New 80% DIY Cut Glock 17 Frame for CCW

A rendering of the first-gen FC-G17 with a full-size 9mm Glock 17 slide assembly and compact Glock 19 magazine. (Photo: Full Conceal)

A company called Full Conceal is working on an 80 percent Glock-pattern pistol — if it can be called a pistol. The Full Conceal FG-G17 is a minimalist 80 percent frame that breaks down into a pocketable handgun kit about the size of a cellphone or checkbook.

Instead of a conventional pistol grip, the FG-G17 uses a Glock magazine as a grip. The grip portion of the gun’s frame stops right at the trigger guard. While this makes the gun somewhat useless unloaded, it also makes it extremely concealable.

When not in use as a grip the magazine tucks away in a frame-mounted magazine holster parallel to the bore. Inserted into the holster the magazine acts as a trigger guard safety that helps prevent objects from unintentionally pressing the trigger.

Right now the FG-G17 is in development, but the company is planning to debut their kit at the 2017 SHOT Show next January. They expect to have pricing and availability information at that time.

Obviously, the design is a collection of compromises. The grip looks awkward and the gun must be assembled before it can be used. Keeping a round in the chamber may also prove dangerous.

With a round chambered and the magazine in the carrier it’s still possible for something to get into the trigger guard, leading to the real risk of negligent discharge. And the user may muzzle his or her own body removing the magazine from the carrier while assembling the pistol.

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But these compromises are all in pursuit of one goal: to create a pocketable full-size pistol with a full-length sight radius. Plus it looks like a fun project.

As an 80 percent kit the FG-G17 can be shipped directly to buyers without having to transfer through an FFL. By itself it’s not a firearm, just an expensive hunk of polymer.

Eighty percent kits have been popular with home gunsmiths for years. An 80 percent receiver or kit includes non-functioning parts that must be altered or completed and built into working firearms.

Most 80 percent kits are based around AR- and AK-pattern guns but recently kit manufacturers have been breaking into pistols, with Glock-pattern kits the most common after 1911s.

Glock kits make a lot of sense because unlike 1911s and a few other patterns they require little to no fitting and few special tools. Glock slide and barrel assemblies are easy to find on the aftermarket and magazines are cheap and plentiful.

With the FG-G17 builders complete the kit, add a slide assembly and a mag and they’ve got themselves a full-sized, polymer-framed … thingy. Because in the end, the FG-G17 is still only about two-thirds of a gun.