Stoeger STR 9C Review

The Stoeger STR-9C, let’s check it out. Available Here)

 

Stoeger is known for its shotguns, whether it’s sporting clays, hunting, you name it, having scatter guns, I mean it is an excellent firearm and really they’re very reasonable in price. Just recently they introduced the STR-9, it’s a nine millimeter polymer striker fire pistol, it was the first that Stoeger has introduced.

This is a very budget friendly firearm and yet it has a lot of quality. These are made in Turkey and honestly by the name I thought they were made in Germany. So there’s a lot of features to this one that mimic a lot of times the Glock or some of the early Smith & Wesson SVDs.

So we’re going to take a look at the Stoeger STR-9C and this is their compact version. They offer a number of different models, but this is one of their basic models and this would be an excellent concealed carry option. And we really appreciate Stoeger for sending the STR-9C because guys, even though this is a very budget friendly firearm, it’s really getting a lot of rave reviews all over the gun community.

The Stoeger STR-9C. Stoeger introduced their first STR series pistols in 2019. They do have a number of different models.

Again, this is the compact, but they have a full size with a 15 round magazine. They have one that has a 17 round magazine and then they have their tactical model which has a 20 round magazine. A lot of different features on the tactical model and then they have the subcompact which is the STR-9SC.

It holds 10 rounds. This particular model holds 13 rounds. Now one of the big things about these Stoeger pistols is they start out retail and this is manufacturer suggested retail at $329.

And that’s just really unheard of. Now with those models, typically you’ll get one magazine, one back strap, but they have packages where you can get three magazines, night sights. These are already optics ready.

Now the optics ready versions are $399, but this pistol is a $399 version, which market price again is going to bring it down. So they give you a lot of options. So let’s go ahead and make sure the gun’s unloaded.

We’re going to drop our 13 plus one magazine. It is a really well done mag. These are made in Italy.

I would suspect that these are Metgar. And then we’re going to check the chamber and the gun is empty. Now this particular gun takes a lot of cues from the Glock.

I mean, there’s definitely a lot of things about this pistol, the design that are very similar to the Glock Gen 3. But one of the big things is that the magazines are not compatible. And so if you’re asking, does this take Glock mags? It doesn’t. Which honestly, I was a little bit surprised, but I really liked the metal magazine.

It’s going to give you more mag capacity in this grip. It’s one of the problems with the Glock mags is because of the polymer, it makes them thicker. And so that is one of the issues.

But again, for the price, it’s going to be hard to beat. It does have a black nitride slide and these serrations are excellent. I mean, they’re large, they’re wide, but it allows for really easy manipulation of the slide.

And then of course for press checks, it’s really easy to be able to check it. And of course you get the front and rear cocking serrations. The sights are just a three dot sight.

You can get night sight options. But one of the big things about this pistol is the grip. Now, again, it comes with one back strap and it’s already installed.

They do have models with three different back straps. It has some texturing here on the side, has a slight finger groove with some texturing, but this rear strap on the back has very aggressive texturing. Not uncomfortable shooting regularly.

Now, if you’re shooting four or 500 rounds, you’ll start to feel this. That’s what we noticed when we’d been shooting quite a few rounds. It was a little bit, you can just feel that these serrations were back there.

It gives you a really nice grip on the gun though. And then you do have that little finger area right there to place your thumb. But the grip overall is very nice looking.

Sometimes with budget guns, they just look a little bit off. And that’s one of the things about this particular pistol. It looks really quality.

It does have your accessory rail at the front. And then we have a squared off trigger guard with some texturing right here. We have our standard slide stop, very similar to the Glock.

And we have our takedown levers again. And we have two pins. And when you look inside this, which when we break it down, we’ll check it out.

I mean, it looks identical, just to be honest with you. The magazine release can be switched to the other side. There’s no slide stop on this side.

So it’s not really ambidextrous, but yet you can switch it out. I’m not really sure about the sights as far as what they’re compatible with. I did some research and I really didn’t find anything out there.

But Stougar does carry the night sights if you want to put night sights on it. And there’s probably other options. Now the magazines themselves run on the Stougar website about 35 bucks.

And so that’s just a thought. But again, if you get the three mag package, I would highly recommend that. There is a slight bevel to the magazine well.

And to remove the back strap, there’s a little catch right here. You just push down and this will come all the way off. And it’s this whole area that’s the back strap.

Very similar to your Smith & Wessons. And of course you have this finger groove on the magazine. So it gives you really a full-size grip.

If you have really large hands, you know, you may be hanging on the edge. But obviously, I mean, it is a compact pistol, but it does give you that full-size grip. The barrel is 3.8 inches.

The compact, I believe it’s three inches. And then the full size is 4.68 inches. And then there’s an in-between that’s 4.17 inches.

So, you know, there’s again, a number of different choices with this pistol and the price is consistent through all the different models. And to give you more of a size comparison, we’re going to pull out the Glock 19. This is the Gen 5. This has been safety checked.

The 19 sticks out just a touch, not much at all. And then when we have it slide to slide, you’re going to have this finger groove that comes down, but it is somewhat shorter, but again, 13 rounds, 15 rounds. I would say that it’s really comparable as far as if you had a 15 round magazine, it would equal to the Glock 19.

So it’s really pretty close to the Glock 19 size. And of course, this one has the optics plate with the MOS version. Obviously you can get the optics plate with it.

And this is a metal plate, which a lot of them are polymer on most of your guns you’re getting right now. But what it really compares to is the new Taurus G3 XL as far as slide dimensions and everything. I mean, it is exact with the slide dimensions, maybe a little more rounded off where the G3 is a little bit more squared off.

And then when we get down to the bottom, we have 12 rounds in the G3 XL, and then we have 13 rounds in the Stoger. And to be honest with you, it may be a little bit shorter in the grip, except for that little finger extension. The price is very comparable to the Taurus more than it is the Glock.

Let’s go ahead and make sure the gun’s unloaded and we’re going to check the trigger. Now the original Stogers had a really heavy trigger. It was smooth, but it was heavy.

I’d heard a lot about it. They have done a lot of improvements. So we’re going to go ahead and check this trigger.

It does have the trigger safety. So you’re going to depress it. You need to get a full press on it.

You have take up right to about here and it’s hit a wall. Not a bad break. Reset.

Not bad. And it’s not super crisp, but it’s a nice clean break. I’ve heard the trigger pull on the originals was about seven pounds.

It was pretty heavy. We’re going to check with our Lyman trigger gauge from Brownells. We’re going to see what the trigger pull is.

Four pounds, 6.8, 6.7 ounces. And guys, I can do this over and over. I’ve done this a number of times before the review, and it’s coming in at between four and a half and five pounds.

And that is a nice trigger. So the improvements that they did honestly are working. And weight on the STR-9C, one pound, 7.8 ounces.

Weight on the Glock 19, one pound, 8.2 ounces. You get four different metal mounting plates. It gives you a lot of options.

Then of course you get your metal plate, cover plate at the top, a couple of mounting screws. Again, this is with the package that is optics ready. We really appreciate Fiocchi for sponsoring the ammo.

All made in the USA. One of the biggest suppliers of ammunition in the country. We also want to thank Lula Loaders for saving our thumbs and making these magazines quick.

They only include one magazine, so this loader is going to be really used a lot. Taking the STR-9C down to the range, I didn’t know what to expect. Definitely a very budget firearm.

Sometimes they can be a little finicky. Maybe the quality’s not quite there. But honestly, firearms coming out of Turkey have proven to be really exceptional, and yet they come in at a very decent price.

Of course, the Canik has proved that. But with this pistol, it has a lot of features that the Glock has, and yet it’s more ergonomic. It’s very well rounded off.

The slide’s very compact. One of the things I noticed right up front, though, was the texturing on the grip is very aggressive to the point to where you really feel like that you’ve got a solid grip. It’s mainly the back strap.

It just has this grip to your hand, but it does give you a good, solid feel to it. A little bit of those finger grooves at the front allow you to wrap your hand around it, but it’s mainly at the back strap where it has the aggressive texturing. Not really too aggressive, but after you put about 400 or 500 rounds through it, you’re going to know it.

Really, the way this shot, it shot very flat. It just had a good feel to it, which again surprised me. A lot of times with budget firearms, you feel their budget.

This is not necessarily that way. It has a really nice look to it. It’s got just those wider serrations make it really easy to grab and pull back on that slide.

The sights were fine. They were three dot sights. Of course, they can be switched out if you want something different.

Two, they have a number of different models, even night sight versions on the Stoger website. They’re offering a number of different choices. This is really their basic model.

It’s one magazine, one back strap. It’s just simple, but we really enjoyed shooting this little firearm. It’s very reliable.

We didn’t have any malfunctions. It was just a pleasure to shoot. Even though it is the compact size, it seemed to shoot pretty flat.

While the trigger is not a competition trigger, it’s much better than the Glock. It has that take up, has that nice crisp break to it. It really allows for good accuracy and just great pointability and getting those second and third follow-up shots.

Even though it’s a budget firearm, it really has all the quality and all the features of any other striker fire polymer frame pistol on the market. Now for disassembly. Very similar to the Glock.

We’re going to drop our magazine, check to make sure the gun is unloaded. Now, just like the Glock, we go ahead and pull our trigger. But when you pull it back and you engage your slide stops, you pull it down, the trigger seems to pop back.

So then I just hit it and it comes right off. I tried that a number of different times to see if I was doing something wrong, but that’s pretty much the way you’re going to have to do it. Pull back your recoil spring.

It is stainless steel, flat recoil spring, and it is captive. This is a nice recoil spring. Then we have our barrel, very similar, if not identical to the Glock.

Guys, I’m telling you this, if they say that copying somebody is ultimate flattery, that’s what we have here. We have our striker safety right here, and then we have our striker, but very, very close to the standard Glock styling. And then, man, I’m telling you, with the interior, it is also identical down to the Crucible.

Glock’s Gen 3 patents have expired, and so obviously we’ve seen a lot of Glock compatible firearms coming out. And so I think that Stoger definitely took cues of a tried and true design and why reinvent the wheel. And you can see right here, this is where your serial number is going to be.

I haven’t tried putting on the Glock slide, but Nut and Fancy did attempt to put a slide on one of his, and it kind of stuck off the end. So I’m not really sure because of the frame size, but definitely I would not recommend putting a Glock slide on this firearm. Now for reassembly, we’re just going to drop in our barrel, recoil spring, and guide rod, and put it back over our rails, and our magazine, test your function.

Very simple, very easy to do. Box is simple, doesn’t surprise me with the price. You have a cardboard box inside a sleeve.

You get your pistol. It’s wrapped in this little band. You have a magazine loader.

We have our lock. We have, again, four plates, four optics mounting plates, and you get your owner’s manual. As far as pros and cons, huge pro, the price.

$329, manufacturer suggested retail, starting out, and of course you can move it up to different models, different packages. And that’s another plus. I mean, there’s a lot of different packages you can go with.

They are known very well for their shotguns. The STR9 seems to be very well received. A lot of people really like this firearm.

I’ve seen a lot of different reviews on it, and it’s just all been positive. This is definitely a very simple package with the one magazine and one back strap. I would definitely go with the multiple magazines.

It’s going to save you money in the end, you know, $35 for a magazine. And then you could probably find it in other places. That’s on the Stoger website, by the way.

So, you know, typically you can find these for a little bit less. Site compatibility is going to be a little bit of a chore. I’m not really sure what they are compatible with, if they are compatible.

I did some research. I just didn’t see anything about it, but I believe that Stoger does carry the night sights. And so if you want to go with that option, you know, you can’t.

I’m sure someone will find out exactly which sights fit these. It is an unknown because it’s, it came out in 2019. It’s only been out a couple of years.

You know, we’ll see how it plays out in the long run, but everything that I’ve seen and the parts seem to be really well done, well executed. This gun is made in Turkey. That’s going to bring the price down.

That’s going to be a con for some. German engineering though, brings that back up. And honestly, the Turkish firearm industry is just going crazy and they’re really bringing the prices down.

The grip texturing is excellent, but on the back, it is a little aggressive if you’re going to shoot a lot of rounds. But overall, we found out that, I mean, it really fits well in the hand. And so that really is what you want.

I love the serrations. They’re wide and they’re easy to grip. And I think the styling of the handgun itself is excellent.

So overall for a budget friendly firearm, somebody that, you know, really wants something that’s got good quality and yet they don’t want to break the bank. I think this is going to be an excellent choice. And then with the different sizes, even the subcompact version, you’re going to have even a better concealed carry piece.

And then again, you can go all the way up to the full size, to the tactical, just gives you a lot of choices. So guys, if you’re looking for a more budget-friendly option, check out the Stoger STR9 and 9C. And again, there’s a number of different models that they’re offering to fit.

I would highly recommend though, that you go ahead and get the package with the three magazines. The one magazine, there are pretty pricey and I highly recommend having extra magazines anyway. But just a great little solid feeling firearm, shoots very well, very reliable.

Again, made in Turkey, but Turkey is putting out some great quality firearms. And again, at a budget price. We appreciate Stoger for sending the STR9C for this review.

Now we really appreciate Sportsman’s Guide for being one of our sponsors. And they give a $20 off every hundred dollar or more purchase using SUCH, no zero zero. And they have all kinds of outdoor related camping, hiking, firearms, you name it, they’ve got it.

But one thing that I use them probably the most for is their military surplus from around the world. And if you join their buyer’s club, you get a better price and you get free shipping on most items. So check out Sportsman’s Guide. It’s a great resource.

 

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

 

-Don