tahunua001
New member
Hello all,
As an avid firearms enthusiast, I am often asked the question “what is the best gun to get for a first time gun owner” this question is almost universal to the gun community depending on the category of firearms being discussed, whether it’s revolvers, 22LRs, or WWII era battle rifles. The world of semi automatic handguns is no different, with prospective gun owners asking “what is the best” without the understanding that there is no definitive model which holds the title of best gun in the world. regardless of the category being discussed, I always give the same answer: the best gun in the world is the most reliable gun that shoots the most accurately, and fits your hand the best, without being too large or too small depending on the purpose which you intend to use it, without breaking your predetermined budget.
As I am returning to school in an effort to be more marketable to the current job force, I am often asked this question by college students who are generally quite poor and in debt due to the costs of seeking higher education. As a result the second most asked question is “what is the most economical model you would recommend”. This is hard for many of us to answer because we often shy away from the more affordable brands due to the perceived inferiority that comes with economy brands. Brands like Hi-point and kel-tec are often maligned as being bottom of the barrel in terms of quality, ergonomics, and yes, appearance. This led me to wonder if I was unfairly excluding certain firearms from my recommendations, purely because they fell within a certain price range.
This is why I decided that I was going to go ahead and try a pair of cheap affordable 9mm handguns. For the purposes of this review, I decided that I would go with a pair of handguns that are relatively unknown to the general public: the Arcus 98DA and the Canik 55 TP9.
The Arcus was the first to arrive so here is what I have so far(sorry for the lack of pics)
First impressions of the Arcus were confused. I had handled the 98 DA compact before and thought that it felt rather nice in hand and the fit and finish appeared to be well done considering its price tag, however the gun that arrived at my LGS just felt like a little less finely made. The external finish appears to be a kind of Parkerizing which is fantastic in my opinion but some internal parts and the magazines use a cheaper bluing finish which wears off very quickly. In addition, tool marks abound, though only on the inside, out of sight areas. Thankfully there are a couple saving graces in the fit/finish dept. first is the barrel, the one part that matters most to this shooter is smooth as a polished mirror and the bore is a thing of beauty.Second is that there is no rattle when submitted to vigorous shaking, a good sign that the slide is at least fitted well to the frame. it most certainly is not winning any beauty pageants, but I’m not here to judge a gun by appearance, I’m here to judge by performance.
Design features: the 98DA is a double action/single action, hammer fired, steel framed, semi automatic pistol, and the first DA/SA, metal framed pistol I have added to my personal collection as I prefer universal trigger weights found on most striker guns. The gun ships with 2, 15 round, double stacked magazines which cleanly fall free when the mag release is pressed. The gun itself is quite thin, more in tune with a single stack than a double stack platform however the rubber wrap around grips(similar to hogue grips) add a great deal of width to the handgun making this particular option poorly suited to concealed carry for most shooters, but it is worth noting that there are models with wood, or flat plastic grip panels which are narrower and would be easier to conceal with(also options available for the 98 DAC. The sights are a bare bones design, non adjustable(but driftable), and simple.
Dry fire: I like to dry fire a new gun several times to help break everything in before an initial range visit. Feel in hand is OK for me, I have fairly large hands and it is just slightly undersized for me, even with the finger groove grips. The safety system is odd and alien to me. It does have a frame mounted safety which was stiff at first but did loosen with use. The part that I found odd was that this particular safety can only be engage if the hammer is fully cocked. Additionally the hammer does have a half cock position but unlike SA hammer guns, it can still be fully cocked and fired by squeezing the trigger even from the half cock position, not an endearing feature to this user, too much margin for user error. Trigger weight is a huge concern of mine. The single action pull feels similar to my Springfield XDM and Ruger SR9, right around 5 to 5.5 pounds, but the DA pull feels much heavier, closer to 15 or more.
Live fire session 1: I went to the range expecting to get to put this pistol through its paces, but my timing could not have been worse. As Hunting season is less than a month away, every hunter who is too lazy or undisciplined to practice year round is crowding my local outdoor range in an effort to ensure their guns are still zeroed before opening day. I have never once seen every one of the 17 benches on the rifle side(25 yards to 550 meters), and 8 stalls on the pistol side(5-100 yards) occupied with shooters waiting in the lobby for an opening. As a result, I was rushed and hobbled by the fact that I needed a stall on the rifle side in order to chronograph and ensure accuracy with a new hunting load I was experimenting with. In no mood to wait for a pistol stall to open up after having to weasel my way though accuracy testing my rifles, I decided to just try the Arcus on the rifle side with a B27 target at 25 yards and shooting from sandbags.
I began with 25 rounds of sellier and bellot 115 gr FMJs. I was suspicious that I was having a bad day because my shots were grouping about 3 inches low and 5 inches left of point of aim. In wasn’t until I asked one of the ROs if he’d like to shoot to see if it was just me when he pointed out that I had just shot a 4 inch 25 shot group at 25 yards and with precision like that, it was way more likely to be sight problem. I then switched to a no-name brand of 147gr hollow points. after 50 rounds and my group had grown no larger or shifted point of impact at all, I became quite certain that it was a sight problem. The Arcus, to its credit did not suffer a single failure.
Live fire session 2: I took a brass punch too the rear sight to try and drift it on target a bit. I’m not sure exactly how much good I did but accuracy seemed improved over the first visit. Although still hitting left at 15 yards I am able to keep everything inside the 9 ring of a B27 target while shooting free hand. For poops and giggles I turned to shooting the scoring block in the upper right hand corner of the target, 9 out of 10 shots made it inside the scoring box. I also did a little shooting at plates at 35 yards but the sights were still a bit off by quite a bit at that range and I ended up having to aim a good 10 inches to the right to hit the plates. For this range trip I selected 25 rounds of sellier and bellot 115gr fMJs and 50 rounds of PMC 115gr FMJs. This makes 150 rounds downrange without a single hiccup. I know this is in no way, shape, or form, a dependable or comprehensive test of a gun’s reliability, but I would be willing to wager that this gun would perform well for any person that was restricted by budget. I would be happier if it was zeroed from the factory, but for $300 it is not a bad deal at all.
questions, comments, suggestions?
As an avid firearms enthusiast, I am often asked the question “what is the best gun to get for a first time gun owner” this question is almost universal to the gun community depending on the category of firearms being discussed, whether it’s revolvers, 22LRs, or WWII era battle rifles. The world of semi automatic handguns is no different, with prospective gun owners asking “what is the best” without the understanding that there is no definitive model which holds the title of best gun in the world. regardless of the category being discussed, I always give the same answer: the best gun in the world is the most reliable gun that shoots the most accurately, and fits your hand the best, without being too large or too small depending on the purpose which you intend to use it, without breaking your predetermined budget.
As I am returning to school in an effort to be more marketable to the current job force, I am often asked this question by college students who are generally quite poor and in debt due to the costs of seeking higher education. As a result the second most asked question is “what is the most economical model you would recommend”. This is hard for many of us to answer because we often shy away from the more affordable brands due to the perceived inferiority that comes with economy brands. Brands like Hi-point and kel-tec are often maligned as being bottom of the barrel in terms of quality, ergonomics, and yes, appearance. This led me to wonder if I was unfairly excluding certain firearms from my recommendations, purely because they fell within a certain price range.
This is why I decided that I was going to go ahead and try a pair of cheap affordable 9mm handguns. For the purposes of this review, I decided that I would go with a pair of handguns that are relatively unknown to the general public: the Arcus 98DA and the Canik 55 TP9.
The Arcus was the first to arrive so here is what I have so far(sorry for the lack of pics)
First impressions of the Arcus were confused. I had handled the 98 DA compact before and thought that it felt rather nice in hand and the fit and finish appeared to be well done considering its price tag, however the gun that arrived at my LGS just felt like a little less finely made. The external finish appears to be a kind of Parkerizing which is fantastic in my opinion but some internal parts and the magazines use a cheaper bluing finish which wears off very quickly. In addition, tool marks abound, though only on the inside, out of sight areas. Thankfully there are a couple saving graces in the fit/finish dept. first is the barrel, the one part that matters most to this shooter is smooth as a polished mirror and the bore is a thing of beauty.Second is that there is no rattle when submitted to vigorous shaking, a good sign that the slide is at least fitted well to the frame. it most certainly is not winning any beauty pageants, but I’m not here to judge a gun by appearance, I’m here to judge by performance.
Design features: the 98DA is a double action/single action, hammer fired, steel framed, semi automatic pistol, and the first DA/SA, metal framed pistol I have added to my personal collection as I prefer universal trigger weights found on most striker guns. The gun ships with 2, 15 round, double stacked magazines which cleanly fall free when the mag release is pressed. The gun itself is quite thin, more in tune with a single stack than a double stack platform however the rubber wrap around grips(similar to hogue grips) add a great deal of width to the handgun making this particular option poorly suited to concealed carry for most shooters, but it is worth noting that there are models with wood, or flat plastic grip panels which are narrower and would be easier to conceal with(also options available for the 98 DAC. The sights are a bare bones design, non adjustable(but driftable), and simple.
Dry fire: I like to dry fire a new gun several times to help break everything in before an initial range visit. Feel in hand is OK for me, I have fairly large hands and it is just slightly undersized for me, even with the finger groove grips. The safety system is odd and alien to me. It does have a frame mounted safety which was stiff at first but did loosen with use. The part that I found odd was that this particular safety can only be engage if the hammer is fully cocked. Additionally the hammer does have a half cock position but unlike SA hammer guns, it can still be fully cocked and fired by squeezing the trigger even from the half cock position, not an endearing feature to this user, too much margin for user error. Trigger weight is a huge concern of mine. The single action pull feels similar to my Springfield XDM and Ruger SR9, right around 5 to 5.5 pounds, but the DA pull feels much heavier, closer to 15 or more.
Live fire session 1: I went to the range expecting to get to put this pistol through its paces, but my timing could not have been worse. As Hunting season is less than a month away, every hunter who is too lazy or undisciplined to practice year round is crowding my local outdoor range in an effort to ensure their guns are still zeroed before opening day. I have never once seen every one of the 17 benches on the rifle side(25 yards to 550 meters), and 8 stalls on the pistol side(5-100 yards) occupied with shooters waiting in the lobby for an opening. As a result, I was rushed and hobbled by the fact that I needed a stall on the rifle side in order to chronograph and ensure accuracy with a new hunting load I was experimenting with. In no mood to wait for a pistol stall to open up after having to weasel my way though accuracy testing my rifles, I decided to just try the Arcus on the rifle side with a B27 target at 25 yards and shooting from sandbags.
I began with 25 rounds of sellier and bellot 115 gr FMJs. I was suspicious that I was having a bad day because my shots were grouping about 3 inches low and 5 inches left of point of aim. In wasn’t until I asked one of the ROs if he’d like to shoot to see if it was just me when he pointed out that I had just shot a 4 inch 25 shot group at 25 yards and with precision like that, it was way more likely to be sight problem. I then switched to a no-name brand of 147gr hollow points. after 50 rounds and my group had grown no larger or shifted point of impact at all, I became quite certain that it was a sight problem. The Arcus, to its credit did not suffer a single failure.
Live fire session 2: I took a brass punch too the rear sight to try and drift it on target a bit. I’m not sure exactly how much good I did but accuracy seemed improved over the first visit. Although still hitting left at 15 yards I am able to keep everything inside the 9 ring of a B27 target while shooting free hand. For poops and giggles I turned to shooting the scoring block in the upper right hand corner of the target, 9 out of 10 shots made it inside the scoring box. I also did a little shooting at plates at 35 yards but the sights were still a bit off by quite a bit at that range and I ended up having to aim a good 10 inches to the right to hit the plates. For this range trip I selected 25 rounds of sellier and bellot 115gr fMJs and 50 rounds of PMC 115gr FMJs. This makes 150 rounds downrange without a single hiccup. I know this is in no way, shape, or form, a dependable or comprehensive test of a gun’s reliability, but I would be willing to wager that this gun would perform well for any person that was restricted by budget. I would be happier if it was zeroed from the factory, but for $300 it is not a bad deal at all.
questions, comments, suggestions?