The gun is small, light, has a good trigger and very low recoil.
First, I tried it on paper.
Rapid fire from 21ft shows lack of trigger control on my part, I am still not used to DAO triggers. That said, none of the shots hit further than 1.5″ from point of aim, which is ok for a pocket pistol.
Pumpkins are fun targets, so I rolled out a fairly small, about a foot in diameter, one onto the range.
At 25 yards, rapid fire puts all 8 shots in a fairly tidy groups. Larger holes are from double hits. The advantage of the longer barrel show up on the photos showing the back of this pumpkin.
Thanks to the high muzzle velocity, 124gr Golden Sabres did a nice job of expanding even on the hollow target. Felt recoil was on par with locked breech Walther PK380 chambered for 9×17(380Auto).
I recommend. Get your own.
Great looking little gun, and I had been considering it to replace/supplant my .38 snubbie. Too bad about Boberg’s politics though, I just can’t give money to a freedom loathing statist.
What are you talking about? I’ve talked politics with him plenty of times and he strikes me as a conservative libertarian.
He’s a hardline drug warrior. If you want to end the War on (Some) Drugs you’re obviously just a filthy pothead. If you deny that you use drugs you’re obviously lying. And infringement is a-ok if it’s about punishing people for what they put in their bodies.
Got into a rather long facebook argument with him over it once. Didn’t care to be repeatedly insulted and called a liar, any more than I cared for the “drugs are bad so screw that whole Constitution thing” attitude. A friend grabbed screencaps if you’d like to review my version of events.
Buy it second hand, I say.
I’m thinking though – he should take a look at the Prohibition, how that worked out.
Psychoactive drugs are nasty stuff, even the legal and prescribed ones.
If you get one, know that you need to take the “recommended ammo” list seriously. Or else learn how to clear malfs caused by the case and projectile separating in the action. I have a photo I took of a magazine with a naked bullet held in the feed lips, after the gun had pulled the case off, thrown the powder out, and popped the primer.
Other than that issue (which is the result of ammo manufacturers not anticipating sudden rearward force on the cartridges), they are a great little pistol. Well made and well engineered.
To be fair, poorly crimped ammo also suffers dangerous setback in standard autoloaders.
Poorly crimped ammo, perhaps. But the Boberg requires ammo crimped well beyond what is necessary for typical selfloaders.
I think it’s an ideal gun for a specific niche – if you need the most velocity from the smallest pistol, and you’re willing to pay a premium to get it. My concern for Boberg as a company is whether that niche is big enough to keep them viable.
I suspect they will do well. XR9 is already a low-recoil gun and the upcoming XR45 will add certain features to make it even more comfortable. The premium gets small size, higher performance AND better handling.
I believe they’re considering to branch out a little.
I went on their website and found a typo. It said one of these costs $1,349.00.
I think the basic model is just $1050 or so.
Well, it’s American made and the guy has to finance his factory that way. IIRC, he never got a chance to raise money from banks, and so on.
Gov’t might have big mouth about caring for small industry, but from what I gather, it does fuck all to small players.
I hear you, but you could buy a Ruger LC9 and have it worked over 6 ways from Sunday, and it will be MUCH less than a grand and is also made in America. The comparable Kahr unit, made 30 minutes away from me in Worcester, MA, is expensive enough at $700. I think he’s going to have to come down a few hundred if he’s ever going to push volume. If this came out around the Kahr price level or even a bit more I’d consider it.
LC9 is a cheap, polymer-framed gun, not half as technologically impressive as the XR9.
I think he’s going to have to come down a few hundred if he’s ever going to push volume.
He’d have to use polymer or cast frames.
Do you have any idea how expensive machinery to make polymer-framed guns is?
You need to inject the polymers into precision molds under high temperatures and so on.
Casting isn’t cheap either – and everyone frowns upon die cast gun frames.
Mr. Boberg probably doesn’t have the inclination nor resources to make lower quality guns and sell them for less.
XR9 is however the last word in pocket pistols – so why should one expect it also to be ..cheap? It offers superior performance no other manufacturer has even tried to replicate…
I have an LC9 and a PM9 and a Shield. XR9 have far less recoil, better accuracy, longer barrel with fully supported chamber for the same slide length, holds an extra round in the same length grip as PM9 — the only question is “would all that be worth the extra money?” Judging by the market for small 1911s at the same price level, “yes to some”.
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Here are a few thoughts on my Boberg after owning an XR9-S for 18 months and being one of the first to receive an XR9-L.
-I am absolutely satisfied and thrilled with the Boberg pistols.
-The guns are a joy to shoot, I’ve gone 300 rounds in a single shooting with only the slightest irritation to my hand. You’re more likely to train and improve your skills with a gun that’s easy to shoot, right?
-If you shoot one, you’ll want one.
-Remember they are +P rated. Now search through the Bobergarms.com forum. The gun will hold up to Underwood +P+ which gives you darn near 357 power out of the pistol (+P+ does void your warranty).
-The trigger is long but SUPER SMOOTH, someone please show me a smoother DAO. I’m curious if its possible.
-There is now a short trigger option.
-The guns ship with a 7.5 lb trigger spring with 6.5 and 9 lb available. Switching to the 6.5 spring is easy and in my opinion a big improvement. I have never experienced a light trigger strike.
-With 3000+ rounds through my XR9-s I’ve never experienced a cartridge case pulling apart from the bullet. I’ve shot mainly PMC FMJ and Remington UMC FMJ for target and have the Federal HST’s for defensive ammo.
-I did have 1 problem with my Shorty, the transfer bar spring broke halfway through an all day defensive pistol course. I emailed Boberg that evening and 3 days later received a new spring and updated transfer bar free of charge.
-The XR9-L is slightly softer shooting than the XR9-S but not enough to be a factor if you think the S is more concealable.
-I’m on the list for an XR45.
KD
I’m hoping there’ll be a 10mm Auto model for that time when you positively need to shoot some dear with a pocket pistol.
Come to think of it, a Boberg XR10L would be pretty much the ideal gun for the modern persistence hunter.
Which roughly means, set out during the hottest part of the day. Take water. Find animal. Chase it for a while, drink some water, roughly in circles until it’s so tired it has to lay down. Finish it off, butcher and carry the pieces home.
We humans are the best adapted animal species for this.
http://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/nature/Fair-Chase.html
The San still hunt this way. The hotter the climate the bigger the advantage we have.