As the title says, I bought this pistol 6 weeks ago. Seven weeks ago, I had no intention of buying another gun...none. At least not for a few months. I’d already bought three since the New Year, all “wants”, not “needs”. I had several gift cards from Birthdays and Christmas, at it was as much impulse as my morbid fascination with the unusual and/or seldom seen. I liked the way it looked, certainly liked the price, So I took the leap.
When I buy a new gun, I tend to fixate on getting really familiar and comfortable with it. It took less than a mag to decide I didn’t like the factory irons, but since it comes optics ready and having a Vortex Venom waiting for a host, I mounted that immediately. Since getting it, I’ve hit the range on average 3 days a week (I’m retired). I’ve shot it clean, dirty, right out of the box without an initial clean and polish.
I’ve shot drills, timed fire, fast double taps, slow full mag dumps, fast ones. I grabbed a couple extra mags and shot a bunch of mag dumps, malfunction drills. I’ve tried to shoot it from different holds, different angles and distances from 1 to 25 yards. It’s gone from being a new gun to feeling very familiar...like an old friend.
This has been a good year for me and pistols; I’ve found two that I like better than anything I’ve gotten in the last...15 years? First was the Glock 48...a gun that feels like it was built just for my hand. The second is the Masada.
First question I always have with a gun I’ve never fired is the trigger; how bad is it, and how much work will it be to fix. I’m a bit fussy about them (triggers that is), and since almost no one makes a decent one out of the box. The two Glocks I bought last year, the 48 & a 19X, both got new triggers. The 48 would have been left alone if the gun hadn’t been such a good match for me. It’s without question the best factory trigger on a Glock I’ve ever had, and I’ve had at least one from each generation.
The Masada trigger out of the box was 5.4lbs. Smooth pull, very predictable, with a very clean, crisp break. The reset is not as short as I’d like, but it’s still pretty darned good. By 1000 rounds, the trigger lost a good deal of weight, stabilizing at 4.7lbs. Overall, it’s a better trigger out of the box than either of the aftermarket triggers I put in the Glocks.
This is the first striker fired pistol IWI has released, and it’s clear they did a lot of work, engineering and testing, before it ever hit the manufacturing line. It’s intended to be a duty or military service gun. It’s only slightly bigger than a Glock 19, but visually looks larger. Steeper grip angle, it points quite naturally, and acquiring the dot is fast and consistent; very little hunting around for it. It ships with three back straps, the medium one mounted. I have small hands so I changed it out to the small one, and it feels great. Two different stipple patterns; one on the grip sides, and a more aggressive texture front and back. It could be a tiny bit grippier, But it’s close enough I won’t be putting grip tape or having it re-stippled any time soon. It has a natural high grip hold, and the trigger guard is undercut at the rear. It’s a big open guard with plenty of room to wear gloves, and the front of the guard is cut textured and vertical, where some of the pre-production guns were angled. The trigger has a blade style safety like Glock. It has a front rail, ambidextrous mag & slide releases and takedown lever on the left side. Mag release on mine is stiff, and hasn’t really loosened much. The grip has high cutouts on the side so you can get a solid grip on a mag and rip it out if you need to.
As I mentioned, factory irons are the worst single element on the gun. They suck eggs. It is optics ready and comes with four mounting plates for common RDS. They are plastic, which I was leery about, but providing you torque the screws properly the red dot has stayed rock solid.
The gun is boring to shoot. Not in a bad way; just that it goes bang every single time. Glock-like dependability. There is a YouTube video showing standard torture testing; throw it in dirt, shoot. Into a water bucket. Shoot. Mix dirt and water, throw it in the mud, pick it up, shoot. Bang every single time. Zero malfunctions. It’s accurate, consistently shoots 1/2 to 3/4in. Tighter groups than the 19X or 48, both of which are good accuracy wise. It tosses empties consistently a meter to the right, and 1/3 meter forward. In timed fire, all 10 will land within 6 inches of each other on the ground, nice if you reload.
It’s a full chassis system, similar to Sigs. It’s very easy to field strip, but you DO have to pull the trigger. Some of the early reports, including ones from IWI, said it wasn’t necessary, but there is NO way you can strip it down without a trigger pull, and IWI confirms that. Not really a big deal, it’s an easy gun to strip, including all the way down to removing the chassis. That’s the “gun”...the serialized chassis. Once the slides off, turn the takedown lever a bit and remove it, and the chassis comes out the top.
It’s quite compact, and it’s going to be interesting to see what IWI and others may develop around it. I took it out to polish all metal on metal contact points, but someone beat me to it. The finishes on al surfaces are very smooth and polished out of the box. Generally the entire gun is free of any machining marks at all. These people know they’re doing, of the chassis systems I’ve seen...including Sig’s...this is the best executed design. It’s simple, minimal and well built. If IWI decides to really pander to the U.S. market, they could quite easily build a complete weapons system off this chassis; a bunch of different sized pistols, maybe a PCC, multi calibres, it looks sturdy enough it could be a drop in operating system for rifles.
Overall, I think if I had the option of buying this or buying a sig 320 at the same price point, I’d buy this. And I was a Sig guy for a pretty long time. My Brother in law just got into shooting, and he bought a couple of Sigs at my suggestion. Now, I sort of feel like a jerk who steered him in the wrong direction..not that Sigs aren’t excellent; they are. He’s shot both and prefers the way Sigs feel in his hand. I’m pretty surprised that I feel the opposite.
I think someone looking for a full size pistol is really doing themselves a disservice if they don’t REALLY look at a Masada. I’m going to be really watching what IWI does here. It they release multi frame sizes, a PPC chassis, some competition components, etc. And markets things differently and better, they could take a big bite from Glock’s duty gun market, but what do I know?? I’m just an old guy being pleasantly surprised new customer. If this is a size of gun you’re looking for, it’s a heck of a good pick
When I buy a new gun, I tend to fixate on getting really familiar and comfortable with it. It took less than a mag to decide I didn’t like the factory irons, but since it comes optics ready and having a Vortex Venom waiting for a host, I mounted that immediately. Since getting it, I’ve hit the range on average 3 days a week (I’m retired). I’ve shot it clean, dirty, right out of the box without an initial clean and polish.
I’ve shot drills, timed fire, fast double taps, slow full mag dumps, fast ones. I grabbed a couple extra mags and shot a bunch of mag dumps, malfunction drills. I’ve tried to shoot it from different holds, different angles and distances from 1 to 25 yards. It’s gone from being a new gun to feeling very familiar...like an old friend.
This has been a good year for me and pistols; I’ve found two that I like better than anything I’ve gotten in the last...15 years? First was the Glock 48...a gun that feels like it was built just for my hand. The second is the Masada.
First question I always have with a gun I’ve never fired is the trigger; how bad is it, and how much work will it be to fix. I’m a bit fussy about them (triggers that is), and since almost no one makes a decent one out of the box. The two Glocks I bought last year, the 48 & a 19X, both got new triggers. The 48 would have been left alone if the gun hadn’t been such a good match for me. It’s without question the best factory trigger on a Glock I’ve ever had, and I’ve had at least one from each generation.
The Masada trigger out of the box was 5.4lbs. Smooth pull, very predictable, with a very clean, crisp break. The reset is not as short as I’d like, but it’s still pretty darned good. By 1000 rounds, the trigger lost a good deal of weight, stabilizing at 4.7lbs. Overall, it’s a better trigger out of the box than either of the aftermarket triggers I put in the Glocks.
This is the first striker fired pistol IWI has released, and it’s clear they did a lot of work, engineering and testing, before it ever hit the manufacturing line. It’s intended to be a duty or military service gun. It’s only slightly bigger than a Glock 19, but visually looks larger. Steeper grip angle, it points quite naturally, and acquiring the dot is fast and consistent; very little hunting around for it. It ships with three back straps, the medium one mounted. I have small hands so I changed it out to the small one, and it feels great. Two different stipple patterns; one on the grip sides, and a more aggressive texture front and back. It could be a tiny bit grippier, But it’s close enough I won’t be putting grip tape or having it re-stippled any time soon. It has a natural high grip hold, and the trigger guard is undercut at the rear. It’s a big open guard with plenty of room to wear gloves, and the front of the guard is cut textured and vertical, where some of the pre-production guns were angled. The trigger has a blade style safety like Glock. It has a front rail, ambidextrous mag & slide releases and takedown lever on the left side. Mag release on mine is stiff, and hasn’t really loosened much. The grip has high cutouts on the side so you can get a solid grip on a mag and rip it out if you need to.
As I mentioned, factory irons are the worst single element on the gun. They suck eggs. It is optics ready and comes with four mounting plates for common RDS. They are plastic, which I was leery about, but providing you torque the screws properly the red dot has stayed rock solid.
The gun is boring to shoot. Not in a bad way; just that it goes bang every single time. Glock-like dependability. There is a YouTube video showing standard torture testing; throw it in dirt, shoot. Into a water bucket. Shoot. Mix dirt and water, throw it in the mud, pick it up, shoot. Bang every single time. Zero malfunctions. It’s accurate, consistently shoots 1/2 to 3/4in. Tighter groups than the 19X or 48, both of which are good accuracy wise. It tosses empties consistently a meter to the right, and 1/3 meter forward. In timed fire, all 10 will land within 6 inches of each other on the ground, nice if you reload.
It’s a full chassis system, similar to Sigs. It’s very easy to field strip, but you DO have to pull the trigger. Some of the early reports, including ones from IWI, said it wasn’t necessary, but there is NO way you can strip it down without a trigger pull, and IWI confirms that. Not really a big deal, it’s an easy gun to strip, including all the way down to removing the chassis. That’s the “gun”...the serialized chassis. Once the slides off, turn the takedown lever a bit and remove it, and the chassis comes out the top.
It’s quite compact, and it’s going to be interesting to see what IWI and others may develop around it. I took it out to polish all metal on metal contact points, but someone beat me to it. The finishes on al surfaces are very smooth and polished out of the box. Generally the entire gun is free of any machining marks at all. These people know they’re doing, of the chassis systems I’ve seen...including Sig’s...this is the best executed design. It’s simple, minimal and well built. If IWI decides to really pander to the U.S. market, they could quite easily build a complete weapons system off this chassis; a bunch of different sized pistols, maybe a PCC, multi calibres, it looks sturdy enough it could be a drop in operating system for rifles.
Overall, I think if I had the option of buying this or buying a sig 320 at the same price point, I’d buy this. And I was a Sig guy for a pretty long time. My Brother in law just got into shooting, and he bought a couple of Sigs at my suggestion. Now, I sort of feel like a jerk who steered him in the wrong direction..not that Sigs aren’t excellent; they are. He’s shot both and prefers the way Sigs feel in his hand. I’m pretty surprised that I feel the opposite.
I think someone looking for a full size pistol is really doing themselves a disservice if they don’t REALLY look at a Masada. I’m going to be really watching what IWI does here. It they release multi frame sizes, a PPC chassis, some competition components, etc. And markets things differently and better, they could take a big bite from Glock’s duty gun market, but what do I know?? I’m just an old guy being pleasantly surprised new customer. If this is a size of gun you’re looking for, it’s a heck of a good pick
