Glock Folding

[Paulette Dzurilla]

Nowa folding take-down rifle that works well . . . that makes sense. A handgun is already small and has compromises because of that. Folding one into a brick shape just makes it a brick. That takes precious seconds to open into fire position. If your gun is called upon to save your life, you must UNFOLD it potentially at the exact moment when adrenaline and your haste to get it open turns your motor skills to mush.

The first Glock designed with true concealed carry in mind was the Glock 26, and it achieves its concealability by chopping the grip down to two-fingers worth and giving up more than 40-percent of its magazine capacity. More recent concealable models from Glock, the G42 and G43, are even more concealable by virtue of thinness, at the cost of another 40-percent capacity loss from the already reduced G26.

Being not only a gun fan, but a movie buff who likes to go to the theater with his family, Full read the news of the Aurora mass shooting and imagined what could only be called a nightmare scenario. Trying to engage a body armor-clad, rifle-bearing shooter from halfway across a darkened movie theater is hard enough. But doing it with a six-shot, 9mm subcompact is a scenario that even the best-trained shooter would find somewhere on the scale between daunting and next-to-impossible, he reasoned. That was the genesis of what became the Full Conceal M3D.

Execution

The patented M3D is, in essence, a Gen4 Glock 19 with a hinge in the front strap and a spring-loaded latch in the back strap. Press the latch and the entire grip folds forward to lie against the dust cover, parallel to the bore axis. Perhaps uncoincidentally, the folded package is more than a little reminiscent of the G26-plus-spare-magazine package that Full carried before the Kahr.

In order to accomplish this feat of origami, the trigger guard is replaced with a hinged assembly that collapses flat between the grip and dust cover. While the standard factory Glock trigger bar is retained, the trigger shoe, with its tabbed drop safety, is replaced with a trigger that is a flat metal tab. It truly is flat, and the sear breaks with the trigger just slightly past the 90-degree point in the arc of travel.

Trigger feel is still Glock-like, which, depending on your point of view, may be good or bad. Due to the contours of the folding trigger guard, my finger got a little pinched between the trigger and the bottom of the trigger guard during overtravel. This will likely vary from person to person, but people with average-to-large fingers will almost certainly find it miserable in a 500-round class.

One side effect of the folding trigger and trigger guard is that when the gun is in its folded position, the trigger bar is locked in place, and the trigger shoe is folded up and completely covered.

Theoretically, this makes a folded Full Conceal M3D even safer to carry with a chambered round than a regular Glock 19. Whether that knowledge is enough to overcome the fact that muzzle-up carry in a cargo pocket has the muzzle pointed in some scary directions is entirely up to your taste for such things.

The M3D ships with a single magazine, a lone Magpul 21-rounder. When the magazine is locked into the well, the floorplate protrudes some length past the muzzle of the gun while folded, but by depressing the mag release and over-inserting the magazine, the whole package becomes a rectangle about the length and width of a large smartphone. (But much thicker, obviously.)

Other than the folding parts, the functional portion of the gun is straight-up Glock. RECOIL was sent two test guns, and M3D and the newer M3S, which is a Glock 43 with the Full Conceal treatment applied. Neither weapon had any issues with function at the range, pretty unsurprising since both the 19 and 43 are well-known for being pretty solid in the reliability department.

The M3S, which ships with an ETS eight-round magazine (included was also a prototype 10-rounder), is almost the exact length and height when folded as the regular Glock 43 with the flush six-rounder aboard, and the M3D has about the footprint of a 19 with the grip chopped to 26 length, which is a not-unheard-of modification. So, this raises the question why?

The second point was comfort/convenience. Among the comfort and convenience points argued by Full was that the M3D is more comfortable to carry in a pocket while seated in a car than a conventional Glock in an inside-the-waistband holster. Also, he pointed out, it could be transferred from pants pocket to car door pocket or vice versa when entering or exiting a vehicle without passersby immediately sussing out that the object in hand was a firearm.

Loose Rounds

That said, there are likely niches where this gun will find a happy home. Not the least of them is the very one previously stated, the casual concealed carrier. The guy who wants to carry as much gun as possible without accumulating a drawer of belts and holsters rejected through years of trial and error may well welcome a solution he can purchase and fit in his cargo pocket.

One last demographic might be people who need to surreptitiously get a lot of gun past suspicious eyes. Unlike the single-shot derringer that unfolds to look like a pen, or the mockup Magpul SMG that resembled a boom box when folded, this is a Glock that folds to look like, well, a folded Glock. Still, when stuffed into a shaving kit or some other equally non-gun-shaped package, this might be the thing to get your James Bond on.

If you have been the Glock world very long, you have no doubt become acquainted with the sea of aftermarket goodies that is available for the simple, little Glock. Do you really need all of these add-ons? Nobody needs all of them, however, everybody needs some of them. The first thing most shooters agree on about a Glock is that their sights could use some improvement. The KNS Glock SwitchSight is an improvement that could take your Glock to the next level.

Back up iron sights on an AR-15 have become pretty much a necessity with today's optics. However, why would you want a set of Glock flip-up sights in place for BUIS on your Glock? Well, would you ever think of running a Red Dot on your Glock? When that Red Dot fails, you're going to need a set of Glock folding sights in place for back-up. If you can't properly aim at your target just how do you expect to hit it? A KNS Glock sight will make that happen for you.

When you screw on a suppressor, your standard sights cannot see over it, so, how are you going to get a sight picture? Simple, you run Glock flip-up sights and in a snap, you acquire your target. Take off the can and simply flip down the KNS Glock SwitchSight and you're back in business. Glock folding sights are machined from hardened steel to last and designed to work cleanly with the holster you already have. A KNS Glock sight gives you reliable versatility and options that you have never had before.

The Glock tactical Cobra stock takes your Glock Pistol to the next level of stability and performance. The FAB Defense Collapsible Tactical Cobra Stock for Glock 17-19 makes shooting much more accurate. The stock is used by undercover law enforcement & security personnel worldwide. If you are considering this product we suggest adding the Recover Tactical GCH Glock Charging Handle and FAB Defense FGGS-K Folding grip for pistols.

So, I told him that makes it a used item and he still disagrees. Not withstanding our disagreement, a $100 + item for a firearm SHOULD not come with or develop such nasty slop unless it is made of inferior crap material and/or made with an inferior crap manufacturing process.

The slop is where the adapter latches out. All are very tight tolerance at the hinge faces. I determined that the slop comes from the pin that has a poor or bad seat in the bottom of the adapter due to a poorly formed pocket for the pin or a worn one, IDK which, but NEITHER reason is acceptable. The seller said it was like that when he took it out of the package, but then, we never ascertained that we are actually talking about the same play issue. He said the play is between the Glock and the attachment that slips inside the Glock grip, however, that was tight when I tried it.

Different opinion than Robert Wise. I have this on my glock 19, vertical foregrip, and holosun 507c. This is a an SBR that weighs 2 lbs, it is not a toy. I have run it in classes and it is super fast on target with rapid accurate follow up shots. I have had many people try it who are much better shots than me and they were blown away with this set up. One individual is active SF guy.

I have been working on filling the various holes in the "Modern Shovels" section of the collection, and I have had one VERY difficult shovel to find (at least here in the US). I have needed a Glock folding shovel. Not just any Glock shovel, but one that was actually issued to the Danish Army.

Well I finally found one! I noticed that one of my favorite surplus sources in Finland had a batch of Glock shovels that were all surplus, and carried the official markings of the Danish Army. Just what I had been looking for!

Glock has been making and selling their version of the "military grade" folding shovel for 25 years. They are widely available in sporting goods stores, in nearly every country. 99.9% of these shovels are "Civilian" models, and carry no military markings. There are a few ex-military Glock shovels out there, but they are quite hard to find these days.

In 1996, The Danish Army adopted the Glock shovel as their official issue entrenching tool. They were given the classification of Feltspade M/96. The shovels that Glock supplied to Denmark were the same as their civilian shovels, with only one difference. They were stamped with "Danmark M/96" on the blade, below the civilian markings. Aside from that detail, the civilian shovels are exactly the same.

In the last few years, Denmark surplussed what appears to be the entire "first issue" inventory of their Glock shovels. I'm not sure if that means they have adopted another shovel style, or if Glock is continuing to supply their shovels to the Danish Army. I need to do some more research in that direction.

3a8082e126