Barra

Barra 009 Part 003

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Barra 009 Part 003

A Glock is a Glock…

By Dennis Adler

Whether the name on the slide is Glock, or another manufacturer (there are at least two U.S. companies that produce handguns that look like a Glock), the shape is pretty much the same. And there are guns that resemble Glocks; the point being that building a gun that looks like a Glock is not uncommon, however, building a gun that performs as well as a Glock, well that is a different story. In our particular case it is more than likely that the Barra 009 will perform (in single action mode) exactly the same as the Umarex Glock 17 Gen4 because they share essentially the same internal components. read more

Barra 009 Part 002

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Barra 009 Part 002

What’s in a name?

By Dennis Adler

Samuel Colt established a name, a brand, and legacy in the 19th century; Gaston Glock has done much the same in the 20th and 21st centuries,but like Colt or any other gunmaker, a design can only be protected by patents for so long. A name, well, that’s another thing altogether. Today you will see endless copies of Colt designs, but none can ever be called a Colt or wear the Colt emblem. They can look like a Colt but they can’t be a Colt. They can, however, occasionally be better. I’m picking on the Model 1911 both literally and as a case study. Many of the improvements we see today on 1911s, even Colt 1911s, were not developed by Colt. The ambidextrous safety, for example, the dustcover rail, and thus the Colt 1911 Rail Gun, were not developed by Colt; other guns that looked like a Colt 1911 had them first, although Armand Swensen’s ambidextrous extended thumb safeties and high visibility rear sights were actually developed in the mid 1960s for the Model 1911. Today, Colt offers ambidextrous safeties as do almost every maker of 1911-style pistols, same for high visibility sights, and even the squared triggerguard, also invented for the 1911 by Swensen. read more

Barra 009 Part 001

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Barra 009 Part 001

A big surprise from out of left field

By Dennis Adler

Yes, this is exactly what you think it is, a Glock 18, or rather the blowback action CO2 version of the select-fire 9mm made by Glock for law enforcement and military use, and the assassin in the opening scenes of the James Bond film Skyfall. In terms of modern centerfire handguns, the G18/G18C machine pistols are the Holy Grail of Glocks that you generally cannot own, let alone shoot, unless you’re part of a police SWAT team, member of an elite military unit, or government agency. Even if you are a Class III firearms dealer it’s pretty hard to get a G18/G18C, and you won’t find that many opportunities to shoot one. That is what makes the new Barra 009 (a very subtle reference to MI6 and the 00 section) about as desirable as blowback action CO2 pistols can get; this is simply as close as most of us will ever come to a G18, even though this new select-fire model bears no Glock markings! read more