I have long awaited this since I caught wind of it more than a year ago...! I have wanted one badly since that moment.... It was the talk of the town, the "it" item this past Shot Show almost a year ago.... It's probably the most innovative/unique pistol design to come to fruition in ages....
Ladies & Gents, the long awaited, much anticipated Hudson H9 (generic photo)
I'm almost beside myself that I got my hands on one! So far only one production run has occurred with 2000 examples made so with high demand, that spreads them pretty thin over the whole US! My friends can back up my claim of clamoring about getting one for some time. I put the bug in the ears of a number of my friends/FFL holders about trying to get one as I knew it would be a major task at best. Well low and behold, my USPSA club's home range just so happened to get 2 of the H9's sent in rather unexpectedly. Probably the only 2 in the state! Yesterday was our normal Friday night club match which was on black friday no less. The place was swamped too! I'm on good terms with the owners there and in passing I mentioned to them thet I heard the H9's were finally shipping and If they got one or can order one, count me in. He said we have 2 right now but they have been claimed and only 2000 were produced so far. I was defeated! But, he said, one is paid for already, the other was just a verbal intent to buy. The guy has until close of business to come pay for it. (we shoot till 9pm) So 8pm rolls around and he hadn't shown up, money talks and BS walks! I appreciate his tardiness and feel genuinely lucky that things panned out the way they did. Not many people have one of these pistols. The release of these guns was supposed to be many months ago but I found out that the owners of Hudson ran into a big debacle with the manufacture they were having build their design. They were given a quote of ------- amount to build them which they paid and later on the manufacture said they needed more money after the fact. Well it turned into a big court case and litigation and this all pushed the release till here a week or two ago. They finally made it happen but who knows, maybe the 2000 produced will be the only ones made? Hard to say.
My 1st impressions of the gun are of utter satisfaction and astonishment! The claims of the design are all true in my initial impression, it's a fantastic gun! The proprietors of the brand, a retired military husband & wife had a really neat story of how this gun came to be. They were both former collegiate bullseye shooters that had a love for the 1911. Neither wanted to be lifetime military and they wanted something else to forge on with and they chose to design firearms. They wanted a gun that had the best of the attributes of the 1911 but without some of the less desirable features but it had to be unique and innovative. They roughed out where they wanted to start on paper (here's a really cool part of this story) and they went to the 1st engineering team that had zero firearms related experience so that no previous notions of where things/features of a gun should be. Once that phase of design was completed, test guns made, etc, they took the initial design to firearms engineers to fine tune the design into the very unique gun you see above! That is the short of it but I highly recommend anyone with interest to check out the video links to the Hudson story below. Really neat stuff!
The Details:
The gun is entirely made from forged steel. No polymer on this baby! It's chambered in 9x19, double stack, striker fired, and single action. It has a unique look due to the designed in, super low bore axis. It is certainly the lowest riding pistol I've ever held! The low riding bore made it a necessity to relocate the recoil spring and guide rod into the space in front of the trigger guard, giving it a unique look. It uses a Browning short recoil action but the camming surfaces are quite a bit different than anything else and much farther forward than other designs. They wanted the H9 to be a striker fired gun but with the feel of a crisp, light, straight back pull of a 1911 trigger. They executed this aspect very well! It does have a 2-piece drop safe type trigger with a bottom hinged trigger shoe that slightly presses into the trigger body to a linear, straight back pull to a light, crisp break and a very short, discernible reset. It features very svelte design and feel, super smooth & slick action, fine checkering on the front/rear strap, nice high beavertail, slender VZ G10 grips, and while it is an all steel gun, it doesn't feel too heavy in the hands. It has a wonderful balance and weight distribution that feels amazing. It is a double stack gun but it feels no bigger than a standard 1911 but with a better shape to the grip frame. It has a nice black, serrated rear U-notch sight and a Trijicon tritium front blade. The firing impulse is very subdued and flat, transferring most of the energy straight back with minimal vertical deviation. We were able to but the entire magazine into about a golfball size group at 10yds, offhand without any trouble. All in all, it's everything I've hoped for and more! So glad and fortunate to get one!
The whole story! Worthwhile stuff!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1LNq1x7-5E
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1LNq1x7-5E
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Originally Posted by vzerone
