Gun manufacturers are in love with the Walther PPQ M2. Remington’s RP9 is basically a photocopy, offering the same ergonomics and overall design. Heckler & Koch may hate you but they love the M2; the HK VP9 bears more than a passing resemblance to PPQ. The Sarsilmaz SAR 9 falls into the same category of top-heavy, striker-fired handguns. But at least there are some design choices that on the surface which make the SAR 9 more interesting.
Picking up the SAR 9 for the first time, the ergonomics are spot-on. While the SAR 9’s finger grooves are GLOCKish, they’re understated and smooth in the great Waltherian tradition. The Turk’s grip provides just the right balance of purchase and comfort, semi-customizable with a replaceable backstrap.
Also appreciated: the grooves at the base of the grip. Even though the SAR 9’s magazine drops free at the press of a button, the grooves are great for malfunction clearing. You can rip a mag out of the gun in partial seconds.
Less well designed: the SAR 9’s frame-mounted safety.
When it comes to preventing a negligent discharge, frame-mounted safeties are an extra protection, welcomed by many. When it comes to armed self-defense, shooters need to be able to switch off a frame-mounted safety quickly and efficiently. Instinctively. Imagine being attacked by a large person with a machete; an angry pile of carbon advancing towards you that needs to assume room temperature ASAP. Now imagine fumbling with your handgun’s safety.
This SAR 9’s safety’s slim profile makes the gun great for sliding in and out of holsters. The low-profile switch also makes it extremely difficult to apply enough pressure to switch it on or off. If I had to guess, I’d say It takes roughly half the weight of a fully loaded 747 to move the safety from the “safe” to “fire” position. In short, when you really need to disengage the SAR 9’s safety it will be nearly impossible to move.
The SAR 9’s recalcitrant frame-mounted safety pretty much excludes the gun from competition consideration. Typically, competitors must engage the safety when discarding the handgun for another firearm. On a GLOCK or GLOCK-like handgun with a trigger safety, competitors simply put the gun down. The SAR 9’s safety would lead to a solid thirty seconds of fumbling at the dump box. No bueno.
What’s up with that? Federal law requires certain safety features on imported handguns.To satisfy these requirements, Turkey’s sole official supplier to the police and military slapped a safety on an otherwise striker fired-only handgun with the expectation that no one would ever actually flip it on. And yet, here we are.
The SAR 9 uses a typical split trigger striker-fired design. The trigger functions as it should, with a reasonably clean break and a Walther-like quick reset. But it feels like a cheap imitation of a good trigger — wobbly, gritty, and generally displeasing. It’s the GoBots to GLOCK’s Transformers: a poorly made imitation that feels flimsy and rough on the edges.
Speaking of poorly made items with holes in the quality control process that rival the plot holes in terrible movies…
The gun ships with a set of three dot sights. Well, two dots and what appears to be a sperm.
Some quality control issues I can overlook. In this case I literally can’t — I’m forced to see SAR’s lack of quality control every time I fire the gun. Gritty triggers and extra flashing on internal components I can understand. There’s no excuse for shipping a gun with defective sights.
If extremely obvious problems can fall through the cracks, I start to question what else might have slipped through.
The SAR 9 takes down just like a GLOCK (and every other non-GLOCK GLOCK). That said, the takedown levers on either side of the SAR 9’s frame are easier to manipulate than Gaston’s gear. So there is that.
Out on the range the gun performs admirably. The trigger feels a bit gritty, but otherwise it’s acceptable. The pistol actually shoots rather soft for firearms of its size and weight in my opinion — I was able to get the gun back on target quickly and without a whole lot of effort. Accuracy is good, and the gun feeds reliably using both steel and brass ammunition. The one note I will put here is that Blazer steel cased ammunition has an interesting quirk in this gun where the spent cases will tend to fly directly into your face. So be warned, and wear your eye protection.
Overall the SAR 9 is a good not great gun, further hobbled by a safety switch that needs immediate rectification. If the Turkish import was priced in the Hi-Point price range, fair enough. At an MSRP of $449, with less troubled firearms like the Remington RP9 retailing for $170, it’s a non-starter. These days there’s not enough room in the market for a poorly made firearm, at any price.
SPECIFICATIONS
Sarsilmaz SAR 9
- Finish: Blued steel
- Caliber: 9mm
- Trigger: Striker fired
- Magazine Capacity: 17
- Sights: Fixed three(ish) dot
- MSRP: $449
RATINGS (out of five stars):
Fit and Finish *
Gritty, wobbly, and with some extra paint thrown in on the sights for no additional charge.
Function * * * *
It works fine.
Accuracy * * * *
It works fine.
Overall Rating *
Over twice as expensive as a better quality firearm and shipping with a mandatory, yet almost unusable safety. This doesn’t sound like a winning combination to me.
Just a thought. The USAF screwed up by not reporting his criminal record. There was enough history though that Texas denied him a conceal permit, so we could have seen this coming. The system is broken like a lot of things in government, fixing it is still possible rather than replacing it.
Next, we have a history of abusing wife, kid and critters. As a society, we need to take these actions seriously. Most likely the bastard started abusing critters first, then escalated to wife, kids and ultimately a whole church full of people. If we (as a society) had taken his first offense seriously and punished him to the fullest extent of the law, he might have learned a lesson and not escalated to a mass shooting. Even is he was evil to the core and not going to change, beating your wife and kid should have earned him a long prison term. Some people are not fit to be free and generally this types self select themselves with criminal choices.
The problem is that all the gun grabbing legislation cares not for the technical definition of assault rifle. The term “Assault Rifle” is defined in law and in MA for example, it is any rifle that looks military and is semi-auto.
Using the term is their narrative. The longer we think they are stupid the sooner we will see new laws or new interpretations of definitions such as our MA AG did do take all ARs off the shelves.
Gillespie lost because he was an establishment / Romney / McCain / Bush polesmoker. Let’s take the time to rub in the fact that the “true conservatives” are going to be responsible for more losses in the future until they stop supporting garbage RINOs. They all need to be kicked out and thrown back to the DNC where they belong.
People may think of West Virginians as dumb back woods hicks , at least the media likes to portend that that’s what people think , but we are a right to carry state , concealed and open carry , permit or no permit . Seeing all the havoc taking places on the streets of American cities , in the malls , entertainment events , schools and churches , our dumb hick back woods legislators passed the can carry law . We are not a gun free zone in WV . If you bring your intended lead based havoc here , you’re likely to be met with incoming lead , any State that lends itself to being your ultimate protector is playing you while they tax you .
Don’t underestimate your enemy, guys.
Every time we say That can’t happen, It does! (Springfield armory/RRA in Illinois)
What if the AWB is passed Ex post facto, you know like what they did with the bumpstock.
Millions of MSR’s made Illegal overnight, And now you’ve committed a federal crime for owning one. THE QUICKEST WAY TO MAKE IT HAPPEN IS TO SAY IT WON’T HAPPEN.
Stay vigilant.
Some of you guys really shoot a lot of hogs, whow, I thought I was kicking ass. … Ulp hungry now, pork chops, onions n fried tators
The NRA is a human rights and civil rights .org. The aclu is not. You can only win hearts and minds if you’re being honest and really looking after folks best interests. The aclu supports creating disarmed victims in a violent world. How is that protecting the most basic human and civil rights?
As for not being armed at church cause it will interfere with the cops. What cops? Are the cops going to be on site before the shooting starts? Or are they going to show up where the armed citizen, who risked all to confront the madman, has directed them to?
“Because I’m already better than you Clint, I need to give you a chance to catch up.”
May or may not be true, it doesn’t matter and I don’t care one way or another, but that’ll rile him up.
“Because there’s only 52 weekends in a year…”
or how about this answer: “Because there aren’t more than 24 hours in a day.”
“Because reasons.”
“Because life.”
In all reality I shoot/train as much as I can, but when you work a regular job for a living and have a wife, kids, dog/cat, mortgage (which in Latin means “death pledge”), etc. you cannot spend every waking hour training. I usually get 2-3 range sessions in a month, most lasting 2-4 hours each. Probably another 10-15 hours a month dry training. That’s the best balancing act I can do with the life I have.
If that’s not good enough for Clint Smith, then that’s too fucking bad. I don’t live my life based on the approval of others (spare for maybe my wife–in certain criteria).
Virginia is almost lost. The left is pouring out of D.C. and flooding NOVA. I’m sure there will be a time in the near future where this is the norm nationwide and we will all have no choice but to fight. Because that is what it will come down to. 90%+ of NY gun owners chose not to comply. That’s a lot of newly minted felons. And I wonder how that makes them feel. Revolution is coming. The liberals grossly overestimate our patience. We can be pushed but just so far.
But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. —
Nice review, but the CZ clone club is pretty crowded, both in the marketplace and in my safe. I don’t see how it could really compete with the other ones out there already. I have a Sar K2P 9mm, which is pretty much the same gun as the BUL is, if a little different looking, and a Sar CM9 Gen2, which is superior to the Bul due to the different sized backstraps and a better trigger than any other poly CZ or clone I’ve handled (Out of the box) . I also have 3 Tanfoglio TA/90’s(1 compact, 2 full sized), and a steel Jericho. Of all these guns, my favorites are, by a mile, the Sar CM9 G2, and one of the TA/90’s, which I think was smoothed up by it’s previous owner. The slide fit is perfect, and the S/A trigger is really nice. I’ve shot the Tanfoglio mad version of the K2P, and the full sized ones too, and even taken them apart side by side, and the Sars look every bit as good as the Italian made “originals”. All the CZ clones are good guns, to be honest, the prices are most of the difference. In this case, you don’t get what you pay for, you get more for less! The K2P and CMp Gen2 are amazing bargains, fully equal to the Bul, Tanfoglio, and Jericho, IMHO.
Most AR15 pattern rifles self-identify as female, thus bans like this Australian one are proof the “Patriarchy” exists, and it’s the Liberals that are behind it! BOOM solved. Onto the next case…
I’ve been out in the parks or in the woods, communing with nature, or at a peaceful lake, and had my tranquility shattered by some jerk on a loud Harley or something. I can see the woman’s point of view. I wouldn’t be dumb or irrational and pull a gun, but if they were my neighbors, I could think of a few more legal ways to get my revenge.
I own two Glocks. They both say Made in Austria on them. I assume this means they are imported, yet I can locate no frame safety on them. What gives?
I think they are made in Georgia at least newer one are
Ii have owned an SAR 9 for about 3 months. Paid $359 plus shipping, $376 out the door.
I really like the gun. It feels good, is very accurate, and has been 100% reliable at about 700 rounds. The trigger was a tiny bit gritty at first but that has smoothed out over time. Fit and finish on my gun was very nice. my only complaint was that one of the magazines didn’t drop free. I called the distributer and had a new one sent out free of charge within a week. However my favorite part of the gun is it’s soft recoil. I’m getting up there in years and notice things like this more and more. I really recommend it!
Have had mine for 2 months. Only been able to shoot about 150 rounds so far. But the trigger is smooth, the accuracy excellent, and function, flawless. I don’t know where the other issues are coming from with his SAR. Also, most issues with this pistol have been attributed to user error.
I own 5 different models (B6P, B6Pc, CM9, ST9, K2 45) of Sar pistols and every single one has been excellent. None have ever had any sort of failure and are exceptionally accurate. It is always amazing how inexpensive they are and how much they out perform my expensive pistols.
Since this is one of the Sar line I have not purchased yet, I do not have anything to add about this one and will not be as ignorant as most of the other posters that recommend buying something else in place without any experience. This is one of a few handguns to receive a NSN and it surpassed all the other big names in durability. Walthers, Remingtons, HK VP9 and the S&W M&P line could never even dream of receiving a NSN so touting those as superior is a reflection of ignorance.
This overall rating is insane. When I saw one star I expected it to be dangerous to fire or nonfunctional half the time. Instead it shoots fine and functions fine, but the author disliked the fit and finish?
Dude. How do you weigh that one category more than actual function? It’s not rational.
I bought an SAR 9mm about two weeks ago and I have to agree regarding the Safety Lever. Initially it was difficult to engage and disengage due to the large amount of tension. I decided to repeatedly engage and disengage the Safety Lever, hoping it would ease the tension in the lever and it did just that. Now my Safety Lever engages and disengages much, much easier now.
Thanks to those who have actually owned and shot the Sar 9 for your reviews. As a 60 year old grandma, I purchased a Sar 9 yesterday. The side safely was super easy to disengage. There was no sperm shaped sites, as described in the aforementioned “review” (loose terms). I’m excited to shoot some rounds through this solid, comfortable beauty.
Sar usa sr9
No problem at all with the pistol. I just bought this pistol last Monday. I have put 1,500 rounds in it already. Every shoot felt great. I’m coming from a Glock 22 40 cal.. that I gave to my younger brother, due to that fact that this sr9 shoots a little bit better to me. That’s my opinion.
Great gun if you have a little common sense it may be a very great gun even a thousand dollar gun take it from a guy that has some of the rarest pistols on this planet I even have in mypossession a. 45Craig
What a bad review. I have over 2000 rounds in my SAR 9. No issues at all Great shooting pistol.
Low recoil due to weight. Great in the hands gun. Comes with various straps but out of the box it fit perfectly. Even though it is slated for NATO it ate 115 no prob.
On draw, practice flipping down the safety is easy. Not a big deal at all. So stop being a wimp about it.
about the safety, just fire a few hundred rounds through it and the safety disengages with ease, whoever wrote that about the safety doesn’t know anything about the gun! I got more to say if anybody wants to ask!
This is a pretty bad review, the gun did not deserve this, bought one for $199 a few weeks ago, it feels and shoots a lot better than a stock Glock, honestly that little dribble of paint is almost a non-issue, your reviews are usually pretty good, but this one just did not do the pistol justice. If you can get one for around $200 I think you would be very pleased with what you get.