Gun Review: Steyr M40A1

Ok, I have mean to do this review earlier but things keep coming up.

Steyr M40A1

First of all, most people never even hear of this little pistol. Steyr Arms had mostly famous by their products in rifle department and the M series was the first polymer pistol they ever made. And hell of job they did.

There are rumors that a engineer from Glock Inc. ran over to Steyr Arms and help created this pistol. And they are people out there calling M-A1 a Glock "done right". I don't know any of that is true but whoever design this pistol surely listen to what people have complain about Glock for all these year. The grip angle, the width of the grip, the take down lever, magazine release bottom, cheap plastic sight...etc.

So let me start from the beginning. The first thing you will notes when you pick up this pistol will be its weight. Steyr M-A1 is a polymer pistol only in name. This pistol inside is all steel. It has close to Glock full size's (17, 22 etc) grip height, and Glock compact's (19, 23 etc) slide. Yet it weights 30oz unloaded. And it's all due to it's modular frame and control assembly inside of polymer grip housing (some vocabulary I borrow from Sig 250). Which unlike Glock that every parts mount on the polymer frame, Steyr M-A1's internal parts mount on a steel internal assembly frame. This design make Steyr M-A1 potentially more durable than Glock pistol.

Steyr M-A1 use a more slender grip angle of 111 degree instead of Glock 105 degree. I personally think the grip angle are easy to adopt but it appear many Glock haters treat Glock's grip as some nazi unholy number. However what I really want to emphasis on is the width of the grip and how high up Steyr M-A1 allow you to ride.

On the paper, both Glock and Steyr have a similar width (1.2" and 1.18"). However, Steyr M-A1 has two trench line on the back of grip with allow shooter's hand to cut corners and allow small hand shooter to grip the gun more fully. And my favor part of Steyr M-A1's design is it allow shooter's hand to ride right below the slide at the same time, its polymer housing inmate 1911's beavertail provided a protection against slide bits. Combine with a low setting barrel in the slide, heavy frame, Steyr M-A1 give a very minimum muzzle flip. And controlling follow up shots are truly the bread and butter of this pistol.

The trigger on Steyr M-A1 is clock in at 5 exact. To compare to Glock, I think the break is a bit crisper but the reset aren't as noticeable as Glock. (I always believe the reset on the Glock was its strength when competing with XD and S&W.)

What one should know is the unique sight on the Steyr M-A1. It's a triangle shape at the from and the rear sight has a cut off of that triangle shape. It suppose to work similar to XS sight that allow shooter's visual focus on the target more so than on the sight. It's more a self-defense fast sight than a sight mean for target shooting. I find that with some practice it's not hard to adopt to normal range shooting. I can aim as accurate as normal target sight within 50 ft.

There are just so many little nice though about Steyr M-A1 pistol. Like the rounded magazine release bottom. It's easy to press, and won't stab you in the hand with sharp corners. And all the corners on the slide are nicely rounded, similar to Glock's sub compact (26, 27). Which provided a snags-free for conceal carry. Low profile slide release/stop system that are easier to use than stock Glock (but Glock and switch on a "extended slide stop" for just $5). The sight, both front and back are solid steel. And originally Steyr was going to make both tradition sight and that triangular sight. So the mount space on the slide is common to most semi pistol, therefore it will be no problem to use any after market sight on M-A1.

Now, there are few things you should worry about buying Steyr M-A1:

There will not be a whole lot of after market accessories. 2008 Steyr sees US market already been filled with quality polymer pistol like Glock/XD/M&P. To challenge them and maintain the cost/quality will not be possible. So Steyr Arms made the decision to stop importing all the M-A1, S, series of pistol. However, parts will still be available from Steyr and Steyr will still service all their warranty.

The internal lock safety. The big taboo of US gun lovers. Till these day, there are still gunner refuse to purchase their favor revolver because S&W built-in lawyer lock. Well, Steyr apparently didn't get that memo. They build a internal lock system that can lock the trigger mechanism right next to the take down lever.

The weight. Yes I did mention it was a plus for it has a solid steel internal assembly system, but sadly, it also has the draw back on the weight. For a compact pistol meant for conceal carry. Shooters has to decide if he/she will be willing to carry that weight.

The safety action trigger that Glock was famous for, Steyr M-A1 has it. But unlike Glock, XD they try to make the shooter not to notice that "extra lever" before the trigger. Steyr over build that lever and make shooter almost feel like pulling two trigger at the same time. It's a bit annoying.

Over all it was a very promising pistol. And from what Massad Ayoob review the M series back in 1999. Steyr were meant to package extra sight (traditional 3 dots and triangular sight), plastic holster and mag holders (similar to XD's package). All that for the same price range compare to Glock (MSRP $699). Now there are only 20,000 of these pistol in US. Another solider down by the marketing cost. Sad.