Well, so many of you know I am new to firearms... so take that in consideration. The only other striker fired guns I have fired are glock 19, SW mp9 and HK VP9. I have had just one gun... a beretta M9A1 compact INOX... beautiful gun that I sold to try something else (I am regretting it more and more each day). Dont like polymer, or striker fired guns... I know I have a limited experience but I just dont like them.... So, with all those credentials out of the way.... 
I had the pleasure to shoot these 2 guns extensivly one week ago, the Steyr C9 M1 and L9 M1. Pictures coming and I am a photographer, so expect some Steyr -CENSORED--CENSORED--CENSORED--CENSORED- coming your way
Ergonomically I dont know how you could make a gun more perfect... they just fit like a glove. Much better than glock and while the VP9 may feel better to hold, the weird grip angle helped me a lot with accuracy and recoil.
Something I really really loved about the gun is the shape of the trigger blade... I dont know why poeple dont put attention to it, but the shape of the blade is so important to me. The shape of the blade on the Steyrs look really funny (as does the whole gun) but it is rounded and so confortable. Either if you use the pad of your finger or the first joint, the finger just glides throuh it during the trigger pull, again, helping with accuracy. It does have the "glock dingus" thing, that you dont even feel (for all other newbies that may read this... that is not a safety... that is a DROP safety, which has proven to be a genius feature now with the p320 firing when droped).
With the VP9 I was sending rounds before intended. The steyr has a reaaaally smooth pull, a definitive wall, and clean crisp break. Glocks has a sttiffer trigger pull and more definitive wall, which I prefer... The reset is almost none existing in the steyr, not tactile and not audible... easy to find though after a couple of shots. It is important when you are taking your time and trying to be as precise as possible, for self defense I doubt it matters... when I did some mozambique drills as fast as I could control the gun, I never had an issue finding the reset.
The sights are trapezoidal... futuristic looking... really low profile. The sights are incredible accurate... if you align them and with the smooth trigger, the bullet has no where else to go but to aim point. As you can see I managed to put 5 shots in a 3 or 4 inches group at about 45 feet. Considering my lack of experience... all credit goes to the gun.
I loved the sight picture better than 3 dot style. It has no room to failire, no "air" between the front blade and the rear blade. If you align them, your shot goes to bullseye...again, in a self defense scenario I doubt this would be of any advantage, and I could see a disadvantage though: I use glasses and have not the best vision in the world. Sight and target acquisition is not the fastest with this type of sights. We have a nice outdoors range, and when the sun started to come down it became harder and harder to use the sights. Both the rear and front blades are white. I would love to see night sight with this exact shape and contrast colors between the rear and front sight and maybe a little bigger. I loved the sight picture.,, but almost useless to me when the light starter to fade away.
Recoil.... what recoil? :-D these guns are soooooft shooting, Ultra managable recoil even for a newbie like me. My beretta wasnt as controllabe. the weird grip angle and grip shape definitively help. When empty... the L9 A1 feels a little bit front heavy, which also helps with recoil I guess. By the way the L9 A1 (the largest model) is the only one with reversible magazine release. All other models you are stuck with the mag release on the left side of the gun (for right hand shooters)
Both models came with 2 magazines, bot magazines with a + plate. So 17 shots for the C9 and 19
for the L9. The magazines are metal and they feel really light and narrow.
We fired like 200 rounds between 2 C9s and one L9s... both out of the box no lube or cleaning. Zero malfunctions of any kind... zero. My only gripe with the gun is the erratic extraction pattern that many people have commented. The extraction seems weak, and I received like 4 brass in the head of the 30 or 40 shots I fired. Which doesnt bother me really, but here comes my question...
This is definitively the polymer wonder I want... but could these erratic extraction be a sign of a major issue? It is hard to get parts here (I am outside the US), but the distributor for my country is in my town... so I guess they could get the parts if I needed them. I see online that Steyr sens an upgraded extrator for people with this issue, but again, I am outside the usa.
So I like this gun a lot... better than glock, mp and vp9. Great ergonomics, soft trigger (maybe too soft?), great factory sight, and very controllable. Like I said in another post, I really prefer DA/SA or DAO guns... but I think I will get one of these... I also prefer metal frame guns as they cost the same as sig and beretta in my country (more in many cases), but I guess I "have to have" at least one polymer wonder, and the steyr is it for me.
I had the pleasure to shoot these 2 guns extensivly one week ago, the Steyr C9 M1 and L9 M1. Pictures coming and I am a photographer, so expect some Steyr -CENSORED--CENSORED--CENSORED--CENSORED- coming your way
Ergonomically I dont know how you could make a gun more perfect... they just fit like a glove. Much better than glock and while the VP9 may feel better to hold, the weird grip angle helped me a lot with accuracy and recoil.
Something I really really loved about the gun is the shape of the trigger blade... I dont know why poeple dont put attention to it, but the shape of the blade is so important to me. The shape of the blade on the Steyrs look really funny (as does the whole gun) but it is rounded and so confortable. Either if you use the pad of your finger or the first joint, the finger just glides throuh it during the trigger pull, again, helping with accuracy. It does have the "glock dingus" thing, that you dont even feel (for all other newbies that may read this... that is not a safety... that is a DROP safety, which has proven to be a genius feature now with the p320 firing when droped).
With the VP9 I was sending rounds before intended. The steyr has a reaaaally smooth pull, a definitive wall, and clean crisp break. Glocks has a sttiffer trigger pull and more definitive wall, which I prefer... The reset is almost none existing in the steyr, not tactile and not audible... easy to find though after a couple of shots. It is important when you are taking your time and trying to be as precise as possible, for self defense I doubt it matters... when I did some mozambique drills as fast as I could control the gun, I never had an issue finding the reset.
The sights are trapezoidal... futuristic looking... really low profile. The sights are incredible accurate... if you align them and with the smooth trigger, the bullet has no where else to go but to aim point. As you can see I managed to put 5 shots in a 3 or 4 inches group at about 45 feet. Considering my lack of experience... all credit goes to the gun.
I loved the sight picture better than 3 dot style. It has no room to failire, no "air" between the front blade and the rear blade. If you align them, your shot goes to bullseye...again, in a self defense scenario I doubt this would be of any advantage, and I could see a disadvantage though: I use glasses and have not the best vision in the world. Sight and target acquisition is not the fastest with this type of sights. We have a nice outdoors range, and when the sun started to come down it became harder and harder to use the sights. Both the rear and front blades are white. I would love to see night sight with this exact shape and contrast colors between the rear and front sight and maybe a little bigger. I loved the sight picture.,, but almost useless to me when the light starter to fade away.
Recoil.... what recoil? :-D these guns are soooooft shooting, Ultra managable recoil even for a newbie like me. My beretta wasnt as controllabe. the weird grip angle and grip shape definitively help. When empty... the L9 A1 feels a little bit front heavy, which also helps with recoil I guess. By the way the L9 A1 (the largest model) is the only one with reversible magazine release. All other models you are stuck with the mag release on the left side of the gun (for right hand shooters)
Both models came with 2 magazines, bot magazines with a + plate. So 17 shots for the C9 and 19
for the L9. The magazines are metal and they feel really light and narrow.We fired like 200 rounds between 2 C9s and one L9s... both out of the box no lube or cleaning. Zero malfunctions of any kind... zero. My only gripe with the gun is the erratic extraction pattern that many people have commented. The extraction seems weak, and I received like 4 brass in the head of the 30 or 40 shots I fired. Which doesnt bother me really, but here comes my question...
This is definitively the polymer wonder I want... but could these erratic extraction be a sign of a major issue? It is hard to get parts here (I am outside the US), but the distributor for my country is in my town... so I guess they could get the parts if I needed them. I see online that Steyr sens an upgraded extrator for people with this issue, but again, I am outside the usa.
So I like this gun a lot... better than glock, mp and vp9. Great ergonomics, soft trigger (maybe too soft?), great factory sight, and very controllable. Like I said in another post, I really prefer DA/SA or DAO guns... but I think I will get one of these... I also prefer metal frame guns as they cost the same as sig and beretta in my country (more in many cases), but I guess I "have to have" at least one polymer wonder, and the steyr is it for me.