Just saw Honest Outlaw review on the Masada Slim 9MM. It has my interest and am wondering if any here have one, have tried one out, or any thoughts. I like that it is made by IWI, has a decent price of around $420 or so, has a full grip without any needed extender magazine with 13 round capacity, is optic ready, and looks to have decent trigger out of the box.
I am aware of pretty much all the options in the category and am not looking for "other suggestions", just mostly what people are thinking of the Masada Slim. My current pistol in the category is my original Walther PPS 9MM but the Masada slim has my interest for IWB carry. The specs for the Masada Slim does not show width but another review states about an inch and Handgun Hero shows 1.02 inches wide and 4.88 inches height.
I've been interested since it was released last year buy have yet to find one in person. I have a lot of CZ 75 mags, so the fact that they're intercompatible is a big plus to me.
Posts: 3322 | Location: Texas | Registered: June 17, 2003
I have one but haven't gotten to the range to shoot it yet. I wear large size gloves and the grip has room for all my fingers. I did find that I can pinch the edge of my hand between the bottom of the grip and the magazine baseplate on reloads. Take down involves the removal of a small pin that looks easy to lose. The trigger has a lot of take up and then a pretty clean break. I mounted a Holosun 507k and the factory sights are still usable. There is no rail for mounting a light. Not a lot of holsters available yet. IWI has some on their website and Detroit Holsters just included it on their list. My CZ75 compact magazines fit and protrude about 1/2" below the grip.
It's been my EDC since the 2nd range vist a few months ago. It replaced the HellCat Pro. I also have/had the others in this class: G43/48, 365XL, MC2C, Rex Delta M, Equalizer, KT P15 etc.
HG detailed the take-down, above. That's the only 'different' thing about it. The way it handles recoil is fantastic. I do not like the straight triggers that are all the fad right now. However, this one is narrow, with rounded edges, and I am not bothered in the least. I'm still old-school and release the slide with the 'stop'. It's got enough there to be quite positive in either the release, or manually locking it open.
The IWI rep said it will take full-size Jericho mags, also. The sights are Sig compatible.
What got you to switch from the Hellcat Pro to this gun? In a lot of ways they seem very similar.
quote:
Originally posted by VictorLouis: It's been my EDC since the 2nd range vist a few months ago. It replaced the HellCat Pro. I also have/had the others in this class: G43/48, 365XL, MC2C, Rex Delta M, Equalizer, KT P15 etc.
HG detailed the take-down, above. That's the only 'different' thing about it. The way it handles recoil is fantastic. I do not like the straight triggers that are all the fad right now. However, this one is narrow, with rounded edges, and I am not bothered in the least. I'm still old-school and release the slide with the 'stop'. It's got enough there to be quite positive in either the release, or manually locking it open.
The IWI rep said it will take full-size Jericho mags, also. The sights are Sig compatible.
We had one come through the shop recently; personally didn't give it much attention besides handling it a couple of times when showing it to customers, mostly because I haven't been that wowed by prior IWI pistols that have come through our inventory. Sat in the display case for about a month before a regular of a certain religious persuasion in line with that of Israel bought it (I only bring this up because those of the Jewish faith by a huge margin ask for and buy our Israeli-sourced inventory).
As in the video, it does remind me of the similarly priced Shield+ that serves as my secondary carry when the S&W has the 13rd mag onboard. I never tried the trigger of the Slim so I'm pretty useless for an opinion there. I don't exact know what it takes to make black polymer "pretty" or at least somewhat ok-looking, but IMHO IWI hasn't figured that out either. In hand it felt okay but the grip texture was only meh to me. The trigger undercut was very nice but otherwise the gun just didn't have any 'sparkle', which I will unashamedly admit is something that almost always has to exist in even the tiniest form on a gun before any gun will typically spark any interest at all. That littlest of attention-grabbing quirk applies to other designs like the Taurus G-series pistols and the new Stoeger handguns, two other lines that up to now I have zero interest in for much the same reason.
HO's review paints an intriguing picture, and the ability of the Slim to seat CZ mags is interesting, but the latter would've been more useful if the person had actually show footage of his Slim during live fire with CZ mags rather than merely showing that the mags locking into the Slim's magwell. For IWI I hope that the Slim proves itself to be a good one, but I have little interest in switching away from the Shield+ and S&W, both now well-entrenched and established in the civilian gun world. IWI on the other hand is a relatively minor player in the US market and has a long way to go in proving its long-term viability and sustainability in such a competitive marketplace, whether micro 9s or anything else.
-MG
Posts: 2268 | Location: The commie, rainy side of WA | Registered: April 19, 2020
Yeah I saw the takedown is a bit quirky but that would not be a deal breaker. I also noticed not many holsters available for it either. LGS is having their yearly factory shoot in a few weeks which I always go to and hopefully they will have one there for me to try out.
BBMW, the Slim handles recoil much easier, and has a far superior trigger. However, I am a huge fan of the OEM sights on the HC. I'd put those on everything if it were easy, LOL.
Originally posted by VictorLouis: BBMW, the Slim handles recoil much easier, and has a far superior trigger. However, I am a huge fan of the OEM sights on the HC. I'd put those on everything if it were easy, LOL.
I've got a range report to add on a Masada Slim that ended up following me home. I had a spare 507k from another project that I direct mounted to the slide. (Note, the optic mounting screws supplied by Holosun were too long, but IWI included the correct screws in the box. Torque spec was 8-10 in- lbs with blue loctite per the manual)
1. The grip angle feels closer to a cz75 than other polymer guns I own. This is a great feeling gun in hand for how thin it is. The grip texture, however, probably needs a stipple job or some talon grips on there. It is fairly slick without a ton of texture.
2. I put 150 rounds of mixed target ammo and 50 RDS of Speer GDHP +p through it. I still need to get some more rounds downrange before I am comfortable with carrying it, but early results were impressive. Side by side with a CZ PCR and an HK P2000, the Slim was faster and easier to shoot at 7 and 15 yards. In fact, this pistol was so "on" for me that it was close to the X-ring when sighting the optic in. Some range trips everything just lines up with certain pistols and it is easy going. The Masada Slim was easy to shoot and fed every ammo tested with no failures. CZ 75 pattern 14, 16, and 19 round magazines locked in place and functioned flawlessly. All I need are some grip sleeves.
3. The Slim is heavily sprung and has minimal recoil or muzzle rise. Having an optic mounted probably helps, but that leads me to one of the few gripes I have with it; with an optic mounted, there isn't a ton of room to pinch or C clamp to manipulate the slide. There are both forward and rear serrations, but the surface area for gripping is small. When you couple the somewhat heavily sprung dual recoil spring and small slide area, it is a challenge to practice clearing stoppages with the Slim. It would probably be easier without an optic mounted.
4. My example included meprolight night sights. They do not quite cowitness with the 507k, but you can still see the tips of the irons through the bottom of the optic reticle. The stock non-tritium sights apparently are taller and do cowitness with the 507k.
5. My expectations were low going in, as I typically prefer and carry Glocks. I was surprised by how handy the Masada Slim is and how well I shot with it. This is a fine pistol from my limited testing, and it appears to be a keeper. I will post some additional updates when I get some more rounds down range.
Posts: 795 | Location: FL | Registered: July 30, 2007
+++ For Honest Outlaw. I find his reviews to be well made and he often includes his wife in the tests, which gives me some insight as to the useability of the gun for women.
End of Earth: 2 Miles Upper Peninsula: 4 Miles
Posts: 16475 | Location: Marquette MI | Registered: July 08, 2014
I like honest outlaw too. There is an updated 1k round review.
Forgot to add about disassembly, it is a little wonky the first time to take the pistol apart. Steps:
1 Remove magazine 2 Lock slide open 3 Slide disassembly tab toward muzzle 4 close slide 5 move slide to the rear about 1/8 inch until grooves align. If it is lined up correctly the pin comes out with very little force. If there is too much resistance, it still isn't aligned right.
Posts: 795 | Location: FL | Registered: July 30, 2007
The fact that it takes CZ (compact) mags may have me looking out for one. I also go to Handgun Hero, or just search IWI Madada Slim vs. P365, for example. Holsters would be another hurdle to overcome.
Originally posted by SigSentry: The fact that it takes CZ (compact) mags may have me looking out for one. I also go to Handgun Hero, or just search IWI Madada Slim vs. P365, for example. Holsters would be another hurdle to overcome.
The LAG tactical defender kydex iwb holsters are good for the money. I think they run 40ish on drop shipper websites. I have one of those and have no complaints. I will follow up after I carry some using one.
Posts: 795 | Location: FL | Registered: July 30, 2007
