I got a chance to handle and shoot my buddies H9 today.
These are my thoughts:
The pistol is VERY well designed and thought out.
Pro's:
-The cocking serrations are very well thought out. Very easy to manipulate from the front or the rear.
-The sights are actually quite nice. Extremely visible front sight with a very nicely shaped u-notch with a racking ledge on the rear.
-The pistol sits REALLY low in the hand, almost awkwardly low. It takes a little getting used to since it sits so low that you almost have nothing sitting above the web of your strong hand. You can feel the mass down low towards the front of the pistol.
-The magazines load nicely into the beveled magwell. The mag tube itself is very nicely tapered up top so it fits well and reloads quickly.
-The trigger is nice for a striker fired "duty" style gun. Its crisp, fairly clean and of an adequate weight for a striker pistol.
-The gun just flat out shoots well. (see what i did there?) It has a VERY nice, soft recoil impulse with a nice slide velocity. The sights recover EXTREMELY well and getting back on target and banging out shots with this thing at speed is just downright easy. The recoil impulse is definitely different due to the design but its not something that is so extremely different so as to be weird.
Cons:
-The trigger safety is friggin weird and gives you an artificial feeling of a VERY long trigger reach. Its awkward and definitely needs an adaptation period.
-The beavertail design is absolute fucking utter garbage. It is not blended well and there are WAY too many sharp edges where the beavertail integrates with the frame. I really have no idea how the hell this passed the design stage. They put so much time into putting this pistol together and apparently shooting it yet somehow, the sharp edges made it into production? The gun beat me up after just a few magazines and given the sharp edges, I have zero desire to shoot this pistol for an extended period of time. Until this is addressed and the literal HOLES in the rear of the frame are closed off and those edges are dehorned, the pistol is a no go. While i can appreciate a Glock i DONT shoot them because they tear me apart. A tool that damages me is not worth it when there are other options out there. Yeah, I know, harden up, blah blah, grow a penis, blah blah, whatever.
-The grip panels suck. They're way too smooth and for something that was designed to be a shooter you would think that they would be a little rougher. Its not that huge of a deal since you can change them out with aftermarket parts but for an 1100 dollar pistol, again, you'd think they'd be just a little bit rougher. Granted, I prefer panels that make me bleed so im in the minority when it comes to grip texture.
All in all for the most part, I think that Hudson hit the ball almost out of the park. Im going to call this one a triple and not quite a home run due to the beavertail design. Still, for a first run of a pistol, they really did such a great job and this thing in my mind is NOT a gimmick. I really hope that Hudson succeeds as I want to see what they're going to be producing in the future as well as how they refine their existing products.
This is an exciting time to be a gun owner.