RECOIL EXCLUSIVE: gas piston Alien Pistol from Laugo Arms, the Full Review

[Drix]

I'm not a huge historian when it comes to firearms, but has anyone made a gun like what I described? Everything fixed in front of the breech/bolt face and just move enough to eject/reload. Something like only the back half of the slide moving. I know there would be feed ramp issues, but nothing I can't see someone engineering a fix for.

I could see current design being a compromise, I don't know how much force is applied where and when. "My" design would almost be like a bolt action that kinda self articulates. I could see recoil being worse, but with compensators being so common, I'd think it could be overcome.

Doesn't the desert eagle meet this standard too?

 

[TrashcanDan]

""About the only thing striker-like about it is that the tail of the hammer strut pokes out of the gun’s arse end when cocked, just like in a Springfield XD, Canik, or all the way back to the 1907 Roth Steyr. But it’s a hammer. This distinction is important, as the Alien is being marketed as a competition pistol, aimed squarely at the USPSA Production and Carry Optics divisions, and unfortunately, having a hammer means it’ll have a hard time meeting the division rules. But we digress, and we shall see.""

So not a striker fired gun, no safety and possibly no way to decock it. Plus the optic will not reciprocate with the slide, which is a problem for carry optics. Unless USPSA changes some rules, this seems like its an open pistol, oh but its 9mm, so open minor?

Hammerless maybe? Its not exposed like a 92/1911/CZ/Etc. Does have the glock style safety on the trigger. Still a big nut to crack for a production gun. And the magwell has a flare to it, or is flared out, so thats straight to limited, yea?

$5k is waaay too much. And if this doesn’t get approved for production in USPSA, then it’s forced into limited or open. Who’s going to spend that kind of money when you can get STI limited gun for less.

It’s a very cool design but unless I’ve got just so much money I don’t know what to do with, I ain’t buying it.

Or two of these-

DWX - Dan Wesson Firearms

It started as an experiment —a grand melding of Dan Wesson and CZ pistols. Borrowing the crisp single-action fire control group of a DW 1911 and combining it with the ergonomics and capacity of a CZ, the resulting pistol emerged as the new handgun avant-garde. Designed initially for competition...

danwessonfirearms.com

 

[drgrant]

why not roller-delayed blowback like H&K? gas system on a pistol is overengineering

Lol, someone would argue roller lock, is too.... Korth did this with the PRS... bet this thing is at least several grand...


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02ZdYUPtp7g

 

[Rockarruda]

I am very interested in this pistol as well, and yes it is quite expensive but it is for a "collector's edition" that comes "race ready". Holster, red dot, two rails (one for red dot, the other for irons), 3 mags, mag well(not sure if that will be included in the production run), and hard case all come with the pistol. Once again still very expensive for this package, but at least you get more than just the firearm alone for that cost.

One thing of note for this design, is that you essentially have two pistols in one platform, iron sights and optics. Most people who want to have a red dot equipped pistol, usually have to have an additional firearm for that. I suppose those you could get an additional slide that is cut out for the optic, but that will add to cost as some may need "fitting" of the new slide but can't be changed as quickly as the Alien can. It is the modularity this design gives which is very exciting to me and can "almost" be like the AR of pistols by just changing the top rail. It remains to be seen if the barrel can simply be swapped out of the frame to change the caliber and be operational after changing it out.

I was able to get some info from some European competition shooters who have been using the Alien (they were released last year in Europe), and asked about the gun heating up. One told me, once the gun broke in after a few hundred rounds, it wasn't a problem with it getting warm either in matches or his training sessions. Prior to the break-in, it did warm up especially after 3-4mags of rapid fire, but no hot enough that it couldn't be touched. Reliability hasn't been an issue for him either and he just hit over 5.5k rounds in the gun, although he did say feeding at first was an issue as the gun was tight before it broke in. He didn't mention what ammo he was using though. Another shooter hasn't reported any issues with using factory 124gr 9mm, and has been flawless so far for him.

Apparently, the company has plans to make other models once they start getting production underway, which is supposed to be at the end of the year.

I guess once they hit state side in April/May we will find out more. I wonder if anyone in New England reserved one? Be wicked cool to see one in person!