This coming Monday, Hudson Mfg. will debut its new H9, a 1911-style, striker-fired pistol at SHOT Show 2017’s Industry Day at the Range.
The new 9mm H9 is generating a lot of interest in the firearms media, such as Recoil Magazine, as well as among experienced shooters. Its modular design features a 15-round magazine, a 1911-style trigger and an extremely-low bore axis.
“The unconventional nose of the pistol allows for the barrel and recoil spring to sit drastically lower and closer to the hand than heritage designs. This, coupled with its striker-fired design, creates an extremely low bore axis which reduces torque about the wrist when firing and contributes to unparalleled precision in the shot process,” according to Hudson Mfg.
Military.com and KitUp will be taking a close look at the H9 and other unique pistols, carbines, rifles, shotguns, accessories and tactical gear at SHOT Show next week. Sponsored by the National Shooting Sports Foundation, SHOT Show will run Tuesday, January 17, through Friday, January 20 at the Sands Expo & Convention Center, adjacent to the Venetian Resort-Hotel-Casino in Las Vegas.
Last year, about 64,000 people attended the show and more are expected this year.
Range day is expected to feature more than 200 exhibitors, demo-firing their latest firearms.
Hudson Mfg.’s H9 features a steel frame which breaks from the popular, Glock-style polymer frame design.
But it’s often the case that newer doesn’t mean better; the H9 could crap the bed at range day. It would be cool though to see a new design impress even the most die-hard fans of the big names such as Glock, Sig Sauer, Smith & Wesson, Springfield Armory, Beretta, FN and H&K.
If the H9 does prove to be a revolutionary design, it will be ironic that it came out too late to compete in the Army’s Modular Handgun competition.
The Army launched the XM17 MHS competition in late August 2015 to replace its Cold War era M9 9mm pistol.
The $350 million program has come under fire more than once. The latest attack came yesterday during the confirmation hearing for retired Marine Gen. James Mattis to become defense secretary in the Trump administration. Lawmakers blasted the program’s 350-page requirement’s document as an example of the Pentagon’s over-complicated acquisition system.
Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley, who first criticized the program publicly last spring, was tight-lipped yesterday, but did say that the program was “very close” to being completed and that he was “confident” that it would result in the Army issuing a new handgun to soldiers.
Beretta, FN Herstal, Sig Sauer and Glock are reportedly still competing for the program after the Army dropped Smith & Wesson from the competition last year.
Hopefully, the competitors will bring the guns they entered in the MHS competition to SHOT and maybe even to range day.
