Compact pistol modifications.

[HeavySmoke]

18 months ago today I turned in my badge and started life as a civilian. I took a lucrative civilian job that required relocation to the Austin area (don't recommend it, the liberals here are nuts). The job requires me to be entirely too close to the border about 5 days a month, within about 800 feet in some places. My job is one of those non spoken NPE environments where most people carry but corporate would not love it. I am also no longer bound by agency rules to not carry modified handguns.

Some serious range time has convinced me that the smaller pistols benefit dramatically from upgrades. The RMR makes the short sight radius irrelevant. The dark alley comp mitigates the recoil from proper +P ammo in the smaller weapons. The Glock 34 I carried on duty is pretty easy to shoot regardless. The glock 19 is by no means difficult in its stock format. The modifications, in my book, make much more dramatic differences on the 43 , 48, or 43x.

In my case it's a 43x with dark alley comp screwed to a face shooter barrel, shield arms mags, face shooter trigger, suppresor height sights, and an rmr. This takes it from a concealment weapon to a fighting pistol that can be concealed. At 50 meters it will put 25 rounds into a group the size of the palm of my hand. The same slide on a 43 frame is equal performance with less rounds. These modifications make me feel better when in shit environments. I resisted the idea of a comp for years but they are the truth. Next is a streetcomp upper for the 43x.

[Marco Innocenti]

Congrats on retirement! Enjoy the hell out it.

And make sure you take their money longer than you worked to earn it!


The Chief I worked for my first few years at my last job, as a DA Inspector in the Sh!tty by the Bay, was the best I ever worked for. (R.I.P. JPK.)

I ran Firearms/Tactical/DT Training for our Bureau along with another former hammer-swingin’ SWAT cop, and we are also the Bureau’s court-certified Weapons/Use of Force experts. So we presented the Chief with a little write-up on the benefits of the RMR and other “tuning” options. (My partner was/is a dedicated 1911 guy and made the pitch that pretty much every 1911 carried on duty has been modified or tuned in some way to be more reliable/dependable and more accurate for its end-user without compromising any factory safeties, thereby REDUCING liability. Same should apply for any duty handgun.)

I added a bit about the RMR being good for ADA compliance. (My eyesight was just starting to experience “age-related degeneration” and the front sight was staying pretty blurry no matter how hard I focused.)

Our Chief approved RMR’s on properly-machined slides and all the Suarez components I had in/on my G19 and G43, including the comps.

He was later forced out/into retirement and pretty humiliated by the then DA, (now the DA in Los Angeles whose name I will not soil this post with), so he could bring in his own cork-soakers to run the Bureau and turn it into his little political hit team. A couple of years later, my Chief took the “long walk” with his retired ID and his G43. (Still not forgiven, but never forgotten and forever loved.)

I retired in 2017, and now can carry pretty much whatever I want.

Which are a full-house Suarez G19 and G43 with StreetComp. Both with SI slides, barrels, RMR’s and SI RMR trijicon sights, all the NP3 internal including Faceshooter triggers, magwells, etc.

I occasionally carry an Ed Brown Kobra Karry 1911 in .45 ACP that Ed Brown built me a custom RMR slide for, along with some other really nice custom touches.

But the Suarez Glocks are my EDC at least 90% of the time.

Every year I change the battery on the RMR, the RSA, the trigger return spring on the 19, and the spring under the slide take-down levers. Thousands and thousands and thousands of rounds and LOTS more dry reps and quite a few classes, and all have run 100%.


And get that StreetComp on your 43X. Makes is shoot like a 42.

[Brent Yamamoto]

Congrats on retirement!

A comped 43x is a beautiful thing. So much capability in a tiny package.

It's like carrying Greg Nichols in your wallet.