The Innovative Boberg Pistol
Firearms engineer Arne Boberg worked on the design prototype of a small concealable pistol for the better part of a decade. Long awaited, it appears now that this high end pistol, the XP-9, which has quietly been in production since about 2008, could represent a radical step forward in what we expect from our back up guns (that is if we can find one).
Subcompact pistols have been around for a centuries. Perhaps the original concealed carry pistol, the Derringer series of single and double-barreled vest guns, have been around since before the Civil War. Small semi-auto .380s (starting with John Browning’s FN Model 1910 ) burst on to the scene at the start of the 20th century finding their way into the leg holsters of soldiers and civilians alike. These guns evolved into the cutting edge deigns of today like Kahr’s PM9 and the Ruger LCP.
By the nature of their design, these handguns have always suffered from the handicap of short barrels and bad sights usually sacrifices to the axiom “smaller is better”. The fact is though that the shorter the barrel, the shorter the sight radius, and the less likely the pistol will put rounds on target at a distance which can play a significant factor in a gunfight.
This problem apparently kept Arne Boberg awake at night for quite some time.
Read the rest in my column at GUNS.com
