Shadow Systems CR920X Review

The Shadow System CR920X, let’s check it out. 

 

Shadow Systems, out of Plano, Texas. They‘ve been in business since 2016.

And they have had a lot of success for a fairly new company, and it’s two-fold. First off is they’re making really quality firearms. And they make everything in-house, including their magazines, which are a huge upgrade over their competitor, which we’ll talk about in a second.

And the second part is that they entered the market making Glock what it should be, according to a lot of people. A lot of people take their standard Glock, and here we have a G43X, and they upgrade it. Stipple the grips, and they add slide cuts, and this is an MOS version, so it’s optics ready.

But this gives you a gun right out of the box, factory-made, that has all those features. Today we’re going to take a look at the CR920X. Which rivals your Glock 43X? Because it was very popular.

One of the big things is it comes with a factory 15-round magazine. And yet you have that extended grip, with that little bit shorter barrel, very similar again to the 43, or the 43X. This is just one of those thin, full-capacity handguns.

And yet it’s very concealable. This comes in the elite version, it also comes in the foundational series, which is more reasonable in price. And we want to give a big thank you to Shadow Systems for sending the CR920X for this review.

Alright guys, the Shadow Systems CR920X. The CR series is their compact series, it’s more their smaller size, similar to the Glock 43 profile. And again, one of the big things about Shadow Systems is they have upgraded these to match a very proven system.

We get 15 plus 1 in the magazine, which with your traditional Glock Model 43X, you have a 10-round magazine. Now you can get your Shield S15 mags, which we’ve had really good success, I’ve heard mixed reports, but we have really enjoyed the Shield Arms magazines, especially for this Glock 43X. Or the 48.

It gives it a 15-round mag capacity. With the CR920X, we’re getting that 15-round mag capacity straight out of the box. It is a factory mag from Shadow Systems, and here’s one.

These are Teflon coated, so they are very slick, have a nickel Teflon coating. This makes it really easy to be able to insert in and out of the gun. Also the gun is unloaded.

Now these magazines are really excellent mags. For one thing, they have an extra power spring in here, because sub-compact firearms are a little bit more finicky than your full-size. This just gives it a little extra power to push that round up into the chamber.

One thing I also like about these mags is the base plate, and it has this lip on it. And so when it is inserted into the magazine, you have a little bit of a gripping surface right here in case you have a malfunction, and you can strip that mag out. So there’s a lot of things that have been thought about with the Shadow Systems.

I think they’re a very forward-looking company, and that’s one of the things that’s led to their success. Now it has a 3.41-inch barrel. This is the bronze titanium nitride finish on it.

You can get this in black. It’s a nice contrast, but a lot of people just like the black. This is a match-grade barrel.

What’s really cool on the Elite Series is the barrels are fluted. Now you may ask, that looks nice, and you have this small little port right here, so fluted barrels are cool. But fluted barrels really have a lot of benefits.

One is it gets debris, removes it out of the way. It also has more surface area on the barrel, so it keeps it a little cooler. Also, it actually makes it stronger, gives it more surface area.

But it also retains lubricity. It retains oils and lubricants that you’re putting in here, just to allow it to function even better. Now this is, again, the Elite Series, and it comes with a fluted barrel.

Your Foundation Series, which is their basic model, does not have the fluted barrel. There are some cost savings that actually will just save you more money. With this one, with the serrations, very directional, excellent serrations, you can grab them wherever.

And then you have these top steps that are also considered serrations. And that’s a really good-looking feature to me. Also, we do have our window cuts, and you can see the barrel through it, but it also gives you some weight savings.

This is optics-ready. And one of the cool things about this, it’s a multi-footprint adapter that’ll fit directly to the slide. And so you can take your Holosun 507K or your Shield RMSC, little small optics, and you can fit them directly to the slide.

That is a big benefit. The sights are raised just a touch, so you should be able to get co-witness with them. We did test that out when we did our full review of the CR920P.

And this has the compensator, and this is just an excellent gun. And I’ll throw in some video footage of the way this is mounted onto the pistol. But typically what I like to do is to show the gun as is, not necessarily with an optic on it.

The sight has a little bit of a cocking shell for one-handed reloads. It is black serrated, so it gives a good contrast with the tritium bead that has the accent at the front. These are really easy to pick up.

On the foundational series, you’ll just have a white dot. Again, just a cost savings for those, you know, who really don’t want to put out the extra money. I mean, let’s face it, guys.

Glides are taking their glocks, and they’re tricking them out, and that’s one of the calls and really what led to a lot of the success with the Shadow Systems pistols. The texturing on the grip is aggressive. It’s not sandpaper aggressive, but it is really nice in the hand, and it covers the whole area.

The back and front strap, the side panels, and then we have these memory pads at the front with a little bit of a ledge. And this just allows you to take your thumb, place it on that little pad, and then it gives you a little recoil mitigation, which does help. One thing I find, though, is a lot of times when I’m doing this, my thumb tends to slip off a little bit, but I just replace it on.

But with this little ledge, it gives you a little extra to grab hold of. And two, it reminds me to take my shooting finger and put it right here on the frame, and it allows for good trigger discipline. We have a one-slot Picatinny rail, which is similar to your Glock pattern.

The trigger guard doesn’t have that little notch that comes out like it does on the Glock, even though it is more of a squared-off trigger guard. We have undercuts, and they’re double. So when you grip the pistol, a lot of times, if it has that full length here, it’ll actually change your natural point of aim.

And so with this undercut, it just allows you to have a more natural point of aim with that Glock-style grip, which this is actually a little different than your standard Glock style. We’re going to do a little comparison with the G43X. This is a great pistol.

I’ve carried this a number of times. We’re going to talk about some things about why I don’t necessarily carry this, but this is my personal preference. First off, we have a nice back strap.

The texturing here is that Gen 5 Pyramids, and really pre-Gen 5. These came out right when Gen 5s came out, and they’re not all that aggressive. But they do have the Pyramids that do give you a decent grip. But with the Shadow Systems, not only is it textured, but it has just a touch wider grip.

This is not an exact clone of your Glock. There’s a lot of upgrades that kind of separate this, and one of them is your magazine. Obviously, this is a really high-quality magazine, but you’ll notice that it does not actually seat in your standard Glock.

The magazine catch just doesn’t work with it. And the same goes with your Glock mag going into your CP320. It does not fit.

In fact, it’s just larger. And so there’s definitely some differences even with the magwell and the internals. Now one thing I do love about this grip is this little lip that comes down.

When you grip it, it tends to give you a little bit of support down here on your hand. And really this, even for people with larger hands, are going to find this a much nicer grip than they are some of the really small subcompact micronines. With the Glock, you do have a little bit of a ledge down here, and you can feel it.

But this gives you almost the feeling of having a magwell at the bottom without having a magwell that’s sticking out. And then also we do have some beveling right here just to allow those mags to go in a little easier. And they do go in.

And two, they jettison the mag out, so it makes it really easy to be able to get those mags free. Also with the mag release, it is metal. Of course you have a metal mag.

With the Glock, we have a polymer mag release. Now again, guys, a lot of people are ditching the 10 round magazine, and they’re going with the 15 round S15 magazines from Shield Arms. And you really need to replace your magazine release if you go to that.

And those magazines, again, will fit your Glocks, but it will not fit your Shadow Systems. There have just been upgrades that are just not compatible. Serrations, you can see, very minimal on your Glock, just straight line serrations.

They’re fine. They’re functional. Again, I love Glocks.

This is the MOS version, but you have to have adapter plates. So this is going to allow you to fit your optic directly to your slide, whereas with the Glock, you’re going to have to have adapter plates, which is going to lift up the sight even higher on the slide. It’s going to change your bore axis.

So this just gives you a little extra, plus you’ll notice that the beaver tail is extended on the CR920X. And so this is just going to allow you to get your hand a little higher up on the gun. With the Glock, it does have a little bit of a beaver tail, a little bit of an undercut, and this works fine, but this just gives you a little extra advantage.

And your CR920 sights are Glock compatible. So if you want to go with a different setup, there’s a bazillion different choices. But one of the things that the undercut does on the CR920P is that it keeps from this happening, which I have a permanent callus here when I’m shooting Glocks that have not been undercut.

That’s called the Glock knuckle. And guys, usually I will take a Dremel and I will relieve some of this area just to give me a higher ride on the pistol and relieve that Glock knuckle. Here we’ve already got it ready to go and it’s factory done instead of me taking a Dremel to it.

Now here we have the CR920P and this one has a 10 round magazine with a three round extension. You can also get just the 10 rounds. The exact same size as your Glock 43, except for a compensator.

And this is a tri-lug compensator. It’s QD. You can take it off and the slide has been cut straight.

We did a full review on this handgun. This shoots incredibly flat, but you have that 10 rounds or this one with 13. Now, the one thing about this is that these are a black Teflon finish, whereas the new mags are this nickel Teflon finish that really makes this slick.

In fact, actually slicker than the black. But it just gives you those extra rounds. You can take these mags and you can put them into your CR920P.

Does have a area right here, but that’s 15 rounds. I mean guys, the thing is just like with the G43X, this gives you a full size feeling handgun. Very similar to your Glock 19 as far as silhouette, and yet with a very thin profile.

A little bit shorter barrel than your Glock 19. The Glock 48 is your, really your full size Glock silhouette. And this has the black nitride barrel.

So it just gives you a little bit of a difference if you choose the black or the bronze. Also with the magazines, they run on the Shadow Systems website under $30. And of course you can get a plus three base plate for your 15 round magazine to make this an 18 round magazine that will extend the grip a little bit, but it makes an excellent backup mag to carry.

And it gives you 18 rounds in a tiny little package. One of the things I want to mention is that to be honest, carrying a gun for me because of my size, this tends to print for me. Unless I carry it outside the waistband at like four o’clock.

But when I carry this appendix, it does. I have a really good friend of mine that carries these all the time and he loves the grip length. He’s a bigger guy.

And so it does well. So one thing I do want to mention, if you’re looking for the X series is to consider, is this with your body style, will this stick out? Because obviously the grip is what prints on your firearm. And the other option is to go with the standard CR 920 or the CR 920P with that more of a G43 length grip, carry 10 rounds or add an additional base plate, which actually comes out almost as much as your 15 round mag.

But this does make a great backup. Just like your CR 920X makes a good backup mag for this as well. Now the trigger.

Glocks are known to have those spongy, mushy triggers. But what about the shadow systems? They’re a lot of the same profile, but the shadow systems is more of a flat face trigger. You have more of a crescent here with the Glock trigger.

We have our trigger shoe safety, which keeps you from inadvertently pulling the trigger. And so as we check the take up to right here to a wall, there’s a little bit of friction I can feel, but it doesn’t really distract when you’re shooting. Hits a wall, not a bad break.

Not super crisp, but not bad. And then we’re going to check for reset right there. Reset’s really fast.

When it comes to the Glock trigger, we had that take up and it’s not as definite. Get to the wall, it’s definitely a little bit more spongy. It’s not a huge difference though.

I mean, this is definitely a better trigger, but it’s not something to write home about. I mean, there is a difference, but it’s not huge. Let’s check the trigger pull weight with our Lyman trigger gauge.

Four pounds, 15 ounces. Four pounds, 11 ounces. Typically your Glocks are about five to five and a half pounds.

Weight on the Shadow Systems CR920X, 18.96 ounces. All right, a big thank you to Fiocchi for sponsoring our ammo. All Made in the USA, one of the biggest suppliers of ammunition in the country.

And we really appreciate Lula Loaders for making, loading these mags quick and saving our thumbs. Shadow Systems came out of the gate running. Glock, huge market.

And a lot of people are doing a lot of aftermarkets, upgrades, spending a lot of money on their Glocks. Shadow Systems came out with a Glock. It’s just as though you did everything you can imagine to improve the performance.

And they made it into a production handgun. These are beautiful. The slide serrations, optics ready.

This is the CR920X, which is just like your Glock 43X. Has that Glock 43 slide configuration. And then it has that actually 15 round magazine instead of the 10 on the Glock.

Unless you get Shield Arms mags. They have their own proprietary mags, stainless steel. They’re beautiful.

So you have 15 rounds. Same as a Glock 19, but yet really thin. Very easy to carry and conceal.

And then with 15 rounds, I mean, you know, you’ve got a lot of firepower. I mean, it just shoots really well. And the slide serrations, really easy to grab.

Beautiful bronze barrel. The trigger is actually as much improved over the standard Glock. Nice texturing on the grip.

Shadow Systems is really coming out with some pretty cool stuff. And if you like Glocks, but you want to upgrade it, or you don’t like Glocks, and you want something that shoots like a Glock. Shadow Systems is doing a great job.

Beautiful. And it had no malfunctions whatsoever. This is a great little gun.

Disassembly. Drop your magazine. Check the chamber.

It’s unloaded. We’re going to pull the trigger. Pull back on your slide about a quarter of an inch, and then pull down on your takedown tabs.

Release your slide. Double recoil spring. Barrel.

Same as your Glock. Very simple. As far as fit and finish, slide is excellent.

No tooling marks. I mean, it’s very well done. Very similar to your Glock.

And here you can see the front sight is definitely compatible with your Glock. Now here with the frame, again, that same Glock design that is highly reliable. There have been some changes made to make this even more reliable, and just to give you better performance.

And then of course with our barrel, I love that fluting. But again, the Foundation Series has just the straight walls. It’s going to save you on a little bit of your cost.

And guys, when we were at the range, there was no malfunctions. We didn’t have any kind of issues with this. And we haven’t.

So early on, there was a barrel design. They called the butt barrel that kind of extended differently. Had a different configuration.

And they had just a few issues with some of their customers. But they fixed that. And this is just a very reliable system.

Again, that’s all you need to do to field strip. For reassembly, just drop in your barrel, recoil spring, and guide rod. Making sure that it is fully seated.

And then we’re going to bring it back over our slide. Test for function. And we’re back in business.

Retail price on the Shadow System CR920X is $799 for the Elite model. If you get the Foundational Series model, it is $599. The main difference is some of the slide configuration.

It’s just less labor intensive. The front sight, the window, you do get optics ready. But the frame itself is the same.

And you get a straight barrel instead of the fluted barrel. So let’s talk about the G43X and why I would choose the Shadow Systems over maybe the G43X. Well, the price on the Glock is around $515 retail for the MOS version.

And they don’t list it on the Glock website. I had to look it up. But around $500.

Well, the Foundational Series is actually an upgrade even over your standard Glock. And it retails for $599. And so if you really just want to kind of apples to apples, get a few additional differences, you know, you can go with the Foundational Series.

But with the Elite version, obviously, there’s a lot more slide cuts with the window, the fluted barrel, you know, all the texturing, the 15 round magazine that is factory. And you can direct mount your optics. And that’s one of the biggest things instead of having to put on adapter plates.

The reliability of the Glock is huge. I mean, everybody knows the reliability. It’s like the AK-47 of the handgun world.

And so that’s a big plus for your Glock 43X. With the Shadow Systems, they have proven to be reliable. One thing that they do tell you is to have a break-in period.

And some people balked at that. They said 150 to 200 rounds. Listen, guys, I don’t carry any handgun unless I put 500 rounds through it.

There are manufacturing processes that go on that could have a small burr or do something that you really need to test out your handgun. So I don’t have any issue. In fact, I think it’s really mandatory before you start carrying a firearm to at least have 200 or 300 rounds through it.

The texturing is excellent. It has a very good grip to it. It gives you a little more to grip than even the Glock 43, which has fairly muted texturing.

So the slide serrations, very straightforward and workable. But you’re getting a little bit of an advantage with the pullback here with the directional slide serrations. Also the barrel being fluted, it’s going to give you some advantages there.

The trigger is better. It’s better on the Shadow Systems. It’s not a huge amount better.

We have a undercut that comes factory and an undercut on the bottom of the trigger guard. That’s a big plus. No Glock knuckle.

Magazines are probably one of the biggest things. The Teflon 15 round magazines compared to the standard polymer magazines that are 10 rounds. And because of the polymer sleeve over the steel body, there’s no way to really increase that.

And that’s why Shield Arms came out, the S15 mag. It’s been very popular and they will fit. So while you do have that option, but I think with these mags, these are just really good mags.

And Shadow Systems has built a really good reputation that a number of different size handguns that they are making that have just been well received in the market. Your price for your Elite is going to be a lot higher. But if you do a lot of custom work to your standard Glock, it’s going to cost you more.

But you still have a Glock. So it’s just a matter of personal preference. Me, I’m a Glock guy.

I’ve shot Glocks for years ever since they came out. I’ve bought a Glock 19 right up front. I’ve been shooting them ever since.

I love Glocks, but I feel confident with the Shadow Systems handguns. They have performed very well for us. Do I have as much confidence in the Glock? Well, I’ve shot 100,000 rounds through a Glock 19 and I know the reliability.

I’ve shot less in the Shadow Systems, but everything I’ve seen and heard, these are good to go. And again, if you don’t want that longer grip, the standard CR920 is an excellent gun with 10 plus 1. And then of course you can get the P model with the compensator, which just allows for better recoil management. So the CR920X, an excellent concealed carry gun.

Very thin, a lot of really cool features. You don’t have to take your standard Glock and do a lot of work to it. It comes, again, as the Glock should be.

But I still love my Glocks. So guys, Shadow Systems, I mean, they’re really putting out some really high quality firearms. And while these take a lot of the attributes of the traditional Glock firearms, they take it a step above.

And again, like a lot of people have said, Shadow Systems is taking the Glock to where it should be. That’s a matter of an opinion. Obviously, there’s a lot of really satisfied Glock owners, myself included.

But I do see a lot of the benefits of the Shadow Systems and do carry the Shadow Systems firearms because they’re just excellent quality. And one of the biggest things, guys, is with the firearms market, especially with concealed carry, it just gives us a lot of choices. And again, we want to give a big thank you to Shadow Systems for sending the CRX920 for this review.

Be strong, be of good courage. God bless America. Long live the Republic.

 

-Don