SimonRL
Hellcat
I’ve been pretty vocal about getting my hands on the new Daniel Defense Daniel H9 and on Thursday I was checking the inventory of Rifle Gear in Dallas and they showed out of stock for the H9 so I put my name on the list. Not 15 minutes later I got an email from Rifle Gear saying they had five now in stock. So without hesitation I got online and ordered one, jumped in the car, made the 45 mile drive across the Metroplex and picked up my new Daniel H9.
My first impression upon seeing it was that it is not nearly as radical as some of the shots we’ve seen in the past week (even this shot exaggerates the front end because of the angle I shot it at) and from the top of the slide to the bottom of the dust cover is no larger than a 226 or a VP9. It is noticeably smaller in person than in pics, although I suspect the one inch width creates some of that illusion. All in all it’s a very nice looking gun that sits well in the hand.
Less exaggerated angle.
I took it home, lubed and cleaned it and on Friday took it for a quick 50 round session. The gun sits very nicely in my hand and when I brought the gun up on target the sights were always there. It has a green FO front sight and a black back with U notch which I rather like. Daniel Defense says it shoots to a center hold sight picture, but I found that not to be the case and found it wanted to shoot low, which coincidentally the Hudson H9 had a habit of doing, and I used a combat hold but cheated the front sight up a bit and it shot where I wanted.
The trigger takes some getting used to. It looks like a 1911 trigger but that’s about where the similarities end. The safety dongle takes some getting used, or perhaps more accurately used to ignoring. The trigger has a very small take up and then you hit a very crisp wall before the gun breaks, which measures at 6lbs but feels lighter and is smooth and manageable. Your brain expects a 4 lb pull though and as you can see I dropped about 8 rounds into an extremely tight group just low and left of the target. Once I got a feel for the trigger rounds marched back on target. The reset was the big surprise as it is even shorter than my 226 and 229 SAO Legions which is saying a lot. Saturday @KillerFord1977 and I hit the range with our swat buddies and I ran another 100 rounds through the H9 and it ran perfectly. I can’t wait to put a red dot on it and see how it performs, but DD has taken a page from Springfield’s Prodigy book and doesn’t have any optic plates (free to new buyers) in stock for their brand new offering so in the meantime I’ll continue banging away with the iron sights, which I have no problem doing. So 150 rds in and I really like this gun. It’s pretty spendy and I get it’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but I worship at the altar of Archon, so I will be just fine.
My first impression upon seeing it was that it is not nearly as radical as some of the shots we’ve seen in the past week (even this shot exaggerates the front end because of the angle I shot it at) and from the top of the slide to the bottom of the dust cover is no larger than a 226 or a VP9. It is noticeably smaller in person than in pics, although I suspect the one inch width creates some of that illusion. All in all it’s a very nice looking gun that sits well in the hand.
Less exaggerated angle.
I took it home, lubed and cleaned it and on Friday took it for a quick 50 round session. The gun sits very nicely in my hand and when I brought the gun up on target the sights were always there. It has a green FO front sight and a black back with U notch which I rather like. Daniel Defense says it shoots to a center hold sight picture, but I found that not to be the case and found it wanted to shoot low, which coincidentally the Hudson H9 had a habit of doing, and I used a combat hold but cheated the front sight up a bit and it shot where I wanted.
The trigger takes some getting used to. It looks like a 1911 trigger but that’s about where the similarities end. The safety dongle takes some getting used, or perhaps more accurately used to ignoring. The trigger has a very small take up and then you hit a very crisp wall before the gun breaks, which measures at 6lbs but feels lighter and is smooth and manageable. Your brain expects a 4 lb pull though and as you can see I dropped about 8 rounds into an extremely tight group just low and left of the target. Once I got a feel for the trigger rounds marched back on target. The reset was the big surprise as it is even shorter than my 226 and 229 SAO Legions which is saying a lot. Saturday @KillerFord1977 and I hit the range with our swat buddies and I ran another 100 rounds through the H9 and it ran perfectly. I can’t wait to put a red dot on it and see how it performs, but DD has taken a page from Springfield’s Prodigy book and doesn’t have any optic plates (free to new buyers) in stock for their brand new offering so in the meantime I’ll continue banging away with the iron sights, which I have no problem doing. So 150 rds in and I really like this gun. It’s pretty spendy and I get it’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but I worship at the altar of Archon, so I will be just fine.
