2/14/2013 4:44:36 PM
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Section 8: Handguns Subject: Sarsilmaz K2 .45 Pistol Msg# 850827
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Good info. I was really taken with the Turkish pistols, and wanted to buy one for a while. I waited too long to get one through Davidson's, and haven't seen any locally. More's the pity. But I was pretty much saving my dollars for the 9mm LW Commander, so all's well that ends well, eh?
Harvey |
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For reference, the above message is a reply to a message where: I handled the Sarsilmaz K2 .45ACP pistol (at left) while at the AAFES gun counter yesterday. I've always thought the CZ97B was a handsome pistol but the trigger reach was too long for me with the hammer down in in DA mode. The Tanfoglio (sold here as the EAA Witness) has a shorter reach but it's still a stretch for the average male hand. Works for me but it's not perfect. With that background I was interested to see how the trigger reach was on the K2. Turns out it is very similar to Witness but it is shorter, somewhere between a 1/16 and 1/8 at a guess--sorry I can't give you a measurement--but that, my friends, is significant. Here's the neat thing--the K2 has a 14 round magazine (made by and so-marked "Mec-Gar."). Yes, fourteen. And yes, .45ACP. The Witness holds 10 in .45ACP. T E N. Yep, another of those how do they do it questions. About the rest--the K2 is very much the CZ75 clone, more so than the current Witness, cosmetically, which was reworked a few years ago to give it a different slide look. Today's Witness has a slim, rounded slide, which sounds good but which I find ugly when mated to the thick, heavy frame in which it rides: The older style on the right was a copy of the CZ and just had better lines in my opinion, but you'd have to see the new Witness (left) from other angles to really see how out of place the slide looks. Back to the Sarsilmaz K2... The finish is a "chrome-plated epoxy paint." I don't know if this just applies to the "silver" pistols or if it also applies to the black pistol like I examined. Blackened hard chrome? I don't know. It appeared for all the world to be a black oxide, very smooth, and with no apparent build-up like one usually sees on the typical polycoat or even baked lacquer finish on other guns today. Nice. The Browning tilting barrel locks into the ejection port rather than into cuts inside the slide via lugs, a la the the CZ75 and most clones. To that end, the outside of the chamber is highly polished for smooth functioning, although this might give off some glare in bright sunshine. As one doesn't really see the top of his slide when shooting I don't think it's an issue. (Yes Virginia, all those matte finish and serrating jobs on the tops of slides on your pet 1911s that you paid good money for really were a waste of money. ) The polishing continues on the typical one-piece feed ramp, which is mirror bright. Over-all, finishing looked good as far as what I could see. I wasn't allowed to disassemble the pistol on the gun counter, of course--but if things hold true, my son is likely to bring one home after he gets his tax return--he's got something of a CZ75/CZ clone bug. And the prices are right on these Sarsilmaz and Canik pistols--seen all the more right now since CZs and even Witnesses are harder to find. ...but I got to the end before finishing the middle. The pistols seems to lock up tight, everything is smooth. It has a slant-style (Novak-esque) combat rear sight, fully adjustable, which is neat. The front sight is fitted into a fore and aft dovetail cut rather than a typical side-to-side dovetail cut, which although seen more in the past, rarely is now because they can shoot off. Sarsilmaz has pinned their front sight however so this isn't an issue. The only thing I saw that was a minor lack of attention to detail, or precision if you will, was the fact that the front sight blade sat above the slide--you could see daylight between the blade and slide where it sat forward of its dovetail. The cut simply needed to be, I don't know, a hundredth or two deeper? Probably not a practical issue but that sort of thing bothers me at my age and with my particular background. (Picky so-and-so. ) The sights were three dots, but they were big and bright white. Compared to the dots on my Springfield 1911-A1 Milspec, for example, they were huge. The Springfield's are tiny and yellow-ish and worthless as free used primers. A few companies are getting the idea that if you are going to call sights "combat sights," they must draw the shooter's eye to them immediately. Finally, the trigger is rather typically CZ. If I had to rate CZ-style SA/DA triggers of the pistols I've handled LATELY (I put that in caps on purpose because you must understand that companies change and their products improve and they also get worse), I would say the new CZ Omega trigger is the best thing going right now. A close second is the standard Canik trigger--you will be impressed and want to take these pistols home. Third is probably this Sarsilmaz K2, but there is a spacious gap between the CZ Omega and Canik..............and the Sarsilmaz. Next would be the Witness and standard/original CZ, which are about the same, and which, frankly, are just functional. (ETA: I've never owned or messed with an IMI/IWI CZ clone, nor one made by the Swiss or the Brits, so I can't comment on those.) Of the two Witnesses I've actually owned, the .40S&W was kinda crappy, but the 10mm was much better, and the SA trigger was one of the better SA/DA triggers. It's a fact of life that an SA/DA trigger is never going to equal a good SAO trigger because it has to go through a long arc that most SAOs don't have to go through. Even many of today's striker-fired pistols are often competitive with an SA/DA, if not in quality of pull, than certainly in usability because they don't go through that long arc. All-in-all the K2 looks like a good deal to me. If I were looking for a large capacity, full-size .45ACP service pistol, I'd give this a look. It is large in the sense that it isn't a compact and is going to need a substantial holster and belt to carry should you be thinking that (holsters shouldn't be an issue as many CZ and clone rigs, especially leather, will work). It is also heavy. Sarsilmaz says 37 ounces, but it feels heavier than a Government Model 1911 to me. I'd carry it but I know most people wouldn't. Still, there are many other uses for a large capacity .45. The best part is that it will fit most hands better than the CZ97B or a double-stack 1911 (way better), better than the Glocks too. It probably is a good gun to compare to the Springfield XD, where one can decide if he wants a plastic striker-fired pistol holding 13+1 or a traditional forged steel pistol holding 14+1. A little more weight that also comes with a lot more tradition. The K2 is inexpensive. It seems to be going for $500 or less. While almost no one had heard of these (or Canik) not very long ago, the shortage of pistols due to the Perfect Storm of an election gone wrong, horrific murders, and the resulting political aftermath that has caused our side (and others) to lose their minds and start spending money like water on anything gun/magazine/ammo-related, these Turkish pistols are now being talked about all over the Internet, and they are appearing in stores. My son's shop has sold a lot of them already and they are now becoming harder to get. It comes in hard chrome, too: |