GunsAmerica Product Reviews – Pistols

For many police officers and most security guards, the choice of what pistol to carry is left up to you. There is generally an approved list and it is up to you to pick your duty pistol, holster, and on-duty gear. There are a number of issues to consider, but often it comes back to what you like, what you shoot well and of course, what you can afford.

The CZ-75, which is the steel or alloy gun on which this polymer framed P-07 model is based, is one of those “preference” guns that people just like and naturally shoot very well. It is by far the most popular pistol internationally among police and military, and many people refer to it as “the perfect pistol.” It has also become one of the most copied pistols in history, second perhaps only to the Colt 1911.
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The best gun to have in a gunfight is the one you chose to take with you that day. This is why small pistols are so popular. They are light and pocketable, so people actually carry them. But small pistols are also something of a conundrum. Smaller and lighter is better for concealed carry, but small guns means small parts, and small parts break easier, and they can be cantankerous when it comes to accuracy and reliability. There is no perfect small pistol, but after beating up one of the worst of the bunch recently, we thought it probably a good idea to review one of the best of the bunch, the Kahr P380, MSRP $649. The gun is somewhat ammunition sensitive, as most small guns are, but the P380 is built to the standards of a full size pistol, and performs as such. Made in the USA in Worcester, MA, the Kahr small pistols are chosen by more law enforcement and security personal than another brand of pistol, and the P380 is the smallest of the bunch. If you were scared away from small pistols by our horrendous Diamondback review, don’t be afraid. Legions of Kahr owners and fans unanimously say that Kahr pistols can’t be beat. There are some details you need to know though, so read on.

Very few guns have everything. These days there are so many polymer, striker fired pistols on the market, it is very hard to tell one from another sometimes. But if you look for a gun that truly has everything, you have to look at the FNS from FNH-USA. It is made in America by Americans, has a street price under $650, and one by one, you can count the features that are unique to this gun. It is completely ambidextrous. The magazine release, slide stop and safety lever appear on both sides of the frame. The drop safety itself is a revelation of sorts and should make a lot of people jump up and down screaming “YES, FINALLY.” Few companies have dared put a manual safety on their striker pistols and this is the first in a gun that can compete with the big boys. And with a rail on the front, double useful slide serrations, an external extractor, stock night sights, and downright good looks, there is little you could want in a full sized duty pistol that the FNS doesn’t already have, right out of the box.

In the world of small semi-automatic pocket pistols, you have a lot to choose from these days. Diamondback Firearms has laid claim to the “smallest and lightest” in that category, so we decided to take a look at a couple of their guns, the DB380, and the newly released DB9, both with a street price under $400 . Are they really the smallest and lightest? Apparently so, at least as compared to the more common names out there, including the Kel-Tecs, Kahrs, and S&W Bodyguard. But do they work? Our results were mixed. The .380, which is the more mature product, performed almost perfectly, but is not that accurate. The 9mm version weighs only 11 ounces empty, compared to 18 for the S&W Shield, 21.4 for the Walther PPS, and even the tiny Beretta Nano is 17.7. Diamondback may have tried the impossible with this gun because we didn’t find the DB9 to be reliable or accurate. If you are going to buy a Diamondback, for now you should probably stick to the DB380. We have to put a do not buy on the guns however, due to the way they seem to be handling what are clearly problems with their guns

It is amazing that one of the most scarce and in demand pistols today is the Kel-Tec PMR-30. You can’t get one, and many gun dealers have even created sign-up lists for customers to get them as they come in. The PMR-30 isn’t a cheap gun. The MSRP is $415, yet the demand for the PMR-30, after literally years, seems unquenchable. But if I asked you to play word association on guns, and my hint was “plastic 22WMR pistol with orange and green fiber optic sights and a 30 round magazine,” what would you say? Nothing, right? Nothing comes to mind. So what on earth is this gun for? That’s the point. The PMR-30 is for just about everything.

Even the most diehard American gun nut will be hard pressed to have heard of the Turkish gun manufacturer “Sarsilmaz.” They are, however, the third largest firearms factory in Europe and have been making guns since the 1880s. Sarsilmaz makes over 40 different firearms, pistols, revolvers, and shotguns, and they are the makers of the Armalite AR24, which is a CZ75 clone. The Turkish military is the second largest military in NATO and it is supplied by Sarsilmaz exclusively for duty pistols. So why haven’t we heard of Sarsilmaz? Who knows. But the guns are recognized worldwide for their quality and durability, and it looks like they are finally going to come into the US market in a big way. The European American Armory, or EAA, is introducing some of the Sarsilmax guns this year under the name SAR Arms. We got to take a look at the 9mm ST10 that carries a street price around $500 for the all black one. I have never owned an HK USP, which this gun is nearly an exact copy of, and I thought it felt like a cross between a CZ75 and a Sig 226. Sarsilmaz has several international patents themselves for firearm design, but this gun is clearly a side by side copy of the HK USP. Since this is a very expensive firearm, the Sarsilmaz copy coming in around $500 is probably a good buy if you love the USP. We can’t compare it directly because we have no test HK gun, but overall the ST10 is a great gun, and could owe some of its biggest positives to HK engineers, who made the USP similar to a Browning Hi-Power action, which this gun is also a decendant of now. The most interesting note about this gun is that it has no decocker. You have to let down the hammer with your thumb if you want to fire it double action first shot. This is an option on the USP (#9) but not common, making this Sarlsilmaz and interesting and high quality gun at a reasonable price.

The European American Armory, or EAA, is introducing some of the Sarsilmax guns this year under the name SAR Arms. We got to take a look at the 9mm ST10 that carries a street price around $500 for the all black one. The gun feels like a cross between a CZ75 and a Sig 226, though it doesn’t appear that Sarsilmaz copied any particular gun for the design. They have several international patents themselves for firearm design, so they don’t need to just copy guns. We offer the comparison just to give you an idea of how the gun feels.

Sometimes you are browsing in a gun shop and two pistols look very much the same, yet you really wish you knew the differences. That is the case with the HK45 and the HK P30. Both pistols look pretty much the same, except one is .45ACP and the other is a slightly smaller 9mm. When HK sent us these guns for general review, we thought, as you might, that they are exactly the same, but they are not. If you find yourself standing in a gun shop deciding to impulse buy a brand new HK pistol, this is a bit of an overview as to what is the same in the two guns and what is very different. The HK P30 and HK45 are the new era of Heckler and Koch pistols. HK took the strengths of the ubiquitous USP and added some of what have become standard features on modern polymer pistols, and these two guns were result, along with a few other models that are also very similar. Both are great guns, and caliber considerations aside, the differences in the guns are mostly semantic. Several of the features on the P30 and HK45 are exactly the same and either would be a good choice in a duty, security, or personal defense pistol.

Soooo, we finally got a Springfield XD-S to play with and shoot. To to make a long story short, really thin, really nice, pleasure to shoot, completely reliable, go buy one. The XD-S, as we said back at SHOT in January, is a slam dunk for Springfield and the gun is everything you could want in a concealed carry firearm. You get six rounds of .45ACP punch in a tiny package, 4.6 inches tall, 6.3 inches long, and all of an inch thick. Big hands, small hands, fat hands and tall hands will find the XD-S easy to shoot and surprisingly not punishing.

Now that the year 2011 has passed and we are handily into 2012, enough has been said about the 100 year anniversary of the 1911 pistol. We should all be able to just return to shooting these classic and ergonomically near perfect firearms for the next hundred years. The question remains, however, can you buy a bargain priced 1911 and have a good reliable firearm. The folks selling guns under the Iver Johnson name these days would answer that question with a resounding “yes.”