These days there are more 9 mill pistols than you can count. You can pay anywhere from just over 200$ to well, well over 1000$.
Now, most people are not interested or don’t have the coin for 700-dollar pistol. Question is what can you get for under 300$? Well, you can frequently find Stoegers STR9 for under 300.
I’m Drew Case form BeyondSeclusion bringing you the reviews directly here to gun.deals where I only give you my honest opinion and it is what it is.
Now, actually I have found and reviewed several 9 mill pistols for under 300$, have performed as well or better than many of the double or triple that cost.
Let’s see how the STR9 performs. I’ve got two, I’ve got just kind of a standard STR9, the full size, and then I have the Optics Ready, which is just a little bit shorter. Other than the barrel length and the ability ‘optics ready’, they are identical in everything, trigger pull, breakdown, everything, so that’s why I actually gonna review both of them together.
Ok, so for the optic I’m testing Viridian’s new RFX35,ok, I’m gonna have this on a completely separate review, but you’re gonna see some overlap because, obviously, I’m testing the Stoeger Optics ready with an optic on it.
Ok, let’s just take a quick look at the specs and tech in an up close before we start with both of these.
STR9 Specs and Tech
4.68” Barrel
26.4oz (unloaded)
17+1 rd. mags
Drift-adjustable 3-dot Sights
Semi-Auto, Striker-Fired
Aggressive Slide Serrations
LOW bore axis reduces muzzle climb
Internal trigger safety
Ambi Mag release
3 Interchangeable Backstraps (does not come with)
Easy Take-down
As you would expect with, you know, something at this price level, you know, it actually has a really good instruction manual. Pretty simple when we open it up, this bans was around here, I took that off, ok. We come with a lock, nothing fancy, and a mag loader.
First thing I notice when I’m looking at this is it does have interchangeable backstraps. They don’t send the different backstraps. That’s one thing I would recommend considering changing. If I’m gonna have interchangeable backstraps I’d like to have them and I don’t necessarily wanna order them because I’m not sure how they’re gonna fit. I think for the cost of the polymer and the backstraps they really should include that.
It’s got some scallops here for the mag, I like that, you know, if for some reason like here it’s a little stiff. We’ve got a nice stainless steel mag. As far as the ergonomics and the grip I will say it’s very comfortable, I really like that.
We’ve got the slide release up here. We’ve got the safety built into the trigger, it is striker-fired. We have iron sights, ok, and they’re metal not polymer, I really like that. Also make sure and include the white dots which I think is important. We’ve got the chamber indicator up here.
It is not complete ambidextrous, we’ve got a nice rail here, and it’s gonna have, you know, what I consider the classic sort of Glock breakdown which I really like. Double check and we’re empty here.
This is like most of them, it’s not gonna pull down until we fire or pull the trigger. Pull that back, that slides down, our slide comes off and then we have quick and easy disassemble. Now, this is a really popular way of doing it. Slides back on and away we go.
We’ve got some really aggressive serrations here, which I like, ok, they have a sharp edge facing towards your fingers, the way that you would push, and that’s it, you know, this is kiss. Got a scallop here for thumb placement.
Then we go to the optics version. Everything is the same except we do have the different plates which allows us a fairly good variability with optics and I really like this, I’ve had a few, you know, Springfield, had one or it was the Ruger, and you had to get the plate separate and that’s just nonsense to me, if you’re gonna have an optics ready pistol then you need to have the variety of plates so that the person doesn’t have to order the plate separate. You shouldn’t have to order anything separate. Same thing then with the backstrap, ok.
And then up here we have this nice tapered ergonomic, you know, nice looking plate. We’ll take that off, I’ll get an optic mounted here and then everything else is gonna be the same. I do see that the trigger is just a little bit different on this one. Let’s just do a side by side comparison.
We have the optics version compared to just the basic, it is ever so slightly shorter. Other than that they appear to be identical other than the trigger. The trigger is a little bit more curved with the Optics Ready. The safety is a little bit more pronounced on that, but everything else is gonna be the same. For whatever reason, on this version we have a little more straight or flat trigger.
The screws that are holding here down the optics cover, where I’m gonna put the plates, are just, you know, regular screwdriver. That I don’t care for, I’ve had, over the years, bad luck with these stripping much more so than the torques. I would like to see these as torques or an Allen wrench.
You know, and the feed that I gave Stoeger is you really need, and this is actually for any pistol optics ready that has the plates or anybody that makes the optics, got to have screws that are of the highest strength that are torques, ok. I have ran into it with almost all the optics out there, the red dots that go on pistols, screws that strip easy, that break, that aren’t hex, ok, and they strip there as well, so all that are watching, don’t skimp on screws for any and all the above.
Anyway, just a couple of things I wanted to note, I’ve done a lot of turrets reviews and a lot and a lot of these screws are not loctited, these are. The thing is, this is not wanting to come free. I’m gonna have to work on this to get this off so I can get my plate on it, it’s kind of stuck on there.
I finally got it off. I’ll be honest with you guys, I had to get a little handheld torch and heat this up and take a plastic mallet, I had to bang the crap out of this to get it to break free, it just did not want to come off so, you know, with turrets we had a problem with, they don’t loctite, they got a little too much loctite on here or something because this was a real son of a gun to get it off, but we got it off, so let’s get the optic mounted.
I got this zeroed, using the Winchester ammo. Special thanks Winchester providing the ammo for this review. Let’s just see what I can do at 50 yards with the Stoeger STR9 with this Viridian red dot before we go back to the CQB range and use both, the red dot and non-red dot version of the STR9.
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I think I got that dialed in. I’m gonna go ahead and do 10 more.
Take a look here, see what we got.
That’s what we got for sight picture at 50 yards.
Alright, I just shot my second round of 10 there of the Winchester. I think it’s a nice group, let’s go check it out.
Alight, I had some over here. I started off and I had about three there and then I adjusted up and to the right I came up a little high and then I adjusted down and I think, guys, I’m pretty happy with that. You know, benching with a 9mm 50 yards, that’s not bad, that works for me. Let’s go back and have some fun in the CQB range on some steel.
Hey, real quick, I get lots of questions on the IPRO, ok, these are my Leupold pack outs. There’ll be a link there you can check those out.
When it comes to load mags, if you don’t have an UpLula, you are behind the curve.
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Ok, let’s just see what we can do here with the Stoeger. We’re gonna go with the one, with the Viridian RFX35 here, got some Winchester ammo.
Nice bright green dot, this should be relatively simple.
I like that!
Let’s go 25 yards there. Where is my green dot, there it is.
That worked. I love this smell of Winchester gunpowder in the afternoon.
Nice, that was 50 and 60!
Getting down there at 60, that’s gonna be more challenging with the iron sights and that’s where red dot’s come in. Now, some people just like red dots, like I said, I like the iron sights for the close, definitely like the red dots for the distance.
Let’s go to the STR9, this one is just the good old, and for some folks this is why they like kiss, keep it simple stupid. Metal iron sights that aren’t budging even when you tap on them with a hammer. Let’s see what we can do the good old-fashioned, kiss-way, with some iron sights here.
And I’ll be honest with you guys, if you’re talking CQB and you’re talking short transition, I can always shot faster and put them on target with iron sights. The big thing is in low light, when I can’t see my iron sights then that’s when I have a huge advantage with a red dot or I’m going at distance and I know a lot of people are like ’Why would you be shooting at 50 to 100 to 200 yards with a pistol?’, because it’s fun and I like to, and that’s why I like to have red dots on my pistols, but when it comes, you know, self-defense, CQB, daylight, you cannot beat iron sights, in my opinion, even with crappy vision.
Now, I will say this feels good in the hands, guys. This STR9 is a good shooter, let’s go 25 yards here with just the iron sights.
That’s proof in the pudding!
I’m easily excitable, you know, just ask my soon-to-be wife, and she loves shooting too, so she knows exactly what I’m talking about.
A mag dump, yeah, at 10 yards, that’s, yeah, ok, yeah, that’s exciting, but to do a mag dump and have them on target at 25 yards, that’s gonna get everybody excited.
Says a lot about the gun!
That says a lot about the recoil and how it handles, and this is straight out of the box with the iron sights. No way can I do that with a red dot, yeah, I’m shouting because I found that fun.
The guns like this they should scare the shit out of the big boys, ok, I’m not gonna mention any names, you know, the big players that are charging 6, 700$, again, because when I can do this with a gun that’s less than 300$, and, you know, a lot of these are coming out of Turkey, you know, these things are rock solid, they perform well, they have undergone some serious torture tests.
That is awesome for you and I shooters because that is gonna drive down prices that up the competition in our favor. Alright, let’s see how fast I can transition here using the iron sights. I’ll start at 25 yards and I’ll work my way over and work my way back.
Before I forget, because I’m thinking ahead now, I’ve got a laser light that I would like to use. We’ll see, you know, I’m hopping, maybe Stoeger is gonna let me hang on to this. I would like them to send me the backstraps, I would like to try these, include these in the follow-up video, you know, I get to hang on to this, I’m gonna include and do, I can’t remember the company, they sent me a laser light, and, you know, I might have to do some other ones, you know, reach out 200, see what we can do with this.
Anyway, real quick, let’s just see what we can do at 100 yards with just the STR9 with iron sights.
That’s not bad. I wanna do a follow-up, especially with the Optics Ready. I wanna do some more, I mean, that was just standing here with some wind going on. I wanna see what I can do benching 100, maybe 200. We’re gonna do the follow-up how far can we go with an STR9 with the pistol under 300$.
