Topic: The Best 9mm Pistols of 2022 (Read 38 times)
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Why It Made the Cut
The Glock G17 is one of the most proven, dependable, and simple full-size 9mm pistols ever.
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There’s simply no “best” list about 9mm pistols without including Glock. In many ways, Glocks set the standard for striker-fired 9mm pistols, and that’s especially true for full-size pistols and the G17. It’s a simple striker-fired, polymer-framed pistol that co*es with 17-round magazines and a reputation for utter reliability.
The G17 is certainly one of the best 9mm pistols of all time—known not just for reliability, but simplicity as well. It has a low-profile slide stop lever and a magazine catch button, but no other external controls. The trigger features a safety bar, but the Glock has no other external safety—a trademark-like characteristic that many striker-fired pistols emulate.
The only feature not to like about the factory Glock G17 is it’s set of polymer sights. They’re perfectly functional, but a good set of night sights or high-visibility sights like the XS Express Big Dot are an instant and worthwhile improvement.
Many Glock shooters customize their pistols with aftermarket parts and upgrades like steel guide rods, improved barrels, trigger upgrades, and grip sanding and stippling are co*mon. The Gen 5 G17 features a smooth front strap on the grip, and interchangeable backstraps to optimize fit. Although many like to modify the G17 platform, it’s still one of the most reliable and functional factory 9mm pistols out there.
The G17 is co*fortable to shoot, and its full-size stature makes 9mm recoil easy to control. If you haven’t shot Glock pistols much, you’ll find that they have a relatively steep grip angle, and co*pared to 1911-style pistols, you must tilt your grip farther forward to line the sights up on target. Some shooters refer to it as “pointing downhill” because if you’re used to other pistols, it feels like you’re pointing the muzzle more towards the ground—but it’s just the angle of your grip that’s changing.
Why It Made the Cut
The Shadow Systems XR920 Elite is a quality, affordable pistol that is what many shooters want a modified Glock to be—right out of the box. It’s a tricked-out, slimmed down Glock clone with upgraded parts.
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Glock’s motto is “Perfection,” but many shooters still believe there’s room for improvement on stock models. An entire segment of the 9mm pistol industry has risen out of what were once custom modifications to Glock pistols to make them more shooter friendly. I’ve swapped parts, ground down and stippled frames, and ordered custom-cut slides myself, so it’s great to see clones that already have those mods incorporated into affordable production pistols.
The XR920 Elite is one of those pistols—and it’s a good one. You get the classic Glock feel, but off the shelf you get an excellently textured grip, good-looking and effective cocking serrations, quality sights, springs and guide rod, an improved barrel, and it’s optic-ready. For less than $900, you’d have a hard time assembling that on your own.
The XR920 Elite is fed from Glock and Glock-pattern 17-round magazines, but the slide and barrel are closer in size to the co*pact Glock G19. The idea is that you can have a more co*pact slide and barrel for concealed carry without sacrificing capacity or grip size. It also features a slightly flared magwell for easy reloads and a carefully shaped trigger guard that allows for a tight, close grip on the pistol (something that many custom frame carvers do to improve the fit of OEM Glocks).
This pistol was a hit at our 2022 Outdoor Life gun test and got high marks in performance, design, and value. The improvements are a tangible benefit on the range, and although its lighter weight translates to snappier recoil, the ergonomic improvements to the pistol are a net benefit.
Why It Made the Cut
A few smart updates to this classic design make the SA-35 even better, but still true-to-origin—and at a great price.
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The Browning Hi-Power has only been out of production for a few years, but several gunmakers have invigorated a new interest in this classic 9mm pistol. There have been several “new” remakes of the Hi-Power, or P-35 (which was first released in 1935), but one of the most notable of recent years has been the Springfield Armory SA-35.
Springfield wanted to build the SA-35 with everything shooters loved about the P-35, but also incorporate some smart changes (most of which were mods often made to original Hi-Powers). What they came up with is a simple but sharp-looking pistol with great ergonomics and a parkerized-type finish. It stays true to the pistol’s Hi-Power roots and is about half the price of the current FN model, which has a barrel and takedown mechanism that’s more like the FN 509 than the original Hi-Power.
The biggest improvements Springfield made when designing this pistol were a redesigned 15-round magazine, removal of the magazine disconnect (which resulted in a better trigger), streamlining of the feed ramp, and re-profiling the hammer to prevent the shooter’s hand from being pinched. The checkered walnut grip scales are contoured to be co*fortable and match up perfectly with the lines of the pistol’s frame.
I’ve put over a thousand rounds through a couple different SA-35’s and have been wonderfully pleased so far. We shot the hell out of one in our 2022 Gun test, and I wrote an in-depth review of the pistol in early 2022. It’s a fun pistol to shoot, but also a relevant and modern nod to the classic design. My only dig on the SA-35 is that the bottom corner of the beavertail is a little sharp, and it tends to dig into the web of my hand with high-volume shooting.
Why It Made the Cut
A mix in design of the Browning Hi-Power and 1911, this VIS P-35 was one of the best-made, and most co*fortable-to-shoot 9mm pistols of the early 20th century.
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Contemporary 9mm pistols are more capable than ever, but there’s something special about vintage wartime pistols that were machined and assembled by hand. One of the finest of World War Two was the Polish VIS P-35. This pistol wasn’t in production for long but is held in high regard by those who have spent any time firing them.
The Vis P-35 was designed with heavy influence from both the early Browning Hi-Power (which was also dubbed the P-35, being introduced officially in 1935) and the 1911. The VIS entered service in Poland in 1935, and production continued under German occupation until the end of the war when the Red Army destroyed the factory (and all the tooling).
The VIS P-35 a single-action hammer-fired pistol with a grip safety like a 1911, but no other external safety. Pre-war and early-war pistols featured both a de-cocking lever on the side of the slide, and a slide-locking takedown lever where the safety on a 1911 would be. Later in the war, the slide-lock lever was removed. The VIS P-35 features an early self-contained guide rod and recoil spring and locking lugs atop the barrel like the Hi-Power uses. It’s fed from a single-stack 7-round magazine and uses an internal extractor like the 1911. The slide stop lever looks like those on 1911’s, but the pistol has no barrel bushing or spring-loaded detents between what would be the safety and the slide stop lever.
The VIS P-35’s can be picky about ammo and were originally designed for 124-grain ball. I have one that my grandpa brought back from Germany that digests everything flawlessly, but another VIS I bought required some feed-ramp work to keep hollowpoints from sticking. After some file and polishing work to match the profile of the feed ramp on my grandpa’s pistol, it runs like butter—particularly with Hornady American Gunner 115-grain XTP loads.
If the tooling hadn’t been destroyed, I think this pistol would have achieved greater popularity after World War two. The early-war VIS P-35’s I’ve shot are far-and-above nicer and more shooter-friendly than the period 1911’s, P-38’s and Luger’s I’ve used.
Why It Made the Cut
The TS 2 Racing Green is a heavy, very accurate pistol that’s built to go fast.
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The TS 2 Racing Green is a pistol that won our hearts at the 2022 Outdoor Life gun test, and for good reason. It’s pure joy to shoot. It’s a 9mm pistol dedicated to co*petition and adds some out-of-the-box upgrades to the ergonomics that CZ’s Shadow and 75 have. As it co*es, it’s optimized for the USPSA Limited, or IPSC Standard division.
This pistol is a single-action, hammer-fired 9mm, which is part of the reason it has such a light, crisp trigger break. It features green anodized grip scales with an aggressive machined texturing. You get a nice magwell, over-sized magazine catch button, safety, and slide stop lever. The TS 2 Racing green also co*es with three 20-round magazines with green anodized base plates. We’d like to see extended base plates for 23- or 24-round capacity, but the magazines are high quality.
Since thumbs rests are now permitted in some of these divisions, this pistol includes a robust one. The thumb rests allow you to apply recoil-fighting pressure with your support hand thumb. This helps you reduce muzzle flip and fall back on target more quickly.
All these upgrades make this a pistol that nearly drives itself, and our test team hardly let the barrel cool off for several days straight. It won our editor’s choice award this year, and for less than $2,000, it’s an excellent and co*petitive entry point to the action pistol game. You can read a full review of the CZ TS 2 Racing Green here.
Why It Made the Cut
The G3X is an unassuming, affordable 9mm pistol that hits way above its class. It’s size, co*petitive features, and shooter-friendliness is unmatched for the price.
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There probably wasn’t a 9mm pistol that shocked the Outdoor Life test team at our 2022 gun test more than the Taurus G3X. We had a wide field of pistols to test and approached them all with reserved skepticism. At under $250, the G3X is modestly priced, but each member of our test team independently remarked how well this pistol shot and functioned.
The G3X is a simple polymer-framed, striker-fired 9mm co*pact pistol that has pretty much all the feature’s you’d expect on a more-expensive gun. It has a trigger-bar safety, Glock-style takedown mechanism, single-slot accessory rail, and steel sights. You’ll often see corners cut on cheaper 9mm pistols, but everything about our sample exceeded our expectations.
The Taurus G3X has grippy stipple-textured panels on the sides, front, and back of the grip, and is easy to control with sweaty hands. There are lots of co*pact 9mm pistols on the market, and although the G3X has the same capacity as stalwarts like the Glock G19, it’s slightly more co*pact with a 3.2-inch barrel. Our test team also noted that the two steel magazines included with the G3X were nicer than we expected for a pistol of that price. We never needed to use it, but the G3X also has “restrike” capability. That means that if you had a misfire or light primer strike for some reason, you can simply pull the trigger again and it will re-cock and release the striker again.
For someone looking for an ultra-affordable pistol that’s actually a good value, the G3X is a great option. You can read a full review of the Taurus G3X here.