Steyr M and S Series

[Chris Rhines]

My early Steyr M40 was horribly unreliable (again, extraction issues), and I've seen several other M-series guns that shared the trait.

-C

[CK1]

I had a couple different M9-A1's and didn't experience any of the issues guys are mentioning here, though I was well aware there were examples out there having some of the problems described.
I probably put 6k through one of them, and maybe 3k through the other without any stoppages at all.

Their ergos are maybe second to none even now (it was designed a while ago at this point), and there are many "smart" and/or unique features with them. The big thing though is that quality-wise they're put together as good or better than an H&K and for the money they may actually be a bargain compared to anything similarly built. Their grip somehow manages to fit everybody even without needing removable backstraps, and though the grip angle is quite radical (111 degrees, I think more extreme than a Glock's), since their bore-axis is lower than just about anything else out there, they sit in the hand like no other and point as naturally as pointing one's finger, yet, I never heard of anyone complaining of it "pointing high" like you hear with Glocks from many people.

Now all that said, there were some caveats: first off, for me, their slide-release lever protrudes too much if one uses a high thumbs-forward grip... the guys who like the Glock extended slide-release lever may love it as it's pretty much an improved design take on that, but IMHO it's actually too easy to hit inadvertently and is unnecessarily intrusive (much like a P30's or PPQ's), but hey, I think the Glock stock slide-release is the s**t as it's out of the way until slide-lock, and then suddenly is a perfect size to hit every time all at once (JMO, YMMV).
Second though is the real killer (at least for me), after shooting them for a while and finding it extremely annoying, then getting familiar with detail-stripping the gun and getting familiar with how it works, it becomes apparent that there is a slight/major inherent design flaw present. Their triggers tend to be fantastic for a striker-fired pistol, better than a PPQ's really, except just NOT consistently; 9 out of 10 pulls will be consistent and awesome, then the 10th may be 2+lbs heavier and crunchy... Due to the way their strikers are captured in the design there's a condition where the striker-spring gets pre-cocked while cycling and a retaining-washer that is somewhat like a Glock's spring-cups can land on it's seam... Voila: grit and added pull-weight at random... no bueno.

I believe the design has been updated recently with a roll-pin under the rear sight at the back of the slide that works to decrease the striker landing and then pre-loading in that state... I've played with one, and while it might be better, the hitch is still there as the same "great, great, great, great, CRAP, great, great, etc" trigger-pull inconsistency is still present.

Overall, I like 'em and there are many far worse pistols out there, but I like consistency so they're in the rear-view for me. Though, if they'd update them just a little more to nix the trigger inconsistency and offer a less intrusive slide-release, I'd be shooting one for sure.

P.S - they all got the same strength (stiff) recoil-spring whether 9mm, .40 or .357... IMO this contributed heavily to guys having extraction/ejecting issues with them... Lots of them kind of had the Glock Gen4 RSA issues before the Gen4's if you will...

[mrozowjj]

I have a M9-A1 and I like it a lot. At the time I bought it I shot it better than any of my other guns but this was before I got into IDPA and USPSA. I had an intention of shooting it in a match but finding a good holster and mag pouches was impossible. That was right when they were pulling the out of the US market so finding mags was getting to be difficult.

I didn't put a high round count on the gun at all but I had a few FTEs that seemed to be cured when Steyr shipped me a new extractor.

One range visit I had noticed the trigger failed to reset a few times and then I had the gun double once. Sent it to factory immediately. They fixed it promptly and had it back to me in a week or two but I have no idea what they did to it to correct that or why it happened in the first place.

I know you're thinking that sounds like a lot of negatives for someone that supposedly likes the gun but even with all those problems it's still just a neat gun. No I wouldn't trust my life to it and I can't really shoot it in competitions but it felt good in my hand, accurate, had a low bore so it had little muzzle flip, had a good trigger, and while a bit of a novelty I loved the triangle sights.

It was designed by the same guy that designed the new Caracal pistol.