RS9 Vampir : The Bosnian Vampire Gun Review

The RS9 Vampyr, let’s check it out.

 

When it comes to firearms, there’s a lot out there, and once in a while I’ll get something that’ll really kind of stand out, and sometimes I’m not sure what it is, but the RS9 Vampyr is one that kind of struck me as just a really quality firearm, and I guess a lot of it’s the finish, the fit, the way it looks, the way it’s designed. Now these are manufactured in Bosnia by TRP, and it’s a company that’s been around for many years.

In fact, this handgun, while it’s new to the U.S. market, has been around for a while. It’s a double single action, it’s an all-metal construction with the aluminum alloy frame and steel slide, very reminiscent of the SIG P226, but yet it has some differences. So guys, while I’m always wanting to bring to you something different, when TCH got in touch with me who imports the RS9 Vampyr, I was pretty excited because it gives it that different look, and yet it just has a lot of quality.

Coming out of Eastern Europe, it is a rich heritage of firearm manufacturing. Alright guys, we have the RS9 Vampyr, or Vampire, and from its namesake it does have some of this sleek look to it, almost like a shadow in the night. I mean, it’s really beautiful.

It’s a very well-made handgun, and we’re going to get into some of the details. While this is new to the U.S. market, it’s been around for a while. In fact, originally, the designer of this handgun went to Zastava, and they produced this pistol in six months, and they called it the CZ99.

Now, not to be confused with the Czech company, CZ, Zastava tends to have some CZ pistols. But then the war in Serbia and Croatia broke out, and then this was shelled because it couldn’t be imported. And then there were other iterations made.

Now, this is the Gen 2 of the Vampyr, and actually it has had 20,000 rounds put through it without any parts breakages. It’s been a very tight firearm, and without any malfunctions, with mud and sand test. Now, that’s according to TRB, but that speaks a lot about this handgun.

It’s made for combat. Now, this is an all-steel slide, aluminum alloy frame. Then we have these polymer, rubber-infused grips.

They’re very different. We’ll look at it a little closer. But before we get started, let’s go ahead and drop our 18-round magazine, made by Metgar.

Good quality mags. Has this really cool base plate on it that actually allows you to rest your fingers, especially if you have larger hands. And then we’ll check the chamber, make sure it’s empty.

And you get an extra magazine with the gun. Now, we have the hammer in the rear position, and we do have a decocker. A little bit different.

So, we take the lever here, and we push it up, and we have a decocker. One thing as well is that if you bring the slide back, and you engage the decocker, it is a slide stop. So, it has both.

And it kind of keeps the lines really smooth on the side. And then, drop it, and of course, we have our takedown lever right here. We have a five-slot Picatinny rail.

Nice, large trigger guard that’s going to be great for gloved hands. The hammer is in the rear position, but this is, again, a double single-action pistol. That means on the first shot, we’ll go ahead and hit our decocker.

You’re going to have a long, heavy trigger pull. Subsequent shots are going to be single-action, and they’re going to be really short, and actually a really nice break to it. Reset, right there.

Now, to me, the manufacturing of this handgun has been very well done. I mean, it is very well machined. You can just tell that this is a good quality handgun.

I really like these front cocking serrations, but they kind of come in and then out. And so, it allows you just to grab hold of it, and then here at the rear, nice and grippable. Very smooth action as well.

The barrel is 4.3 inches. It is chrome molybdenum, and it has polygonal grooves, which just lend a longer life and great accuracy. And of course, Glock does the same thing.

It’s almost like an anti-high power cut right here, where it comes in, and then it comes back out. Rounded top. The sights are three dot.

We have a dovetail at the rear, and we have a dovetail here at the front. And so, you can switch those out if you want. I’m not sure the pattern of those sights.

Now, one thing you’re going to notice, and this is big right now, especially with handguns, is we are not optics ready. There’s no optics cut. So hopefully, we’ll have some models coming out that are ready for that, because I know you guys, you got to have your red dot on there.

But with the three dot sights, we really were able to get on target pretty quickly. A commander style hammer, and then we had this nice beaver tail that comes up and gets your hand really high up on the gun. But again, that single action trigger pull breaks really nice, especially for a double single action pistol.

Now, the grips are a polymer with rubber infused mix, and it has a little bit of a soft feel to it, just a touch grippy. But you really can’t tell that sticky rubber. It’s going to be a little bit more abrasive, and it just has a nice grip to it with a lot of texturing, and it’s very stylized.

Front strap has really nice checkering, and so does the back strap, and it comes down. Now, one thing that’s a little unusual is that as you look at the grip, it starts out low and close here, and then it kind of expands out just a touch. And that has everything to do with these grips.

If you look, it has this line that comes down, and it just lays the grip open just a touch. Not sure if you can change these grips out, but if you like that, but that is a little different than normal. But we can still kind of get the web of our hand and our shooting finger and thumb really close, and then it kind of feels your hand at the bottom.

So it’s not really palm swells, but it does kind of feel right here at the back at the meat of your hand. And then you can come in with that two-handed grip. And honestly, I was even using the slide stop, not to push it down, but just to rest my finger, just for more recoil mitigation.

It does have a matte finish to it, and at this point, only the black versions are available. But on the website, it does have FDE and gray, and also a chrome-plated slide as well. Here at the butt, it does come out a little bit, and that’s just going to help guide these magazines in very easily.

And there’s not really any kind of beveling, but you do have beveling on the end of your magazine. One thing I will say, though, is the slide stop is fairly small, and you get to it, and it’s checkered very nice, but it’s not a very large magazine release. But we didn’t have any trouble dropping those mags out, and they do fall free, and actually, they pop out.

So it’s a pretty strong spring in there. Now, the takedown lever and decocker are definitely kind of a combination, but they’re really nice. And actually, at first, I thought, is there a slide stop? And if I hadn’t seen this little cut here in the slide, I would have been amiss to figure it out.

But here, and then again, you can just bring that back, and this just locks into place. Has a really nice undercut right here, so you can really get your hand up high. I’ll tell you, man, it has a really nice feel to it.

I mean, it’s got a good grip to it. When we were at the range, and we shot about 500 rounds through it, and guys, it just ran. We had zero malfunctions.

We didn’t have any issues. They do have a 10-round magazine available for those states that have a lot of restrictions. Now, again, with the SIG P226, definitely the decocker is a downward motion.

It’s a little bit different, and it’s out front here. So it gives you a totally different feel to it, and yet, as far as the shootability, it does shoot a lot like the P226, which is a legendary firearm, and it’s on. But guys, while there are so many polymer striker fire pistols out there, I really like when I can come in with an all-metal gun.

I mean, the aluminum alloy frame is going to give it a little bit less weight, and then you’re bringing in your slide, and then that double single action, that first trigger pull is pretty heavy, and we’re going to test that out in a second. But then those subsequent shots are really close, and it’s one of the things about having a double single action, you need to make sure you train, because after that first pull of the gun, that second shot will come unexpectedly if you’re not prepared for it. Here, the front of the barrel is crowned, but otherwise, it’s pretty flush, except for just a little bit of protrusion of the barrel.

Now, guys, we are getting a lot of different budget-friendly handguns that are coming in, mainly from Turkey and places where the labor’s cheaper, and we’re seeing some really nice handguns. But a lot of times, the quality, as far as the finishing and the fit, is just not quite there, and that’s one of the things about the Vampire that I have to say, is it’s just a very exquisitely finished handgun. And with that, it’s very smooth, all the controls are very smooth and easy to use, and again, that trigger pull is excellent.

So sometimes it’s nice to get a nicer quality firearm out of maybe Eastern Europe than a budget-friendly out of Turkey. But Turkey is making some excellent handguns, and rifles, and shotguns. And there is some texturing here on the front of the trigger guard, and I almost missed that.

Those are just line serrations, but it’ll just allow you to get your finger up there and be able to hold onto it without slipping. Now we have a curved trigger. It’s all metal, it’s fairly wide, it gives you a lot of pressure against your finger as you’re pulling it.

And we’re going to check out double action trigger pull first, which is going to be heavy, and really part of your safety. So as we pull it back, guys, that is an incredibly smooth double action pull. And there is no creep to it, there’s no nothing.

I mean, even coming back out, it just glides right out. And it doesn’t really build up pressure until you get right to the wall. Now let’s try out our single action.

As you can see, the trigger comes into a more rear position, and we have take up right to here, and it gets really close to the frame, and a nice break. Not super crisp, but most of your double single actions are not. Let’s check reset.

Right there. Not a bad trigger for a double single action pistol. Okay, we’re going to check out the trigger pull weight with our Lyman trigger gauge and brown nails.

10 pounds, four ounces. And guys, that’s pretty much what you’re getting with most of your double single action pistols. Single action, four pounds, seven ounces.

Four pounds, 9.5 ounces. So about four and a half pounds. And TRB does state that this is around a five pound trigger pull.

And as far as the weight of the RS9 Vampire, 33.87 ounces. Really, that is right in line with the SIG P226. Big thank you to Fiocchi for sponsoring our ammo.

All made right here in the USA. One of the biggest suppliers of ammunition in the country. Also, the Maglula is the bomb, making these mag loads easy.

We guys have something a little different here. The TRB, and this is the RS9, it’s called the Vampire. I love this.

It actually has the vibes of a vampire. And this comes from Bosnia, Herzegovia, Eastern European. And it’s got that SIG P226 kind of feel to it.

Double single action. It has 18 plus one magazines. It’s just very smooth.

But overall, serrations are really nice. It’s got a nice matte finish to it, but it just has a different look. Magazine’s going really well.

Again, we’re going to start out single action, and then we’re going to shoot some from double action, single action. Now we have that decocker, so I’m going to drop it. And now we’re going to shoot from double action.

It’s heavy as typical, but that is part of your safety. Yeah, it’s got that SIG P226 vibe to it. And then, of course, a lot of Picatinny rail here, five slots.

The serrations are really nice. The finish is a Cerakote finish, but it’s high heat. These have been used in Bosnia by the special teams there.

And really, this is the first time I’ve seen this. I love to get new firearms that are coming in. It gives you innovation.

It just gives you more choices. Really nice texturing up here on the front strap and back strap. The grips on the side panels, they have some really nice design texturing.

And it almost has a soft rubber feel to it, but it’s not rubber. It’s got a nice feel to it. Overall, I mean, this has been uber reliable.

Have a little bit of a pinky rest that comes off your magazine. Both are like that, so you can get a good solid grip no matter what size hand you have. We have three dot sights that show up really well.

Again, it’s not optics ready, which to me, that’s something that most guns should really have, but I’m sure they’ll come up with that because American shooters, we really like those red dot sights. Nice undercut under the trigger guard. It’s a metal frame, but really, it belies that.

It doesn’t feel like super heavy like some of the metal guns do. And yet, it gives you a nice solid feel to it. I’ll tell you guys, I’m very impressed.

You’re looking for a double single action. This could be something to really take a look at. Again, that all metal gun.

Guys, whenever you add a new optic to your firearm, you need to sight it in. And you can walk it in, you can bore sight it through the bore. But the easiest way we found is the SightRite 2.0 by Tactical Elites.

It’s a green laser bore sighter. Put a collet on it that’ll fit the caliber, then we slide it into the end of the barrel, and then we turn on the green laser. Check out Tactical Elites for the SightRite 2.0, an excellent addition to your range time, and it’ll save you time and money.

All right, for disassembly, we’re going to drop our magazine, go ahead and check the chamber, make sure the gun is empty. Go ahead and bring your slide back and put it in the slide lock. Here is your takedown lever.

Now, you’ll notice that as we bring it down, it catches, but that’s actually important because we’re going to bring it back just a touch, and we’re going to disengage our takedown lever and then let your slide go forward. And one thing about it, this is still under spring tension, so it can fly forward. And if you want to see that in action, hang around for the bloopers at the end.

Okay, we’re going to pull this off. Here we have our recoil spring and guide rod, and then we have our barrel. And the barrel is very high polished on the top, but then the rest of the barrel has that matte finish to it.

Nice feed ramp, and again, we did not have any malfunctions whatsoever at the range. The fit and finish is just excellent. I mean, this has been very well done, no tool marks.

And again, we’ve put about 500 rounds through this, but I’ll tell you. And then here we have our safety, our firing pin safety block. What I love though is the frame.

Now, these rails are consistent all the way to the end. And so you can see that’s going to give you a lot of frame to slide contact. And then here at the bottom, of course, they’re abbreviated, and that’s just typical, which a lot of your polymer striker fire pistols have little short rails on the front and back.

So this gives you a lot of contact. I love that, but very well done. And I mean, the machining on these are just excellent.

And guys, that’s really all you need to do to field strip. So for reassembly, we’re going to put our barrel back in and our recoil spring and guide rod really just in opposite of what you’ve just done. And we need to get it right on that barrel hood right there in the right spot.

And then we’re going to bring our slide back over our rails. Now, when you bring it back, the takedown lever is going to automatically go into the right position. So now we’re in business.

We can drop our decocker or lift it up and going to test for function. And we’re back in business. Otis makes some of the best cleaning equipment out there.

They make a number of different kits that are dedicated for different rifles, pistols. They also have Shooter’s Choice, which makes excellent CLP and bore solvent and different cleaning materials. The Ripcord is one of their signatures and there’s a whole system based around it.

They are suppliers to the U.S. military. So check out Otis Technologies, highly recommended. And we want to thank Otis for being a sponsor of the channel.

We have a nice hard plastic box. Here we have the pistol. It is in foam and you have your two extra mags.

We have a small little cleaning kit and it has your rods and brushes. I think that’s a nice touch. And then here at the top, we have a really nice owner’s manual and it fits in that spot.

So overall, nice little box and it fits to your pistol. Now the MSRP is $1,285, which can seem a little steep. You have a double single action pistol that’s made really high quality.

And so typically, you’re going to pay a little more for that. And actually, they have lowered the MSRP by a couple of hundred dollars. A lot of it has to do with tariffs, things like that.

So they really felt like to get back into the market more like your SIG P226, they needed to bring it down a little bit. You get an extra magazine and of course, these are good quality magazines from Metgar. The fit and the finish, and we’re going to talk about pros and cons.

This is just a beautiful handgun. And while it is called the Vampire, it does suit that name. I love the grips and it really gives you a lot of texturing.

Very nice texturing here on the front and back strap. Sights, three dot sights, they’re dovetailed in. I love these cuts on the slide.

The trigger pull is excellent. The double action trigger pull, super smooth. And then the single action for a double single action pistol, it’s really good.

Nice little beaver tail area. And just runs and it’s had a lot of testing behind it. And so what are some cons? Well, first off, I would like to see a model that does have the optics ready.

I mean, that’s become pretty standard with a lot of the handguns and we’re used to a lot of polymer striker fire pistols. And this is a little bit heavier because of the robustness of the slide and this metal frame, even though it is aluminum alloy. But the shooting experience was excellent.

And this is one thing that they say they make this for serious shooters. And when we’re talking about 1285 MSRP, of course, market price is typically less. It is a new kid on the block, which is going to make it a little bit of a con, but yet it’s had a lot of heritage behind it.

And again, these are used by the Bosnian anti-terrorist units and Eastern Europe is known for really high quality arms making. Plus it’s definitely a little different. And the name itself is to me a huge pro.

I mean, vampire, that just means that it’s hard to kill. So guys, the RS9 Vampyr, definitely a unique firearm in a lot of ways. Again, it does go with that SIG P226 design, the double single action, very smooth trigger.

The fit and finish is absolutely beautiful. And of course the name really makes this gun. To me, this is more of a shadow type firearm, which for a vampire, it’s right at home.

And again, a big thank you to TCH imports for sending the RS9 Vampyr for this review. It’s a vampire.

 

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

 

-Don