Wilson Combat released a video last week on the topic of sighting in pistols. But that’s not what caught our attention. It seems Wilson, on the down-low, has shown us a radically new, un-cataloged gun.
If you watch the video, it happens almost by slight of hand. Ken Hackathorn is demoing some stuff with mags, then picks up a strange pistol and starts shooting for a group.
The strange thing is the pistol in hand seems to be styled like a Wilson Combat product, but is…striker fired. Ok, you say. It’s probably a P320 or P365 with a Wilson grip module. Sure…but the controls don’t match, the extractor doesn’t match, the area around the slide stop doesn’t match and it takes X9, 15 round magazines.
Hmmmm…that ain’t no SIG.
And here’s where it gets really interesting. If you look at the gun when it’s sitting on the ladder, it obviously has a grip safety. There seem to be grip panels in the same shape as the ones found on the X9, but I can’t be certain if they are removable. The magwell seems integral to the frame, so that could mean it’s polymer. But the front sight looks 100% from the X9.
So in summation it appears Wilson Combat has a X-Framed, possibly polymer, striker-fired pistol, with a grip-safety.
But I am not done. Above is what I can see. Here are my guesses regarding what I can’t:
- It could be metal framed, but logic tells me Wilson might be looking for a category-killer in the polymer market. And they already make the SIG grip modules, so the money / R&D has already been invested in polymer.
- I wasn’t able to see the left side of the gun but I don’t think it has a thumb safety. Most polymer guns don’t. But we are talking about Wilson Combat. They already have thumb safeties figured out. Maybe this will be like the P320 v M17. The user can have either.
- And finally…I go back and forth on the trigger. Sometimes it looks like a pivoting trigger, but other times I wonder if it’s a short slider (1911 style). Instinct tells me it “should” have a slider since they are a 1911 company and that might mean more commonality in parts with the X9. Read that as less redesigning of the X-frame. But I don’t know what they had to do to get the striker mechanism in the back. And a trigger-bar off a pivoting trigger would sit higher, putting it closer to a theoretical striker sear surface. BUT…this gun does have a grip safety. So that might work better with a 1911 slider-style bow.
No matter which way you look at this gun, it’s NOT just another Glock clone. Something is up here. Something big.
In this article are included a myriad of screen shots for the reader to come to their own conclusion, and I have also embedded the video from Wilson Combat’s Youtube channel.
Finally…in full disclosure, I have saved a copy of the video just incase its release was some kind of mistake and they pull it. Or…and I think this is more likely, Wilson did this intentionally to see if someone would notice.
Well…someone over here noticed.
Sincerely,
Marky
www.John1911.com
“Shooting Guns & Having Fun”
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