So these have been available here in the Queen's Glorious Maple Syrup Utopia for a few weeks now, and I finally got some range time with mine so I thought I'd do a quick write up.
You'd never guess this picture was taken on an unmade bed.
As you might expect, it's a long-barreled M9A1. In terms of dimensions, if the M is the equivalent on a Glock 19, the L is the Equivalent of the 17. Naturally, it has all the latest fixes you see on current gen Ms, such as the new extractor, which performed reliably, and the improved trigger with roll pin, which was light years ahead of the trigger on my 2005 production "Canadian" M40A1. But there's a bit more to it than that.
This one was, too.
There's some superficial differences like the front slide serrations, which are nice to have but not at all necessary, and an additional accessory rail track, but there is now a redesigned magazine release.
The mag release is elongated, and serves a variety of functions. It's noticeably easier to reach without breaking your grip, or at the very least, breaking it less. If you want magazine retention, you can press the rearmost part of the button, which will disengage the magazine but will not drop free, requiring you to pull it out. Whether this is clever intentional design or a happy accident is unclear. Most importantly, the button is now reversible, for you unfortunate wrong-handed types.
Boring, but they work.
The loaded chamber indicator has also made a "comeback." Not that it was ever gone up here, as we never got the "Fixed" M-A1s, but, you know. I'm not sure why they got rid of it, though I suspect it was either due to the new roll pin getting in the way, or the way it "scratched" the head stamp of spent brass. I don't know why anyone would care about that, but it was apparently freaking people out. In any case, it has been redesigned in a new location, and the brass scoring is no longer noticeable.
For those unfamiliar, the LCI is normally flush with the back of the slide. When a round is chambered, the circle you see on the top left hand corner of the back plate will protrude 2-3 millimeters, giving a clear but unobtrusive visual and tactile indication of the handgun's state.
Not so new to the traitors south of the 49th are the factory 3-Dot sights. That's all we can get up here, there's not a single L in Canada with Trapezoidal sights and no retailers, distributors or warranty centers carry the sight sets either. The option would have been nice, but such is life in Canada.
The factory 3 dots are functional, but I have my gripes. Mainly, the rear dots are white and the front dot is red. Red is a colour low on the visual spectrum, and can be drowned out by the bright white of the rear sights. Not a good choice for the post you're supposed to be focusing on. I will likely repaint it white if I cannot get a set of traps.
Also, against the subtle two-tone of the matte grays, the splash of red... clashes. It just bothers me. Which brings me to my next point.
UNREASONABLE AESTHETIC COMPLAINTS
Anyone who has owned a Steyr M-A1 will know that between the slide and the frame there is a disconcerting sliver of light that grows wider the closer you get to the muzzle. If that bothered you, then hold on to your butts because it's worse with the L. So much worse.
Not pictured: The author having an aneurysm.
It of course has no effect on the function of the handgun, and in fact the slide appears to be milled on one side to make it even wider, so it must be by design. For what purpose is a mystery. But it's like a reverse Glock pignose except more hideous and you can't fix it. It just looks... wrong.
I have also fitted tractiongrips to my L. They function great, but more importantly, they conceal the gigantic and horrendous "Bullseye" logo Steyr has insisted on stamping into both sides. It looks like the kind of thing you'd see on a dollar store cap gun. They're almost embarrassing.
Now how does it shoot?
The accuracy is ridiculous, as you might expect from a longer barrel and by extension, longer sight radius. 2" Groups at 10 meters are effortless, and I was often shooting better. I'm not the most experienced shooter, having fired a grand total of 1000 handgun rounds in the years since leaving the army, so I can only imagine that someone who knows what they're doing could tighten that right up.
Rapid fire ~4" spread. I had some slow fire targets but someone shot them before I got a picture.
Pictured is my worst group of 20 rounds at 10 meters, firing rapid double taps. After the first rapid double tap of the day, I just stopped to stare incredulously as the rounds had landed side by side in the 10 ring. Muzzle flip is something that other handguns do. The recoil is almost completely absorbed by the long frame and low bore axis. If you do your part with a solid stance and grip, this gun simply does not move.
I had not experienced the new roll pin trigger until now, and it is fantastic. Not PPQ-Fantastic, but not far off either. The lighter pull and crisper break make a world of difference.
As I have an M40A1, I also took the opportunity to try to Cycle 9mm through with a .40 mag. The magazine takes 12 rounds of 9mm, and works fine... until round 11. At that point I would consistently get a double feed as the last two rounds pop up from in between the magazine lips. I guess you could bend the lips inward slightly if you want to destroy a $60 magazine.
As stated, the Steyr L comes with the new-updated extractor. Right out of the box with no cleaning and 300 rounds of 124 grain American Eagle and not a single failure to extract.
What I did get, however, was the occasional ejection of white-hot brass right at my head. One casing in particular arced in a graceful parabola directly into the space between the arm of my Oakley M-Frames and my temple, leaving a 9x19mm shaped burn mark. I would have written that off as a freak occurrence if it hadn't happened a second time two mags later.
FFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUU-
For the most part, casings eject almost straight up, leaving a pile right at your feet.
While I had no FTEs, what I did get were a bunch of failures to return to battery, to varying degrees of severity. The obvious ones could be spotted, and a firm love tap to the back plate will chamber the round. However, some of them were subtle enough that you won't notice them if concentrating on the target. While pressing the trigger will always safely force a partially dislodged slide back into battery before firing, this would, on occasion, result in a very light primer strike, and an extremely loud "click." The severity of the malfunctions lessened over time and became more infrequent, so at this stage I am tentatively willing to put this down to a "breaking-in period," but it doesn't mean I have to like it.
It's absurdly accurate, and the lack of muzzle flip will spoil you for all other handguns forever, so I'm willing to give it a chance. When it works, it is an absolute dream to shoot. After a thorough cleaning I'll shoot it some more and see what happens. Hopefully, the reliability issues will be solved then.
You'd never guess this picture was taken on an unmade bed.
As you might expect, it's a long-barreled M9A1. In terms of dimensions, if the M is the equivalent on a Glock 19, the L is the Equivalent of the 17. Naturally, it has all the latest fixes you see on current gen Ms, such as the new extractor, which performed reliably, and the improved trigger with roll pin, which was light years ahead of the trigger on my 2005 production "Canadian" M40A1. But there's a bit more to it than that.
This one was, too.
There's some superficial differences like the front slide serrations, which are nice to have but not at all necessary, and an additional accessory rail track, but there is now a redesigned magazine release.
The mag release is elongated, and serves a variety of functions. It's noticeably easier to reach without breaking your grip, or at the very least, breaking it less. If you want magazine retention, you can press the rearmost part of the button, which will disengage the magazine but will not drop free, requiring you to pull it out. Whether this is clever intentional design or a happy accident is unclear. Most importantly, the button is now reversible, for you unfortunate wrong-handed types.
Boring, but they work.
The loaded chamber indicator has also made a "comeback." Not that it was ever gone up here, as we never got the "Fixed" M-A1s, but, you know. I'm not sure why they got rid of it, though I suspect it was either due to the new roll pin getting in the way, or the way it "scratched" the head stamp of spent brass. I don't know why anyone would care about that, but it was apparently freaking people out. In any case, it has been redesigned in a new location, and the brass scoring is no longer noticeable.
For those unfamiliar, the LCI is normally flush with the back of the slide. When a round is chambered, the circle you see on the top left hand corner of the back plate will protrude 2-3 millimeters, giving a clear but unobtrusive visual and tactile indication of the handgun's state.
Not so new to the traitors south of the 49th are the factory 3-Dot sights. That's all we can get up here, there's not a single L in Canada with Trapezoidal sights and no retailers, distributors or warranty centers carry the sight sets either. The option would have been nice, but such is life in Canada.
The factory 3 dots are functional, but I have my gripes. Mainly, the rear dots are white and the front dot is red. Red is a colour low on the visual spectrum, and can be drowned out by the bright white of the rear sights. Not a good choice for the post you're supposed to be focusing on. I will likely repaint it white if I cannot get a set of traps.
Also, against the subtle two-tone of the matte grays, the splash of red... clashes. It just bothers me. Which brings me to my next point.
UNREASONABLE AESTHETIC COMPLAINTS
Anyone who has owned a Steyr M-A1 will know that between the slide and the frame there is a disconcerting sliver of light that grows wider the closer you get to the muzzle. If that bothered you, then hold on to your butts because it's worse with the L. So much worse.
Not pictured: The author having an aneurysm.
It of course has no effect on the function of the handgun, and in fact the slide appears to be milled on one side to make it even wider, so it must be by design. For what purpose is a mystery. But it's like a reverse Glock pignose except more hideous and you can't fix it. It just looks... wrong.
I have also fitted tractiongrips to my L. They function great, but more importantly, they conceal the gigantic and horrendous "Bullseye" logo Steyr has insisted on stamping into both sides. It looks like the kind of thing you'd see on a dollar store cap gun. They're almost embarrassing.
Now how does it shoot?
The accuracy is ridiculous, as you might expect from a longer barrel and by extension, longer sight radius. 2" Groups at 10 meters are effortless, and I was often shooting better. I'm not the most experienced shooter, having fired a grand total of 1000 handgun rounds in the years since leaving the army, so I can only imagine that someone who knows what they're doing could tighten that right up.
Rapid fire ~4" spread. I had some slow fire targets but someone shot them before I got a picture.
Pictured is my worst group of 20 rounds at 10 meters, firing rapid double taps. After the first rapid double tap of the day, I just stopped to stare incredulously as the rounds had landed side by side in the 10 ring. Muzzle flip is something that other handguns do. The recoil is almost completely absorbed by the long frame and low bore axis. If you do your part with a solid stance and grip, this gun simply does not move.
I had not experienced the new roll pin trigger until now, and it is fantastic. Not PPQ-Fantastic, but not far off either. The lighter pull and crisper break make a world of difference.
As I have an M40A1, I also took the opportunity to try to Cycle 9mm through with a .40 mag. The magazine takes 12 rounds of 9mm, and works fine... until round 11. At that point I would consistently get a double feed as the last two rounds pop up from in between the magazine lips. I guess you could bend the lips inward slightly if you want to destroy a $60 magazine.
As stated, the Steyr L comes with the new-updated extractor. Right out of the box with no cleaning and 300 rounds of 124 grain American Eagle and not a single failure to extract.
What I did get, however, was the occasional ejection of white-hot brass right at my head. One casing in particular arced in a graceful parabola directly into the space between the arm of my Oakley M-Frames and my temple, leaving a 9x19mm shaped burn mark. I would have written that off as a freak occurrence if it hadn't happened a second time two mags later.
FFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUU-
For the most part, casings eject almost straight up, leaving a pile right at your feet.
While I had no FTEs, what I did get were a bunch of failures to return to battery, to varying degrees of severity. The obvious ones could be spotted, and a firm love tap to the back plate will chamber the round. However, some of them were subtle enough that you won't notice them if concentrating on the target. While pressing the trigger will always safely force a partially dislodged slide back into battery before firing, this would, on occasion, result in a very light primer strike, and an extremely loud "click." The severity of the malfunctions lessened over time and became more infrequent, so at this stage I am tentatively willing to put this down to a "breaking-in period," but it doesn't mean I have to like it.
It's absurdly accurate, and the lack of muzzle flip will spoil you for all other handguns forever, so I'm willing to give it a chance. When it works, it is an absolute dream to shoot. After a thorough cleaning I'll shoot it some more and see what happens. Hopefully, the reliability issues will be solved then.
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