Coonan .357 Magnum Automatic with Compensated Barrel (courtesy coonaninc.com)

Some gun grabbers say that anyone who shoots a gun (or drives a Corvette) is compensating for something. In fact, Sigmund Freud associated retarded sexual development with a fear of guns. Neuroses aside, a “compensator” is another word for a “muzzle brake”: an end-of-barrel device used to “redirect propellant gases with the effect of countering both recoil of the gun and unwanted rising of the barrel during rapid fire.” At the risk of returning to the original proposition, the problem with handgun compensators is bulk. Unless you’re used to a Peter North-sized pistol in your pants, a compensated handgun is about as useful for concealed carry as an SOG Tactical Tomahawk. But compensated handguns are ideal for target shooting, especially larger caliber firearms like Coonan’s $1375 .357 Magnum Automatic. The only drawback? Money. How much? So much they ain’t sayin’. Still, if you’ve got a big wad (of cash), who cares? Press release after the jump . . .

Coonan, Inc. is proud to announce the new Compensated Pistol to its .357 Magnum Automatic line.

With an extended barrel length to 5.7”, the Compensated Pistol is ideal for reduced recoil resulting in greater accuracy from a top-of-the-line performer.

“The Compensated Pistol is real pleasure to fire,” says Dave Dietz, Marketing Director for Coonan, Inc.

“There is not another pistol on the market like the Coonan .357 Magnum Automatic, and when you combine that with such amazing light-recoil, the Compensated Pistol is truly a shooter-friendly addition to the Coonan family.”

With all the standard 1911 features of the traditional Coonan, the Compensated Pistol .357 Magnum Automatic comes with dovetail front and rear sights, solid stainless steal slide and frame, 7 rounds +1 magazine, and finishes out with smooth Black Wallnut grips.

The Compensated Pistol is 48.8 oz. empty and 52.8 oz. loaded, and has a height of 5.6” and width of 1.3”. With the increased barrel length, the pistol is 10.5” in overall length.

To learn more about Coonan, Inc., call 763.786.1720 or visit www.coonaninc.com

Read more at Ammoland.com: http://www.ammoland.com/2013/02/coonan-357-mag-automatic-compensated-pistol/#ixzz2JkKrmLIp

38 COMMENTS

  1. My biggest problems with revolver powered autos is the length of the .357 cartidge translates into a long grip from front to back. Makes it a bad fit for my hand. I haven’t tried the Coonan but the old auto mags were just not right for my hand.

  2. @RF – that Freud quote is incorrect. In fact your Wikipedia link prove that further. Stick with the facts bro – just the facts. 🙂

    • “The representation of the penis as a weapon, cutting knife, dagger etc., is familiar to us from the anxiety dreams of abstinent women in particular and also lies at the root of numerous phobias in neurotic people.”

      I think RF is right.
      ….and I think it explains DiFi….

  3. Just take a drill press to your slide and create your own “speed holes.”
    Makes the gun run faster.

  4. “Unless you’re used to a Peter North-sized pistol in your pants…”

    A distinctly different kind of ‘spray and pray’.

  5. Semiautomatics shooting revolver cartridges have always seemed like a gimmick to me. A revolver gives you six rounds (typically) of whatever you can fit into the chambers and control on firing. A semiautomatic allows for more rounds and easier loading, so long as those rounds stay within the functional requirements of the mechanism. Blending the two is a lot of work and a lot of expense for not much result.

    • Tis true. Doesn’t stop me, however, from dreaming of a .357 eating, reliable, commander-sized semi auto pistol to pair with my beloved Marlin 1894c. Would be epic.

  6. “In fact, Sigmund Freud associated retarded sexual development with a fear of guns”

    The link you cited doesn’t exactly support that. This is what the source provided states:


    Misattributed [to Freud:]

    [“]A fear of weapons is a sign of retarded sexual and emotional maturity.[“]

    This is not a statement that appears in any translation of any of Freud’s works. It is a paraphrase of a statement from the essay “Guns, Murders, and the Constitution” (February 1990) by Don B. Kates, Jr. where Kates summarizes his views of passages in Dreams in Folklore (1958) by Freud and David E. Oppenheim, while disputing statements by Emmanuel Tanay in “Neurotic Attachment to Guns” in a 1976 edition of The Fifty Minute Hour: A Collection of True Psychoanalytic Tales (1955) by Robert Mitchell Lindner:

    Dr. Tanay is perhaps unaware of — in any event, he does not cite — other passages more relevant to his argument. In these other passages Freud associates retarded sexual and emotional development not with gun ownership, but with fear and loathing of weapons. The probative importance that ought to be attached to the views of Freud is, of course, a matter of opinion. The point here is only that those views provide no support for the penis theory of gun ownership.

    Due to misreading of this essay and its citations, this paraphrase of an opinion about Freud’s ideas has been wrongly attributed to Freud himself, and specifically to his 10th Lecture “Symbolism in Dreams” in General Introduction to Psychoanalysis on some internet forum pages: alt.quotations, uk.politics.guns, talk.politics.guns, can.talk.guns , etc.

    One of the statements by Freud which Kates summarized from in Dreams in Folklore (1958), p. 33, reads: “The representation of the penis as a weapon, cutting knife, dagger etc., is familiar to us from the anxiety dreams of abstinent women in particular and also lies at the root of numerous phobias in neurotic people.”

  7. Really, TTAG? “Muzzle break”? No wonder members of forums can’t get it right. It’s called a muzzle BRAKE. Sorry if my reaction is harsh.

  8. Kinda cool but I’ll stick to my .460 Rowland converted XD. Better performance and easy to load the mags.

  9. I’ve always had this thing for smooth wood grips. I completely DESPISE ’em. Ugliest thing this side of Dianne Frankenstein.

    • +1
      The last thing I ever want is for one of my muzzles to break. Ruins the whole afternoon at the range.

  10. … and another $500- $700 for a custom drop-in barrel in .256 Winchester Magnum. (Get out the books, kids… a really cool cartridge that no one ever made a gun worthy of it for.) I’ve had as much fun shooting .25-20 (in a very “uncool” Savage Sporter bolt job from the early 50s) as anything I’ve ever shot; sort of a .22 LR x 2 in terms of bullet weight and offhand range. A “super” .25-20 in a nifty auto… oh yeah, that works!

  11. I didn’t know that mine needed to be ported, I’ll tell you, I learn something here every day. Well, if it will help with “target shooting” what the hay, Randy

  12. That’s muzzle BRAKE, not break.
    As for the gun, I have my doubts about any autoloader that uses a box magazine and a rimmed revolver cartridge. Such things do exist, but they are just begging for feed problems. And frankly, I don’t see the attraction – what advantage do I get for firing .357 rounds out of an autoloader?

  13. I love the concept. My only question is how reliably the gun feeds and cycles given the the .357 is a rimmed cartridge designed for a wheel gun.

    Considering that both the 10mm and the .357 are in the same power range, I would think 10mm will cycle more reliably. I would prefer the .357 though if it will work just as well because like a 9mm, you would be able to fit 15 to 17 rounds in a standard mag.

    I don’t like the .357 sig because it uses a 9mm in a necked down .40 case, thus limiting capacity. Why not just use a 10mm.

  14. I originally loved the Coonan 1911 .357 mag and waited 10 months to get one.
    When i finally got it in my hot hand i was so disappointed that it was so sloppy between the slide and frame that it rattled when you shake it.
    I rang the gun dealer and stated my opinion of the quality of a brand new pistol and the amount of play between the frame and slide. He said that his own Coonen was the same. I was not impressed at all as i have 3 x STI International 1911 pistols and ever one of then were nice and tight on the frame and are still light that after 4000 rounds. I read all the forum on the internet who gave great raves on this pistol and i quote the tight machining and tolarance on all of there pistols.
    Well all i can say if this is the best COONAN can do they need to start looking at there tolarance and not just rush the production to get the product to customers.
    It took 10 months to get one and i would have waited 12 months your more to have a nice tight pistol that will last me years. PS They recommend to put at lease 500 rounds through the pistol to losen it up so as to start functioning right.
    Well i’ve put through 300 rounds and it even more sloppy than the day i got it and i don’t know how bad it will be after 2000 to 5000 rounds??????
    I still like the style and the shape thats the reason i bought one but there quality machining on the slide to rail to frame is very poor and should be looked at as far as tighter tolarance. Bottom line on the pistol looks great but rattles and sloppy workmanship only in one area of the whole pistol which i have out line.
    I hope this was to long for a lot of readers but i just was so disappointed with this pistol.
    Kind Regards
    Pete

  15. PETE, Did you notice your Coonan was not a 1911 .45? Funny how you dont speak to the accuracy? This gun flexes when fired, tight rails equate to broken gun. The looser this goose is the more accurate it becomes.

  16. Don’t know where you got your Coonan,but mine is just as tight as my Colt Gold Cup and is just as accurate and trigger breaks great.

  17. After months of thinking about it and a month of studies on the gun it made perfect sense to me to add it to my collection .I read review after review and listened to open minded lyrics to what everyone had to say and I think that this .357 coonan will be my 10 hand gun there are good reviews bad reviews but you only live once and to own such a piece of powerful wepondry would be an honor to all our armoire rs out the creating thing of beauty!

  18. I’m late to this post, obviously, but regarding the pistol fit and finish, it is not comparable to Dan Wesson, Les Baer, Ed Brown, etc… It’s also obvious that the cost difference between the stainless model and the ones with an alternate finish is fairly extreme. That cost difference is explained by Coonan themselves as the additional polishing that must be carried out to apply the non-stainless finishes. That being said, the pistol, as a novelty, is perfectly acceptable within the cost range. I cringe when I see the fawning comments about the fit and finish being “high quality”, but I have other 1911-style guns with exceptional fit and finish. I bought this gun to have a 1911-style .357 Magnum, not as a primary defensive firearm with coquettish good looks. The Coonan seems to be consistent in it’s accuracy, regardless of the complaints of sloppy frame-to-slide fit and a likely 220 grit finish. The looser slide/frame fit has been explained by a former Coonan engineer on the forums, so go have a look for yourself if that concerns you. I have small hands and find the feel of the grip is different, but very comfortable, and it points naturally, as a 1911 should. I don’t want anyone to buy one for the wrong reasons, but some of the complaints about it skirt the primary reason almost anyone would buy such a gun. The S&W 627 has 8 shots on tap in a smaller package. I’m more likely to carry the 627, but I’m going to enjoy the hell out of the Coonan, as well.

    P.S. Yes the standard broom-handle grips weren’t appealing to me, but I have some outstanding grips from “Sarge’s Grips” that made that a non-issue.

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