Here’s a little something I learned this weekend while installing a new trigger in my GLOCK-brand GLOCK 43 . . .

The beauty of Gaston’s design lies in its simplicity. To take the “Safe Action” pistol down to its 34 (ish) component parts, one needs mechanical skill on the level of “successfully removing and replacing a car wheel without causing injury or damage.” Coupled with a mentor who’s been there/done that (if you can).

While most GLOCKs generally work the same, the single stack G42 and G43 are slightly different creatures. When it comes to stripping the receiver, there’s one little step you need to know ahead of time. Here it is:

Press down on the middle of the slide stop lever as you’re pushing out the the trigger pin in the receiver.

Press on the area indicated by that red pen while pushing the trigger pin out (left side to right, naturally) with your $8.00 GLOCK Armorer’s Tool or your favorite 3/32″ punch. If you’ve done it right, the metal pin will slide out when you apply minimal pressure.

By “minimal” I do not mean “press hard like you do on your GLOCK 17.” We’re talking the level of force you use to snap the cap back into place onto your favorite ball point pen. If you think to yourself, “Gosh, I don’t think I’m pressing hard enough,” you’re doing it wrong.

Whatever you do, if the trigger pin doesn’t come out on the first few tries, don’t do something crazy like reach for a ball peen hammer and try to force the thing out. All you’d be doing is risking damage. (I’m not naming any names, I’m just going to say that data online is persistent.)

The slide stop lever has a different design in the single-stack GLOCKs versus their big brothers.

The slide stop lever for all GLOCKs sits in a groove on the trigger pin, which holds in both the pin and the locking block (the big silver piece in the middle of the receiver that looks a little like a Honda “H” from the top).

Unlike the bigger GLOCKs, however, the G42/G43 slide stop lever has a captured spring that keeps everything locked into place. Pushing down on the lever relieves the pressure, and allows for easy dissasembly.

The rest of the stripping proceeds in line with how you’d take apart one of the bigger GLOCKs.

If you own one of Gaston’s plastic fantastics, you should learn how to take it apart if you don’t already know how. It really doesn’t take much mechanical skill, the resources to help are available, and knowing more about how your firearm functions is a good thing.

[NOTE: Death threats due to the author’s use of the “One Weird Trick…” clickbait-ish headline that are not submitted in iambic pentameter in the comments section below will be ignored.]

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17 COMMENTS

  1. The pin on the bigger glocks is a similar affair. If you wiggle the slide stop a bit it will push out easier.

  2. The click-bait headline that we all abhor
    Is prima facie cause to spill your gore.

    Will a single couplet do? (-:

    • I misread it as “one weird trick for detail STIPPLING Glock 42 & 43 receivers” and was about to come in here yelling and screaming about stupid bubbas, but now I’ve calmed down.

  3. Your click-bait jars my sense of peace
    It doth retard this hallowed place
    Should you repeat this cursed device
    I’ll throw a pie into your face!

  4. Clickbait shall not do!
    Practice well with stock trigger,
    which is what I did.

    Uh… Is haiku acceptable?

  5. Detail striping a 1911 is fairly easy too, so I never understood why GLOCK fans make such a big deal about it.

  6. The clickbait needs to stop
    I hope the title was meant to be ironic
    For no one clicks ads
    Without being moronic
    Plus stop with all the videos

  7. Known this for about two years now but at that time it would have been nice to know and not cause so much frustration. Good to post for newbies.

  8. Mister Paulsen thinks he is so clever
    Printing titles bound to make men rather
    Angry due to verbal sleight of hand.
    We say, “No More Click-Bait! We demand!!”

    Wiki tells us “One Weird Trick’s” been used
    To con men out of dollars, gold, and jewels.
    Banana peels won’t whiten yellowed teeth;
    Belly fat won’t melt away, capisce?!

    Dismembered pistols look so sad and lonely,
    Re-assemblage wasting time, if only
    Handguns would oblige us all, removing
    All the residue from all the shooting.

    The Glock’s a funny, plastic little thing:
    Pull the trigger for BOTH firing
    And disassembling. Gaston made it simple
    To fail and make a discharge accidental.

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