By then – and because I’m a prepper, I already had a fair amount of .40 Smith & Wesson ammo squirreled away at the hacienda. I was a staunch believer in .40 and had no interest in throwing in on a 9mm just because folks were suddenly saying it was “just as good.”
Why upset the apple-cart for “just as good”?
So I bought a Gen 4 Glock 23, and I’m extremely happy I did.
Sure, the G-23 is a great gun and there are plenty of reasons to be pleased with that decision. But, that alone doesn’t explain why I consider it a better choice than a Glock 19.
Like I said above, you folks know these platforms as well as I do. Going on about how the Glock 23 takes all the same readily available mods, pieces, parts, gadgets, and doodads as the G-19 wastes your time. I specifically said I wasn’t going to do that.
The reason I prefer the G-23 over the G-19 is simple.
It can shoot 9mm.
“What did this idiot just say?”
Slow down there, gunfighter. I know exactly what I said.
Think about this from my perspective. I’m a prepper – to the point that I wrote a whole ding-dang book about the subject. The prepper mindset focuses on getting the most out of the least.
A lot of folks point to the Ruger 10/22 as the best SHTF gun. .22 LR ammo is cheap, you can stash an absolute donkey cart of it, and it’s light enough that 30 pounds of the stuff gives you a lifetime supply. Those arguments make sense, which is why the Ruger 10/22 is the go-to for a lot of preppers who haven’t put much thought into it.
Yes, a .22 LR rifle is a fantastic option for all those reasons.
Does it give you the most with the least?
In my opinion – it does not.
Instead I chose an AR platform chambered in 5.56 because it can shoot .22 LR.
See what I did there?
With a .22 conversion bolt and magazines, you can shoot .22 LR from your 5.56 AR. You can also shoot 5.56 and .223 from the same rifle, something you cannot do with a Ruger 10/22. Why carry two rifles when one does the job? Add a .458 SOCOM or .450 Bushmaster upper, and now you’re covering everything from bunnies to bears with the same platform.
That gives you four cartridges from one system. 5.56, .223, .22 LR, and either .458 or .450.
Apply that same prepper logic to the Glock platform. A G-19 shoots 9mm. A G-23, with a conversion barrel and 9mm magazines, shoots both 9mm and .40 S&W. Add a .22 conversion slide, barrel, and magazines, and now you’re shooting .22 as well.
From a pure combat mindset, the G-19 is a solid choice.
From a prepper mindset, the G-23 does everything the G-19 does and adds .40 S&W to the mix.
More with less. That’s what prepping is about.
If you want to hear more on prepper logic, check out my book Up To Speed: A Prepper’s Guide, available on Kindle and in paperback on Amazon.
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