I was just getting into shooting in the early 1980s and I’ll confess to a certain nostalgia for the unique and maybe a little quirky European 9mm designs that were then at their height. In the last couple of years I’ve picked up a P9S and P7 (both H&Ks) and just this week received a Steyr GB from the EE. I’ve been intrigued by the GB since I first read about it back in the 1980s but the occasional ones that pop up on the EE from time to time often only have one mag (mine has three!) or are in rough shape.
The pistol was produced from 1981 to 1988, and only about 20,000 were made. Supposedly Steyr had expected to win the Austrian army pistol contract that was subsequently awarded to Glock, and there were no other large military deals for the GB. From what I’ve read, US sales were hurt by an early US-made copy, the Rogak, which was not well received.
The pistol is a full-sized all-steel pistol, with an unusually (for a service pistol) long 5.4” barrel. Surprisingly, it only weighs 30 oz (845g) even though it’s a steel pistol. The comparably-sized but aluminum-framed Beretta 92 weighs 34 oz. The slide is blued, with the sides lightly polished and the top left matte.
The grip is quite comfortable…it reminds me of a SIG grip, but maybe a little smaller, even though the native magazine capacity is 18 rounds. The frame has a crinkly finish…I’m not sure if it’s paint or polymer but it it provides a comfortable and fairly secure grip.
There’s a decocker on the left side of the slide —it’s a decocker only, not a safety.
The trigger is nicely grooved, and the front of the trigger guard has nice checkering for a secure finger-forward grip—that’ll come in handy in case I time-travel back to the 1980s. The double-action pull is fairly short and smooth but stacks hard at the end of the pull. Happily, the single-action pull is very short, crisp with a short, positive reset.
Sights are typical 3-dot…I’m not sure if the “orangeness” of the front sight is international or due to aging.
Of course what makes the GB unique is it’s operating mechanism—instead of the more common Browning-type tilting barrel system it uses propellant gas to lock the breech shut. It’s not night-and-day different from the H&K P7, but instead of a piston attached to the underside of the barrel, the GB uses the barrel itself as a piston. Here’s how it works:
Here’s a picture of the pistol disassembled—note the end cap that affixes to the front of the slide.
Here’s where the end cap sits when the slide is installed:
The barrel has two holes to allow propellant gas to escape, one at the one o’clock position:
and one at the seven o’clock position:
The barrel is a little larger at the muzzle for a tight seal. You can see here that the steel frame is not too thick—that’s what accounts for the lighter weight.
When a round is fired gas impinges on the end cap which holds the slide shut until the bullet has left the barrel.
I had a chance to take the pistol to the range today—it was a pleasant 28°C but the deerflies were a little distracting. One neat thing about the (very sturdy) magazines is that they’re double-feed style—like an AR or SMG mag. You’ve got to load them by pushing rounds down from the top, too, and not slide them in from the from or they won’t line up right.
After trying one shot to ensure that it wasn’t going to blow up on me, I tried my usual new pistol test—a full mag at a brisk (but not super fast) pace at 10m. The pistol felt really good, the trigger pull allowed for easy follow-up shots—the only thing I noticed was that the slightly-concave sight dots were catching some shadows from the sun, making the sight picture a little less than ideal. At 10m I usually don’t look for the holes when I’m shooting so as I was walking up to the target I saw what looked like three or four holes—I thought with some disappointment I must’ve put the rest off the target. However, when I got closer I saw this—and was quite pleased:
I also tried some double-taps at 10m and had good results, too:
I pushed my luck and went back to 25m—I’ve not shot much at the distance since I’m not competing in handgun any longer. I’m happy with this five-round group:
I also tried a few rounds one-handed to see how the recoil was—there’s surprisingly little flip or torquing effect.
Here’s a video of the day’s shooting highlights:
[youtube]BzlB3zngaMk[/youtube]
The barrel was quite dirty after shooting 90 rounds in total, and it took quite a scrubbing with a rag and Hoppes to get it clean(ish) again. The barrel is chrome-plated inside and out so corrosion is less of a concern.
Disassembly is a snap—there are no parts under spring tension to worry about. Just flip down the disassembly lever, remove the slide end cap, remove the spring and guide, then lift the slide off.
[youtube]P0XfZb_QCgo[/youtube]
(sorry—my hands are grubby after cleaning the pistol)
I’m really pleased with the pistol—I’m surprised how accurate it is. I’m guessing it’s the long sight radius, excellent SA trigger and fixed barrel that contribute to this. The mild recoil helps, too. Clean-up is a bit of a pain, but I don’t imagine I’ll be firing 1500 rounds a year through it! It’s a cool, fun-to-shoot (although maybe ultimately impractical) pistol.
