IWI-US Now Shipping 9mm Masada Pistols

in Authors, Handguns, Industry News, Max Slowik, Pistols, This Week
IWI-US Now Shipping 9mm Masada Pistols
The IWI Masada is a feature-rich pistol that’s ready to face a lot of competition. (Photo: IWI)

Israel Weapon Industries is now shipping the Masada, a full-size polymer-framed, striker-fired pistol chambered for 9mm Luger. The Masada was announced a few years ago but IWI quietly held on to the design until now, along with one key improvement.

The Masada may be a later entry into today’s “next-generation” of polymer striker pistols, but it checks all the boxes. It has a 4.1-inch barrel with polygonal rifling on a full-length frame that provides a solid 17+1-round capacity. It has front and rear slide serrations and an integral magwell and has oversized magazine base pads to aid in extraction.

It has fully ambidextrous controls, with slide levers and magazine releases on both sides. It comes with three interchangeable grip housings in small, medium and large. And the latest update: it’s optics-ready with a slide cut for mini red-dot sights. The cut is compatible with select Leupold, SIG Sauer, Trijicon and Vortex optics.

The Masada has a deep and undercut beavertail for a high grip close to the bore axis. This should help reduce felt recoil and speed up follow-up shots. It also has an oversized trigger guard for use with gloves.

IWI-US Now Shipping 9mm Masada Pistols
Features include a full-length rail, true ambidextrous controls, interchangeable grips, night sights and more. (Photo: IWI)

The pistol has a trigger set with a 6-pound pull. It has a familiar passive trigger safety and no manual safeties. One nice touch is that the Masada comes with factory 3-dot night sights.

IWI designed and built the Masada to suit modern military needs and this looks like an all-around solid design. Like any new product it will need testing and time before it will fully prove itself but it has a great pedigree and IWI is a company with good experience that’s earned a lot of trust.

See Also: IWI Launches the Tavor 7 Bullpup in 7.62 NATO

With a suggested retail price of $480, IWI won’t have too many problems convincing people to give the Masada a try. That includes the night sights and two steel magazines, and online and in-store pricing will likely be even less. On top of that, spare magazines have a list price of just $29. IWI will ship the Masada with 10-round magazines to places with magazine capacity restrictions.

It will be interesting to see if IWI works up different models of the Masada. Other calibers are an obvious way to expand the series but so are compact and subcompact versions along with the increasingly popular long-slide option.

As it stands the Masada on its own looks like a strong contender. There’s always more room in this market for full-size service pistols, especially pistols that bring a lot of features at a low price.

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About the author: Max Slowik is a writer with over a dozen years of experience and is a lifelong shooter. He has unwavering support for the Second Amendment and the human right to self-defense. Like Thomas Paine, he’s a journalist by profession and a propagandist by inclination.

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  • John August 4, 2020, 11:11 am

    Will Masada be coming out with a 40 cal version

  • The Millionth Counsel August 9, 2019, 2:42 pm

    I rather a model that held 15 rounds with a shorter grip. The grip is what is hardest to hide; unless you try to carry something with a ridiculously long barrel

  • Leonard July 29, 2019, 1:45 pm

    I doubt I will ever become a 9 mm fan. I never found the recoil of a .45 to be much of a challenge, and I own a few, as well as on .40 cal Baretta Storm, but I won’t go lower than that for protection.
    Yes, my favorite is still a revolver

  • August West July 29, 2019, 7:56 am

    Masada is a strange name to pick for a defensive firearm… The warriors who holed themselves up on top of Masada died by suicide instead of fighting the Romans, and they did not even try to stop the Romans from building a ramp to allow access to the top of the mountain, etc. There was no fight in those people, all resigned that the end was nigh, and that fighting was useless. Who the heck names a defensive firearm after that kind of thing? Ps. This is not anti-Semitic or anti-Israel. I’m Jewish, proud to be, and proud that the Jews were the only province of Rome to rebel and fight the Romans, and they did it with three separate uprisings even though the Jews got beat each time. They always rose to fight again; true warriors. And, I know that the group on Masada was the remnants of the fierce warriors who had led the rebellion against Rome. But when they got there to Masada the fight was out of them, there was no more fighting, no more trying, no defending themselves at all, not at all. Again, who the heck names a defensive firearm after that kind of thing?

    • Leonard July 29, 2019, 1:40 pm

      Why not study history a little? The rebels who held Masada resisted the Romans for two years. They dropped rocks and hot oil on the Romans, but the Romans eventually built a ramp that was out of reach for them. Since this was on a mountaintop, a water-supply became an issue as well as food. They only had limited opportunities, and they refused to surrender. So, this is where the term “Falling on your sword” applies.
      Do not denigrate those people. What they did was heroic. A true warrior will never surrender and is willing to die rather than become a slave.
      Your remarks sound very anti-Semitic. If so, shame on you for being a hater. Nobody likes haters, and they can’t even trust one another.

    • john August 11, 2019, 11:43 pm

      theres always one…don’t buy it then .

  • JOHN R Bowie July 26, 2019, 10:41 pm

    I don’t want any gun my German Shepherd can chew up.

  • Carter July 26, 2019, 9:50 pm

    How doe it compare to the Jericho psl9? I love IWI weapons but I generally stick to a limited number of all purpose firearms. Is it worth it when compared to my favorite space cowboy gun?

  • Robert Campbell July 26, 2019, 2:19 pm

    I’ve been running Tavor’s for years and love them. Looks like IWI did a good job with this pistol. Time will tell. Only ding I could think of is if they’re gonna come with night sights, why not make them suppressor height so the optics can co witness. My experience is that most sights are too short for a cowitness and you end up swapping them out for can height sights anyway.

  • MagnumOpUS July 26, 2019, 11:45 am

    Looks to be a licensed variant of the Ruger American pistol, which I think is a handsome design. Therefore, a .45 ACP version is likely on the way, since Ruger’s is already out and about, and soon to become an addition to my small collection.

    Go IWI and Israel!

  • R B July 26, 2019, 8:42 am

    Until these get into public hands it’s a bit early to give it a total thumbs up, but going by IWI’s reputation, it looks promising. When you consider all of the features it has, 17+1 rounds, night sights, interchangeable back straps, optic ready, and a removable fire control unit like the Sig P320 which should eventually lead to an assortment of different size frame modules, especially for the suggested MSRP of $480, it looks like a great deal. The Sig P320 with similar features sells for about $150 more.
    I don’t really need another striker fired pistol, but I am definitely watching this one.

  • Leighton Cavendish July 26, 2019, 6:34 am

    Still no TS12 to be seen. Hoping they are tweaking it so it works well with all common shells.
    Updates would be nice, though.

  • Jaque July 25, 2019, 9:11 pm

    Another plastic pistol of the striker design. I think the market is a!ready flooded with plastic striker pistols. I have too many now, and would have to buy another gun safe if I bought one more pistol. So that $500 gun and a new safe becomes $2500. Sure I could sell a gun but thats not in my blood. Plastic guns have become like todays car designs. They all look alike. Its a pleasure to give my Colt model 70 some range daylight. A steel pistol with a storied history. A design over 150 years old, a longevity that plastic striker fired pistols are unlikely to meet. Who knows. I might look at one. Hold it. Shoot it. And remind the wifey my birthday is coming up.

    • AJ July 26, 2019, 6:25 pm

      Polymer doesn’t rust. So longevity is pretty relative to how the device is cared for.

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