Steyr M9 Pistol
By Arkadi Skachkov
gun club Pistoletchik.ru
translated by Levan9X19
I bought Steyr M9 after a long hesitation between various other models and reading various articles in journals. The high quality gun costs at least 600 dollars and I didn’t want to through my money away. Honestly I was impressed first of all with the very unusual design and came as a competitor in my competition along with Glock, Colt and Walther P-99 pistols. I didn’t want to buy Glock because of its boring advertisement, imagine you are in gun store, on the front door you Entrance-Glock, Exit-Glock, beneath the seller also a poster from Glock, rubber pad used for weapons display also from Glock. And everyone around are shure that Glock is the best pistol in the world. Actually I didn’t like Colt, because of high price and low capacity of magazine. Walther at that time was entirely new pistol and was widely advertised, price was 750 dollars. I liked Steyr very much and when I took it in my hand I understood that the balance of gun and grip was especially for me. Also I respected very much that overall design safety inside the frame, trapezoid sights and shape of grip was very unusual. You should be very self trusted constructor to invent such solutions in gun. Because usual consumer will fear such innovations, and also at that time Steyr pistols where little known and some sellers in gun stores never hared about such gun. The final argument which caused me to choose Steyr, was my conversation with on of the sellers in gun store. On my question what he thinks about Steyr pistols, he took out a gun box and sad: I sold my Walther and bought Stey, costs less, less pathos but shoots better. Mossad Ayub once told about Steyr, This brave company manages to set plans which nobody manages to do can and successfully bring them to reality. Selling guns trough internet is normal in USA so when I decided to buy Steyr I was surprised to find one for 350 USD. Buying gun which is twice cheaper then any other competitor is a good news. After all I want to say that in the future Steyr proofed to be very unpretentious and reliable. I will go a little bit forward but I must say that I saw numerous times how Glocks malfunctioned and from the other side my M-9 had experienced zero problems. It didn’t fire only twice when I used to shoot from un cleaned pistol with cartridges produced in Tula (Russia) covered with varnish but as I know other handguns also experienced problems with this cartridges. I solved this situation by shooting such cartridges only with lubed and cleaned gun and do not shoot more then 300 cartridges at once. But shooting 300 cartridges at once was very rare. With other cartridges Steyr experienced zero malfunctions and proofed itself as very reliable and easy to maintain gun.
Here follows a brief history of Steyr pistols taken from other English article and description of Steyr pistols also familar to most of our forum members.
Steyr was widely criticized due to dry and hard trigger move, indeed 8 pounds is too much but newer model have 5 pounds. But trigger move itself proofed to be very comfortable, it is very short and thereby very comfortable during rapid fire, it is very good especially during various competitions like practical shooting. Me myself various time proofed this on range where often is very warm and friendly environment, where shooters often exchange their weapons to test them and check good and bad sides of each others weapons. I often hared comments like : with this gun I got better hits. from this gun a shoot better. Steyr as a glock has a trigger safety. Another safety is located inside the safety catch. I think this solution is very comfortable while you can turn safety on with left or right hand. Also it can be turned of moving only pointing finger and thereby do not disrupts the way you grip the gun. I mentioned such safety on new steyr models, I don’t know what is the cause of this. Another innovation is a built in lock with keys, you can use it if you think that another person can have access to your weapon.. The firing mechanism is partially cocked and thereby accident discharge can not occur. Such mechanism was introduced firs on Rot-Steyr in the beginning of XX century and same mechanism have Glocks.
The Grip
The grip has a wider design for middle fingre and is comfortable to the most of the people with either small or big hands. The rear side of grip is also it allows you to have a deeper grip and easily reach trigger. Someone can think that the grip is too small for them but I have big hands and Steyrs grip suited me perfectly. The angle of grip is exactly 111 degrees and is extremely comfortable and easy to point the gun on target. You will not have to adjust your skills to that gun to easily catch sights with your eyes. Instinct shooting on small ranges is also very comfortable with this angle. Another plus for steyr is a low bore axis. Two of above-mentioned factors make you feel less recoil while shooting. Shooting from M9 feels same as shooting pneumatic pistols.
Magazines
The double column mag is basically same to any other models but I would like to mention the great material from which springs are made. You can store loaded mags for quet a long time without weakening the springs. The unpretentiousness of Steyr pistol can be compared to such reliable pistol as PM (Pistolet makarova). Often steyr was stored for a long time with now lubrication and after I took it to range and shot without any problems.
Sights– Another innovation, sights have trapezoid shape. I heard from other steyr owners that such sights allowed them to catch target faster. Personally to me it seems that such sights if are not better are not worse then traditional sights . They are easy to see and can be easily pointed at target, they are made of steel (as they should be) unlike Glock pistols which have plastic sites.
Loaded chamber indicator
There is a loaded chamber indicator on the rear side of theslide, it can be easily felt with finger while dragging gun from the holster. Very comfortable indeed.
– Conclusion
– Steyr is a comfortable and reliable gun engineered with mind, is introduced in same category as a Glock 19, 23, 32. The shapes are rounded, very easy to control and shoot. Remember only taking gun in the hands in the store will not tell you more, take it to the range and shoot and this will indeed tell you more than this article. I think Steyr accumulated all advantages of modern handguns. Unique advantages make him very attractive for practical shooting exercises and for performing in competitions with standard pistols. Sometimes you come to the range and people are looking at you with rounded eyes, Trapezoid sights, safety is not there where it should be, why are you shooting from this pistol? Why? Because he is better.
