PCC Not PC

More Blue Sky? (with Colonel Smoothbore)
By angelamontana

Posted: November 22, 2015

Last week we looked at the newest Smith & Wesson® Performance Center Shield™. This time I thought a short comparative look at another small carry pistol would be helpful to those of you in the market for a personal defense handgun. Here’s a quick primer on the very good, yet inexpensive SCCY (pronounced SKY) pistols.

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bluesky2SCCY Industries, LLC was founded by Joe Roebuck in 2003. Roebuck’s aim was to produce an American made, reliable, and inexpensive 9 MM pistol. In my opinion, he has succeeded. SCCY produces 2 pistol models: the CPX-1 and the CPX-2. These are second generation pistolsbluesky3 that are nearly identical. The only difference is the CPX-1 has a manual safety, the CPX-2, no manual safety. Here’s a closer look at both models.

The gun are chambered in 9MM Lugar only. They can handle +P ammunition, but SCCY suggests that it only be used for self-defense purposes. Practice ammunition should be of the standard pressure type. (A side note; the NRA does not recommend +P bluesky4or Magnum ammunition for home defense purposes. The potential for over penetration in a home is the main factor for this suggestion).  The pistols have a 3.1 inch steel barrel and steel slide. The frame is Zytel polymer with a heat treated aircraft grade aluminum receiver. The trigger is double action only (DAO) with an internal hammer and inertial firing pin for added drop safety. The guns sport a captured recoil spring, 3-dot sights-windage adjustable rear, and they come with (2) ten round double stack magazines with two base plates each. Each pistol is 4 inches high, 1 inch wide, about 5 ¾ inches long, and they weigh about 15 ounces empty. All in all, a very compact and lightweight package. The guns can be had with frames in various colors including a rather cool purple. One can also upgrade to stainless parts for a small fee.

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I have had a couple of opportunities to shoot a SCCY pistol and found them to be very reliable little guns. I shoot revolvers a lot and the DAO trigger on the SCCY guns rebluesky6minds me of the double action trigger pull one might find on a good S&W J frame; about nine pounds in pull weight. My own experience indicates to me the guns are suitably accurate for self-defense purposes. The author of one of the reviews I read complained about accuracy problems, but did admit he might not be that experienced with the DAO trigger function. As always, practice and lots of it usually cures most inaccurate shooting. Over the last few years, a couple of my students acquired SCCY pistols and really liked them. For both, ergonomics was the key factor in their decision to buy the guns.

Even though my experience with SCCY pistols is somewhat limited, I found them to extremely reliable, as did all the reviewers of the articles I have studied, and again accuracy was more than acceptable. The colored frames add a bit of sex appeal and one can find base models for around $ 240.00. These little pistols are a great value and I do recommend you give them a look if you are interested in a good carry/ self-defense pistol.

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Be safe and good shooting.

Colonel Smoothbore

www.guncoach.net

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