BOBERG XR9-L - A 'Bullpup' Pistol:

I spent a couple of hours last Sunday morning at the 'Outdoor Market' held weekly at the Riccarton Racecourse.

- An interesting place with live musicians, stalls selling foods, clothing, craft-goods, antiques (junk) and old tools. - It seems to be popular with tourists, "poms" (that's me) - and asians of all sorts .. we enjoy the hunt and bargaining over the prices.

I bought some organic veggies - spinach and carrots complete with attached soil, a take-away Egyptian Kushari meal (yummie) - and a couple of pre-loved books.

One of the books I bought is 'Guns Illustrated 2009'  - cost me all of $6. - well worth it and I spotted the reference to Boberg appearing at the 2008 SHOT Show on page 22. - This set me off on researching these sub-compact semi-autos - and I really liked what I learnt.

- Seems these Bobergs are the brain-child of American Arne Boberg who made his first handgun at the age of fourteen (- and it is a well made piece too).

Different Magazine - Doesn't even need a Spring Follower.

Seven Shot Capacity (7+1)

These production guns are a sort of "bull-pup" semi-auto pistol that uses a backwards magazine feed system whereby the cartridges are loaded nose first and are pulled-out backwards and lifted into line with the rotating barrel and then chambered - see the videos eh.

That "reverse feed system"  from the magazines allows the barrel and chamber to be located about one inch further rearwards than normal - by approx. the length of the cartridge. (- A 9mm ball round measures around 1.17 inches long).

 - So it's another American sub-compact carry gun - and it's not cheap either - so what? - Well the special point for us New Zealanders is that the compact XR9-L is built with a 4.2 inch barrel and remains very short with an overall length below 6 inches.

That full-length 4.2" barrel gives as much as 100 foot per second extra velocity over say a 3 inch jobbie - but the special significance for kiwis is that this design complies with the NZ Police rule that a handgun must have a four inch barrel to be deemed suitable for sporting target shooting ('B-Cat').

Have a  look at Hickok45 trying one of these Bobergs:

This is a "snubbie" - but Hickok45 Hits The Gong
at 80 yards up range (240 foot) !

- There you go - the design function is all clearly understood now eh .. "Right"

These Bobergs are precision made and are very accurate guns. The frames are fully machined from aluminium and the slides are stainless steel. - We are talking 'Custom Gun' quality here - and like most precision tools - they are choosy about their ammunition (tight chambers) .. some ammo. brands are unsuitable for use as the bullets are not crimped into the case tightly enough and when the XR9 action yanks the cartridge back from the magazine to feed-up and chamber it - the bullet may get inertia "pulled" and jam the whole shooting match in a shower of lost bullet & spilled propellant!

www.bobergarms.com is well worth a look and there is video on site including a factory look / interview. - Youtube has reviews aplenty too.

- Light recoiling, handles +P ammunition, is easy to rack the slide (- it has a light return spring), is very accurate (non-tilting barrel) and well made ..

- I'm picking that the Boberg XR9-L Two-Tone model would be our best value option for a small precision Rotating Barrel Locked-Breech, target quality pistol - not cheap, - but neither is a flash 'race-gun'.

Marty K.