by Mark Bunch/Royal Gorge Gun Club President/Chairman Fremont County NRA
The ubiquitous PDW, or personal defense weapon has been around since the mid 1930s Germany with the adoption of the Red 9 Mauser in 9mm parabellum with the C96 stock. Our own version of a PDW was the M1 Carbine, chambered in .30 carbine which used a 110-grain rounded ball projectile travelling at around 1,900 fps. Back in WWII, this type of weapon wasn’t referred to as a PDW as that term didn’t come about until the 1980s. The “Personal Defense Weapon” (PDW) concept was created in response to a NATO request as a replacement for 9×19mm Parabellum submachine guns. The NATO PDW is a compact automatic weapon that can defeat enemy body armor, and which can be used conveniently by non-combatant and support troops, as well as a close quarters battle weapon for special forces and counter-terrorist groups.

The two best known and most capable select fire PDWs are the FN P90 and the H&K MP7. I have shot both of them extensively and my favorite select fire PDW is without a doubt the FN P90 in 5.7 x 28mm with 10.5 inch barrel and sparrow suppressor. With 50 round magazines if you can find one of these that is available for private transfer AND you have understanding management who will let you spend a huge pile of cash on it, by all means you should pull the trigger on it before she changes her mind, lol !
However, most people do not have access to a select fire weapon that is actually transferable that they can actually afford to purchase and making one yourself is highly illegal and certainly not recommended. Therefore I prefer the older concept from the WWII era where the U.S. M1 Carbine was issued for officers and non-front line troops who didn’t need to carry a 10 plus pound battle rifle. Those officers and rear-echelon troops still needed a weapon that was more effective than just a sidearm and allowed them to defend themselves out to around 200 yards.
My Marine Corps father carried pretty much everything that was issued at one point or another, including the M1 Carbine which somehow followed him home from the war. I still own that fine rifle, an Inland 1944 model. True to its design, it is effective out to around 200 yards which is what I consider to be the true definition of a personal PDW we should all keep in mind.
If you are an excellent pistol shooter with a top-quality pistol in .9mm, .40, 10mm or .45 acp, you can likely hit a man-sized target out to 100 yards, perhaps 125 yards. A couple of my instructors and I routinely hit man sized silhouettes out to 200 yards with just our sidearms. However, all three of us hover around a 30% hit probability which is not good enough to be able to call it effective at that distance.

Keeping the minimalist theme in mind of the original M1 carbine and the Red 9 Mauser 9mm, I decided to build myself a PDW based on the new Gen 5 Glock 17 in 9mm. I shopped around and decided upon a recover tactical 20/20 stabilizing brace which turns your Glock 17, 19, 26 or 34 into a much more stable platform than just your sidearm. This platform is consistent with the 200-yard effective range theme that I prefer for extending my defensive range in a lightweight and highly portable firearm.
Very lightweight and easily customizable, they also make them for the Sig P365, Smith and Wesson M&P and of course your favorite 1911 variant. The stabilizing brace folds and locks up and the foregrip also holds a spare magazine as well. If you buy the entire thing as a kit, you also get several side rails, an optics rail, a lightweight but very effective elastic sling, and even a quick release holster than you can clip inside your belt or on the outside of your pack or car seat.
I recently got my Glock PDW completely set up and dialed in, and Wow is it an amazing addition to my stable. I chose a Gen 5 Glock 17 with a threaded barrel and added a Gemtech Lunar 9 suppressor in “K” config, meaning very short.
The Recover Tactical brace comes with a picatinny rail in which to mount a red dot sight and I went with a Holosun 509T. I hate recommending Chinese junk to anyone. However. Holosun products are very high quality even if they are made by one of our arch enemies. One of the cool features of this sight is that it also has a tiny solar panel that works very well operating your unit if your battery dies on you at a bad time.

The brace also comes with side rails where you can mount a weapon’s light or flashlight which really makes your PDW 24/7 capable. I went with a Surefire Vampire which has a 300-lumen traditional light as well as an infrared setting with green laser designator to use under night vision such as a PVS-14.
I zeroed my Glock PDW at 75 yards as that makes it effective from point blank out to a little over 200 yards on man sized targets by simply holding the 2 MOA aiming dot slightly high or low in the torso depending on your range to target.
At 75 yards on our hostage/hostage taker reactive target it was easy to go 10 for 10 or 100% hit probability standing unsupported. I can typically do that with just my sidearm as well, but I was able to achieve this in a considerably faster string of fire with my Glock PDW than just my sidearm allows for.
Moving out to 215 yards I did the same drill on the same target standing unsupported aiming slightly over the hostage taker’s head. I had one of those evil 33 round extended magazines, that make good weenie liberals just wet their pants, over loaded with 30 rounds, for three strings of 10.
For my first string of 10, I made 8 hits, my second string I hit 9 out of 10 shots, and my third string of 10, I was at 100% or 10 out of 10 at 215 yards. 27 out of 30 hits averages out to 90% effectiveness at 215 yards out of my Glock PDW. An amazing addition that anyone can shoot and shoot well. My entire set up weighs like 3.5 lbs which is outrageously light for a 200 plus yard weapon that is easy to carry on your person or in your pack.
I have previously built PDW type weapons out of CMMG AR15 style pistols in 9mm, .40, and 10mm with 8 inch barrels and they are very effective and way cool. However, they weigh in at around 8-9 lbs each and are way harder to carry. I plan to do my same three strings of 10 rounds with each one of my CMMGs to see what my hit percentage is with them, VS my Glock PDW.
It stands to reason that it should be as good or better than what I experienced with my Glock PDW, however, there isn’t a lot of room for improvement over that 90% effectiveness.

A good portion of you reading this likely have experience with Glock pistols and this brace set up works with all generations of Glocks if you decide to go that direction. No worries if you have a large frame Glock 20 or 21, they also make this same brace for large frame Glocks as well. If you buy the complete kit like I did, it also comes with a charging handle that makes charging your Glock PDW a very easy affair.
In my opinion, this is a great addition to your firearms battery and can make your spouse or children very effective should we end up getting invaded like is currently happening to the citizens of Ukraine.
For those of you attending my NRA dinner on Saturday, May 14th, you will have the chance to win this brand new Glock 19 PDW complete with threaded barrel, Burris red dot sight, holster, suppressor and a full recover tactical 20/20 kit shown above.