IWI Jericho 941 Review

The IWI Jericho 941, let’s check it out.

 

The Jericho 941 was introduced in 1990 by the Israeli Weapons Industry, or IWI. They produce firearms for the IDF, and these guns are made in Israel.

Originally, they were imported by Magnum Research as the Baby Eagle, then by Mossberg as the Uzi Eagle, and now by IWI themselves as the Jericho 941. The 941 stands for 9mm and 41AE. This gun was actually designed to fire the 41AE, which is a pretty hot round.

And because of that, it has a lot of heft to it. And these guns originally had a 9mm and 41AE barrel. Once 10mm kind of took over, 41AE was dropped, and so now we’re just seeing these in the 9mm configuration.

I’ve had a lot of requests to review this pistol, and so GunProDeals.com sent this for this test and evaluation. We’re going to take a look at it and see what it’s all about. Guys, if you watch the channel, you know I’m a big fan of the CZ75 design, and because of that, I was looking forward to getting a hold of this pistol.

I have seen a number of them. I don’t think I’ve ever shot one of the Jerichos, whether it was the Baby Eagle, the Uzi Eagle, or the 941. But again, it’s just one of those guns.

It’s a very iconic type firearm, but there’s a good reason why these are sticking around. One of the big things about this pistol is that the slide rides inside the frame. So that gives you a really low bore axis, which helps with felt recoil.

It also improves your accuracy. And then again, with these made in Israel, Israel knows what they’re doing when it comes to firearms. This is the same company that makes the Tavor and the Galil.

So that ought to tell you something about the quality of this firearm. First thing we’re going to do is make sure the gun is unloaded. So we’re going to drop the magazine, check the chamber, and it’s unloaded.

This is a double single action pistol, and it’s hammer fired. So when we pull the trigger, it’s a heavy trigger pull. But it is very smooth, and it comes all the way back.

Now, subsequent shots are going to be single action. Crisp take up, a very nice crisp snap. This has the frame mounted safety.

A lot of CZs now have the decocker option. One of the things about the decocker is that it interferes somewhat with the trigger pull. Makes it just a little less enjoyable than it is with the frame safety.

But one of the things about the frame safety is that you can actually carry this pistol with the hammer back. So you can carry it cocked and locked, condition one, and that way you’re ready to fire. All you’ve got to do is hit the safety, and then you can fire the pistol.

This is an all steel frame pistol. It weighs about 37 ounces, so it’s a very heavy gun. But again, this was designed to fire the 41AE, which is, again, like a 10 millimeter.

It comes in the 9 millimeter, comes in 40 Smith & Wesson, and also comes in 45 ACP. It has a matte parkerized finish on it. It has the black polymer grips.

These are not rubber grips, they’re polymer. I don’t think that these will interchange with the CZ grips. In fact, just from looking at the design, it shouldn’t.

But it does use, again, the CZ 75 magazines. And I think that the IWI magazines are actually a little cheaper than your standard CZ 75 mags. One thing, though, about the CZ 2 is the grip, the ergonomics of the grip.

With this beaver tail, and then it kind of just bows out a little bit here at the end of the grip, just fits in the hand very well. And for a design that’s been around since 1975, there’s a reason why these are still so popular, and a lot of it has to do with the ergonomics. It does have a 1913 Picatinny rail right here, an accessory rail, so you can put a lot of different lights and lasers.

Now this is the full size. It does come in the compact size, which is a little bit shorter in the frame and in the slide barrel length. In fact, the barrel length on this pistol is 4.4 inches.

On the compact model, or what they say mid-size model, is 3.8 inches. But the grip is still the same. Holds 16 in one in the magazine.

Got a squared off trigger guard. The sights are all steel, and they are three dot. And they show up very well.

You can see here at the rear, and down to the front, it’s a really nice sight picture. Meprilite and Trijicon make night sights for this pistol, but these are not interchangeable with your CZ sights. They’re grooves milled into the top of the slide to help cut down glare.

The safety has a small little ledge, and of course red means that it’s in the fire condition. You have your slide release right here. But you can see that it’s just a very well-finished pistol.

I mean, all the lines, everything’s nice. You have some checkering, or some serrations on the front, serrations right here at the back. And you have your IWI logo right in the grip.

Here we have Jericho 941, Israel Weapon Industries, IWI. Here on the other side, IWI USA Incorporated, and these are imported, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. And then we have Made in Israel.

The hammer is not a commander-style hammer, but it does have serrations on the top, which makes it really easy to get hold of, and to pull back. The barrel is cold hammer forged, and this is chrome moly steel, which is the same thing that AR-15 barrels use. It is mil-spec, and it’s polygonal grooves.

You’ll notice how low the slide fits right into the frame, and again, this does definitely help with felt recoil, and it really aids in accuracy. One of the problems is, is because there’s not a whole lot of slide there, to pull those serrations back, you’ve just got to get a nice little grip on it. But it’s not bad at all, and it’s easy to do.

One of the big things about this pistol is how smooth it is. I mean, it is super smooth. Now the Jericho 941 is a CZ design, but it’s more closely related to the CZ-75 SP-01.

This is the SP-01 Tactical. I love this handgun. It’s a large pistol.

We’re going to go ahead and check to make sure the gun is unloaded, and it is. One of the things I want you to notice, though, is with the CZ, which the CZ is just excellent quality, but when I was pulling the slide back, there’s a lot of tension with that recoil spring. With the Jericho, it is super smooth.

It is much smoother than the CZ SP-01. This takes a lot more hand strength to get, and then of course, with those serrations very close to the frame, it’s a little harder to get. So I was really impressed, honestly, with how sleek this is.

It’s really reminiscent of the Beretta 92. They have a very smooth slide action, and that’s what we’ve got here. But aside from all else, the pistols are pretty close to the same size, and I’m sure that was by design.

And this is more of, again, a tactical full combat pistol, and so is the Jericho 941, especially in the full size. The double action trigger pull on the Jericho, it is a very hefty trigger pull. Yeah, here, 11 pounds, 1 ounce.

As far as on the CZ SP-01, double action, 10 pounds, 6 ounces. It is less. Single action, 4 pounds, 8.9 ounces.

So about 4.5 pounds, and this is what I was pretty much getting. Single action on the SP-01, 4 pounds, 11 ounces. It is a little lighter on the Jericho than on the CZ in single action, but in double action, the Jericho is a little heavier.

As far as the trigger goes in single action, it’s just got a nice break to it. Reset right there. Really nice break.

The CZ-75, take up a little bit of stacking, and then click. I think the single action on the Jericho, you’re coming to a wall, and then you push through it. There we go.

Yeah, I like the Jericho single action trigger better. As far as double action, yeah, you can feel the lighter trigger pull of the SP-01. And military and police units in 11 different countries use the Jericho 941.

I want to thank Freedom Munitions for sponsoring the ammunition. We’re using some of their new manufactured, and also the Pro Match, which is a 135 grain XAP round, and the American Steel, which is a brass-covered steel-cased round. Really good stuff.

There’s just something about shooting an all-steel frame pistol. It just eats the recoil. And then you add the internal slide rails, which keeps it even more low to the bore axis.

It makes it really accurate, and so it’s just a real pleasure to shoot. I shot about 250 rounds down here at the range, and I didn’t have any malfunctions. But one thing that I did have was I was using a CZ-75 mag, and on the last round, it wouldn’t hold the slide back.

But other than that, I had no problems with the standard magazines here at the range, and also no failures to feed or anything. It just came straight out of the box. This slide is super smooth.

Let me take the magazine out, because this, it’s like a Beretta 92. It’s just a super smooth slide action. And I like it without the decocker, because it helps with the trigger pull.

It makes it a little more crisp. With the grip, it’s got the CZ design grip, so it’s really solid. And then, with this shroud that comes over the top, it just gives a lot of weight to the front end of the gun.

So when you’re firing it, it just seems to come back very smooth. Now, the weight is there. You feel it.

And if you’re shooting slow, you can really feel it. But you’re shooting fast, and the recoil just goes away. It’s just a good, solid feel to it.

And as you can see, how it comes out and about just molds to the hand. When the Czech Republic, or CZ, actually designed this style grip, they really were thinking of ergonomics. And, to me, that’s what all gun companies should be thinking about.

But this one is super solid. The three dot sights, as you can see, they show up very well. Of course, it’s not focused on that front sight, but it shows up.

And it really just kind of brings itself into that target. And I want to thank ShootSteel.com for providing the music. Usually when I’m at the range, I’ll mention it.

But Shooting Steel is the way to go, guys, and you get a 10% discount using ShootZeroZero if you buy from ShootSteel.com. Now as far as disassembly of the firearm, we’ve already got the magazine removed, and the gun is unloaded. That brings the hammer back, which is really preferable. Now you want to bring your slide back, and there are two markings at the back.

And you need to just line those two up. Come back here to the slide stop. And this is pretty tight, so I’m taking just a brass punch, pushing it through.

And then you can pull it right out. And then just bring the slide right off of the frame. Now you can see those internal slide rails, how they ride inside the frame here, and then on the inside here.

This runs the entire length of the frame. Most of your polymer pistols now have a small little rail section here and at the back. And so this is going to give you a lot more stability.

Remove our recoil spring and guide rod, and of course it’s steel. And then our barrel. Again, very reminiscent of your Browning design.

And that’s pretty much all you need to do to field strip the pistol. For reverse, to reassemble, line up these two little notches, reinsert your slide stop. And you’re back in business.

The MSRP on the Jericho 941 is $649. On the Gun Pro Deals website, it’s $549. So that’s a $100 difference.

I checked a number of different sources, and I didn’t find it anywhere for less than $549. For the polymer frame pistols, they’re $479. And so that’s pretty much across the board.

And that doesn’t matter the caliber, even .45 ACP was about the same. Your IWI magazines are $2499. I think a lot of times I’m seeing CZ factory mags for about $35.

So this would be a good deal. Metgar makes some really good mags as well. In fact, they make the mags I know for CZ and probably for this pistol.

Now as far as pros and cons of the pistol, a big pro is the CZ design with the internal slide rails, which really helps with recoil. This is a very soft shooting gun, and the accuracy is just excellent. It’s an all steel frame, which is kind of a con because it weighs a lot.

I mean, it’s 36 ounces, which is pretty heavy. And so this is really relegated more to a sidearm or a range gun if you’re competing or something like that. But this, to me, would not really be something for concealed carry unless you got with the mid-size frame, you know, you might be able to do that.

And I’m sure there are guys that can carry the full size like this. But for your average guy, this is going to be a little heavy. The quality of the gun is just top notch.

I mean, there’s nothing about the quality that’s not really good. The cold hammer forged barrel made from chrome moly vanadium steel. The ergonomics of the pistol, the sights are really well, you can see them very easily.

Had no malfunctions whatsoever. Really outside of just the heft of the pistol. Now, of course, they offer the polymer version, which, you know, definitely would lessen the weight quite a bit.

But other than that, I think the price is really in line. I mean, $549 for an all steel frame, really high quality pistol, and $479 for the polymer. With these designs, the double single actions typically run more than your striker fire.

There’s just a lot more going on, a lot more hand fitting, things like that. You know, really as far as pros or cons, I think this is an exceptional CZ75 pistol, and especially compared to standard CZ75s. Of course, one of the things that I always like to recommend is that before you decide to purchase any type of firearm or gear, is to check out other reviews, see what guys are saying.

It just, again, helps to make a very well rounded decision, and again, it keeps the YouTube gun community honest, which is what we all want. There’s a lot of people that buy on my recommendation and on others, and you know, we really take that seriously. And if you want more information, you can go to IWIUS.com, I’ll have the link down below in the description and right here across the screen.

And I want to thank GunProDeals.com for sending this pistol, and for their support to make this video possible. GunProDeals.com, great source, they run a lot of cool specials, the prices are great, and the guys are just fantastic to work with.

 

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

 

-Don