Savage Announces its First Compact Pistol in Almost a Century, The New Stance 9mm Micro-Compact

1. It looks a lot like the Honor Defense Honor Guard

   • Looks a lot like the S&W Shield, too. At about the same price.

   • XERXES036, you are 100% correct. Honor Guard Honor Defense handgun…just rebranded.

     • I forgot about the Honor Defense… I was going to say it looked like a Beretta APX Carry…
       🤠

   • Interesting. the review ttag did seemed to indicate it wasn’t a bad pistol. I would think that with it being a p320 style package having an 80% build would be neat.

2. Interesting, like to give one a whirl!

3. Dear Savage – No company can be everything “complete”. The world does not really need ONE MORE compact 9mm. Concentrate on your strengths. Such as your rifles.

   There is IMPOSSIBLE that you have met even 2% of potential demand for you much reviewed/praised new IMPULSE rifle. Work on THAT market.

   • Especially another single-stack, when there are so many doubles available that are – if not quite singlestack slim – about as thin as a human adult hand wants to hold, anyway.

     When I saw the headline I thought it would be cool if they used the original Savage rotary locking / delay, but you’re right – same old, same old.

   • That’s where the money is right now. Sometimes, companies have to diversify in order to keep doing what they’re best at. Why do you think Porsche started making SUV’s?

   • neiowa,

     How about Savage split the difference: design and sell a really nice pistol-caliber carbine optimized for home defense? There are very few options in that market segment and I believe the sales potential is huge, especially if Savage keeps weight under 4 pounds (3.5 pounds would be ideal) and provides an adjustable length stock to accommodate people who are under 5-feet tall. Oh, and offer that carbine chambered in .357 Sig, .40 S&W, and 10mm Auto as well as 9mm Luger.

     Long gone are the days where a 12 gauge shotgun is the go-to home defense firearm. While the 12 gauge shotguns of yesteryear are outstanding choices for young burly men, they are an ABJECT FAILURE as a choice for most women and youths who are becoming ever more keenly interested in a home defense firearm.

     Note that a carbine which is an excellent choice for women and youth would have most of the weight rearward and minimal weight out front toward the muzzle. Add a simple ghost-ring site at the breech and a simple blade sight at the muzzle along with an option to add a reflex sight and watch the unit-sales counter catch on fire.

     • I built an AR-15 fixed carbine in .350 Legend as the family home defense gun. An inch shy of 3 feet long. The LOP (8.5″ from the castle nut) is a little awkward for my frame but works great for everyone else. With no-frills Magpul MOE polymer furniture and a SureFire blast can on the muzzle, I got the weight down to 5.5 pounds loaded. Winchester Defender 160-grain PHPs in a 20-round mag.

       It sits in an open corner of the living room, loaded, hammer cocked, safety on. (Everyone’s taught to move it into the safe if they are the last person out of the house, and to move it back to its corner if they are the first person back home.) As a compromise between safety and being ready-to-hand, it has a 5.56 snap cap in the chamber. Everyone’s taught to pull the charging handle to eject the snap cap and chamber the first live round.

       Overall cost was around $800, for a carbine that anyone in the family can handle confidently, shooting a cartridge with plenty of power, only a little more kick than a 5.56, and minimal risk of overpenetration.

       It’d work even better as a SBR with a 9.5″ barrel. That would cut the length to around 2 foot 4 inch and drop the weight by at least half a pound. Better balance too. Haven’t bit the bullet on that yet, though.

     • I agree with your PCC idea, but I’d hardly call 12G an “ABJECT FAILURE”. I got my first when I was 14 (and about half my current weight) and had no issues with recoil. I didn’t shoot magnum buckshot (although some of my deer-hunting friends did), but I didn’t have a recoil-mitigating gas action either. Reduced-recoil and even mini shells mean that a 12 can offer incredible versatility including sub-20G kick. Even if a shooter develops a flinch that would detract substantially from precise rifle or pistol marksmanship, it’s tough to miss with a shoulder-fired weapon at home defense ranges (1-10yds).

       I think a braced pistol version of a SUB-2000 with a non-folding 5-6″ barrel could be ideal for what you’re talking about.

   • I agree with you totally, there’s only one problem the real world of retail sales. I was in the golf industry for 25 years and I watched every golf ball company add another ball type to their already overblown offerings. Think shelf space, companies want all they can get. I remember thinking not another there’s already a dozen just like it. But as they say it is what it is.

4. Just what we needed, another Shield, XDS, LC9, G43. I wish them well anyway.

5. A Micro Compact CCW piece with speed holes to invite junk into the frame & cause reliability issues?

   An untreated stainless barrel that will rust more easily from sweat & humidity than a nitrided barrel?

   Try again, Savage.

   • This seems aimed at owners who keep it polished in a box, maybe taken to a range once a year. The Savage name makes it a novelty, nothing more.

   • If a stainless steel barrel or anything else “rusts” that’s an owner problem as is carry junk finding its way into vents, etc.

     Too many people judge a firearm by looks. It looks like everything else so Savage you need not apply. Take it and shoot it, compare how it is made and its out of the box performance with the competition. Price is a visual and in that area the Taurus G3 has it beat. Savage has to justify cost difference at the range, etc. IMO

   • There is a thing called “passivation” that will treat the stainless steel.
     This is not Savage’s first rodeo.
     The Stance looks like a nice product with alot of potential.

6. I like the removable chassis. Also like the fact that you can get it with a external safety if you want it.

   • How is this better than my perfectly reliable Taurus 709?7,8 or 10 rounds?!? Stick to rifle’s. A bolt 308 is on my list…

     • An Axis .308 has been my deer rifle for the last 3 years. Got it on my brother’s recommendation, him saying that Savage Arms rifles aren’t that expensive (I got it for $350 sans optic) and have good insides.

       The Axis line has one (correctable) design hiccup, in that it uses a 2-piece bolt spring with an insufficiently large divider between them. Over time the two springs can push into and overlap each other. As preventative maintenance, disassemble the bolt and replace the divider ring between the springs with something more robust. I used a hardware store lock washer.

7. Zzzz…..

8. Its funny the 1907/1917 pistols were innovative. This seems like a me too. I mean pistol tech is extremely settled at this point however.

   I will say I am surprised no one has come out with something that has a grip safety in a compact polymer pistol. I think new gun owners could be readily sold on it vs a manual safety.

   • Springfield XD?

     • Springfield xd? How bout something made by a pro gun company.

       • Don’t own one and wasn’t advocating for it – simply responding to “I am surprised no one has come out with something that has a grip safety in a compact polymer pistol”. I don’t even like grip safeties.

   • S&W EZ 9mm. Nice gun for the intended market.

9. p365 clone market becomes crowded.

   • More like S&W Shield clone its a single stack.

     • Except the Shield does not have an internal chassis and all the flexibility of this one.
       This is mot close to a Shield from what I can tell other than they are both pistols.

     • Except the Shield does not have an internal chassis and all the flexibility of this one.
       This is notclose to a Shield from what I can tell other than they are both pistols.

10. Who told them there was demand for another single-stack micro in a world of double-stack micros?

    Especially in that price range – wow.

    • Lets see what street is first. Betting 350 or less. Still, a very crowded market.

      Hopefully they do better than Remington did.

    • Brand loyalty maybe? That’s all I got.

      • Misplaced IMHO.

        It makes some sense for an owner of an accurate, reliable, and affordable Savage coyote rifle to buy his elk rifle from Savage.

        They’re good at what they do, but I don’t think they have the level of mindless cult following that would lead large numbers of customers to buy a product type they haven’t made in living memory.

        • Dear Savage Arms,

          You are not HK, and shouldn’t try to be.

          Sincerely,
          The American Gun Market

11. Just what I want, a CC self-defense pistol with “Savage” emblazoned across it! 🙂

12. Savage has a truly new innovative design in Impulse they need to finish and a copy the copy cat’s copy is Stance they need to shelve.

    • Agree. I’d love to get my hands on an Impulse rifle.

13. Does this pistol come with the Savage MOA guarantee?

    • at 10yd

14. Hmm looks like Savage bought Honor Defense and redesigned it.

15. Looks to be a re introduction of the Pro9 by Honor Defense. You could always tell the original Honor Guard was inspired by the S&W Shirld heavily. The Pro9 which never released is like a Shield Plus. Honor Defense website is down and no long Ed in production. I would bet the asset and design was purchased by Savage Arms.

16. It’s not what they do best but i like the look and the grip..

17. That is what we need: another unremarkable small semi-auto pistol chambered in 9mm Luger. How many makes and models are there now in this market segment? 120? 170?

    I have to wonder if Savage will ever manage to even show a profit on that handgun. How much did design, tooling, and the assembly line cost? I have to think at least $5 million. If their profit margin is $50 per pistol, then Savage would have to sell at least 100,000 pistols to break even. In a market saturated with unremarkable small semi-auto pistols, that could be a very tall order.

    Then again, I would never dream of people paying between $4 and $6 for a gourmet coffee and yet cars are always wrapped around the building in the drive-through line at my local $tarbuck$. So who knows, maybe Savage will sell a few million of these pistols.

18. Looks like they got rid of the frame extension that prevented it from going out of battery if held in contact with an “object” …. that and being built by vets was Honor Guard’s claim to fame IIRC.

19. Wow! Another plastic, short range, underpowered toy gun! Meanwhile, those of us who would like to buy a new rifle or full size revolver (or handgun), or purchase ammo other than 9mm, need to wait until the “micro 9” bubble bursts.

20. Two years ago I’d have said the market for 9mm subcompacts that don’t do anything new is super-saturated, but now…

    The modular chasis system is neatish, but not really useful for most people. I could see it being useful if they offered left hand and right hand grip modules with stippling only on the left or right side (for easy carry), but on its own it’s not too interesting. As for this, I don’t like ambi safeties since they’re too easy to hit by accident. The bore axis looks really high too.

    Now if Savage really wanted to go back to their roots and do a double stack 380, the only example of which currently on the market with a polymer frame is a relatively rare Glock model, that would at least be interesting.

21. The slide porting is ridiculous as it lets in dirt and debris making the gun less reliable. Not having a double column magazine dooms the gun from the very beginning because people who buy a 9mm want firepower.

    • Yeah it seems introducing a shield in the P365 world is kinda silly now. Plus the new Hybrid thin double stack micro compacts have rails and optic cuts, and this seems to be a miss on both. Plus one of those silly one word motto names like Creed or Saint, hellcat etc.

22. It’s a cheap easy way to break into the handgun market – a design by someone else, production ready with a mild refresh. It’s clearly something people buy a lot of and it puts a product on shelves quickly. I can’t wait to see how they expand and grow (even though I won’t see their newest products in CA).

23. It’s official.

    We’ve reached peak-Micro.

24. Not seeing anything here to set it apart from countless others.

    Savage, here’s a thought for you, the pistol caliber carbine still lacks a form factor that people want. Ruger came close with their recent PCC, breakdown with multiple magazine type compatibility. But adding capacity means huge long stick mags or drums hanging well below the gun. Even with drums intended for shorter mag wells, still a cumbersome approach.

    The gun buying public will pony up for a pistol caliber carbine accepting drum fitting close to the receiver/stock. The closer the better. Do that, get it in the big retail outlets (Cabelas, Bass Pro, Sporetsman’s Warehouse, Academy) and it will sell very well for you.

    For handguns, show me something unique or why bother?

    But for a PCC (and I have the Ruger and like it but … CAPACITY!!!), the field is yet to be crowded by the gun people will really want.

    • Lol wow another M&P Shield clone! The shield is already cheap enough, people should probably stick with the original unless they like the funky Honor Guard or Savage styling.

25. I don’t think the front sight post is “snag proof” unless youyr coming out of a holster, instead of a coat pocket.

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