We’d heard Arsenal was coming out with a new pistol a while back thanks to some of our Russian readers, but we didn’t really have a good idea about what it was or what made it special. And we knew Arsenal’s conjoined 2011 side-by-side thingy wasn’t it. Check out this link to a Russian news program showing it off earlier this year — that’s all we had to go on. But now Arsenal has put up a website with all the juicy details in English so we can happily report what makes their first gun, the Strike One (will there be a Strike Two and – God forbid – a Strike Three?) special. And while it may look an awful lot like just another standard polymer frame pistol, this gun has one big advantage . . .

The Strike One has an EXTREMELY low profile compared to the competition. Yes, SIGs tend to be very tall guns due to the way they’re designed but these guys have made the Strike One such that the bottom of the barrel is practically flush with your knuckles. Can you say, ‘slide bite?’

What’s the benefit? For starters, that low bore axis greatly reduces muzzle flip. The closer you have the barrel to being in the center of your fist, the less upward movement you’ll experience when the gun goes bang. The muzzle flip in the video above looked only slightly worse than a Nerf gun.

The issue is that in order to get that barrel so close to your hand, they had to leave off a ton of material. This thing is so slimmed down that I actually have some concerns about its safety – concerns that only a torture test will alleviate (hint, hint Arsenal).

Here’s what the site says about the gun:

The Strike One semiautomatic pistol comes to the world scene in 2012 as a completely new and revolutionary gun. The Strike One semiautomatic pistol comes as the fastest, most controllable, most accurate and hard hitting service pistol available today on the world market. A full 5 inches cold-hammered barrel, along with a 75 Hrc surface Nitrite treatment for barrel, locking block, slide and operating pin industrial production standard, warrant safe and flawless use of the pistol in excess of 50.000 rounds. The frame of the Strike One was also engineered with exacting and unprecedented standards: the operating frame block, again made of the best 42CrMo4 steel, features long rails for total axial and torque control of all the moving parts, pins and springs. The frame itself, with it’s unique and true 3D hand grip (and not just “millings” on a flat surface) comes today as the only service pistol with a full fledged IPSC standard magazine insert “miniskirt”, allowing Special Operation and SWAT teams to work as if they were using a competition pistol. The trigger system of the Strike One, again like no other before, operates mainly on the horizontal plain, without raisers with variable and long, rubbery trigger pull, but with a crisp and short firing pin release: this is the secret, along with a lighting fast locking mechanism, behind the unbelievable semiautomatic firing speed of our pistol. Finally, thanks to the in-line barrel operation, the Strike One allows the development of a number of extremely innovative accessories, which base the designing and operative criteria on the “carrying in-line barrel”, such as for instance the LRC (Long Range Conversion).

According to the video, the gun will ship worldwide beginning in September. Needless to say, a T&E version is being requested but it might take some time to clear customs. Stay tuned.

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35 COMMENTS

    • I dunno.. I thought that giant “Contact Us” button over there on the right side of the page above the facebook and twitter links was pretty obvious.

      Maybe every post could use a “submit a tip / tip us” link at the end? Shouldn’t be too hard to implement.

  2. Another interesting option is that the gun will also be available with a metal frame (some aircraft type alloy, not steel).

    Can’t wait to see some test results with this one. Anyone have a beat on the MSRP?

  3. I find it odd that Mr. La Bruna, who looks like a professional shooter or, at the very least, an experienced competition shooter, is slapping the trigger. Maybe it’s just a pet peeve of mine, but follow through and trigger reset are critical functions of making both fast and accurate hits.

    • That’s exactly what I saw. It looks really strange to see someone shooting that fast with his finger flying all over the place.

    • Hi Henry. After you guys pointed out that I was “slapping the trigger” last week, I tried to focus on not doing that when I went to the range this week. Honestly, it just made things worse for me. Not only did my accuracy do down significantly, but a couple of times I accidentally fired an (unintentional) second shot! Not good. It may take a while for me to figure it out.

    • La Bruna is a very experienced and successful competition shooter. This obviously isn’t La Bruna’s competition gun. laugh. The lower muzzle flip is causing him to let it fall below center slightly after each shot. I don’t think muzzle flip is a big deal. You time it, let it come down on its own. Getting the shot off fast once it is down again is the big deal, how fast your eyes see the target and front sight after it comes down. Seeing. Agree with Enos (Enos, “Practical Shooting Beyond the Fundamentals”). Just what I need, another pistol too big to carry with a suit. They’re going to have a hard time delivering pm “the fastest, most accurate, most powerful, most hard-hitting” bit.

  4. The big innovation here is actually the locking block mechanism, which looks to be an adaptation of the Bergmann-Bayard 1910. Because the barrel doesn’t tilt, and only the locking block moves vertically, it should put significantly less force on the frame & rails, solving with clever design what Glock had to solve by adding another pin.

    This is the first really new thing in handgun actions since the Beretta Cougar/Px4 and its rotating barrel. It’s good to see that innovation hasn’t ended. The Browning action has certainly proved itself, but it’s not necessarily the last word.

    • Thanks for the history. I agree it is good to see some innovation.

      I like it and would consider buying it.

    • The Cougar/px4 was far from the first handgun to use the revolving barrel.
      the Colt All American preceded it by at least a decade. I am pretty sure someone else also used the revolving barrel lock-up.

    • I’d say it looks more like a combination of Caracal and Glock (and maybe just a dash of Walther). I’d like to see the MSRP on this and whether they’d have to put any trigger safety on it. It’s not the best looking pistol, but I like it thus far.

  7. 56 seconds into the video you see how to turn a $500 pistol (guessing) into a $1,500, ahhh, well……

    • Looked to me the only flat surface was left for the printing. Hard to screen or etch characters on serrations.

  9. “…operates mainly on the horizontal plain…”

    Grr. Plane. Grammar check your press releases.

  11. Wow. It has a barrel axle. And a miniskirt. Are native English-speaking editors really that expensive?

  13. I’d prefer to see a comparison between it and a glock or m&p instead of the highest barrel axis gun maker in the world.

    But it looks cool enough if they make it cheap i might even buy one.

  14. look closely at the diagram comparing it to the sig, and the quarter view picture of the pistol. it’s clear that they place the green line lower than it should be.

  15. Yeah, the Rooshins make stuff that’s oogly but works (Kalashnikov) and stuff that’s pretty and works (MiG-29, Su-35).
    I have a carry gun I like (Steyr S9). If it ain’t broke don’t fix it. And no, I can’t shoot as fast as Rob Leatham.

  16. I love innovation but the whole StrikeOne publicity program makes me cringe.

    Marketing videos that show guys shooting fast, demonstrating poor trigger control and sweeping everybody with the muzzle? Misleading photographs used to demonstrate the lowest bore axis ever? Terrible English.

    Is that really the best they can do? More importantly, is the gun assembled with an equally poor attention to details???

    Pistol might turn out to be good, but my intuition tells me that the bravado of the ads is covering up for something and that the pistol will turn out to be a big disappointment.

  17. Daver’s right on point… Probably be recalled for not being drop safe or something…. Looks good though. This handguns functions best after imbibing a liter bottle of Stoli (for export) Than throw safety and technique out the window…Schooootr redy…..We will see if its any good… Comrade

  18. I am embarrassed at how little of the Russian language I remember. But I have always loved the Russian style of marketing products, it’s a cultural thing. You might remember Chekov on Star Trek often announcing how the Russians invented everything from airplanes to telephones. As to this particular pistol, Im liking it. I should mention that at this very moment I have a 1st gen Glock 17 on my hip…… some bad juju going on in the ‘hood recently.

  19. Would love to get one in Canada if priced as glock. Was watching presentation on strike one in Russian and the rep specifically noted that pistol was not expensive

  20. I wrote the company. They advised that they will have a .45 ACP Version and Sig .357 Version coming out in 2015. They also advised that a .22 Long Rife And .22 WMR version are currently in the works.

  21. I worked for the D.O.D. as a Weapon Designer in my other life and the Militaries ideas of practicality is simply nothing like the Civilian Markets ideas of practicality. I have worked on special projects where the dumbest ideas were pushed through as the best solutions to a problem which did not exist many times, and i was once told to develope a 45 Long Colt pump actioned fully supressed carbine for the Navy Seals to use. Funny thing is… The Navy had never made that request. But the Russian D.O.D. ( I had friends there at the time) were trying to please the Civilian Market before they tried to please their own Military. So please cut them a little slack. Have you ever heard of their 50 caliber hangun? It beats anything we have ever come up with yet and its comfortable to shoot!

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