A repost from last year. Or encore performance if you wish. With better pictures.

Striker fired, polymer framed handguns are all the rage these days. Well, truth be told, they’ve been all the range for over 30 years, but the trend in increasing. Every manufacturer seems to have several models and some manufacturers have stopped making metal framed pistols. More will follow as metal framed guns are expensive to make due to all of the machining required.

Law enforcement agencies have pretty much replaced their metal framed guns, with only a few hold outs left. The future is polymer framed and even though I’m not a fan, they do have their purpose.

What is really hot right now are “micro” and mini sized 9mm. Personally, I often carry a sub compact Smith & Wesson Chief’s Special 9mm (CS9). It’s compact, has an aluminum alloy frame, and is 100% reliable as long as the owner maintains it.

The problem is that S&W stopped making them around 2006 or so. Plus, those that have them don’t usually sell them. I was lucky to find one at a reasonable price and I snapped it up.

Many of the major firearms manufacturers have introduced polymer framed striker fired handguns with a similar configuration.

One of those is O.F. Mossberg. Mostly known for pretty good shotguns and rifles, management at the company saw this fast growing segment of the personal defense firearm and decided that they should join the party.

What they’ve come up with is the MC1sc. If you click on that link, you’ll see that there are ten different variations of the MC1sc. There are different variations, but the basics are the same. The major difference is that are two models with a manual cross bolt safety. The one that I got has no safety and thus operates more or less (maybe less) like a double action only revolver.

I picked on up today from a not quite local dealer who had a terrific price on the MC1sc. I won’t quote it, but it’s over $100.00 below the MSRP. If you’re interested, shop around, I have the feeling that a lot of dealers are going be carrying this.

Since it’s been way too cold to go to the range and actually shoot the MC1sc, this is a none firing review.

The gun feels good in my hand, which is important. If the a firearm doesn’t fit your hand comfortably, it’s unlikely to shoot well. The pistol feels solid and well built. In fact, it feel heavier than I expected. Balance is good, even with an empty magazine. With a loaded magazine, I expect it will feel even better. The sights are over sized white dots, which even more my ancient eyeballs are easy to pick up.

As I always do, the first thing I read when I got home was to read the manual. Then, I stripped the pistol and cleaned and lubricated it. The manual is full of the usual, and legally required, dire warnings, but it also has detailed stripping, cleaning, and reassembly instructions.

One really nice feature is the “Safe Takedown System.” This system allows the striker to be removed from the back of the slide and so does not require the trigger to be pulled to strip the pistol.

Oh, I forgot to mention a feature for left handed shooters. The magazine release, and safety (if so equipped) can be reversed to make operation easier for left handed shooters. That’s a neat feature that I don’t know if any other gun has.

Cleaning and lubricating the pistol is straight forward as is reassembly. This is where the Safe Takedown System really shines.

Once I have had a chance to get to the range and do some test firing, I’ll write another post with the results.