Hopefully we all know by now that I prefer hammer fired guns. A part of that is simple personal preference, kind of like how I prefer earth tones (natural) to neon (garish). Most of why I prefer them is because of actual, meaningful experience. It is my experience that informs my opinions and preferences.
That said, HK was kind enough to send me a CC9 for evaluation and I have been shooting it for a bit now. I asked them for it because I shot a buddy’s at a class last month and was pretty impressed with it. He was shooting a DA gun in class by the way, and almost got a coin. Hopefully next time, since he is a really excellent shooter.
So, why am I interested in the CC9? I have used pretty much all of the stack and an a half micro guns out there. Some professionally, some recreationally. I have not really liked any of them. They are harder to shoot well, which doesn’t mean much to me, but really handicaps the “average” user. They are not nearly as reliable or durable as a duty gun, and they tend to wear you out faster if you shoot many rounds through them.
However, none of that actually matters if you use them correctly. The micro 9 is really a modern J frame. It is meant to be carried a lot and shot a little. It is designed to make it easy to carry under any and all circumstances, and to do so, it gives up some of the comfort and shootability of its bigger bretheren. As mentioned before, it also gives up some reliability, and in a world of compromise, I won’t.
Enter the CC9. It does not give up durability or reliability, at least not in any way that we are likely to discover for ourselves. HK tested the gun far more than any other company that I am aware of. They delayed releasing it until it was right. In addition, I find it to be perhaps the most shootable gun of its size. I would like to see an outside agency give it a legit test, but until that happens, all I can do is compare the reported and observed reliability of the gun to the tests I know about for other small 9mm’s. Those tests that I have specific knowledge of are not flattering, but sometimes people really want a gun and will convince themselves of almost anything to get it.
So, if we can agree for arguments sake that the CC9 is very durable and very reliable, how does it shoot? I have now shot a whopping two examples. Both shot great. It certainly gives up some shootability to my favorite small gun, the P30SK, but it doesn’t give up as much as you may think if you have experience with other micro 9’s. Obviously we are not comparing the little HK to a longslide 365 with a comp and 17 round frame size. Compare it to any gun even close to its actual size though, and the CC9 shines.
Back to the title, lest you think it is clickbait. Part of shooting the CC9 will be comparing its performance to the P30SK. My SK is an LTT gun, of course, but I also have a stock version and one does not shoot better than the other. The LTT gun simply has a flat Grayguns trigger and an RDS on it. The stock gun is, well, stock. The test is not really a hammer fired vs. striker fired test, per se. It is more a test of a double stack subcompact to a stack and a half micro. That makes for a much less elegant title though, so I distilled it a bit.
I find the little SK to carry and conceal incredibly well, and it shoots like a house on fire, so the CC9 has some work to do for sure. To make it a more fair comparision, I put an RDS on the little CC9.
My copy has a Sig Romeo X compact on it, thanks to the generosity of a friend at Sig. I had not used this sight before, but it seems very promising. I don’t much care for smaller red dot sights on the market, and if using the CC9 as a modern J frame, I’m not sure I would put an RDS on it. In my case, it is not a pocket gun and I want to compare absolute shootability so it needs a red dot. The little Sig sight seems to be easier to use than other mini’s out there that I have tried, so I’m looking forward to more shooting and testing.
The SK has my prefered CCW sight, the wonderful Trijicon RMR HD. Between the bigger gun and bigger sight, the SK is obviously at an advantage. That’s not really the point though, as I am more interested in just what the performance delta is, rather than pretending the guns are equal in any way.
Until I have more rounds down range and can record some more data on it, I don’t want to say what it can and cannot do. I will say that in stock form, it does wear me out faster than the SK, but not as fast as a G43X. The thinner grip frame just can’t distribute recoil the way the true double stacks can. I am not a fan of rubber slip ons, but after putting one on my LCP a few years ago, it makes enough of a difference that I think it might be worth adding some width to the grip.
Of course, I would love to see HK make a micro hammer fired gun just like the CC9. Small as it is, it draws well, reloads well, and shoots well. If you are looking for a wee 9mm for modern day J frame duty, the CC9 seems like a great choice so far. Of course, unlike a J frame, it can’t be dropped in a pocket without a good pocket holster (still a good idea with a J as well), and if you are going to carry it AIWB, all of my usual recommendations apply, but even more so. Small guns are easier to fumble than bigger guns, and so they need even more attention when handling them at speed.
Once I have a more meaningful round count through it, I will report back.
