Tag Archives: 9mm

For you Mako fans…

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One of the most underrated mico-9s out there has been Kimber’s Mako R7 series.

I extensively tested and reviewed one of the first models over two years and offered it, along with four similar guns, up when my mother-in-law went on a search for a carry gun– and she went R7 after her own range time on the samples.

Now, Kimber has introduced the Carbon Compact variants of the model, based on almost a decade of user comments and feedback.

The new R7 series gets its name due to the redesigned frame constructed with a carbon fiber-infused matrix that delivers superior durability (up to a 60,000 psi tensile strength) compared to standard polymer frames. This frame also gives the ability for a flared magwell and four interchangeable modular backstraps, both features that are big upgrades from legacy R7s. 

Standard features of the new pistols are a pair of 15-shot magazines, an installed flared magwell, fully ambi surface controls, and three-dot TruGlo Tritium Pro night sights with an orange front ring and white rear rings.

I had a chance to check out the Carbon Compact R7s on a trip to Kimber last month and, have to admit, they are pretty sweet.

Expect more on these in the coming days

The P365 Grows Up…

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With the P365 micro 9mm platform not even a decade old, SIG has updated the platform with the new Fuse variant that includes all the features expected on a full-sized practical/tactical pistol.

The new SIG Sauer P365 Fuse gets its name, says the company, as it is the “fusion of capability and concealment,” being still carry-sized while clocking in with a very full feature-set that includes a removable magwell, nickel-plated flat-faced trigger, LXG grip module with interchangeable backstraps, optics-ready (RMSc footprint) slide with decent iron sights, and extended 21-round magazines.

The new SIG Sauer P365 Fuse. (All Photos: Chris Eger/Guns.com)

The pistol will be available in at least three different SKUs, including one shipping with two 21-round and one 17-round magazine, another with a Romeo X Compact micro red dot installed (shown above), and a state-compliant (10-round mag) version.

The P365 Fuse compared to the P365 XMacro Comp. Note the Fuse is a bit longer but remains the same height and width. Both use SIG’s 17+1 round flush fit P365 mags and accept extended magazines as well– which we will get into.

For a frame of reference, the full-sized P320-M17 specs out at 8 inches overall, with its standard 4.7-inch barrel, just a skosh bigger than the Fuse. However, don’t let that one spec confuse you, as the P365 variant is much slimmer, shorter in height, and almost a half-pound lighter. Keep in mind both are shown with 21-round mags inserted and with corresponding versions of the Romeo X enclosed red dot.

More in my column at Guns.com.

A Rost What?

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If you have followed this blog for more than five minutes, you’ll get that I like new guns, which come around almost every day.

Something rarer are new gun companies, and I always take an interest in those and they can sometimes prove a bigger and more complex story.

The first new gun company of the year this year appears to be Texas-based Rost Martin, who has what at first appears to be a G19-sized vanilla striker-fired polymer-framed 9mm pistol, but at closer look seems to be a little better (and for a better price).

Their flagship RM1C pistol is a compact-sized double-stack 9mm, that sports a 4-inch hammer-forged barrel, 7.1-inch overall length, and a 21.1-ounce unloaded weight with a 15+1 round magazine. This puts it a hair smaller than the Glock 19 Gen 5. It is optics-ready on all models, shipping with an RMR footprint, while plates for “all other popular optic footprints” will be available.

Other features include aggressive front and rear slide serrations, ambidextrous surface controls including slide catch and mag release, and what is described as “a smooth, light 5-pound trigger pull with a clean break and a short reset.” Added to this are non-glare top slide serrations similar to what is seen on S&W and Walther pistols, an inherent low bore axis, and a Tenifer-treated nitrocarburized slide. It has interchangeable rear grip inserts.

The Texas-made RM1C will be offered in black, gray, and FDE, and has a very AREX Delta Gen 2 vibe.

Don’t worry about support, as it uses CZ P10 pattern mags that are free, and accept XD pattern sights.

Of note, it has a Glock-style takedown albeit with arguably better ergos.

All right, so enough of the windup – how about the pitch? The MSRP on the new Rost Martin RM1C is set at $459 across all models, a price that will probably be a little lower at retail. That puts it on par price-wise with an optics-ready Turkish-made Stoeger STR-9C or Canik TP9SF but about a hundo more than a PSA Dagger, but then again it has a feature set better than the basic Dagger.

The folks at Rost Martin are sending me one to test and I am meeting with them at SHOT next week to get some more background info, so watch this space.

Back Again: Inglis Hi-Powers

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The original John Inglis and Company dated to 1937 (and even further back to the 1850s as the Mair, Inglis, and Evatt concern) and was based in Toronto.

Primarily a maker of home appliances – the firm was bought in 1987 by Whirlpool, Canada, and still operates there under the old banner – during World War II they did their part to help win the war and produced Bren light machine guns and Hi-Power pistols, making over 100,000 of each for the Allied cause, largely for KMT China and the Commonwealth. 

The Canadian Browning-Inglis production was aided during WWII by FN’s exiled staff, with the BHP’s co-designer, Dieudonné Saive, helping with the technical package, making these guns unofficial clones. Ultimately, an agreement was reached to pay FN a royalty of 25 cents after the war for each gun produced. (Photos: Library and Archives Canada/City of Toronto Archives/Canadian Forces)

A WWII-era Canadian-made Browning-Inglis No. 2 Mk1* Hi-Power, as found in the Guns.com Vault. Note the internal extractor and “thumbprint” slide, hallmarks of 1940s BHPs. These were imported in the 1980s by Navy Arms for like $300

Browning-Inglis No. 2 Mk1* Hi-Powers that had been produced in Toronto during the conflict remain in service with the Canadian military and are set to be retired shortly by a variant of the SIG Sauer P320, which will be type classified as the C22 in Canadian service.    

Other Inglis Hi-Powers went to the British military, who liked the pistol so much that it went on to adopt a slightly improved Belgian-made model in 1963, type classified as the L9A1, to finally kick the wheel gun habit the Brits had picked up back in the Crimean War with the Adams revolver. These Hi-Powers remained in service with the Brits until very recently when they were replaced by the Glock 17 while the Australians opted to go with a SIG-based replacement in 2022. 

The British (and Australian) L9A1 Hi-Power was generally more along the lines of the post-WWII Browning “T” series Hi-Power, typically with an external extractor and plastic grips. (Photos: Imperial War Museum/Australian War Memorial)

Now, SDS Imports, the Tennessee-based firm that includes the brands Tisas USA, Tokarev USA, Spandau, and Military Armament Corporation (MAC), has rebooted Inglis and intends to bring some period-correct Hi-Powers to the American consumer market.

The new company plans an L9A1-ish clone to include a black Chromate finish and plastic grips as well as three more commercial models: a black Inglis P-35B with walnut grips, the satin nickel Inglis P-35N with black G10 grips, and a color-case hardened Inglis GP-35. 

The planned Inglis L9A1 clone. Likely made by Tisas in Turkey but, if their past work is anything to judge, it is probably well-done

“The market demand has not been met for historically accurate Hi-Powers,” said Military Armament Corporation/SDS CEO Tim Mulverhill. “We’re planning for the L9A1 to influence the Hi-Power market the way the Tisas U.S. Army did in the 1911 market.”

Prices will range from $489 for the L9A1 to $649 for the GP-35. 

I’ll have the full details from SHOT Show later this month.

Odds are, you haven’t heard of this Micro 9– but you should have

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The Stoeger brand has been around since 1924 and for at least a generation has been owned by Beretta. Known best for its shotguns – which are of great quality – their guns are made in Turkey.

However, in the past couple of years, the company has been marketing a polymer-framed striker-fired (and very, very Glock-like) series of 9mm pistols, the STR-9 platform. The smallest of these debuted last year, a micro-compact 9 dubbed, logically, the STR-9MC.

To be sure, it greatly resembles a G43X– if it was a Gen 3 gun that was slightly smaller but with a better magazine capacity, steel (not plastic) SIG-dovetail pattern sights, nickel-coated steel (not plastic) mags, and a steel (not plastic) guide rod/recoil assembly.

Plus, you can typically get them for around $300.

There is a lot to like about Stoeger’s micro compact 9mm. In terms of price, it gives guns like the Taurus GX4 and Mossberg MC2sc lots of competition and even compares well to a lot of genuinely nice Micro 9s such as the CR920 or a Glock 43X. It has a low bore axis that mitigates (but not eliminates) muzzle flip, and we found it both reliable and accurate enough on the range to trust it for EDC. It takes down easily for maintenance.

When it comes to balancing the pros and cons of the pistol, the STR-9MC remains a viable choice for those looking for an inexpensive and reliable micro 9 that Glock should have built but didn’t.

Full review after the jump.

Selectable Binary Glock: The G-S173

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Two years ago, Nevada-based Franklin Armory broke SHOT Show by appearing at the event with the first commercial selector-switch-equipped slide with a companion two-position binary trigger for a 9mm striker-fired pistol. Set up especially for the Gen 3 Glock 17, it had all the G18-style aesthetic (while being NFA compliant) and a crowd-pleasing ability for binary fire – which allows the user to fire a round both on the pull of the trigger and the release.

The two-position selector. To cancel the release round on G-S173, simply move the selector lever located on the slide from binary to the “semi” position before releasing the trigger.

With some practice, 17-round mags ran dry in right around two seconds at SHOT Show 2022.

Rather than just “spray and pray” giggle time kinda fun on the range, such triggers have a very valid application. When used properly and with sufficient training, users will see much-reduced split times and produce tighter groupings, especially when running controlled pairs.

Fast forward to this week and Franklin Armory has released the G-S173 to the public– and I got one.

More in my column at Guns.com.

Smith expands the EZ to become the ‘Equalizer’

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On a visit to Smith & Wesson late last month, I got a sneak peek at a new pistol that became public knowledge this week– the Equalizer. While the name of the gun may sound a bit intimidating, it’s designed to be anything but. The newest member of an ever-growing concealed carry lineup, it sports a 15+1 capacity, but it comes with a 13 and 10-round magazine option as well, both of which are also included with purchase.

S&W Equalizer, photos by me

S&W combined the Shield Plus grip width and magazine footprint with the popular EZ technology up top. They switched up the grip texture a bit but still kept the same width as the Shield Plus, thus allowing it to use the same mags. On the grip, it keeps the same grip safety as the EZ series, though you can also purchase options with an additional thumb safety if you’re into manual safeties.

Anywhoo, we shall see how the market takes to the newest entry in the big capacity/small frame “micro 9” race.

Peanut Butter Tactical

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Taurus has been diversifying its line of affordable and rugged 9mm G3 series pistols for the past few years and the new G3 Tactical comes across its name honestly.

Introduced at the NRA Annual Meetings in Houston earlier this summer, the G3 Tactical is based on the standard full-sized and optics-ready G3 TORO but includes an extended threaded barrel, 17+1 capacity magazines, a Patriot Brown Cerakote slide, and FDE frame. What that translates to is a pistol that can do a lot right out of the bag, while keeping (well) inside the $500 range.

The G3 linage is unmistakable but when you start looking harder you see all the neat little bonuses such as front and rear slide serrations, suppressor-height co-witness sights, an extended factory-threaded 1/2x28TPI DLC-coated barrel, and top optics plate. The three-slot MIL-STD-1913 accessory rail, memory pads on the frame and 17+1 mags capacity are a nice touch as well.

Of course, to me the scheme looks more like peanut butter, but, hey, it works.

More in my column at Guns.com.

Goofy Glock-Lishnikov (That’s actually kinda fun to shoot)

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Introduced by Century Arms a few years ago, the WASR-M, like its standard WASR (Wassenaar Arrangement Semi-automatic Rifle) older brothers, are all essentially semi-auto variants of the Cugir Arms Factory’s PM md. 63/65 series AKMs, licensed Kalashs that the Romanians made by the hundreds of thousands over the past half-century.

WASRs have been popular on the U.S. import market for years, and Century made them 922R-compliant by adding furniture, mags, pistons, and triggers. Heck, when renting an AK for a class at Gunsite, the only in-house choice is a WASR. It’s a budget answer to more spendy Arsenals or Zastavas still made by folks who understand Kalashnikovs. Century has splashed in 9mm AK water with Cugir before, having marketed first the Draco NAK-9 pistol and the newly announced Draco 9S in recent years.

While the Dracos are fun, those wanting a full-sized stock and barrel are left out of the party, which brings us to the WASR-M. The significant difference in the WASR-M variant is that, instead of being a gas-piston operated rifle chambered in 7.62×39, it is a direct-blowback-action pistol-caliber carbine chambered in 9mm NATO that uses doublestack Glock 17/18/19 mags.

Ladies and gentlemen, the WASR-M, made by Cugir in Romania and imported by Century Arms of Vermont, which added enough U.S. parts to make the ATF happy. (Photo: Chris Eger).

I’ve put about 500 rounds through one and detailed the whole deal. Check it out after the jump.

The Sig P365XL via Brazil

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Taurus earlier this year released a stretched slide version of their well-liked G3C, promising full-size pistol performance in a compact package via the new G3XL.

Here’s what I found out.

The 9mm Taurus G3XL carries over the standard model G3’s full-size Tenifer-finished all-steel slide and 4-inch stainless-steel barrel assembly. A crossover concept, it also borrows from the G3C by using its compact grip frame. The resulting G3XL thus has the benefit of the longer sight radius, tending to better accuracy over shorter barrels, while adding a few fps to bullet velocity for increased terminal performance. Meanwhile, the smaller frame allows easier carry than the standard-sized G3.

Of course, the gun’s name is a riff on the Sig Sauer P365XL, and it is roughly the same size, although the Taurus is a good bit less expensive. Heck, both even have a 12+1 magazine capacity. Ironically, the G3XL can even use Sig P229/228/226 mags, which would have been a neat trick that Sig should have thought about. 

It is pretty basic, but it works and costs well under $350.

More in my column at Guns.com.

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