Strongly considering picking up a G30s, but cant find one to shoot beforehand. I found one at in indoor range about an hour away for rental, but that's the closest I can come up with so far. I carry a 19, and shoot it well. I have a backup 19 as well that I love just as much. I have tried a 26 and couldn't shoot it as well, with or without the grip extension. I also now have a 43 that I cant shoot as well as my 19s, so im not too keen on carrying it either.

I know its very hard to compare, but how is the recoil vs a 19? Since the 30s has the slimmer slide, wont it fit in my 19 holsters? Also, with the extended mags for them aren't they almost identical dimensions to a 19? Any input is appreciated, good or bad. Thanks fellas.

I have one and it very similar to my G19. But when I carry it it feels thicker. Mine fits my G26 holsters ( Holsters have to have a open bottom, Something along the lines of a belt slide or pancake holster).
Good gun when you consider it holds ten rounds of 45 and one in the chamber.
Now the down side. My gun refused to eat my reloads. It ate all factory ammo. i'm thinking glock uses a tighter chamber than my 1911's. recoil wasn't bad due to the double recoil spring.
I did find the trigger to be heavy. Didn't want to go to a 3.5 connector so I bought a Ghost Ranger 4.5 connector. Trigger was a lot better, still fine for carry and groups got alot tighter.
On mine I installed Heine night sights and a smooth trigger bar from a G21 for comfort.( Hate the grooves on the trigger of the medium and small glocks).
I have since gone back to my 1911's. I really like the Colt Combat commander for carry.
My Son fell in love with my G30S and will be getting his permit soon, so it will be his.
Also another thing to consider is some carry ammo may not get up to speed to expand a .45 hollowpoint bullet. In these short barrel 45s. ( Most 45 loads are under 1000 fps)
Loads like Corbons 185 DPX, Hornadys 185 critial defense. And even some 165 gr hollowpoint loads may give better expansion in the 3" barrel.
Best,

I have never heard of anyone having this problem in any of the 30 iterations, with any type of ammo.

My 30S is an excellent shooter and I have no concerns in this area.

The dimensions asked about are very similar but not the same. It depends on what holsters you have.

The recoil is more than with a 19 but still very manageable and not too much to handle at all.

Think of the recoil as a big smooth push it is bigger than 9 but not sharp and snappy like 10mm Kurz/357 Sig.  G30s is a nice pistol but I do not think it will fill any roll better than your G19 since you will be going down 5 rounds for the same size pistol(with 10 round mag).

I like the G30 a lot and shoot it better than any other glock, but I now carry a 19 exclusively. If I had the 19 first I'd never have owned a 30

Had one and sold it.  Way to thick and heavy for CCW (for me).  Picked up a Glock 26 with the funds from the Glock 30.  I had the same issue with regards to reloads.....wouldn't function with anything but round nose projectiles.  Wouldn't eat any semi wad cutters.  It was a fun range gun, but I bought it for ccw.

Have had mine for a little over a month and love it.  It will fit in a leather holster made for a 19/23 but not in a Kydex. Comfortable carrying mine in a TT Gunleather XC Slim IWB that I bought for my 19 and 23.

Thanks for all the help guys. I would carry this gun, but not exclusively. I only have one other gun in .45 at the moment, and Im wanting something else to share the ammo im starting to stack.

The reloads thing concerns me though, because my father in law keeps us stocked with reloads in 9 and 45. When not carrying, that will be a lot of what gets shot through the G30.

Love my 30S, the ability to use MOST 19/26 holsters is really nice as well. My 26 is slightly easier to conceal in the summer but not by a lot. And best of all, i think its a really smooth accurate shooting pistol.

I had one and sold it. Maybe I just hadn't shot .45ACP in a long time, but I found it to be snappy with Hydrashok ammo. After a couple magazines through it, my hand was noticeably fatigued. The thinner slide definitely contributes to more perceived recoil. There are better self defensive loads out there with adequate performance and less recoil, I'm sure; but I only had Hydrashoks to test.

I would give it another shot, but I really wish the 30S was offered in a Gen4 configuration. Maybe someday.

I had a 30s. I did like it but Sold it... If I'm going to carry something roughly the same size/weight as the 19... I might as well carry the 19(23,32) and get more capacity and slimmer mags.

I love mine. Got a holster from H&H down in OKC (also where I purchased the pistol) from Flashbang, it's a hybrid leather/kydex. I carry Federal HST or Speer Gold Dots, almost exclusively. Both standard pressure 230gr versions. If you're concerned at all about short barrels being a problem, though I don't think the G30/30S/30SF have so short a barrel to be a problem with track stars like the HST and Gold Dot, Speer does make a short barrel version of their Gold Dot ammunition.

I test fired the 230gr standard HST into a near by river and recovered the bullet, measured from it's widest point, the damn thing was 1.005" And still smacked the bottom of the river hard enough to imprint a rough texture from the dirt onto the lead after passing though probably 10" of water.