If you have known me for any amount of time, you know that I like things that are......well, different. For quite some time I have had a need for a mid size-ish 9mm for concealed carry. I had been thinking of getting a Glock 19 to fill this role, but was holding out to hopefully find a Gen 3 RTF2 at a gunshow. This idea quickly disappeared as I perused the sale flyer at Cabela's after I walked in the door. Just a warning, lots of text ahead, but lots of pictures as well!
Right there in the sales flyer they had the Steyr M9 on clearance for $379. I figured I had spent more on way dumber things, so I gladly purchased it. If you are like most people, you are probably wondering "What the hell is a Steyr M9?". The Steyr M Series of pistols was introduced in 1999. It is a polymer frame, striker fired pistol. The M9 is 9mm with a 4" barrel and a 15 round capacity (17 round magazines are available as well).
The pistol for I purchased is a Generation 3 M9, that is considered "Grey Market" On the left side of the slide it is marked PW Arms, whom imported the pistol. The story of these pistols is that they were military contract overrun pistols that were released for sale, and imported by PW Arms out of Redmond Washington. Since these pistols are not imported by Steyr USA, they are referred to as "Grey Market". Steyr USA however, is honoring warranty work on these pistols.
For $379 the pistol came with a case, two 15 round magazines, two keys for the internal safety system, owners manual, cleaning rod, brushes, and barrel mop. The owners manual is in nearly every language under the sun, and the English portion of it is somewhat amusing for some of the phrases in it.
Disassembly is very simple and straight forward. After removing the magazine and ensuring the pistol is empty, pull the trigger to release the striker mechanism. After doing so, depress the button on the right side of the pistol where the safety key goes, and rotate the takedown lever 90 degrees counter clockwise. Once the take down lever is rotated, the slide will slide off the front of the frame. The recoil spring assembly then lifts out of the slide, followed by the barrel.
The barrel is nicely rifled, with 6 grooves and a right hand twist. The barrel showed no tool marks on it, or any other obvious imperfections. The feedramp was nicely polished from the factory, nearly to a mirror finish. Upon dropping a loaded round in the chamber, it shows that the barrel fully supports the casehead of the round. This is good for people who like to shoot hot ammunition through their pistols. The M series was originally designed in .40 S&W, so the 9mm version is VERY beefy.
The slide is low profile and features a parkerized finish. On the left site it is engraved "PW ARMS REDMOND, WA". I have already scratched the right side of the slide, so only time will tell how well the finish holds up. The machining of the slide is clean, with no tooling marks or imperfections that I could find. On the rear of the slide there is a round dot above the slide backing plate. This is for the loaded chamber indicator. When a round is in the chamber this sticks out approximately 1/16 of an inch. It is easily visible and easy to feel on the back of the slide. The sites are trapezoidal. Basically the front site is a triangle, and the rear site has two white lines to box it in. I was unable to get a decent picture of it, but the sites do work well once you are used to them.
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The frame is polymer, like most modern pistols. It features a picatinny rail for mounting lights or lasers on the bottom of the dustcover. On the right side of the frame is the take down lever and the safety lockout device. By inserting one of the two supplied keys, pressing down and rotating, the pistols trigger is rendered inoperable. I saw how it worked, and promptly gave the two keys to my cats to play with, so that they will never be seen again. On the inside of the frame there is the striker release mechanism. It is reminiscent of the Glock or M&P. One interesting thing is the steel chassis inside of the frame. Amusingly, Steyr refers to it as the "Multifunction element". Per the manual:
"The multifunction element is made of steel and inserted into the grip. It includes trigger and safety devices as well as slide catch lever and ejector as principal features."
Does this clear things up? Good! The frame has a light texturing on it. It is not the grippiest texture in the world, so at some point I may add some grip tape once I shoot the gun a bit more. On the frontstrap there is one bump for a finger groove. I find this much more comfortable than the finger grooves found on the Generation 3 and newer Glocks. Amusingly, on the bottom of the frame at the rear of the pistol there is a slot that you can attach a shoulder stock. Something with Europeans and shoulder stocks....
The trigger is similar to that of a Glock, with a trigger on the trigger. Unfortunately I do not have a trigger pull scale yet (but my birthday is coming up, hint hint.). According to the manual, the trigger breaks at 5.5 pounds, and I would say that it feels very close to that. The trigger breaks clean, and the reset is very short. I would go to say that the trigger is lighter, breaks cleaner, and has a shorter reset than that of a Glock. Compared to the stock Smith and Wesson M&P, this trigger is much better. Unlike the M&P, the Steyr actually has a reset you can feel and hear.
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The magazines, quite simply put, are beautiful. They have a deep, richly blued finish, devoid of any tool marks or seems. They feature a plastic baseplate and have a capacity of fifteen rounds. The magazines feature witness holes so that you can see how many rounds are in the magazine. On the left are the odd numbers (five through fifteen) with even numbers on the left (four to fourteen). I could easily load all fifteen rounds into the magazines with no fuss or drama. Even at full capacity the magazines are easy to insert and latch into the gun. Spare 15 round magazines retail between $25-$39, with the 17 round magazines retailing near $40.
 Left Side |  Right Side |  M9 vs USP9c |
So far, after a few short range sessions and fondling this thing for several days, I like it. As a life long 1911, the pistol points high for me, as do Glocks. A bit of training and range time is sure to cure this for me. The grip is smaller than I am accustomed to, but feels nice and natural. I am beginning to like the sites, I only wish that they were night sites. I plan on running these sites for a few months, but eventually it will get night sites as all of my carry pieces have. The magazine well is small though, so I will need to work on my reloads a bit to speed this up. I find the slide stop on this much easier to use as a release than on Glocks. It is angled at a 45 degree downward angle, so it is easy to use. I have only had a chance to fire 120 rounds through this in two impromptu range sessions. I shot 100 rounds of Winchester 9mm NATO 124gr FMJ and 20 rounds of Winchester White Box 147gr JHP. The pistol was accurate shooting only at informal targets of opportunity at the range. Being 10 degrees out both times I fired it, I did not take much time to test accurately. Here shortly I will report on accuracy. As I expected, I had no failures with the 120 rounds fired. This is definitely not an endorsement on the pistol with such a low range count. One thing that I did notice is I had 2 casings eject straight up while firing it. We will see what happens as the round count progresses.
Normal carry on the left, new on the right
So here is the plan: For all of 2013, I plan on carrying this pistol daily as my main carry piece. It will take a bit of getting used to, as I usually carry the STI pictured above. I am certainly going to appreciate the smaller size and lighter weight. After the first 500 rounds are through the pistol, this thing will get a steady diet of reloads and whatever else I can get my hands on. I want to see if this pistol performs as well as others swear it does. Judging by my first impressions, and the fit and finish I think that it may live up to the hype. Could this be a great choice for a near $400 pistol? We will find out.
EZ
EZ
