New Gun: Boberg XR9-S

Sorry to disappoint. I don't have it yet. It's being made for us though. I've been on the waiting list for around a year now and my name's finally come up.  :-)It's a new gun that a guy up in Minnesota has been developing over the past four or five years. It's a different action than most handguns though, which is part of the appeal.The way that conventional handgun works is the slide grabs a round off the top of the magazine and shoves it up the ramp to the chamber. This works well for a full-sized gun where you're lot looking to save a millimeter. The problem is that as you start to shrink down the gun the barrel gets shorted a lot faster than the gun gets smaller. The limitation is that the barrel must begin after the magazine.The Boberg has a different approach. It's not a new approach, but it's different than most handguns. It has more in common with old WW-I belt-fed machine guns than the typical Browning tilt-barrel locking design.This shows a conventional handgun with the slide back ready to chamber a new round. (Yes, I'm ignoring much of what makes a gun a gun -- intentionally!) The slide will be moved forward by the slide spring (not pictured) and the stripper will strip a new round out of the magazine up the ramp and into the chamber. Once it's in the chamber you're ready to pull the trigger and start the cycle again.

In the Boberg the magazine is directly below the chamber. As the slide moves back under recoil the next round is pulled from the magazine and a spring shoves the assembly up. Now, when the slide comes forward again the new round gets shoved into the chamber. This lets you make the barrel substantially longer. A longer barrel makes more power since the pressure from the combusting gunpowder has longer to act on the bullet as it's pushing it out the barrel.

All told this tiny gun is smaller than my hand and as powerful as a Glock 26, while being a lot smaller.

All told it holds 7 in the magazine and 1 in the chamber. All in a package that's less than an inch thick.They have some interesting videos on their web site. You should check them out!I'm sure to have more about this gun when it finally arrives in a few months!