Out of curiosity I bought one of the TS9s that RK was selling before Christmas when the OTD price dropped below $250. Today I finally had a chance to get to the range. Being an indoor range and I knew I would lose most of my brass, I decided to test the pistol with MagTech steel cased ammo.

I disassembled, cleaned and lightly lubed the pistol before heading to the range. This pistol has the oddest takedown I've encountered to date. There is a button inside the trigger guard that has to be pushed into the frame to release the slide. This button is normally flush and I see no way of it accidently being pushed while firing. Once I got used to the system it seemed very easy to use. Trigger was a little gritty and I hope it breaks in a little with use.

First 16 rd group was very disappointing. I was shooting at 10 yards and the group was 3" left. The group itself exhibited vertical stringing, around 2.5" wide and 6.3" high. The rear sight is held in place with an Allen screw. Once a couple magazines confirmed the horizontal placement was consistent corrections were easy to make. By the end of the 100 rd test I could keep a full magazine within the 3" diameter sticker I was using for a target if I used the pumpkin on a post sight picture. Not match grade accuracy but this pistol doesn't claim to be a match pistol.

Felt recoil seemed less than I'm used to with a semi automatic but I don't know if that is due to pistol design or the caliber I was shooting. Normally if I'm shooting a full sized semi auto it's a 1911 in 45 ACP or full sized M&P in 40 S&W. I'm also not sure if the trigger smoothed from shooting or I just got used to the feel but it did seem smoother at the end of the session.

The magazine loader included with the pistol was a big help. Those are stiff springs. There were no malfunctions with the steel cased ammo. I've never used the Magtech steel cased ammo before. Unlike the Russian stuff which usually has a coating the Magtech looks polished. At first glance I thought it was nickeled brass not steel case. This ammo will definably be my first choice for ball ammo where I don't expect to recover the cases. I do occasionally reload 9x19.

Overall I think this pistol represents a good value especially if ambidextrous controls are important to you. I think once this supply is gone some will regret not getting them at the low price when they were available.

I have one. I had no problems with stringing or the sights being off. Did you play with the backstraps while dry firing to get the best fit? I would concur on group size shooting offhand. I should bench it next time out to get a better idea of what it can do.

I agree on the trigger being gritty on receipt. I put in a snap cap and dry fired the heck out of it before hitting the range and it cleaned up the trigger quite a bit. The actual range time cleaned up the trigger a bunch more.

Felt recoil on this pistol is different to my other polymer 9mm pistols. I put this down to the Bubits modification of the Browning action with the barrel to slide lock up at the rear of the barrel hood. The recoil impulse is less in amplitude and sort of a long push, rather than a snap. This is with S&B 124 gr FMJ. That stuff is usually loaded near +P levels. For those who dislike the closed top slide, I can assure them that ejection is vigorous and hard right. The extractor is a huge piece that looks like it fell of a an 8mm Mauser rifle.

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Release the Kraken

LVSteve, I'm left eye dominate. I don't know if it's the eye dominance or my grip but pistols shooing slightly left when I'm holding them is normal. I'm also sure the vertical stringing was operator error, not mechanical error. Part of the group size was the fact that they represented a full 16 rd magazine per target. With discrete photo selection I could have posted pictures of 3 to 5 shot groups with all shots touching. However I can no longer maintain that consistency for a whole magazine. My eyes start to water and my hand starts to shake, I'll be 67 in a couple months.

Overall I found the TS9 to be reliable and fun to shoot. It'll not displace any of my wheel guns but it's a keeper.

I am also cross dominant, right hand, left eye. I'm a little younger than you, but I don't try full magazine groups for the reasons you have given. One more reason is I get impatient and start to shoot too fast, lol.

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Release the Kraken

Hey, if they didn't intend for me to shoot a 16 shot group they would not have made a 16 rd magazine.