The eagle-eyed amongst you may recall that I posted the world’s shortest review of the Masterpiece Arms (MPA) Protector .380 pocket pistol. I reported that my over-curious FFL dealer racked the slide and broke the damn thing. I received an immediate email from the infinitely understanding PR maven Laura Burgess. Her clients at MPA laid the blame for the breakage at the feet, well, hands, of my guy Steve. So I pulled the pernicious post pending further investigation . . .
MPA boss Phil Cashin belled me. Turns out you are NOT supposed to dry-fire the weapon when the magazine’s out of the gun. The mag helps keep the trigger spring in place. If you take out the mini-mag and pull the trigger, and the spring comes off the hammer.
Sounds dumb I know. But Phil told me that the design affords an MPA owner the opportunity to fire a chambered round at the bad guy should the mag somehow manage to leave the gun (unlike his competitors’ products). As he predicted, putting it right was an easy fix.
Phil said the MPA Protector should have had a sticker warning against magless dry firing. And he explained the limitation: they designed the gun so that the mag can’t eject accidentally. Sensibly enough, MPA’s sacrificed the possibility of combat reloads for the safety of a flush, fingernail-operated mag release at the back of the gun. More on this in the full review.
We’re awaiting .380 ammo from our new BFFs at Lucky Gunner to test the MPA. I’ll get it up ASAP. And if it stays up for more than six hours, I’ll call my doctor. I’ll be here all week. And then some.