...and I had a spare grip frame since I'd bought a Large for comfort, so I decided to try an experiment.
TL;DR: If you want a "long slide subcompact" roughly equivalent to the "26L" frankenglock and aren't afraid of basic woodworking tools (a pull saw, battery-powered dremel clone with a sanding disc, and a cheap round file are all I used) then you can make your own today in about 30-45 minutes. This trims almost exactly a full inch off the overall height.
Just remember to REMOVE THE COG first and leave it in another room, because cutting this plastic WILL make a lot of very fine dust you don't want getting into the mechanisms. And PLEASE don't just "lop an inch off" blindly, trim a little at a time in multiple passes, then sand with patience to get the fit just right, using the file to remove any burrs of plastic as you go. You're dealing with precision fitting here, be patient.
The only downside to me is magazines are even more expensive for this configuration, as you need to order a 10-round and 15-round magazine and swap the 15-round floorplate onto the 10-round magazine.
Magazine drops free smoothly (and a bit quickly IMHO) when everything is fully assembled, though it's light enough it won't drop without the COG in place on an empty frame. So don't be surprised if you do this and test-fitting the magazine with the cog removed it doesn't drop until you reinstall the COG.
And yes, the backstrap still locks in easily and can be swapped for another (trimmed) one, it has a solid 3/8" of rail at the bottom that still slots in.
TL;DR: If you want a "long slide subcompact" roughly equivalent to the "26L" frankenglock and aren't afraid of basic woodworking tools (a pull saw, battery-powered dremel clone with a sanding disc, and a cheap round file are all I used) then you can make your own today in about 30-45 minutes. This trims almost exactly a full inch off the overall height.
Just remember to REMOVE THE COG first and leave it in another room, because cutting this plastic WILL make a lot of very fine dust you don't want getting into the mechanisms. And PLEASE don't just "lop an inch off" blindly, trim a little at a time in multiple passes, then sand with patience to get the fit just right, using the file to remove any burrs of plastic as you go. You're dealing with precision fitting here, be patient.
The only downside to me is magazines are even more expensive for this configuration, as you need to order a 10-round and 15-round magazine and swap the 15-round floorplate onto the 10-round magazine.
Magazine drops free smoothly (and a bit quickly IMHO) when everything is fully assembled, though it's light enough it won't drop without the COG in place on an empty frame. So don't be surprised if you do this and test-fitting the magazine with the cog removed it doesn't drop until you reinstall the COG.
And yes, the backstrap still locks in easily and can be swapped for another (trimmed) one, it has a solid 3/8" of rail at the bottom that still slots in.
