REVISTA SHOOTERS – VOL 4, NR 9 – MAI 2016

GLASFASERVERSTAERKTER KUNSTSTOFF

Sounds weird? It’s just German for „polymer”.

Polymer like the stuff most of the grips of the nowadays’ duty pistols are made off – of course Germans overdo it andmention in the expression even the components that go into the polymer, but that’s them.

And German because German native speakers (well, actually Austrian native speakers, but let’s leave this technicality aside)from a company named Glock made the polymer framed pistol world famous.

Inspired by the above we had a look at two representatives of this specie, both of German speaking origin: H&K Striker Fired Pistol 9 (aka VP 9) and Steyr M9 A1 both in 9mm para.

We need to say from the outset that this is not meant to be a full fledged test. It was rather meant to be a laid back shooting by some experienced shooters at the Mag Technica shòoting range in Timisoara with the two pistols of grouping ar 15 meters with four types of ammo.

So, shooting with biscuits and tea – the usual warm hospitality of Marius Stanus.

Shooting was done from a sand bag.

Ammo included two types of GECO (8 g Full Metal Jacket and 7.5 g Jacketed Hollow Point) and the well-known 7.5 g FMJ from Sellier & Bellot.

The fourth type of ammo was simply the remainder of a box of non-descript origin. It was just a few cartdridges and no one at the range could remember what type and weight is was. One thing was clear: it was a full metal jacket bullet.

We chose the 15 meters distance for a few practical reasons: the range only allows 20 meters and 15 meters is more representative to defensive purposes – the reason both pistols came to exist for.

Best groups with the four types of ammo are listed below. Distances are in millimeter, and equal the furthest apart wholes, center to center.

No wonder that overall precision with H&K was a bit better than with Steyr. H&K has the longer barrel and the trigger is a bit more precision friendly.

This is not meant to say that we prefer one gun over the other.

While we did not have our Lyman trigger gauge at hand to measure trigger weight, we could get an impression about the characteristic. Both were quite heavy – probably more than 4 kg. The lenght of pull was longer at Steyr.

Both had a bit of creaping, Steyr a bit more than H&K.

There was no malfunction during firing. Brass was ejected strongly to the right side.

The angle of the grip if steeper at Steyr, but it will certainly find its supporters.

Concluding: both guns make good and reliable service and defence pistols. The five shots groups we fired in very fapid succession ( like in a self defence scenario) speak a very clear language: both guns are more than fit for their purpose.

H&K is a bit more precise with the ammo we had at hand at 15 meters. Steyr balances this by being the gun easier to carry concealed.

Sebastian Gutiu