Yes of course that title is a bit tongue in cheek, but bear with me.

So I got a new HK CC9 in yesterday and managed to get it out to the range today. I ran about 175 various rounds. I figured I would post some initial thoughts about it with the range trip fresh in my mind. This isn't meant to be a review or any kind of long term thing. Just my first thoughts about the gun as they came to me. Keep in mind yesterday was literally the first time I held or even saw one in the real world. I know nobody cares about my rambling hot take but no matter how subjective it is I think data points are a good thing for those researching on the web now or in the future.

-Ok about that title. The biggest internet meme/complaint is that the HK CC9 looks a bit like a Taurus and in pictures it absolutely does, much less so in person though. In my opinion once in hand the gun reminds more of an evolution of the first generation of the Walther PPS, like if Walther had not radically changed the M2 and just melted, slightly changed the design language a bit and eventually got to a PPS M3 variant along this "time line". That is sort of the vibe I get from the HK CC9 in hand/practice.

-It was 100% reliable with not one hint of an issue over 5 magazines both 12 round and 10 round flush fit. I ran 175 rounds of the following.
*50 rounds of Staccato 124 grain
*50 rounds of Norma 115 grain
*50 rounds of Federal HST 124 grain
*25 rounds of Speer Gold Dot 124 grain with around 10 of them +P

-I did "break it in" as I do all my guns in general by cleaning and lubing out of the box, working the slide/dry firing, leaving the slide locked back until the first range session and in the case of these itty bitty mags that hold a ton of ammo I pre loaded them. YMMV all I can say is this has always worked well for me along with breaking in with hotter and or heavier for caliber ammo.

-The sights are good. I like blacked out rear and high viz front sights and these worked well for me, although I prefer orange on the front. My only beef with the sights is my main beef with all optics ready handguns, they should all come with sights slightly higher then normal to accommodate optics. They don't need to be suppressor height but something in between. These sights are far too low, IMO, for a likely co-witness. That said I likely won't be running a dot on this gun so no personal harm or foul and I like the sight picture.

-The trigger is good, not amazing but good. About the same as the earlier VP9s. All in all I think I like this trigger second best of the experiences I have had.
*The Glock slim lines can have a REALLY good trigger or a really bad one. I prefer the good Glock triggers.
*While I haven't set aside six years to shoot all 300 variants of the P365 I would say the SIG triggers are smoother but much more vague/rolling.
*The Hellcat triggers are much heavier
*The Shield arguably has a great trigger but there is something about it I don't like. Not sure what really.

So all in for me I put the day one CC9 trigger just below my fairly nice Glock 48 trigger and above the rest.

-So how did it shoot? HK is know for their teutonic space magic and it took them a long time and lots of testing to bring their first super thin, tiny, light weight 9mm to the market and I can confidently say it shoots.......pretty much like a super thin, tiny, light weight 9mmm. . In all seriousness it is very comfortable to shoot and I would put it on par in the same class as the Shield Plus. I would rank them in my experience as Glock 48 (which isn't really fair since it has a much longer barrel, sight radius, weight up front etc.), Shield/CC9, Glock 43X, P365/X/XL, Hellcat series. in terms of how pleasurable / easy they are to shoot. Of course all of this is very subjective. The CC9 does shoot really well in comparison to its peers.

-The big complaint I kept reading about the controls are that the slide lock / release is difficult to use. I found no issue. It was a little stiff early on but a 3 or 4 mags in it loosened up nicely.

-The magazines are well made, eject forcefully and easy load into the gun with a full mag. I ran several +1 strings and never had any functional issues nor was seating the mags ever an issue. Honestly may be the best of the bunch in this regard IMO.

-Loading the mags the first time or two is the typical PITA that all these new stack and half offerings are. Use a mag loader and you can fairly easily get that 12th round in. After letting the mags sit over night loaded and 2 or 3 reloads I was able to load them by hand, albeit that last round was still a beast. My point is it seems like these will wear in nicely and be more or less hand loadable.

-The gun is sprung REALLY heavily from the factory. Typical HK of course and likely will add to the longevity but this is not a "Smith and Wesson EZ" experience to charge the gun at least out of the box.

-The rear slide serrations are very sharp (in a good way) they really bit into my hands and made manipulating the slide easy. The front serrations feel more muted to me but I didn't use them as much.

-While I am one of the paddle mag release faithful I am able to run the same manual of arms basically as the mag release, although its a button is ROUGHLY in the same position I would come back with my trigger finger on the paddle. Why do I like the paddle releases? I dunno maybe its just my inner hipster wanting to be different, but I prefer them.

-Fit and finish is HK excellent and on point. This doesn't feel like a Taurus.

-Of all the "micro nines" I have experience with the CC9 and the Hellcat series far and way feel the most robust, over built. The others all feel varying degrees of, not necessarily fragile but not nearly up to the standards of their fuller sized brethern. The CC9 feels like an HK pistol....just smaller.

-The grip is really nice and at least to me is a bit like a mix of P2000sK with a little P30/VP9SK in it only much thinner of course. It feels good, points well for me and is want I wanted as it "FEELS" like my other HKs so to speak.

-Accuracy seemed very good. This was my first time even holding the CC9 much less shooting one so I had to find my grip and what not but it felt fairly mechanically accurate at least at 10 yards. I still wrestle with pushing this super thin guns a bit left but that's an Indian problem not an arrow issue.

Overall I am tickled pink with this thing. It is seemingly very reliable, feels like the small HK I wanted, shoots well, seems to be made to HK standards, still lets me have basically the same manual of arms (even thought I WANT MY PADDLES DAMMIT!!!) is pretty shootable and is basically mostly what I wanted in an HK Micro 9 offering.

Biggest surprise for me is how much I liked the flush fit 10 shot mag. It just BARELY gives me a third finger grip. It felt great actually.

So anyway this is nothing more than a rambling first fresh thoughts of the HK CC9. I Have come away pretty impressed and happy with my purchase. I cannot speak to how well it carries as I have not had a chance to yet and wouldn't have done so without vetting it. I do have a nice Tulster holster for it and I certainly don't imagine it will be any kind of chore to carry this little thing.

Is it something really special? No not really and if you are happy with the micro 9 you have I don't think there is a compelling reason to change. Add yes, change probably not. It is however showing itself to be an excellent addition to the field and one that I am liking more than most of the others.

Thanks for your insights. The Shield+ has been my backup of choice for the past year or so, so it's good to read that the CC9 is at least on par with the S&W. Just shows that all of the time that HK took on developing their first micro 9 was well spent.

Thanks Chris, that was a great review, a good read, and I appreciate all the detail. I don't know why, but I've been intrigued by this one since they released it. Oh, and the fact that they didn't put those stupid paddles on it makes me about 75% more likely to buy one!

Here are my targets from today. All at 10 yards. All with the small backstrap, which I have changed over to the larger one. Like most super thin guns I have a tendency to pull a bit a left, that's all me not the gun.

1st rounds through the gun. First time shooting a CC9 or even really handling it so this trip was a bit of learning experience as much as a vetting one.



2nd rounds through the gun. I was playing with my grip and sights and still pushing a bit left. I got so excited I shot it upside down.



3rd rounds through the gun, the powderpuff stuff.



All in all I am fairly happy with this considering the role of the gun as well as my unfamiliarity with it at this point. I have installed the larger backstop and that seems to fit me a little better and I SEEM to be pushing less left with it installed. As I said above so far I am pretty darn happy with this thing.

quote:

Oh, and the fact that they didn't put those stupid paddles on it makes me about 75% more likely to buy one!

You shut your dirty whore mouth ya unwashed heathen!!!

Thank you for the review.

Appreciate the first impressions. I keep checking the distributors multiple times a day for a CC9, no luck yet. I’ll definitely pick one up eventually.

I love mine. I just put a Holosun on it. HK needs to hurry and make some tall tritium sights for it since the Holosun sits too high for the stock irons to be used as back-up sights. It would also be cool to see them make an adapter plate for an RMRcc which I would prefer to the Holosun.

Took me a few sessions to get used to it, but I shoot it pretty well now.

The new VP9-A1 K and F models are fantastic. I bought one of each. Very smooth shooting guns these new VP9s.