Tag Archives: edc

Pioneer Old Home Days

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In my normal EDC travels on the Gulf Coast, I typically carry a double-stack 9mm (currently the Hellcat Pro as I have 3K rounds through it without a single reportable issue) IWB as my primary piece, often augmented by a backup gun of the single stack 9mm or 38 snub variety. Added to this is a small tactical light, a small fixed blade or large folder, and a multitool, the latter typically a Victorinox Cadet Alox as I just love Swiss Army knives.

Well, on a recent 18-day working trip to Western/Central Europe to attend IWA and visit three historic firearms makers (more on this to come), to comply with local laws my EDC was whittled down to just a SAK and a light.

The SAK of choice? A 9-tool Victorinox Pioneer X Alox, which is larger and beefier than the slimline Cadet while still falling within acceptable limits for pocket knives in the countries in which I was traveling.

It came in handy on numerous occasions, particularly in building and taking down camera gimble frames and chassis.

And, of course, there was a moment of pause to salute it when passing through its Alpine birthplace in the Swiss Confederation.

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.

Just got back from a ribbon cutting…

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Smith & Wesson, moving its headquarters from anti-gun Massachusetts, made it official over the weekend that The Volunteer State is its new home. 

The company first announced the $120 million move to Tennessee from its long-time home in Springfield, Massachusetts in September 2021, and broke ground for its new 650,000 sq. ft. facility just two months later. On Saturday, the company held its grand opening celebration and cut the ribbon on the new plant. 

Funded from cash on hand by the publicly traded company (and not by loans or state bonds), the new facility shifts employees from its former flagship location in Springfield, Massachusetts; its plastic injection molding facility in Deep River, Connecticut; and its distribution plant in Columbia, Missouri, with the last two locations closing to streamline operations. Tennessee will house the company’s headquarters, distribution facility, and assembly facility as well as a company museum and retail space.

I was there and got the tour. In addition to a planned 22 assembly lines, the campus includes a full-service employee gym, cafeteria, medical facilities, and a 23,000 sq. ft. indoor shooting range that is serviced by robots.

Yup. Robots.

Still, Smith is looking to employ over 600 at the plant. 

Peanut butter Hellcat travels

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I wouldn’t classify myself as a Springfield Armory fanboy, but after spending a lot of time and brass with the Hellcat Pro, I may become one.

Springfield introduced the Hellcat 11+1 round 9mm series in September 2019, becoming one of the first real competitors to SIG’s P365, a 10+1 round micro compact 9mm of about the same size that hit the reset button on the carry market the year prior.

Then, in 2022, Springfield updated the design with the Hellcat Pro series, which brings a 15+1 capacity and an optics-ready slide to the platform.

I’ve been kicking around one with a peanut butter (officially Desert FDE) hued finish since around Thanksgiving and have well over 2K rounds through it.

The full details after the jump.

18 Months with a Mini Bull along for the ride

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I’ve been living with the Taurus GX4 micro compact 9mm for a year and a half on a daily basis and put well over a thousand rounds through it. It has surprised me, for sure.

Taurus introduced the GX4 to the world in May 2021, and I was able to get an early test model from the company slightly before. A good sequel to the company’s budget line of increasingly well-made and dependable G2 and G3 series pistols, the GX4 was more of the same, only smaller and with a better trigger.

When compared to more recently introduced double-stack micro 9s with similar magazine capacity, the GX4 was smaller than a lot of the big names, seen stacked side-by-side with the Springfield Armory Hellcat Pro, SIG Sauer P365 XMacro, and Kimber R7 Mako.

Designed for personal carry, the GX4 proved such an easy carry – just 24.8 ounces when fully loaded with 14 rounds of 124-grain Gold Dot– that it has become my go-to of late. Of note, that is the same magazine capacity as on the vaunted Browning Hi-Power, my first carry gun back in the late 1980s.

I’ve been carrying the GX4 in a DeSantis Gunhide Inside Heat, a bare-bones minimum IWB holster built from black saddle leather, and it just disappears. The pistol is, realistically, just slightly taller than a pocket gun but comes ready with 13+1 rounds.

More in my column at Guns.com.

Hellcats: The Colors, the Colors

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Springfield has been kicking out new color options for its popular Hellcat series of micro-9 pistols and a Desert Flat Dark Earth variant is the newest offering.

The new Springfield Armory Hellcat Pro in Desert FDE still offers a 15+1 capacity in what the company says is “a smaller footprint than any other gun in its class.”

It is also an Optical Sight Pistol, or OSP, configuration milled with the Shield RMSc/Springfield Micro footprint with a set of co-witnessing U-Dot tritium sights. For those keeping count at home, the Hellcat Pro runs 6.6 inches in overall length and 1 inch in width, which puts it in the same box as the nominally 10+1 capacity Glock 43X.

Previously, Springfield only offered an FDE variant of the Hellcat in its original 3-inch barrel format.

Also, the company has announced new Robin’s Egg and Burnt Bronze two-tone models as well:

Gonna give you a wild guess of what I would go with, as I have a (spoiler alert) something of a problem when it comes to 50 shades of FDE.

Springer doing better when it comes to Micro-9s

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Promising a more full-size performance out of its micro 9 series platform, Springfield Armory announced the new Hellcat Pro on Friday.

Using flush-fitting 15-round magazines rather than the standard Hellcat’s 11+1, the Hellcat Pro brings a 3.7-inch hammer-forged barrel to the carry game in what Springfield says is a smaller footprint than any other gun in its class. For those keeping count at home, the Hellcat Pro runs 6.6-inches in overall length and 1-inch wide, which puts it in the same box as the nominally 10+1 capacity Glock 43X. At a height of 4.8-inches, the Hellcat Pro is a tad shorter than the G43X when the Austrian polymer pistol has its standard mag inserted.

More in my column at Guns.com. 

I Love Old Savage Pistols. New Ones? Well, That’s Another Story

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Savage marketed its moderately successful Model 1907/1915/1917 pistols until 1928. The handy autoloader was one of the first popular American-made semi-auto carry guns, made in .32 ACP, .380 ACP, and .45 ACP. The Savage Model 1907 was even considered by the U.S. Army in the trials which saw the Colt M1911 adopted for nearly a century of service.

Other than occasional runs of bolt-action benchrest guns and the MSR 15 Blackout pistol which was only made for a couple of years, Savage has concentrated in the long game, eschewing handguns as a category since Calvin Coolidge was in the White House.

Company officials say the time is right, now two years after it separated from Vista Outdoors to become a stand-alone operation, for Savage to move back into handguns.

Their new handgun? Polymer-framed striker-fired 9mm micro-compacts intended for carry and self-defense, use a serialized chassis that allows it to easily swap across a range of various grip frames with black, gray, and FDE modules available at launch, all with interchangeable backstraps to adjust grip size.

The “Stance” has a 3.2-inch stainless-steel barrel, making it just slightly shorter than the Glock 43 and more akin in size to the FN 503 and Sig P365 in that metric. The new Savage pistols have 7, 8, and 10-round magazine options.

More in my column at Guns.com.

Taurus goes TORO with the GX4

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Taurus’ micro-compact 9mm just got a little better as the company on Friday announced a new optics-ready TORO model addition to the line.

The increasingly American-based company debuted its new micro pistol in May with an 11+1/13+1 capacity and a sub-$400 asking price. This made the gun– which I found dependable in testing— a budget competitor against similarly-sized contemporaries such as the Sig P365 and Springfield Armory Hellcat, with about the only rock that could be thrown against it is the fact that it did not come with a slide cut to support popular micro-red dot carry optics.

Well, that has now changed as the new Taurus GX4 TORO series has a factory cut and mounting pattern that supports Hex Wasp GE5077, Holosun HS507K/HS407K, Riton 3 Tactix MPRD2, Trijicon RMR, Shield RMSc, Sig RomeoZero, and Sightmark Mini Shot A-Spec M3 sights.

At an asking price of $468.

Thus…

More in my column at Guns.com.

Of My Time with the GX4

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Taurus announced the new micro-compact semi-auto pistol, the GX4, in May, billed as an 11+1 shot 9mm that was roughly the size of a traditional .380 pocket gun that had half the capacity. The specs of the polymer-framed striker-fired handgun– 5.8-inches long with the small backstrap installed, about an inch wide, and 4.4-inches high with the flush-fit magazine inserted– put it in the same boat as the Ruger MAX-9, Sig Sauer P365, Smith & Wesson Shield Plus, and Springfield Armory Hellcat line.
I’ve been kicking around the new Taurus GX4 over the past couple of months, having run some 500 rounds through it, and have some things to say about it.

The 11+1 shot Taurus GX4 is definitely compact. Micro compact, you could say.

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