Shooting – David Freeman

Palmetto State Armory 5.7 Rock

David Freeman

I have become a fan of the 5.7x28mm cartridge as the result of reviewing pistols in that caliber by FN Herstal, Ruger and Smith & Wesson. Palmetto State Armory released a 5.7x28mm pistol a couple of years ago. That one, called the “Rock,” is the subject of this review.

The Palmetto State Armory Rock 5.7×28 Caliber Pistol

The 5.7x28mm came about as a result of NATO seeking a 9mm replacement with greater range and accuracy and the ability to penetrate body armor. FN Herstal designed a cartridge to meet the NATO requirements and built a gun that would shoot it. The new FN 5.7x28mm cartridge featured a 1.138-inch-long case with a rebated rim and a 35-degree shoulder designed for a .22-caliber bullet weighing anywhere from 23 to 31 grains. Obviously it’s a much smaller projectile than the 9mm, but what it lacks in size it makes up for in velocity. Shot through a long barrel, the cartridge drives a 26-grain slug at a velocity of nearly 2,400 feet per second, about 2.5 times faster than typical 9mm loads. The size of the projectile has evolved so we’re now shooting 40 grain most often and there are even 5.7x28mm rounds with 62 grain projectiles. These larger bullets are slower, traveling in the 1650 to 1799 fps range.

FN’s first two guns to shoot the cartridge were the FN P90 PDW (Personal Defense Weapon), along with the FN Five-seveN pistol. The Five-seveN became an immediate hit with some militaries, law enforcement agencies and sport shooters, but its price kept many potential firearm buyers away. All of this happened in the latter part of the 1980’s. In recent years, several firearms companies have designed new guns around the 5.7 cartridge causing somewhat of a rebirth in interest among shooters which led to more companies giving the cartridge a try.

Ruger somewhat surprised the market with its 2019 introduction of the Ruger 5.7. Featuring a 4.9-inch, alloy steel barrel with a nitride coating for wear resistance, the full-size pistol has a lot going for it. Impressive ergonomics include an easy trigger reach, robust slide release and reversible magazine release latch. The hardened, billet steel slide with lightening cuts is drilled and tapped for easy mounting of optics with separately available optic adapter plates. The Ruger 5.7 ships with two 20-round steel magazines and is priced several hundred dollars below the FN pistol.

At this year’s SHOT Show, Smith & Wesson announced it was jumping into the 5.7 game. The M&P line now includes the M&P 5.7. The M&P 5.7 uses a newly designed internal hammer-fired, gas-operated, locked-breech barrel system in which the barrel doesn’t cam open until the bullet passes the gas port for what the company calls “worry-free consistency.” The polymer-framed, full-size pistol features a 5-inch barrel to utilize as much of the cartridge’s potency as possible. It comes optics-ready and with a threaded barrel for use with a suppressor if desired. Capacity is 22+1 giving it a bigger ammo payload than similar-size 9mm pistols. I’ve previously covered the Ruger 57 and the S&W 5.7 here on the Shooter’s Log.

Palmetto State Armory’s 5.7 offering is similar in size and capacity to the Ruger and the Smith & Wesson. As best I can tell from studying PSA’s website, the Rock is available in 52 different configurations. The one I have is the 5.7 Rock Black Standard. It has a black frame, non-treaded barrel and 3-dot day sights.

The PSA 5.7 Rock is a striker-fired, polymer-frame handgun designed to maximize capacity with the small FN cartridge. It can be had in an optics-ready configuration with a milled slide cut for the Shield footprint, and open-sighted models with night sights are available that accept Glock-pattern sights.

Externally, the PSA 5.7 Rock is highly similar to the Ruger-5.7 and the S&W M&P 5.7. All three guns have a Picatinny accessory rail on the frame, front and rear slide serrations, extensive texturing throughout the grip frame, blade trigger and a magazine capacity of 20 or more rounds.

They are very similar in size:

	Length	Height	Width	Weight	Barrel Length	Capacity
PSA	8″	5.2″	1.2″	25 oz.	4.7″	23+1
Ruger	8.65″	5.6″	1.2″	24.5 oz.	4.94″	20+1
S&W	8.5″	5.25″	1.1″	26.7 oz.	5″	22+1

Here are specs for the Rock as listed on the Palmetto State Armory website:

Model: PSA Full Size 5.7 Rock
Caliber: 5.7x28mm
Capacity: 23+1
Weight with Empty Mag: 25 oz.
Barrel Material: Carbon Steel with QPQ Finish; Fluted
Barrel Length: 4.7″
Twist Rate: 1/9″
Slide Material: 416 Stainless Steel with QPQ Finish
Action: Delayed Blowback Striker-fired
Mag Catch: Reversible
Safety: Trigger & Striker
Accessory Rail: Picatinny
Magazine: 23 round Steel 5.7x28mm Magazine (Ships with 2)
Designed to work with Glock™ compatible sights
Ships in Palmetto State Armory Soft Pistol Case

Right about now you may be asking, “What’s QPQ?” QPQ stands for “Quench Polish Quench.” It refers to a process used to increase corrosion resistance. Other properties can also be improved by performing the QPQ treatment including: wear resistance; capacity to reduce friction, known as “lubricity,” and fatigue resistance.

I’ve received several guns lately that were shipped in canvas cases. The one from Palmetto State Armory has a pouch for the barrel and Velcro strap for the grip to secure the gun plus pockets for the two magazines and the lock. On the outside front it has a very nice, embroidered PSA Logo with a clear plastic pocket beneath it for displaying ID information such as a business card. Unzipping the case and pulling out the gun for the first time felt a little bit like Christmas morning.

PSA Rock in Canvas Carrying CAse — **PSA Rock in it’s Carrying Case With Two Magazines**

Although some say the Rock designers stole its look from the Ruger 57, I don’t think so. I find it very attractive in its own right. My first impression when holding the gun in my hand was, “If this gun shoots like it should, this is a gun I will be proud to own.” Naturally I racked the slide to clear the gun, found a good dry fire target on the wall and pulled the trigger. Very nice! I struggle with the slide on some of my 9mm handguns, but the 5.7x28mm doesn’t require a strong spring to cycle the gun; therefore, I can easily rack the slide on any of the 5.7 handguns, this one included.

The size of the 5.7x28mm round is such that the pistol grip is long and narrow to accommodate. There is a high undercut on the trigger guard allowing a high grip on the frame. The trigger reach is such that even my short, stubby fingers have plenty of extra length there. Sights on my gun are the standard three white dot arrangement. The slide has the standard Glock cut for sights making any of a number of aftermarket sights an easy upgrade. Front and rear serrations on the slide are there to assist with any hand position the shooter likes to use for racking slides. The Picatinny rail has three slots, and behind it the trigger guard is squared off in front for those of us who like to put the index finger of the support hand on the front of the trigger guard for stability.

The slide lock lever is small but easy to manipulate and it has a protective ridge around the bottom and front to prevent inadvertent operation during shooting. Unfortunately for South Paws, it exists only on one side. The magazine release button is rectangular in shape and reversible. Its operation is positive, resulting in a nice magazine ejection. The magazine baseplate is slightly larger than the bottom of the grip allowing for an easy grasp to pull out a magazine that may be stuck. Also there is an indention on both sides at the bottom of the grip to facilitate grasping and pulling the magazine out. The texture on the grip and on both sides of the frame where the index finger rests is very comfortable, yet aggressive enough to provide a non-slip grip. There’s a single bump on the front strap positioned to go between your index and middle finger. It makes a secure grasp easy.

Takedown for cleaning is non-standard by very easy.
Follow instructions in the manual for the first time.

Takedown for the Rock is a bit non-standard. After ensuring the gun is unloaded, the trigger pulled and the magazine out of the gun, wrap your firing hand over the top of the slide and pull the slide back until approximately ¼ of it extends toward the back. Don’t go too far or the trigger will reset, and you’ll have to start over. With your support hand, pull the takedown levers that are located above the center part of the trigger guard down on both sides. Release pressure on the slide with your firing hand, allowing it to move forward until the rear of the slide is approximately 3/8 inch forward of the end of the grip. You can then lift the slide off the frame. Remove the recoil spring, then lift the barrel out and that’s it. Reassembly is a simple matter of replacing the barrel and recoil spring, then setting the slide down on the frame, the notches on the slide aligned with the front and rear tabs on the frame, then sliding it rearward until you hear and feel a click. Then rack the slide and you’re done.

One nice thing about loading 5.7 magazines is you simply push the rounds down from the top like you do an AR magazine. I didn’t take the time to load a full 23 rounds but once, but when you’ve got that many rounds in the gun on your hip, you’ve got a pretty good defensive load in my opinion. Speaking of carrying the gun on your hip, the Rock fits easily into any of the holsters I have that were made for the S&W M&P.

First rattle out of the box shooting from ten yards away, I was very disappointed. The Rock was putting all my rounds off to the left of my aiming point and with an unacceptable spread of 5 inches or more. I handed the gun to one of my shooting buddies, and he had the same experience except instead of shooting off to the left, his rounds were going low. I tried loading some rounds from a different box of ammo, and darned if the gun didn’t shape right up and start looking pretty good. Those first rounds were from a box of FN 27 grain ammo. The second load was American Eagle 40 grain ammo. Amazing difference. After shooting that for a while,20 I tried some FN 40 grain ammo, and it also shot well.

**Typical target for the Rock, fired offhand at ten yards.**

The Rock is a very comfortable gun to shoot—nice trigger, low recoil, acceptable accuracy, right on par with the Ruger and S&W examples I have of 5.7x28mm handguns and at a price below the others. If you’ve not tried a 5.7x28mm pistol yet and want to jump in the game, the Palmetto State Armory Rock is a great place to start. And if one 5.7x28mm is all you’ll be buying, you won’t be disappointed with this one.

Guns and Mistletoe

As I the leaves fall off the hardwoods there’s still a bit of green among the oak branches. That’s mistletoe, a parasite which attaches itself to hardwood trees from which it draws water and nutrients. Unless the mistletoe is pervasive enough to kill the host tree, it is relatively harmless, and it contributes to the natural order of things by providing berries for birds to eat and in some places, it is thought to have medicinal value. My interest in mistletoe spawns from its use as a Christmas decoration and the method used to harvest such decorative greenery — a .22 rifle.

**Mistletoe is a parasite that exists in Oak trees throughout the US.**

The request from my mother or grandmother to collect some mistletoe was always met with enthusiasm and a little bit of trepidation. These days I can walk through the woods with a Ruger Wrangler in one hand and a Heritage Rough Rider in the other, popping mistletoe from here and there, watching it fall through the branches to the ground so I can send my retriever to pick it up, but it wasn’t always so. And, yes, I’m kidding about being able to pop mistletoe from a tree with a revolver. I have also missed the last 50 years or so harvesting mistletoe for Christmas.

Growing up in a rural environment with my earliest shooting years being 65 years ago, the concept of learning to shoot at a gun range was unheard of. Without a gun range, learning to hit what you’re aiming at requires a lot of creativity. My cousins and I had .22 rifles and pistols, cheap ammo and all the time in the world to become good shooters. Since we had no gun ranges, our practice targets were chosen from our surroundings.

**All That’s Required for a Mistletoe Hunt is a Good .22 Rifle**

We had plenty of opportunities to practice our shooting skills besides gathering mistletoe. Although the dumpster was invented in 1936, it wasn’t until the 70s before dumpsters were placed in strategic areas around a typical county for the country folks to dump their garbage. Most families had a burn barrel plus a garbage ditch. Don’t get all upset about garbage being dumped in a ditch; it was an environmentally friendly concept. Filling the ditch stopped erosion. These garbage ditches were also the source of many creative targets. Ketchup bottles, mustard jars, soft drink cans or bottles all make wonderful plinkin’ targets. But harvesting mistletoe has a particular training advantage in that it involves skills and safety rules inherent in squirrel hunting with a rifle.

When you’re pointing a .22 rifle with a range of at least a mile at an object in a tree, it’s imperative you make sure a tree branch or trunk will be there to stop the bullet, or that you’re shooting in a direction in which there would be no danger to people, livestock or property should your bullet continue on into the air only to fall to earth off in the distance. Ammo choice is also important. Severing the base of a mistletoe stalk is best done with a hollow point bullet that will provide the widest track on impact.

A good shot to the base of a mistletoe branch usually does the trick, but herein lies the difficulty. The branch is small and way up in a tree. Basically, it’s like shooting at a dime 20 to 40 feet in the air. Hitting it requires an exceptional amount of skill with a rifle. My earliest instruction in rifle shooting came from my dad who showed me how the sights should be aligned and explained the trigger squeeze necessary to keep the sights on target until impact. That lesson in marksmanship was expected to produce squirrels or rabbits for dinner and mistletoe for Christmas decorations.

My grandkids are so busy with school and sports, teaching them to squirrel hunt would be an exercise in futility. But I did manage to squeeze a day in grandson Josh’s busy baseball schedule to teach him, and his best friend Easton, the fine art of harvesting mistletoe. There are several oak trees well-laden with it on the property where we do a lot of our target shooting.

In preparation for the great Mistletoe Hunt, David and his shooters
checked the sight alignment on all his .22 rifles.

Before taking on the mistletoe challenge, I thought it would be good to check out the accuracy of the .22 rifles currently in my safe. When preparing for the sight check outing, I decided to add a little competitiveness to it. I had some 50-foot rifle targets published by the Texas Department of Parks & Wildlife for their Hunter Education classes. Each sheet had six four-inch targets, perfect for what I had in mind. I printed up some file labels with the rifle types on them and labeled sheets of targets for each of the shooters. The objective, in addition to competition, was to give each of the shooters an indication of which of the rifles they could shoot the most accurately for the mistletoe mission.

It was quite windy the day we set out to test the rifles, but since scheduling with the boys at that time of the year is tough, we soldiered on. My Marlin 80, the only .22 with a scope, failed to eject despite some work I’d done on it recently to solve that problem. The rifles we did shoot included a Remington 514, a Winchester 67A, a J.C. Higgins (High Standard) Model 30, a Henry lever action, a Ruger 10/22, a Remington Nylon 66 and a Henry pump action. For this round of testing, we fired from the bench at a range of approximately 40′. The Ruger 10/22 has a red dot sight, but the others were all iron sights.

Without a doubt, Josh won the sighting contest. His targets all featured tighter groups than mine or Easton’s, so we declared him the target shooting winner. It remained to be seen who would harvest the most mistletoe. Josh’s grouping with the Remington 514 was the tightest of the bunch, which didn’t surprise me because I had used that same rifle almost 60 years earlier to earn a series of NRA Junior Marksmanship awards at Boy Scout Camp.

**Mistletoe is a common greenery used for Christmas decorations as well as for hanging over a doorpost to encourage kissing among romantically involved couples.**

Because of the wind, which approached 45 mph in the meadow where we were shooting, we delayed harvesting mistletoe until another date. But we each had picked the rifle we wanted to use for that adventure. For me, it was going to be the Ruger 10/22 with the red dot sight. Josh intended to use the pump and Easton liked the J.C. Higgins Model 30. I knew I would bring the Remington 514 along as backup since it obviously shot true to aim.

**David’s grandson Josh with his first ever Mistletoe shot from a tree.**

Feeling magnanimous as I dropped Josh off at home after that first day shooting the eight rifles, I asked him which was his favorite. He didn’t hesitate in identifying the Henry lever action. That gave me a little pause in what I was planning because it was the newest and most expensive rifle in the bunch and an excellent choice. I’d been giving a lot of thought about the disposition of my gun collection after I’m gone and had decided this day I was going to give Josh a rifle. “It’s yours,” I told him. “What? No way!” he said with great surprise. But that little gesture gave grandpa a good feeling, and the Henry went home with a great young man. I kind of figured that would be the rifle he would choose for his mistletoe outing, but I was surprised when he stuck with the Henry pump.

Diamondback Sidekick – Perfect Companion for Fun

The new Diamondback Sidekick brings back the thrill of owning a gun like the Hi Standard Double-Nine

Posted 11/04/2021

**Diamondback Sidekick – 22/22 WMR Nine-Shot, Swing-out Cylinder SA/DA**

Sometimes magazine writers are in the loop early when it come to new guns being introduced. There are a lot of new guns I don’t get too excited about, especially when it’s just one manufacturer trying to keep up with or outdo another in one of the classes such as carry gun, duty gun or competition gun. I’ve got those categories covered with guns that work fine, so adding another to the rotation doesn’t get me all that excited. What does ring my bell are fun guns. A fun gun I bought over 60 years ago is still a favorite to take out of the safe and go shooting. Diamondback has just recreated that gun and made it better. To say I got excited when I saw the first announcement of the Sidekick is an understatement.

I put my family on notice. Any promises I might have made not to buy any more guns this year was hereby null and void. Come November 22, when the Sidekick is reported to become available, I want one. Then life bestowed upon me something very special in the form of an invite to a writer’s conference in which Diamondback was one of the presenters. This was in early October, more than a month before the scheduled release date for the Sidekick. I got to shoot it and it was everything I hoped it would be. I asked for a review gun whenever they became available, and I was scarcely home before one showed up at my FFL for transfer.

When I opened the box, it seemed like a jump back in time to the day I walked into a hardware store in Oxford, Mississippi, plunked $52.50 down on the counter and walked out with my first-ever revolver—a Hi Standard Double-Nine .22 revolver. That $52.50 would be $472 in today’s dollars. The Double-Nine is a pretty unique .22 revolver in that it looks like a single-action cowboy gun but has a swing out cylinder for loading and a double-action trigger system that allows it to be used like a single-action or a double-action. The Sidekick has those features, too.

**The Sidekick (below) Gets It’s Roots from the Hi Standard Double-Nine (above)**

How the Sidekick Came About.

I asked Adam Walker, Vice President of Engineering and Quality at Diamondback America, how they came to develop the Sidekick, wondering if maybe the Double-Nine had been an influence. Adam told me as they began conceptualizing Diamondback’s first-ever revolver product, they wanted it to be a fun .22 plinker that would be easy to use by people of all ages and levels of experience. He said most of the folks at Diamondback had grown up spending time with their families shooting and that much of the shooting had been done with rimfire guns. As they discussed their various experiences, a common theme arose. More than half the people in the room had owned a Hi Standard Double-Nine. Almost in unison there was an “aha moment” when they realized that this particular revolver model had everything they were looking to create. Everyone was brimming with nostalgia and immediately excited about the project and they were in disbelief that this specific type of product had been out of production for so many years without anyone having picked up the torch.

There are many rimfire revolvers currently in production, but none fit the bill of the quintessential “plinking” rimfire revolver as closely as the Hi Standard Double-Nine. Diamondback’s objective became clear—to recreate the classic Double-Nine revolver using modern manufacturing techniques to ensure a high level of quality and consistency and then reintroduce this product to the world as the Diamondback Sidekick. They are proud to continue the tradition of encouraging families and friends to spend time together through shooting and outdoor activities. As they say—life’s better with a sidekick.

I’d say they’ve met their objective. I may not represent the typical shooter, but I have Ruger and Heritage .22 revolvers, plus a plethora of semi-auto .22 handguns, and I know without a doubt the Sidekick will be the one I pick up most often to go shooting just for fun.

The Nine-Shot Swing-Out Cylinder Makes for Quick and Easy Loading. Plus There are Two of Them — One for .22 and One for .22 Magnum.

Gun Details.

Diamondback built the Sidekick with swing out cylinders in both .22 and .22 Mag, but it is definitely a sho ‘nuff cowboy gun to look at and handle. Although it has revived the Hi Standard Double-Nine in spirit, Diamondback has made the Sidekick even better with the exchangeable cylinders and a repurposed ejector latch to facilitate opening the cylinder for loading and unloading. It also has counter-bored cylinder chambers which allow the gun to be dry-fired without injury to the cylinders or the firing pin. All in all, with modern manufacturing techniques and materials, it’s a better gun. Although the Sidekick has a shorter barrel—4.5″ compared to the Double-Nine’s 5.5″— at 2 lbs., it slightly outweighs the Double-Nine. The heftier feel to me indicates it’s built with stronger materials. The gun is black anodized aluminum with black checkered plastic grips. It has fluted cylinders where the Double-Nine does not. The Sidekick’s single-action trigger breaks at 3 lbs. while the trigger on the Double-Nine is a little over 4 lbs. Double-action pull on both guns exceeds the 12 lb. limit on my Lyman trigger pull gauge, but it’s not difficult on either gun. Sometimes I just roll off nine double-action shots one after the other to see how close I can group them. It’s not difficult to do, and if I were to encounter a rattlesnake in the woods, that’s probably exactly what I would do. Not that I wouldn’t have killed him with the first shot, you understand, but it’s fun to chop a rattlesnake into pieces with a firearm—and to make good and sure he’s dead.

**The Ejecction Rod Handle Has Been Repurposed to Open the Cylinder.**

At the writer’s conference, I watched the Diamondback rep swap the cylinders. He showed us how to take a punch and depress the link pivot pin through a hole in the lower front of the frame. It looked easy, and when I tried it on my gun, it was easy. It was so easy I should have, but didn’t, read the instructions ahead of time. Had I read them, I would have learned about the spring and how it would launch the pivot pin if you weren’t careful. It launched it when I wasn’t looking. When trying to put in the other cylinder was when I found myself turning to the instructions. An unattached spring behind the cylinder latch pin? Oops! I keep a magnet with an extended collapsible handle around for such occasions as this. I backed my wheelchair up, surveyed the room, saw something on the rug that looked out of place, extended my magnet toward it and found my missing parts. Had I been in the field when first attempting this cylinder swap, I’d have found myself with a functionless firearm through no fault of the gun or the manufacturer, just my own propensity to do stuff without first reading the directions. It’s not an issue if you know the spring and pin aren’t attached and to watch for them. In fact, it’s a piece of cake.

Outdoor Fun.

For my first shooting outing with my new Sidekick, I wasn’t thinking about paper targets. I thought about aluminum drink cans. I filled up a bucket of them from the family recycle bin and headed for the woods. Shooting cans is so much fun because they scoot across the ground when hit and present target after target. Sometimes they spin around so just the bottom is facing you making a perfect 2″ bullseye. The only reason I get tired of that kind of shooting is because I’m old and I get tired doing anything. I was by myself on this outing, but had I been with sons and grandsons, we’d have come up with some competitive scenarios to make it even more fun.

**A .22 Revolver Will Gobble Up Your Old Shorts, Longs and Long Rifles With Ease.**

Range Time.

The next day I went to the range to create holes in paper targets and to shoot the Sidekick alongside my trusted Double-Nine. I wasn’t particularly motivated to determine 15 or 25 yard accuracy because that’s not what these guns are about. I wanted to more or less just practice shooting them to see how well I could do. Since neither gun has target sights, the biggest challenge I faced was tilting my head at the right angle for my progressive trifocals to allow me to focus on the front sight. I found when I could do that with either gun, I could actually create some pretty good groups at 10 yards. I started my session by shooting 90 rounds of .22 Magnum using two different brands—Remington and CCI’s Maxi Mag. Then I switched cylinders and shot another couple hundred rounds in each gun. New ammunition consisted of SK Standard, SK Flatnose Match and Winchester Super X Hollow Points. I didn’t notice much difference in performance between the different loads. Next, I did something that only revolvers let me do. I went through an old box containing a mixture of shorts, longs and long rifles with that nasty white corrosion that gets on lead bullets with age. The revolvers don’t care. Shooting the shorts is almost like shooting a gun with a silencer they’re so quiet.

**At 10 Yards the Sidekick is Plenty Accurate.**

I got some targets worth taking pictures of and had a great time with my double-action, swing-out cylinder cowboy .22s. I’m betting at an MSRP of only $320, you’re going to want a Sidekick for your own shooting pleasure.

David’s Later Guns #2 — The Cougar and the Storm

Posted 9/06/2021

***The Beretta Px4 Storm was preceded in production by Beretta’s Cougar 8000. Production of the Cougar was transferred to Stoeger when Beretta purchased the company.***

The Beretta Px4 Storm is one of the smoothest operating handguns offered in the defensive handgun arena. So many more guns have been offered in that market segment since the Px4 Storm made its debut, including more by Beretta, that sometimes the Px4 gets lost in the mix. That’s a shame. Offered in full-size, compact and sub-compact versions, there is something for every need. Mine is the full-size version, which I find a delightful concealed carry gun. Before I get too far into the details, I want to tell you about the Storm’s older cousin, the Cougar.

The Cougar 8000 was a Beretta product introduced in 1994 as a smaller alternative to the Beretta 92. When Beretta acquired Stoeger through its Benelli subsidiary, production of the Cougar, along with all the dies and tooling, was transferred to Stoeger. Essentially the Beretta Cougar and the Stoeger Cougar are the same product. It’s a shame it’s no longer manufactured as it is truly a fine pistol.

My Cougar, acquired in 2009, represents my transition from revolvers to semi-automatic handguns. It was the first semi-automatic pistol I bought. I can’t call it mine anymore because when I brought it home, my youngest son, who was also looking for a new handgun, announced that was the gun he wanted. He put the money in my hand to reimburse me for the cost of the Cougar, and I was sent back to the store to get another gun. That is why I have the Px4. The Cougar has remained in the family, and I’ve enjoyed shooting it on more than a few occasions.

There is so much about the two guns that is similar, although the Cougar is an all-steel gun while the Storm has a polymer frame. Cougar and Storm are what we call them around the house. I hope you don’t mind if I forgo trying to keep the naming convention right for the rest of this article and just refer to them using those titles.

***Both of these guns have Trijicon night sights installed.***

The Storm is still in production and is offered in nine different configurations: Px4 Storm Compact Carry, Px4 Compact FDE, Px4 Compact Grey, Px4 Storm Carry, Px4 Storm Compact, Px4 Storm Full, Px4 Storm SubCompact, Px4 Storm SD Type F, Px4 Storm Inox. Each one can be purchased as a Type C, Type D, Type F or Type G, but are primarily offered in the civilian market as Type F. Type C is a single-action only pistol. The C stands for “Constant Action” — the spurless hammer is in half-cocked position. There is no decocker and no safety. This configuration is primarily sold into the police market. Type D is double-action-only, with a spurless hammer, no decocker and no safety. The popular Type F is familiar to most of us. It is an SA/DA gun with a decocker and manual safety. Type G is SA/DA with the safety feature removed so that the safety lever works only as a decocker. Somewhere along the way my Px4 Storm F was converted to a Type G. I’m okay with that because I rarely use the safety on an SA/DA gun.

***The Storm is a polymer gun that uses a pair of takedown sliders, similar to the Glock. David’s Storm doesn’t have a manual lever safety. The lever acts as a decocker.***

The Px4 Storm SD .45 ACP semi-auto pistol was developed to meet the very demanding requirements issued by the US Special Forces Command (SOCOM) for their Joint Combat Pistol. They called for superior weather resistance, extended threaded barrel, dark earth frame, tactical case and additional accessories. Beretta answered the call successfully by redesigning the Storm’s internal components to meet and exceed all these requirements. The result is a pistol that satisfies not only SOCOM’s requirements, but the most demanding shooter looking for the absolute best and most reliable for personal defense, competition or carry. All of the Px4 pistols have been designed to meet or exceed NATO requirements and have been reported to have fired over 150,000 rounds with zero failures.

While the compact and subcompact models are very popular, I like my full-size model and find it comfortable to shoot and carry. Size wise it is 7.5″ long, 5.5″ high, 1.22″ wide and weighs 28 oz. The barrel is 4″ long. The Beretta website stretches these measurements a bit. Maybe my gun has shrunk over the years, but I’m giving you exactly what the ruler says. I think it’s probably more an issue of translating from metric to US measurements.

***The Cougar has an all steel frame and a takedown lever. The safety also acts as a decocker.***

The Cougar is 5.5″ tall, 7″ long and 1.3″ wide. The barrel is 3.5″ long. This one weighs at 30.25 oz. because it’s an all-steel gun. As you can tell, these two guns are very similar in size and their measurements are typical of a mid-size carry gun. The heft is comfortable in my hands and not at all uncomfortable to carry in a good IWB holster. The slide is rounded everywhere there’s an edge, pronouncedly so on the top edges. Mounted on the slide are Tritium night sights. I honestly don’t remember if the gun came that way or if it’s something we added later. There are serrations on the flat part of the slide, which is the lower half, just above the rather hefty slide lock lever. On the back of the slide is an ambidextrous lever that doubles as a safety and a decocker. The safety totally disables the hammer and trigger.

The mag release button is in the customary place behind the trigger. Pressing it results in an aggressive drop of the magazine. The magazine is a 15-rounder, steel and strongly made. The grip frame is very comfortable to me. Being an all-steel gun, there’s no swapping of backstraps for fit. The gun came with a set of rubber grips. I gave my son a set of wooden grips for the Cougar for his birthday one year and that’s what the gun is now wearing. Vertical lines on the front strap and backstrap assist with grip purchase. In case you’re wondering, backstrap is one word, but front strap isn’t.

The trigger on the Cougar is a curved affair that sits forward. In DA mode it starts working with no slack. The pressure is steady for about .75″ and then you get a crisp, clean 9 lb. break. Follow-up shots in SA mode require .25″ take-up before breaking at an average 5.1 lbs. Tactile reset comes when the trigger is almost all the way forward.

The barrel to slide lockup is different on these pistols from most locked-breech pistols. The lockup action consists of a ¼ round rotation before the slide moves backward, resulting in reduced recoil.

One of the unique features of the Cougar, shared with the Beretta Px4 Storm, is the barrel operating system. While the Cougar and Storm are locked breech operating semi-automatic pistols, the way the barrel locks up is different. There is a locking block the recoil spring and rod go through. This block has a pin on it that fits inside a groove on the portion of the barrel that supports the “lock-up.” This groove wraps around the barrel so the pin travels in a rotational manner around approximately ¼ of the barrel when the gun is fired. This occurs at the start of the cycle to eject the just-fired cartridge and load another one. The end result of this action is that the first ¼ of the recoil cycle is rotational and does not present any kind of “kick” to the shooter. Does the Cougar have recoil? Yes, but it is diminished somewhat by the unique operating system.

Disassembly for cleaning or other maintenance is slightly different with this kind of barrel/recoil spring combo, but not at all complicated. After dropping the magazine, locking the slide back and checking to ensure the chamber is empty, there is a lever on the left side of the frame just above the front of the trigger guard. The lever has a locking pin which is released by pushing a button on the right side of the frame. Once this is done, the lever can be rotated clockwise a ¼ turn. Release the slide lock and the slide will come off the front. No trigger pull required. The recoil spring and locking block can be lifted off the barrel, the barrel removed and everything about cleaning, lubricating and reassembling the gun is standard, except you have to maneuver the locking block over the barrel to get the pin into the groove and that requires a slight compression of the recoil spring. It’s not much different than the way you have to compress the recoil spring on any semi-automatic to get it to drop into place on the barrel.

Everything I just described for the Cougar is true also of the Storm with two exceptions. Takedown on the Storm is done by pulling down two tabs on the frame just ahead and above the trigger guard, similar to takedown on a Glock. Only on the Storm no trigger pull is required before removing the slide. The difference is the grips. The Storm comes with interchangeable backstraps. I’m using the medium size on my gun.

***This five shot group with Norma’s new MHP rounds***
***is typical of the Storm’s performance at 10 yards.***

***Both guns perform exceptionally well with Black Hills Xtreme Defender fluted rounds.***

If you don’t have your mid-size carry gun and can find one, the Px4 STORM will not disappoint you. I think any size would work fine. Problem now might be availability, but since it’s an older gun there should be some on the auction sites. The same is true of the Cougar. Just remember when looking at the Stoeger STR-9, it’s not the first mid-size 9mm Stoeger has brought to market.

David’s Early Gun Series #2 — Hi Standard Double Nine

The Hi Standard Double Nine was my first Handgun, purchased when I was 15.

Posted 8/1/2021

Around age 14 I began working part time jobs after school and during the summer. It didn’t take me long to start gathering the tools to be a man. Chief among them was a mildly customized F1 Ford pickup and a .22 revolver. I bought the revolver at the local Western Auto store, paying something just shy of $50 for it. The gun was a High Standard Double Nine. High Standard was known at the time for it’s semi-automatic .22 that was used in competition. There was another revolver built more along the lines of a Smith & Wesson called the Sentinel and folks said the Sentinel was every bit as good as one of the more expensive revolvers from Smith & Wesson or Ruger. The Double Nine was a cowboy version of the Sentinel. It looked like a Colt Single Action Army, but the cylinder swung out for loading, and it was a double-action revolver rather than single action. Sort of the best of both worlds.

***David Bought His First Double Nine at a Western Auto Store When He Was 15***

I used my Double Nine for plinkin’ and impressing the girls I dated by taking them shooting and I occasionally used it to bag a squirrel or a rabbit. I loved that gun, but apparently not enough to keep me from trading it to a friend for a stereo. My rationing was he was a close enough friend I’d still have access to the gun when I wanted to shoot it. But a few weeks after the trade, my friend told me it was really his mother’s stereo he had traded to me and she wanted it back. Naturally, I was willing to reverse the trade, but my friend confessed he had sold the gun to somebody who didn’t want to give it back. I returned the stereo but was without my Double Nine.

I went through the rest of my youth without getting a replacement, but I missed it enough that when I got into the gun business with my friend Jerry Colliver, Jerry found me a replacement. This time it wasn’t a $50 purchase, but $300 got me a nice Double Nine still in its original box. That box has the original price sticker on it—$64.95, indicating it was originally purchased about the same time I bought my first Double Nine.

I’ve got .22 revolvers from Heritage, Ruger and Uberti, but I gravitate to the Double Nine for my own shooting enjoyment. Let the kids and grandkids enjoy the other guns, the High Standard has a special place in my shooter’s heart. It’s not better than the other guns, though it is a little easier to load and unload. I just have a lot of pleasant memories associated with the Double Nine.

My gun is a model W-104 with a 4.5″ barrel. It’s currently wearing staghorn grips, but I also have a set of black grips and a set of faux pearl grips, both made specifically for the Double Nine by Jay Scott Custom Grips. The cylinder has drag marks made by the bolt as the cylinder rotates. I’m told that’s typical of these guns. Other than those markings, which I touch up from time-to-time with Birchwood Casey Aluminum Black, the gun shows no signs of abuse or wear. The frame and cylinder are made of an aluminum alloy.

Loading the gun is very easy. Beneath the barrel there is a small tab that on single action revolvers would be connected to the rod used to push empty shell casings out of the cylinder. This tab only moves a half an inch or so and is used to release the cylinder, which opens like the cylinder on a typical double action revolver. You can load the gun with shorts, longs or long rifles, mixed and matched at your pleasure. After firing, simply open the cylinder again press the cylinder pin to eject the empty shells, or any cartridges that have not been fired.

The double action trigger pull exceeds the 12 lb. limit of my Lyman trigger pull gauge, but it works in a way I appreciate. There is no slack to speak of and the trigger starts stacking immediately. If you’re pulling it slowly, it’s easy to stop at the wall just before the break and recheck sight alignment before pulling through. If you want to simply pull the trigger without paying attention to the break, you can and it feels smooth all the way through. In fact, you can empty the gun in short order just by aggressively pulling the trigger repeatedly until the bang turns into a click.

It’s easier to be more accurate with single-action shooting, at least for me. Cocking the gun sets the trigger to the rear where an easy 4 lbs. of pressure fires the gun. The sights are better than those found on a lot of cowboy guns in that there is a notched rear sight that sets above the top strap. The front sight is a blade that is 1/4″ high. The rear sight is well above the hammer when the hammer is down, so it works just as well in the double-action mode as in single-action.

***Shorts, Longs, or Long Rifles — Any of Them Works***

I realized when thinking about my early days with the Double Nine I shot it one-handed. My examples of how to handle a gun in those days were on-screen heroes such as Roy Rogers, Gene Autrey, The Lone Ranger, Hop-a-long Cassidy and the Cisco Kid and they all shot their six shooters one handed. It wasn’t until I started taking handgun instruction on the way to becoming an instructor myself that I ever knew any better. When I shot my Double nine for this article, I reverted to the one-handed shooting I’d done with it early on and was pleased with the results. I didn’t try to shoot any long-range targets but shooting at five to seven yards I could put all nine rounds in a 5″ circle consistently. I don’t know that I’ve ever had a misfire. I sometimes shoot shorts, sometimes longs and sometimes long rifles, just depending on what I have on hand when I go shooting.

***This is Typical of the Double Nine’s Performance at 5-7 Yards***

The High Standard company was founded by Swedish immigrant Carl Gustav Swebilius who got his start in the gun business by working for Marlin as a machinist and later a gun designer. He also spent a little time at Winchester before starting High Standard Manufacturing to make parts for other gunmakers. He borrowed some money from friends to by the assets of the Hartford Firearms company. Between selling Hartford pistols and improving upon them the High Standard became a manufacturing company. It’s interesting the moniker attached to the company was always High Standard, yet the firearms were always branded as Hi Standard. Hi Standard semi-automatics were sought after for competition and the revolvers found their place in the market as reasonably priced .22s suitable for teaching kids to shoot, keeping varmints away from the chickens and vegetable garden on the farm and just general fun shooting. The company operated several buildings in and around Harford, Connecticut and seemed at times to be doing quite well. They even supplied parts for US armed forces during WWII.

In 1968, the company was sold to an investment company called The Leisure Group. In 1978 the company was purchased by its managers but was soon in financial trouble and its assets were auctioned off. One of the primary parts distributors for the company bought some of the parts lines and the trademarks. In early 1993 a new company was formed in Texas to acquire the trademarks and .22 pistol line. The assets, including tooling, were moved to Houston in July of 1993 and the first of the Houston made guns shipped in March of 1994. The Texas company closed its doors in 2018.

Many collectors have realized the value of these firearms and prices have held steady. My particular model is listed in the Blue Book of Gun Values as being worth $450–$500. I’m glad to know I didn’t overpay for it and I’m pleased I’ll be able to pass it along to some lucky member of my family when I can no longer pull a trigger.

David’s Early Gun Series #1 — Dad’s Smith and Wesson Model 10

My Dad’s .38 was the gun I carried on many adventures as a youth. I still treasure it today.

Posted 7/28/2021

*Dad Was a Game Warden as a Secondary Function of His Job*

Throughout most of his career my father was the Director of Fisheries for the Mississippi Game and Fish Commission, now known as Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks. It was the policy of then that all director level employees were also qualified as game wardens. Although my father never acted as a game warden to my knowledge, he had the badge and a gun. The gun was a .38 Special Smith and Wesson Model 10. Dad kept his gun in his sock drawer.

Dad’s job kept him away from home during the week but his gun stayed behind. I don’t recall ever asking him if it was okay if I carried his .38 with me on some of my exploring adventures, but I did dig it out of that sock drawer on many occasions.

One occasion I remember is kind of embarrassing but I tell it for its humor. As a kid I hated spiders. This hatred had its seed in something that happened to me on a camping trip near a small lake just a few miles outside of town. The dam and the low area just below the dam were populated by pine trees approximately ten feet tall. I was making my way through those pine trees and ran into a spider web with a large black and yellow garden spider in it right at face level. I kind of panicked and turned to run and ran right into another one which resulted in a one of those large black and yellow spiders being on my face. In full panic mode I swatted that spider and its web down and ran over the dam and into the lake, clothes and all. These spiders were 4 to 5 inches in size and very yucky. That’s why I hated spiders. Still do, for that matter, but I don’t panic when I see them.

My cousin Paul Moss and I were navigating Toby Tubby Creek in my dad’s fiberglass john boat. Paul was in the front; I was in the back. We were working our way under a tree that had fallen across the creek and as Paul passed under the tree a large spider fell off the tree and onto the bottom of the boat. Without thinking, I shot the spider with Dad’s .38. You should have seen the hole in the boat with little spider legs all around, floating away because water was coming in the hole. How stupid, to shoot a hole in the bottom of your boat just because of a spider. Fortunately, the creek wasn’t very deep, and we weren’t that far from our transportation. Whenever I think of the gun safety rule, “know your target and what is beyond,” I think of that spider and the hole I shot in the boat as being what was beyond my target.

**David’s Photoshop Rendition of What He Remembers About Shooting a Hole in the Boat to Kill a Spider**

When Dad was leaving his home and going to a nursing home during the last months of his life here on earth I told him I was taking his .38 home with me. He said, “Son, I don’t believe I ever shot that gun.” I responded, “That’s okay, Dad, I shot it a lot.” I was quite naïve about guns in my early days. I had a shotgun that I hunted with and a .22 rifle for plinking. Dad’s .38 was my only handgun for a while, until I bought a High Standard Double Nine revolver. After I got the High Standard, I left Dad’s gun in his sock drawer.

I flew helicopters in Vietnam, and we were issued Smith and Wesson revolvers as part of our flight gear. I remember thinking it was very similar to Dad’s gun, but some years later I read that the guns we were issued in Vietnam were Model 36s. If so, it was only a 5-shot where the Model 10 is a 6-shot revolver. I honestly don’t remember what I had in Vietnam. I carried an M2 Carbine in the helicopter with me and always considered it my primary weapon.

Dad’s Model 10 is a Model 10-5. You find that model number underneath the yoke when you open the cylinder. The -5 indicates Dad’s gun was made in 1962 and on that particular model the front sight width was changed from 1/10″ to 1/8″. I verified the sight width on our gun with my digital caliper and sure enough it is 1/8″. That front sight is ramped with ridges on the top side. Somewhere along the way I have added white paint on those ridges to help my eyes pick up the front sight when aiming the gun.

The history of the S&W revolvers leading up to the Model 10 is legendary. It started as the Smith & Wesson .38 Hand Ejector Model of 1899 and was later called the Military and Police. It is a K-frame revolver in production since 1899. The Model 10 is a six-shot, .38 Special, double-action revolver with fixed sights. Over its long production run it has been available with barrel lengths of 2″, 2.5″, 3″, 4″, 5″ and 6″. I’ve seen figures that indicate more than 6,000,000 of the type have been produced over the years, and it is still in production today. The one in the current catalog has a 4″ barrel and an MSRP of $762. That 6,000,000 production number makes the Model 10 one of the most, if not the most, popular gun in history. No telling how many police officers, game wardens and state troopers have carried the Model 10 and its variants in the line of duty. I know when I carried it on my hunting and camping trips as a boy, I never thought of myself as not having enough gun. If I weren’t spoiled to the round capacity of today’s double stack 9mms I might still consider myself adequately armed with my Smith & Wesson .38 Special revolver. Notice how I subtly changed the label from Dad’s Model 10 to my Model 10. Dad is long gone now, and I no longer have to sneak the gun out of his sock drawer to use it.

Suppose it was my daily carry gun. How up to the task is it? To start with, I’d have to change holsters or change belts. Dad always kept the gun in the holster that he got with it, which is an FBI model made by Bucheimer Clark and perfect for carrying the gun discreetly under a vest or shirt tail, but it’s made for a smaller diameter belt than the ones I wear, which are made for carrying a gun. I wish that wasn’t the case because it’s a really nice holster. I did find a nice OWB holster from ComfortTAC that fits it fine and allows me to carry it in the three o’clock position, which is comfortable for me.

The FBI Holster Dad Got When He Got His Gun

Suppose trouble comes and I need to use the gun to defend myself. Six rounds of a good .38 Special hollow point should be enough, right? That would depend upon my ability handle the gun and hit what I’m aiming at. The grip seems a bit large compared to the rest of the gun, but it’s a standard K Frame squared grip and it’s perfect for controlling the gun. A .38 Special round is not without significant recoil and the Model 10’s grip is designed to handle that recoil. It also facilitates quick sight alignment when bringing the gun up to a good shooting position. The trigger is very interesting. Double-action trigger pull is over the 12 lbs. limit on my Lyman® trigger pull gauge but the single-action pull averages 4 lbs. 2 oz. Even though the double action pull exceeds 12 lbs. it’s a smooth and an easy pull in my book. If you have time to cock the gun, you’re going to be much more accurate than with a double-action trigger break.

**The Model 10 Is Plenty Accurate as this 10-Yard Target Demonstrates**

People say short barrel guns aren’t accurate, but my Model 10 dispels that theory and I’ve seen others shoot tight groups out to 15 yards with their snubby revolvers such as the Model 10 and Model 12 from Smith and Wesson. I can put six rounds into a 4″ circle at 10 yards with my Model 10 with almost any of the ammo I’ve tried. When using the gun in a defensive posture I usually load it up with Underwood .38 Special +P 140 Grain Lehigh Xtreme Penetrator or Hornady Critical Defense .38 Special +P 110 Grain FTX. The gun shoots tight groups with either of those. Since they are +P they’ve got a bit of recoil to them, so I don’t do much pleasure shooting with those loads. For target practice I like shooting lead or FMJ 130 to 158 grain rounds of what ever happens to be available. The Model 10 doesn’t seem to care.

**Some of Dad’s Old Rounds — Still Good and the Model 10 Likes Them**

We don’t shoot the Model 10 often, but my grandkids always enjoy having it included in any of our outings. Because I have double-stack 9mm, .40 and .45 semi-automatics, carrying the Model 10 for personal protection rarely occurs to me. Writing this article has caused me to think about it again, so I plan to give it some outings over the next few weeks. Hopefully, I won’t have to use it, but if I do, I’m sure you’ll hear about it and I’m sure it will have done its part.

Six Delightful Handguns From Turkey

Turkish firearms imported into this country are well made and attractively priced. Six are featured here.

Posted 6/6/2021

Turkey’s role in world politics is important as it lies right on the border of Europe and Asia. The government of Turkey mimics ours in many ways with an elected president, parliamentary representatives from each of 81 provinces and a judiciary branch. The country is highly industrialized and exports products around the world. The firearm business in Turkey is particularly robust. A Turkish business directory lists over 260 companies producing firearms. Eighty-five of those companies list shotguns as their major product. Eight companies manufacture rifles and nine companies list handguns as their primary product. I was somewhat surprised to learn my new Winchester Wildcat .22 rifle was made in Turkey by Istanbul Silah. Many of the companies also manufacture air guns and a few manufacture ammunition or gun parts. It’s not unusual to find a firearms manufacturer who also manufactures aviation parts. We are fortunate in that several of the pistol manufacturers export their products to the United States.

These six handguns featured in this report are representative of many affordable pistols manufactured in Turkey and sold in the US. Top Row: Girsan MC28SA, **SAR 9X**, **Tisas M1911A1**; Bottom Row: Canik TP9SA, SAR B6, Stoeger STR-9C

Good Quality — Fair Prices

I’m not sure what it is about the Turkish economy that allows them to produce firearms with quality equal to that of German, Italian and American firearms but at considerably lower prices. It’s not unions as there are unions in Turkey. Perhaps it’s fewer levels of management and lower marketing costs. I don’t know, but I’m glad it’s the way it is. Turkey not only equips its own military (strength over 500,000 and all males are required to serve) with firearms created in country, it exports firearms to a reported 70 countries with many of the exported firearms for military and police use. Firearms used by military and police are well-tested which helps with quality and reliability. The volume also helps with pricing.

My first semi-automatic pistol was a Stoeger made in Turkey. It was essentially a Beretta 8040 Cougar. Beretta owns Stoeger and shortly after the purchase, they moved tooling for the Cougar to Turkey. That Cougar is a delightful gun now owned by one of my sons. This report is about six modern handguns produced by Turkish companies, all sold in the US and priced considerably below similar handguns made in Germany, Italy and the US. I’ll discuss them in alphabetical order by brand and model.

Let’s Break Them Down Starting With Canik

First up is a 9mm Canik TP9SA in FDE. This gun is imported by Century Arms and is usually priced somewhere around $349–$389 at retail. The TP9SA is one of many models of Canik pistols imported by Century. This is the only gun in this report that doesn’t belong to me. I borrowed it from my good friend Alf Evans, who I sometimes play bass guitar for at the church where he is the worship leader. Alf has had this gun for several years, and it is his favorite of several 9mm handguns. I can see why. As I shot it along with the other five handguns in this report, had I not recently put myself on a gun diet, I’d be looking for one to add to my carry gun rotation. It’s a very nice handling pistol and very accurate in addition to being very attractive. The TP9SA came packaged in a plastic case along with a paddle retention holster, extra magazine, cleaning brush and exchangeable grip panels, along with the requisite trigger lock and owner’s manual.

Next Up is Girsan

Next up is a Girsan MC28SA. Girsan is known for its quality line of 1911 handguns plus a few originals such as this MC28. This one captured my attention while browsing EAA listings for affordable carry guns. It’s not an M&P clone, but it sure is a doppelganger in both appearance and function. The gun arrived in a plastic carrying case with two extra grip panels giving the shooter the option of small, medium and large grips plus a tool for swapping the grip panels. The medium panel installed at the factory fit my hand the best. I was immediately impressed with how much the look and feel of the MC28SA matched that of Smith & Wesson’s original M&P, of which I have several. The trigger is different because the Girsan has the blade safety trigger and S&W handles that function a little differently, but the other controls closely match those of the S&W, as does the grip texture. The dimensions are the same, the weight is the same. Features vary slightly. Girsan equipped their pistol with 3 dot sights, the rear one being a Novack style. Instead of the fish scale cocking serrations on the M&P, the Girsan has angled serrations at the back of the slide and abbreviated serrations at the front.

A Couple of SARs

I have two guns made by Sarsilmaz Firearms Corp., doing business in the US as SAR USA, the SAR B6 and the SAR9X Platinum. Sarsilmaz is a privately-owned company in Turkey that produces guns for law enforcement, military and civil use. They are the sole supplier of pistols for the Turkish National Police and the Turkish Armed Forces. SAR introduced its B6 handgun to the US market in September 2012.

The B6 is a polymer-framed clone of the iconic CZ-75. It shares the easy handling feel and operation of the CZ with a decent trigger and sights and is priced such that we were able to sell it in our store for $340. We sold a ton of them, especially when SAR started offering them in colors like pink and purple. Today a typical advertised online price is $349. The B6 was, and still is, a fine handgun for personal use, including home and self-defense. It carries well, shoots well and is durable.

I first saw a SAR9 at an NRA Expo in Dallas in 2018. I was not impressed. My first thought when looking at it was “just another black gun.” The SAR9 is different than the SAR B6, but I didn’t see it as an improvement. Later I read about the extensive testing the SAR9 had been put through in order to qualify for military acceptance, but it still didn’t make me want one. But this year I was captured by an ad for a SAR9X Platinum. I reached out to SAR to see if I could get one at a writer’s price and the answer was positive. This is one beautiful gun. I didn’t pick up on it when looking at a totally black SAR, but it’s almost a clone of the H&K VP9. The Platinum edition came with lots of goodies including swappable grip inserts, an extra magazine, holster, magazine carrier and even a light that will mount on the dust-cover rail. I really liked the SAR9X except for the trigger, which was meeting some kind of resistance during the pull. I studied the gun a bit and discovered the trigger bar was rubbing against the inside of the frame. It appeared to be bent. I straightened it with a pair of needle-nosed pliers and, lo and behold, the trigger became more than acceptable. It became good.

Back in the Stoeger Business

Most of us know Stoeger as a shotgun company, but they have manufactured handguns from time to time. Stoeger also makes air guns, some of which are quite sophisticated. In recent years Stoeger has been offering STR-9 and STR-9 Compact pistols, making the STR-9 platform affordable by offering different configurations. I went for the STR-9 Compact packaged with only one magazine and one backstrap. The MSRP is $329, but I bought it for $299. The all-up model with three magazines, three backstraps and Tritium sights has an MSRP of $449 and can be bought for less than $400. I would put the STR-9 up against handguns costing twice as much as far as performance and reliability. Stoeger put all the features into the STR-9C you would expect to find in a carry or home defense gun. The sights have large white dots, one in front and two to the rear and are made of steel and dovetailed into the slide. Trigger manipulation is very solid with very little take-up and a crisp break at 5 lbs. If you shoot the STR-9, you’re going to like the trigger.

A US Army 1911A1 Without the Steep Price

The Tisas 1911A1 U.S. Army model is a historically correct reproduction of the original US Military service pistol. It’s the only .45 in my selection of Turkish pistols for this review. All the others are 9mm. From its Parkerized finish and hammer-forged barrel to its weight and feel, this pistol accurately replicates the original military issue Government model pistol. It ships with one 7 round Mec-Gar mag, a cleaning brush and manual in a factory box. It accepts any aftermarket magazines and accessories that would fit an American-made GI M1911A1. Tisas firearms are imported into the US by SDS Imports of Knoxville, TN. Several retailers currently have their US Army M1911A in stock for around $450.

How Do They Shoot?

Ammunition Available for Testing During the Ammunition Shortage — **Ammo Available for Testing During the Ammunition Shortage**

Based on ammunition available, I took a measured approach to shooting these guns for this report. Except for the Canik, I’ve personally put several hundred rounds through each of them. I’ve had success finding ammo during the shortage by ordering from manufacturers who sell direct from their websites. I had Norma Range Ammo and Armscor FMJ, Hornady Hunter, Pilgrim JHP, Red Zone JHP, IMI JHP, Geco JHP and Norma MHP to shoot through the 9mm guns. I only had Pilgrim JHP for the .45. I used EZ2C Targets with six circular targets per page. Using a different brand of ammo for each page of targets, I shot several rounds of five shots from each gun into its own target. The photo you see with this article was my fourth in the series and was shot using Armscor’s FMJ ammo for all five of the 9mms and Pilgrim .45ACP +P JHP for the Tisas M1911A1. I could have photographed any of the targets in the series and the results would have been similar. The range was 10 yards, and I shot freehand from my wheelchair. I cannot explain why the holes in the Stoeger STR9C target appear larger than the other 9mm targets because it’s the same ammo. Perhaps it was the angle of the target path which was lower than the others.

As you can see, every one of these targets shows excellent grouping for a personal protection handgun. I have carried both the SARs and the Stoeger as my EDC in the past. The Girsan is currently the gun I keep in my truck console. I gave the Canik back to Alf and the Tisas M1911A1 represents my historical WWII M1911A1 handgun.

Any One Of Them Is Worth Buying

If you’re not able to locate or afford one of the better known US or German made pistols, the pistols described here are representative of excellent alternatives being imported from Turkey on a regular basis. Canik, SAR and Stoeger have US locations that sell through wholesale distributors. Girsan is imported by EAA Corp. and Tisas is imported by SDS Imports of Knoxville, TN. All of the guns described here sell for under $500 and were readily available when I wrote this during the midst of the great Joe Biden and Kamala Harris ammo shortage.

(www.canikusa.com, www. eaacorp.com, www.sarusa.com, www.stoegerindustries.com, www.sdsimports.com)

Girsan MC28SA

The Girsan MC28 is an excellent handgun made in Turkey.

Instructors are often asked to help a new shooter locate a personal carry or protection handgun. Many times the obvious choices are either too expensive or not available due to market conditions. Having been involved in this scenario many times I’ve discovered excellent choices a little off the beaten path. I look for quality that parallels that of brand name guns, but with prices under $400. One such handgun is selling at several of the major online retailers for $389. European American Armory (EAA) is known for importing quality handguns made in Italy, Germany and Turkey. Their import that most recently caught my eye, the Girsan MC28SA, is made in Turkey, which should be no surprise if you understand the number of quality imports from there.

Girsan is known for its quality line of 1911 handguns plus a few originals. This one garnered my attention while browsing EAA listings for affordable carry guns. It’s not an M&P clone, but it sure is a doppelganger in both appearance and function. The gun arrived in a plastic carrying case with two extra grip panels giving the shooter the option of small, medium and large grips plus a tool for swapping the grip panels. The one installed from the factory was the medium-sized one and it’s the one that fit my hand the best.

**The Girsan MC28SA Comes With Three Sizes of Grip Panel**

I was immediately impressed with how much the look and feel of the MC28SA matched that of Smith & Wesson’s original M&P, of which I have several. The trigger is different because the Girsan has the blade safety trigger and S&W handles that function a little differently, but the other controls closely match those of the S&W, as does the grip texture. The dimensions are the same, the weight is the same, features vary slightly. Girsan equipped their pistol with 3 dot sights, the rear one being a Novack style. Instead of the fish scale cocking serrations on the M&P, the Girsan has angled serrations at the back of the slide and abbreviated serrations at the front. Both guns feature an accessory rail for mounting a light, laser or combination.

**The Girsan MC28SA Is Very Similar to the Smith & Wesson M&P**

Girsan takedown is accomplished by rotating a takedown lever on the left side of the gun 90 degrees. Then you must pull the trigger before you can move the slide forward off it’s rails. Smith & Wesson came up with what could only be a lawyers solution to avoid having to pull the trigger, but most of us had rather do it Glock style and pull the trigger rather than hassle with pulling out the extra tool and moving a hard to reach little lever inside the M&P to engage the seer without pulling the trigger. When you get the guns apart it looks like some of the parts, such as the barrel, could be interchangeable. I tried the magazine and found the M&P mag to be slightly thicker. Enough of this. We’re not going to be interchanging parts between the two guns, but I just wanted to make the point that anything you could use a S&W M&P for you could use this Girsan MC28 for and not be found wanting. The Girsan has one feature I really like that is not found on the M&P. That is a cocked indicator that extends through the back of the slide.

**The Pistol Holds Its Own As Far as Accuracy Goes. This is a Typical 15-Yard Target Fired Free Hand**

Several of us among my shooting buddies have shot it now and everyone is satisfied with it’s performance. My first shots consisted of a magazine filled with assorted practice and defensive ammo and all 15 shots grouped within a 4-inch circle from about 15 yards away. The trigger operates smoothly with a consistent 7 lb. pull and a nice reset. If you’re looking for a home defense or carry gun and don’t want to spend $600 or more for it, I have no hesitation in recommending the Girsan MC28SA.

How I Became a Gun Nerd

Dr. Will Dabbs wrote an article for one of the FMG Publications about being a Gun Nerd. When I read that article, I realized I was indeed a Gun Nerd according to Will’s definition. I found myself wondering how that came about. My early life was punctuated with guns, but there was no big emphasis on them. If you were a kid in Mississippi, especially one with rural roots, guns were just part of your life. My first was a single-shot, hammer-fired, el cheapo .410 shotgun. It had been my father’s when he was a boy. He gave it to me the summer between my first and second grade school years and taught me to hunt squirrels with it. That was gun number one and I still have it.

Crescent .410 Gauge — ***David’s First Gun — a Crescent Mfg .410 That Had Been His Father’s.***

Gun number two was acquired when I was eleven and in the fifth grade. Dad gave me his 16-gauge Winchester Model 12 because he rarely hunted and I hunted every chance I got, which was often since my uncles and cousins had bird dogs and hunted throughout the fall to put meat on the table. That gun had actually belonged to my Dad’s Dad. It was given to him as a gift from the men who worked for him when he retired from being the Director of the Mississippi Game & Fish Commission (now the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks).

Guns number three and four were acquired at the end of the summer of my 12^th year. The Boy Scout camp where I had worked that year was selling some rifles off to make room for some new donated guns. I bought a Remington 514 .22 rifle for $4 and a Marlin 80 .22 rifle for $2. I still have all those guns, but I never thought of it as building a collection.

Remington 514, Hi Standard Double Nine — ***David’s Remington 514 and Hi Standard Double Nine From When He Was a Kid***

Gun five was a High Standard Double-Nine .22 revolver I bought from a Western Auto store when I was 15. I had a lot of fun with that gun but traded it for a stereo set. Later in life when I really was a collector, a friend helped me find a replacement, still in its box with a $54.95 price tag on it, though I paid something like $300 that time.

When my grandfather died I was given his Lefever double barrel 12 gauge shotgun. That became my quail gun. My high school and college job involved training show horses and bird dogs, so I used the Lefever a lot.

Lefever 12 Gauge, Winchester Model 12 — **David’s Grandson Josh With the Shotguns David Inherited From His Grandfathers.**

I joined the Army and shot their guns and flew their helicopters for a few years. Got married, raised a family, worked a number of jobs and never thought of guns until my sons reached their teenage years and wanted to hunt ducks and doves with their friends. We had two shotguns and two hunting age boys so it worked out.

My career had moved from being a corporate pilot to being a computer guy. As a computer guy I built websites. One of the websites I built was for a sporting goods mail order company whose owner realized the Internet would soon replace mail order. In addition to having a warehouse full of sporting goods, the company had a gun store. You had to go through the gun store to get to the bathrooms and snack bar. On my way through the store one day, a gun in the used gun display caught my eye. It looked like a buntline special but was a Ruger single-action revolver with a price tag of $300. I didn’t know much about gun prices and values, but that gun looked to me like it was worth way more than $300, so I bought it. Pure impulse buy. The salesman asked me if I knew the gun was a .357 Maximum. I didn’t know at the time what a .357 Maximum was, and I didn’t care. He told me I could shoot .357 Magnums or .38 Special in it and that was fine with me. After getting the gun home and doing a little research on it I discovered the gun was the subject of a recall by Ruger because of reported top strap burning. There was no burning on my gun’s top strap. As I researched further, I came to understand the .357 Maximum was developed for long-range steel plate shooting. The backstrap burning came from a few individuals shooting very hot handloads in order to get more performance. I decided then I would mostly shoot .357 Magnums in the gun, which had a 10.5″ barrel. Somewhere down the road a friend helped me cut the barrel down to a more manageable 6″ which was fine with me because I wasn’t going to be shooting steep plates at 1,000 yards.

Ruger .357 Maximum — ***The Real Start of Building a Collection — A Ruger New Model Blackhawk .357 Maximum***

The next gun was a Winchester Model 1300 shotgun because son number three was ready to hunt with his brothers. So far, I’m just a dad with three sons and with enough shotguns to hunt, two rifles that were never used and a revolver to protect the house.

Things sure changed after that. We were attending a rapidly growing church. The bigger it got, the more I started thinking about the crazy people around who like to shoot up schools and churches. My whole life I’ve known I was a protector, what we now call a sheep dog, though I was not to learn that term until later. I felt I should be armed when in church, or anywhere for that matter, because of all the crazies in the world. My wife and I talked it over and we decided to get our Concealed Handgun Licenses. Number three son decided he wanted to do it with us. After the class we were eating at a Mexican fast food joint when my son said, “Dad, you could teach that CHL class.” We had noticed earlier that the instructor for the class, who taught it in his home, had lots of toys in his garage — toys like a Corvette, a Harley, a big boat, Wave Runners, etc. I did a little math, estimating how many people were going to his class each week and paying him the $100 fee and decided, yes, I could teach that course.

Becoming a certified instructor in Texas involves first being a certified pistol instructor, either from the NRA or from the law enforcement route. With that in your pocket, there was a week long course presented by the Texas Department of Safety instructors which you must complete before becoming certified. I learned a lot in that course and the NRA course. I had to have a gun, so I bought one that was inexpensive, but reported to be good, a Taurus 24/7 DS Pro.

***David’s First Carry Gun — Taurus 24/7 D/S Pro***

A buddy I knew from work, who was “into guns,” got his instructor rating and the two of us started teaching what was at that time the Texas Concealed Carry Course. We also taught the Texas Hunter Education Course. Business was good, so we rented a facility, hung up a sign and taught classes every weekend. Class attendees asked our opinions about guns so much I decided to get an FFL license. We converted the breakroom in our classroom facility into a small gun store. Before long, revenue from gun sales exceeded revenue from classes. We became a gun store with classes offered as a service.

As a gun store, we had five wholesale suppliers. I kept my regular job but taught classes in the evenings and weekends while my son managed the store. He hired people to help with the store and with instruction. Because I had a salary at my regular job and we had a good source of guns, I started paying myself for the time I spent instructing in guns. That’s when I really became a gun collecting Nerd.

My son and I each built up a good collection of guns, then came the Trump slump. Sales at our place went from a lot, to a little, to nothing. As sales and our ability to purchase inventory dwindled my son and I each put some of our guns into inventory in order to have money to pay our employees. When it became obvious the slump was going to continue for a while and we were out of resources we had to close the store.

Meanwhile, I was hooked on discovering and shooting new guns. The opportunity to continue that habit came about when I pitched an article to Roy Huntington, then editor of American Handgunner magazine, and he bought it. I submitted some more articles and before I knew it, I was a contributor to both American Handgunner and GUNS magazines, along with their special editions. Not only were checks coming in from writing, but many of the guns I was writing about were offered to the writers at a special writer’s price. Some of them a real special price, like free. I still make some money teaching what is now called the Texas License to Carry course since Texas went to an open carry state a few years back. I have sent some of the Test and Evaluation guns back, but not many. I love learning about new guns, shooting and sometimes carrying new guns and building an inheritance for my wife, my three sons and their wives and seven grandchildren. When I’m gone, they may sell them off to provide for mama and if they have to do that, I’m all right with it, but I really hope they can sit around the safes and choose, one for you, one for you, one for you and after they’ve gone around the first time they should be able to do it at least ten more times and if I am able to continue to write and teach for a few years, maybe a lot more than ten times. Being a Gun Nerd is fun. Thanks, Will, for defining it and thanks, Roy, for helping me become a gunwriter Gun Nerd.

SAR9X — A New 9mm Turkish Delight

SAR’s 9X all dressed up and ready for action.

In the latter part of 2012, European American Armory (EAA) began importing SAR pistols into the US. I was running a gun store and training academy focused mainly on the Texas Concealed Carry License course. Many of our attendees had never shot a gun and were undecided about what handgun to buy. We provided loaner guns for these people for the shooting proficiency section of the course. Our loaner bag contained a Sig SP2022, an S&W M&P, a Glock 19 and several SAR B6s. The B6s were attractive to us because wholesalers were offering them at discounted prices designed to introduce them to the US market. We had some confidence in the B6 because it was like EAA’s Witness, an Italian gun made by Tanfoglio, with which we had previous experience. Both guns are CZ-75 knockoffs.

We sold a ton of B6s, including one sale of six to an attendee of our class who liked the SAR (and its price) so much, she bought one for herself, one for her husband and one for each of her college-age kids. Colors were available then and there was at least one pink and one purple gun in that mix. Although I added both a B6 and SAR’s second US offering, a K2, to my own collection back then, I didn’t manage to hold onto them. The K2 is internally the same as the B6, but it’s more squared off on the outside. I recently asked my son, who was active with me in the gun store business, what happened to our loaner B6s when we closed our business and he reminded me we gave the loaner bag of guns to one of our instructors who was starting a training business of his own to replace the one we were closing down.

As a bit of background, Sarsilmaz Firearms Corp. is a privately owned small arms manufacturer based in Düzce, Turkey. The company was founded in 1880 and is the largest small arms manufacturer in Turkey. Sarsilmaz produces handguns for the Turkish National Police and the Turkish Armed Forces and exports firearms to over 75 countries. In 2018, Sarsilmaz founded SAR USA to import and distribute Sarsilmaz firearms in the United States. They are headquartered near Auburn, Alabama.

The B6 and K2 are hammer-fired guns. I first saw the striker-fired SAR9 at an NRA Convention in Dallas in May 2016. I found it interesting but didn’t follow up as I was no longer selling guns or doing live training. Now that I’m back in the business as a gunwriter and online instructor, I pay attention to new guns and when the SAR9X was announced, I reached out to SAR’s marketing representative to ask for a test and evaluation sample. I see and handle a lot of guns. Very few create the Red-Ryder-BB-Gun-under-a-nine-year-old’s-Christmas-tree reaction I had to this gun. My example gun has a platinum Cerakote finish with accenting controls and grip panels in black. It looks amazingly like the H&K VP9. In fact, I’ve read some references calling it the “Turkish VP9.” The SAR9X is pre-packaged as a duty gun for a police officer or civilian looking for a carry gun. It arrived in a red plastic case containing a paddle retention holster and matching magazine carrier, both a 17-round and a 19-round magazine, a light to mount on the picatinny rail, extra back straps and grip panels, a magazine loader, a punch for changing out the backstrap, a cleaning brush and rod, a manual, and of course, a gunlock. The packaging was part of my initial reaction at receiving the gun, but the attractiveness of the gun amplified it. Even if we carry concealed, most of us like to have an eye-catching gun when it comes time to show it off to our gun-loving friends.

SAR9X packaging — **The SAR9X comes packaged with everything you need to put the gun to work.**

There are lightening cuts above the cocking serrations at the front of the slide. Bold, three-dot sights grace the top of the slide as do pre-drilled holes for optics mounting. The frame features textured, replaceable grip side panels and backstrap, a pebbled front strap with mild finger grooves — just deep enough to ease your hand into the proper grip. Further enhancing the grip is a high undercut on the trigger guard which is plenty big for gloved operation and also features serrations on the front to aid the grip for users who like to place the forefinger of their support hand on the front of the trigger guard, something I’ve begun to do lately after years of shooting. It helps steady my grip. The magazine release is just beneath a thumb groove on the grip and is reversible.

**The SAR9X closely resemblers H&K’s VP9**

There’s an ambidextrous thumb safety, a blade trigger safety and an internal striker block safety that doesn’t release until the trigger is pulled fully to the rear. The striker-cocked indicator is a small red triangle at the base of the trigger. If you see that red indicator, the gun is cocked. If the gun is not cocked, the trigger remains to the rear and the red triangle is not visible. The trigger was a little rough when I first started handling the gun, but after dry-firing it 20–30 times at home and firing a couple of boxes of ammo at the range, it smoothed out. The trigger pull is now consistently a little over 4 lbs. and all the initial grunge is gone.

The SAR9X weighs just 27.5 oz. It’s 7.6″ long, 5.5″ high and 1.4″ wide. That puts it in the size category of the Glock G19 and many other defensive handguns, including ones I carry regularly. I wasn’t sure the paddle holster in the kit would work for me, so I slipped the gun into the leather IWB holster I wear every day and it fit fine. That holster was created for a Sig P226, but I have successfully used it for a variety of guns. Even before shooting the SAR9X I had the feeling it was going to become my regular carry gun.

I’ve already mentioned the trigger was a little grungy when I first started shooting the SAR9X, but it cleared up and when it did, I found it predictable and easy to tune my finger to. I had some issues early on with the gun not cycling and ejecting rounds. My bad. I took it to the range initially dry as a bone. After putting a little oil in all the recommended places, the pistol began to run like you’d expect a VP9 to, only it’s not a VP9. It’s a $500 Turkish-made Sarsilmaz, and those folks know how to make good firearms and are able to do it without having to charge exorbitant prices.

I’ve been fortunate in having ammo to shoot during this time of shortages thanks to Norma entering the handgun ammo market, Hornady offering a new Handgun Hunter round that I figure if it’s good for four-legged animals I would be safe in carrying it for possible use against two-legged mammals that might become a threat, and a new company in Florida — Pilgrim Ammunition. The SARX9 is a delight to shoot. After the early issues with feeding, a result of me not lubricating the gun before shooting it, it just chugged along regardless of the ammo I was using. I only had one box of practice rounds, so it was pretty much all defensive ammo going down the pipe, and to my delight, whenever I did my job with the sight alignment and trigger press, the gun did its part in tightly grouping the rounds on target.

Sarsilmaz apparently has a mounting plate for the SAR9X available from their Turkey operation, but you don’t need a mounting plate for a red dot sight with mounting holes that line up with those cut on the top of the SARX9’s slide. Among those are the Swamp Fox Sentinel, the Shield SMS 2, the Shield RMS C and the Sig Romeo 0. I reached out to the folks at Riton and they sent me one of their mini red dot sights, an X3 TACTIX MPRD. The holes aligned perfectly, the threads on the screws they provided with the sight were correct for the holes in the frame so the sight installation was a breeze.

**The slide is predrilled for mounting optics.**

Zeroing it in was also a breeze as it was already aligned at 15 yards. I dug through my holster drawer for an IWB holster that would fit the SAR with the red dot sight installed. The one I chose is a Crossbreed SuperTuck Holster that fits the SAR9X perfectly with the red dot installed. So now I’ve entered the brave new world of carrying concealed with a red dot sight installed. The Ridon has a 50,000 hour battery life and no off switch. You turn it on in the morning and it will automatically go off after 12 hours. If you’re still out close to 12 hours, just turn it on again.