ALFA-PROJ BRNO 9mm revolvers

Don45

Don45

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I see that there is two types of 9 mm revolvers that are being sold one with a short cylinder non fluted and one with a standard fluted cylinder. I guess that the standard fluted cylinder would have a further jump to the barrel than the short cylinder, would the longer jump affect accuracy?
Any info would be appreciated.
 
Edit: didn't read your question correctly the first time.

I would not expect it to significantly affect accuracy. Kinda thinking along the lines of using a shorter .38spl in a 357 revolver.
 
i heard that they had 2 different metals.
not sure if that is also a difference between the one with the short cylinder or not.
one is steel one is alloy?

question, why IS the cylinder shorter with that big gap?
are they using the 357/38 guns and just reaming them out the extra 0.0136 and dropping the 9mm cylinder in?
 
I'm really liking my Project Alpha 9261 (full length cylinder, 6" barrel). It's definitely more accurate than my old eyes can see with iron sights. Anyone with the short cylinder/4.5" barrel in the GVRD area? Would be interested in meeting up at DVC and comparing the difference in kickback. I'll be there next week on Monday and Thursday.
 
You mean a longer throat in the cylinder.

I've got the short one and Van Man here has the long one. We both wrote up reviews of our guns complete with targets. You may want to look those up for more read and pictures.

His results were actually tighter than mine because I shot in DA and out on a very chilly day where I was shivering pretty well.

One session I did indoors at 20 yards in single action was disappointing due to me and the very heavy stock mainspring that produced a rather stout 20lb DA pull and a 12'ish lb SA pull. I shot the new Alpha alongside one of my S&W's just as a "control". But I was shaky that evening or my eyes were more fuzzy than usual. So the best I managed were a few 5'ish inch size groups at 20 yards with most of them that evening being up around 6 inches. That applied to the S&W as well. On my better evenings at this same range I can manage groups that are a hair under 4 inches.

I installed one of Rusty Wood's new mainsprings and the feel in the trigger was like night and day. Since then I shot the gun at one IDPA practice evening where I was getting better groups that are pretty consistent with what I typically get with my S&W shot in the same fairly rapid manner. Namely a draw, two to the center of mass, re-holster, draw, two to the CoM, etc. When shot that way I had no troubles at all keeping 10 out of the 12 I shot all within the 8 inch center circle of the IDPA target from about 15 yards away. And the two that went into the -1 zone where within one inch of the outline for the -0 zone. This is pretty typical of how I shoot with my S&W's at the same pace and distance.

Trigger wise with the new spring from Rusty Wood I found the pull to be darn near as silky smooth as my S&W triggers. There's no funny stacking or other oddities. And no telltale "click" like the Ruger has in DA. Just a nice smooth pull to the hammer drop. In single action the trigger is more like a Ruger where there is a touch of creep before the hammer drops. That's because it uses the usual hooks that overlap like Ruger and as is typical in semi autos. The S&W single action mechanism is different and thus it has that lovely no movement until the hammer is released sort of pull.
 
Do your homework before you buy Alfa revolvers...the long term durability, even not so long term, is questionable from what I've read...the general drift of the posts was buy a used Ruger or Smith instead...
 
pisces-guy, doing research is always excellent advice. I did read that about 7 years ago, there was a production run of Project Alpha revolvers in an alloy frame that did not hold up that well. If you ever happen to be in the GVRD, I'd be happy to have you shoot my 9261 and hear your thoughts. I'm more of a semi-auto guy, only have a couple of single action Ruger's, so not an expert on revolvers. I do have a background in mechanical engineering though, and I'm pretty happy with the fit and finish of my 9261 that has a steel frame. Have gone through about 450 rounds so far, and the only problem I have is I want more of those moon clips. Stopping to reload moon clips after only 12 rounds sort of breaks my rhythm.

pisces-guy said:
Do your homework before you buy Alfa revolvers...the long term durability, even not so long term, is questionable from what I've read...the general drift of the posts was buy a used Ruger or Smith instead...
Click to expand...
 
pisces-guy said:
Do your homework before you buy Alfa revolvers...the long term durability, even not so long term, is questionable from what I've read...the general drift of the posts was buy a used Ruger or Smith instead...
Click to expand...


Ive got a 9mm model 9251C on order, I like all my Czech made firearms, none have any sort of issues.
 
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I ran into the same older vs newer series information as well. Seems like they went back to the drawing board for a while. So the older reviews don't really apply to this new series.
 
VanMan said:
pisces-guy, doing research is always excellent advice. I did read that about 7 years ago, there was a production run of Project Alpha revolvers in an alloy frame that did not hold up that well. If you ever happen to be in the GVRD, I'd be happy to have you shoot my 9261 and hear your thoughts. I'm more of a semi-auto guy, only have a couple of single action Ruger's, so not an expert on revolvers. I do have a background in mechanical engineering though, and I'm pretty happy with the fit and finish of my 9261 that has a steel frame. Have gone through about 450 rounds so far, and the only problem I have is I want more of those moon clips. Stopping to reload moon clips after only 12 rounds sort of breaks my rhythm.
Click to expand...

Perhaps it was that run of aluminum framed Alpha revolvers, that didn't hold up well, that's created the negativity about their guns that I've read! Thanks for that information, I'll keep it in mind and look up recent impressions of the new steel framed Alphas...
 
Don45 said:
Thanks for the info now I just have to decide which version of the 9 mm I like better.
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The short 9mm has been just a joy to shoot.

It's not your typical looking revolver with that nonfluted short cylinder.

Looks like something Mad Max would bring to the Thunderdome.

Anyways...Alfa-Proj has impressed me to say the least...........hence the new addition....model 2251.








IMG_1268.jpg
 
cableguy said:
The short 9mm has been just a joy to shoot.

It's not your typical looking revolver with that nonfluted short cylinder.

Looks like something Mad Max would bring to the Thunderdome.

Anyways...Alfa-Proj has impressed me to say the least...........hence the new addition....model 2251.








IMG_1268.jpg
Click to expand...

Great Looking Guns! I really like the grips on the top one! Are they comfortable?
 
I might end up getting the S&W 929 PC instead.
Click to expand...

That's what I did, but the wait is going to kill me.
986's should be out late spring, early summer (can't wait)
929, who knows, it's like a unicorn right now. Guys in the US don't even have em.

Cover your bets and put an order in for both :evil:
 
The length of the cylinder shouldn't affect accuracy in a 9mm - it's a relatively (relative to most revolver rounds) high pressure cartridge - the chamber is still longer in the short cylinder gun than it is in a semi. Accuracy is typically affected by the barrel/cylinder gap (width, trueness of the face to the forcing cone, end shake, concentricity and angle of the forcing cone) more than the cylinder length even in older cartridges.
 
Just to help out folks that are looking at this thread and considering these guns here are the links to the reviews by Van-Man and myself where we describe our findings;

Van-Man's Review
BCRider's Review

The two biggest improvements in these write-ups are from Van-Man's smoothing and my mainspring replacement.

I resisted the temptation to smoothen anything as I wanted to give the gun a chance to see what it handled like with ONLY the Rusty Wood Trading spring replacement. The simple spring only swap already perked up the trigger so well that many folks would not feel the need to do anything else. But in the next little while I'm looking to do the same sort of tuning as Van-Man did and see just how slick we can get the AP revolver to run.

This is all "gilding the lily" though. Other than the overly heavy stock hammer spring the gun feels and shoots great. The simple RWT spring swap brought the feel of the trigger to where it's in line with a S&W set up with Wolff springs. And as many wheelgun owners already now that's not shabby at all.
 
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