Author Topic: Magazine Article #2 ~ Shooting Illustrated - December 2004  (Read 6697 times)

Offline ECR

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Magazine Article #2 ~ Shooting Illustrated - December 2004
« on: July 10, 2015, 09:01:23 AM »
Well folks, here is the second magazine article in the series I am posting for the history books. This article was written by Wiley Clapp. Funny story here. . . . . When we sent Wiley these two R9s for him to review, those were just a few we were using to send out for writers to try and do a story about for the different firearm magazines. Well, we asked Wiley to send them back so we could give them to the next reviewer. His response: "I'm not sending these back. . . . I'll send ya' a check, but I'm keeping these!" So be it Wiley, lol, and we're glad you have them now.  So Karl and I made others to send to the next writer.

Note that on page 45 of the article you can see our early design outer recoil spring similar to that on the Colt .45 Automatic Pistol. . . . . closed on one end and open on the other. That became problematic as many early adopters of this design did not take notice of the direction nor, I guess, read the owner's manual on which direction it should be placed on the recoil sleeve. More than I care to say were sent back "defective" when, in fact, they installed the spring in backwards, causing it to override the recoil sleeve and jamb the firearm. We worked on, and updated to, the newer style outer recoil spring which was closed at both ends, eliminating any more of those "defective" R9 returns for "warranty" service. Whoops . . . . . .

 Being I don't have the technical mind to be able to post the photo scans here, this link will bring you to my Flickr account so you can read them. I haven't figured out how to separate the articles yet, so they are all together. . . . one article right after the other. Once I figure that out, I will try to keep them separate in the future. Computers are not my friend. lol.

 Enjoy the read everyone!

Eric R.

https://www.flickr.com/gp/133408092@N03/39v1zP
« Last Edit: July 10, 2015, 09:11:22 AM by ECR »
Makers of the NRA Shooting Illustrated: "Handgun of the Year for 2005" and receiver of an NRA Golden Bullseye Award.

Offline johnny

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Re: Magazine Article #2 ~ Shooting Illustrated - December 2004
« Reply #1 on: July 10, 2015, 12:49:05 PM »
When all else fails,read the directions. ;D

Offline MRC

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Re: Magazine Article #2 ~ Shooting Illustrated - December 2004
« Reply #2 on: July 10, 2015, 02:01:25 PM »
That is a very good article that I have not seen before.  I personally like Clapp's no BS writing style.

I did notice he used the word "backup" several time in the article.  From reading enough of his work I felt that 7 rounds of 9mm witha heel mag release  would not really fit his idea of a primary self defense weapon.

Offline ECR

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Re: Magazine Article #2 ~ Shooting Illustrated - December 2004
« Reply #3 on: July 15, 2015, 02:45:20 PM »
Exactly. . . . . Wiley called it what it was to him. . . . . A Backup Gun. He does acknowledge it though as a primary for some people and some instances however.  ;)
Makers of the NRA Shooting Illustrated: "Handgun of the Year for 2005" and receiver of an NRA Golden Bullseye Award.

Offline tracker

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Re: Magazine Article #2 ~ Shooting Illustrated - December 2004
« Reply #4 on: July 15, 2015, 09:01:15 PM »
The R9 is primary enough for me.

Offline PhilZ

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Re: Magazine Article #2 ~ Shooting Illustrated - December 2004
« Reply #5 on: July 15, 2015, 11:15:17 PM »
Is the commonly quoted statistic that the average gunfight is three rounds in three seconds at less than three yards an urban legend, or does somebody have a link?  My EDC summer carry is my R9 in a pocket holster with a Hedley dual mag pouch.  Seems like enough to me.  The other eight months of the year I carry a glock 23 with a 12+1 and a 15rd with the R9 as BUG.  I live in Detroit Metro, but luckily I haven't had to use either.  Got robbed at gunpoint when not carrying and they (3) took my coat and wallet (diversion with a stack of singles and random BS cards) It seems like more and more around here there is a wolf-pack strategy with multiple attackers.  A shot or two each seems to send them scattering like roaches.  I still hope the carry often, shot little mantra holds true for awhile. 

Offline ECR

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Re: Magazine Article #2 ~ Shooting Illustrated - December 2004
« Reply #6 on: July 16, 2015, 09:55:10 AM »
That statistic is still mostly true Phil. Sorry to hear you were robbed. . . . Yikes! Glad you got away unhurt. Chicago! ~ Like living in New York! Time to move out! With everything that's going on in our country of late, I have begun to rethink carrying once again. That is a shame, but reality I guess.

Stay Safe . . . . .

Eric R.
Makers of the NRA Shooting Illustrated: "Handgun of the Year for 2005" and receiver of an NRA Golden Bullseye Award.

Offline Richard S

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Re: Magazine Article #2 ~ Shooting Illustrated - December 2004
« Reply #7 on: July 16, 2015, 08:21:30 PM »
The R9 is primary enough for me.

Over the past 11 years I've increasingly come to that same opinion. Sometimes, now that Precision One ammunition has raised the efficacy of the caliber, I will slip one of my .380 ACPs  (Colt Mustang or NAA Guardian) into my back pocket as a secondary.
(1963-1967) "GO ARMY!"

Offline MRC

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Re: Magazine Article #2 ~ Shooting Illustrated - December 2004
« Reply #8 on: July 16, 2015, 08:35:43 PM »
I hope that you do not think that I was trying to relegate the R9 to a strictly backup role.  I have read enough  of Mr. Clapp's articles to know that if isn't a 45, he probably wouldn't carry it.  He is an old Marine and former LEO and I have liked his no nonsense approach to gun writing.

As a matter of fact, I just picked up one of these today and it is a very nice no nonsense firearm.  When it says "everything you need and nothing you don't", it sums it up very well.  I liked the way it has been specced out.

   http://www.taloinc.com/colt-firearms/colt-o9840wc-concealed-carry-officers

Offline ECR

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Re: Magazine Article #2 ~ Shooting Illustrated - December 2004
« Reply #9 on: July 17, 2015, 11:14:28 AM »
No, not at all M. . . . . . I understood your statement. All is good. BTW. . . . Nice grab on the Talon .45!   ;)
Makers of the NRA Shooting Illustrated: "Handgun of the Year for 2005" and receiver of an NRA Golden Bullseye Award.

Offline MICHPATRIOT

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Re: Magazine Article #2 ~ Shooting Illustrated - December 2004
« Reply #10 on: July 17, 2015, 09:49:43 PM »
Great piece on a great piece...Thanks Eric!  ;)

Offline ECR

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Re: Magazine Article #2 ~ Shooting Illustrated - December 2004
« Reply #11 on: July 18, 2015, 08:50:08 AM »
You're welcome Patriot!  ;)
Makers of the NRA Shooting Illustrated: "Handgun of the Year for 2005" and receiver of an NRA Golden Bullseye Award.

Offline C0untZer0

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Re: Magazine Article #2 ~ Shooting Illustrated - December 2004
« Reply #12 on: July 18, 2015, 10:11:35 AM »
To ECR: Did you guys piss off magazine publishers or gun writers or something?  I wrote 2 posts on this forum how the Rohrbaugh R9 was completely absent from 2 concealed carry magazines:


How can Harris Tactical publish a mag called "Pocket Pistols" & not have the R9?

http://www.rohrbaughforum.com/index.php?topic=7232.msg81175#msg81175



For the Harris Pocket Pistols magazine, I found it strange that there was no mention anywhere of the Rohrbaugh firearms.  I'm not just talking about articles, I mean the R9 is not even mentioned in the appendix listing of all concealed carry firearms.


Concealed Carry Handguns 2014 Self Defense Buyer's Guide - no Rohrbaugh


http://www.rohrbaughforum.com/index.php?topic=7232.msg81175#msg81175

They wrote about the Heizer DoubleTap.

They talked about the Caracal C - a pistol that's been permanently recalled.

What they didn't talk about anywhere in the magazine was the Rohrbaugh R9.

Offline ECR

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Re: Magazine Article #2 ~ Shooting Illustrated - December 2004
« Reply #13 on: July 19, 2015, 11:11:28 AM »
Did we piss off any magazine publishers or writers or such? Not to my knowledge nor intent. The reason you don't see anything about the Rohrbaugh R9 Pistols in the Harris listings is they publish current guns only, not companies who were sold or went belly up. Same holds true for any buyers guide from 2014 on. . . . . . . We were none-existent at that point. A "Buyers Guide" is just that and usually not a history book. I know they often write about firearms in the beginning of these guides that changed things up in the industry, but as many of you know, we were always the underdog and many people never believed in our products, especially being relatively pricey firearms right out of the box, dare we sell them at an even higher price point!? Material costs, building lease costs, insurance costs, attorney costs, etc. all went up every year, but higher ups than me in the company refused to even raise the pricing to at least cover the cost of living "inflation" expenses! A little caveat about pricing. . . . . A certain custom gun maker, who I will not say but you all know him and many of you may even own a handgun or two of his, said to us early on at one of The S.H.O.T. Shows in Las Vegas was that he couldn't understand why we were selling them so cheap when we could get around the $1,800 mark all day long for one of these handmade R9s and that we were selling them way too low, leaving money on the table. That may have been a factor as to why it was always so difficult for us. I wanted to bring the price point up a bit to compensate for these viably real issues, but others above me were "gun shy" to do so. Sad to say. . . . . I never pursued the issue after that.
Makers of the NRA Shooting Illustrated: "Handgun of the Year for 2005" and receiver of an NRA Golden Bullseye Award.

Offline C0untZer0

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Re: Magazine Article #2 ~ Shooting Illustrated - December 2004
« Reply #14 on: July 19, 2015, 09:33:35 PM »
I don't know, it just seemed that the R9 never received the coverage it deserved.  I mean the Caracal for crying out loud - and a lot of other pretty crappy guns that would break when you shot them or guns where the safety would fly off during shooting, pins would walk, recoil guides would shoot out the front, rear and front sights would fly off the guns - but they were getting covered in these magazines, and hardly ever a word about the Rohrbaugh R9.