I am the very satisfied owner of a very small, very reliable, and largely unknown little CC pistol. I have a Very early production Bond Arms Bullpup. For those who don’t know, this is a design that started as a Boberg and was bought and perfected by Bond Arms (the big derringer folks). It is unique among modern handguns in the way it feeds — claw grasps the rim of the cartridge, pulling it from the magazine (which appears to be loaded improperly with the bullet nose down and the rim up) and then shoves it straight forward into the chamber. The trigger is actually forward of the chamber, resulting in a very short oal and yet giving a barrel length of a significantly larger pistol. While unique among modern handguns there have been successful auto weapons employing this same feed system.
I liked the concept when I first read about it as a Boberg, but they were expensive and frankly, not quite ready for prime time. Also the owner/designer/builder was a brilliant designer but not that easy to work with. I became interested again when Bond bought, improved, and brought to market, and mine is the first one I ever saw for sale, and a very low serial number.
What prompted this post is that I was in a LGS a few days ago and a glockoholic was talking trash about the Bullpup being “very ammo specific, extremely unreliable, yada yada yada”. I quickly called him on this as mine has been a paragon OF reliability. While there IS a list of “Approved” ammo, the fact is that any decent ammo WITH a crimp works just fine. (the rapid pulling of a round to the rear “can” work like a kinetic bullet puller IF a round has no crimp.). Mine has ran through a LOT of ammo flawlessly, including a bunch NOT on the approved list. It’s had 500 Winchester white box, 650 S&B 124 gr, 500 S& B 115 grain, and 1600rounds on my reloads using 124 grain Berry’s plated, plus several hundred assorted SD loads. The only hiccup I’ve ever experienced was when I tried Blazer brass (a strictly prohibited load) just to see what would happen. On the fourth round it literally pulled the bullet, dumped the powder etc..-which I’d expected on the first round using this uncrimped ammo. I cleaned the pistol, ran the remaining Blazer rounds through my crimp die and then fired them all without a hitch.
The little BP is one of the very easiest 9’s out there to conceal and in a cheap Sticky holster it disappears in a jeans pocket. It’s reliable as I’ve found, it’s quite good on accuracy. And with the beautiful wood grips removed and replaced with the fugly plastic ones it’s very thin. They’re not cheap, but quality never is. If you’re looking for a tiny 9 it should be on your list!
Thanks for your patience
I liked the concept when I first read about it as a Boberg, but they were expensive and frankly, not quite ready for prime time. Also the owner/designer/builder was a brilliant designer but not that easy to work with. I became interested again when Bond bought, improved, and brought to market, and mine is the first one I ever saw for sale, and a very low serial number.
What prompted this post is that I was in a LGS a few days ago and a glockoholic was talking trash about the Bullpup being “very ammo specific, extremely unreliable, yada yada yada”. I quickly called him on this as mine has been a paragon OF reliability. While there IS a list of “Approved” ammo, the fact is that any decent ammo WITH a crimp works just fine. (the rapid pulling of a round to the rear “can” work like a kinetic bullet puller IF a round has no crimp.). Mine has ran through a LOT of ammo flawlessly, including a bunch NOT on the approved list. It’s had 500 Winchester white box, 650 S&B 124 gr, 500 S& B 115 grain, and 1600rounds on my reloads using 124 grain Berry’s plated, plus several hundred assorted SD loads. The only hiccup I’ve ever experienced was when I tried Blazer brass (a strictly prohibited load) just to see what would happen. On the fourth round it literally pulled the bullet, dumped the powder etc..-which I’d expected on the first round using this uncrimped ammo. I cleaned the pistol, ran the remaining Blazer rounds through my crimp die and then fired them all without a hitch.
The little BP is one of the very easiest 9’s out there to conceal and in a cheap Sticky holster it disappears in a jeans pocket. It’s reliable as I’ve found, it’s quite good on accuracy. And with the beautiful wood grips removed and replaced with the fugly plastic ones it’s very thin. They’re not cheap, but quality never is. If you’re looking for a tiny 9 it should be on your list!
Thanks for your patience
