I stop looking like I'm wearing some giant fat guy's shirt).  So adorned and so armed, my wife and I went on an errand and then proceeded to find an agreeable restaurant in which to have our late evening supper.  Honestly the weapon was so comfortable even with the larger surface area touching me (longer mag) I pretty much forgot it was there.  Also, we never found it printing under that shirt.  Normally, under a shirt that fit any better, I'd just use the newly modified 12 round magazine but I wanted to see a worst-case scenario.  I'm thinking it'd make a great traveling gun with the 19 round mag in place.  Tonight's adventure showed me that on rest stops, pit stops and dinner stops I could, if needs be, stash it under a loose travelling shirt with the huge mag in place without any problem.

     We never know if trouble will strike or when or where.  We also never know how many rounds we'll end up needing.  I think it's great to have a handy device that with maybe a finger-width of added bulk gives us two additional life-saving rounds (in 9mm, settle for just one and an improved grip if you carry the fatter bullets ... and I recommend in that case an after-market barrel with full case-head support).