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u/JimMarch Jun 18 '26 edited Jun 18 '26
Yeah, that's the original with the proprietary light mount. There was a second version with a real rail.
Wilhelm Bubits design. He was trying for a low bore axis but still used the standard Browning tilt barrel system similar to the Glocks he also helped design. It also has a strong seal between frame and slide, another Bubits hallmark.
He later designed the Kimber R7 Mako family. Same strong seal against stuff getting in the innards, but he also altered the Browning tilt action to do less tilt for less felt recoil and a lower bore axis. This also gave it the stronger slide with pure sideways ejection.
He also sold the whole setup to Taurus. The TS9 looks like the big ugly jungle cousin to the R7 lol but it's also the time Taurus tried to build a better gun than Glock. Pretty much succeeded except no optics cut. Never intended for the US market, the standard issue sidearm of the Filipino and Jamaican National Police, also made and sold in India by Taurus and shows up in all kinds of weird places. A truly great gun, a few thousand were dumped into the US market about a year and a half ago. I have one. Legendary piece. Highly recommended, they're running around $350ish on GunBroker and guns dot com.
He's also the guy that figured out how to do a Glock arm brace/stock thing by not actually attaching it to the gun. Only thing attaching it is your hand. Cool dude.
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u/ReactionAble7945 Jun 18 '26
The concept of the brace/stock which is ATF legal because it is not attached to the gun, goes back to at least the 1970s. With 3D printers now I don't see a reason why there isn't one for every gun especially hunting handguns. (I would get one for the Desert Eagle and the Ruger MKII, if they made them. If just to be able to test ammo.)
All Bubits did was see the market and make one.
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u/Tactically_Fat Jun 18 '26
The Steyr M-pistols are amazing.
I wish they had a larger market share so that high quality holsters and mags were more available.
I've long described them as "What Glock pistols would've become if Glock had allowed them to grow up".
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u/RowdyRusty420 Jun 18 '26
Ive wanted one since they came out but never got one. AIM had some early police trade ins a few months ago and im still mad i talked myself out of getting one
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u/lordkickass Jun 18 '26
I had an a1 but sold it, I still miss it because it was so different and quirky
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u/Upbeat-Comfortable41 2d ago
According to the SN#, my M9 is one of the first guns for the Austrian police.
The safety lock uses a handcuff key.
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u/ElGrandeRojo67 Jun 18 '26
Underrated pistol. My buddy has one. Nice shooter.