"European style" magazine catch?

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    oliverz

    Member
    May 19, 2009
    94
    Baltimore
    I was enjoying a recent issue of American Rifleman and came across a write up they had on a Rohrbaugh R9 Stealth 9mm pistol. It looks like a pretty cool little concealed carry gun (though highly priced at $1,195).

    Rohrbaugh-2.jpg


    Anyways, the article describes it as having a "European style" magazine release, which is the little hook thingy at the base of the magazine.

    I'm far from any sort of an expert, but I've never seen one of these before, much less handled one. Looking at it does not inspire a lot of confidence in me of it's retaining capabilities.... Furthermore, for a gun supposedly designed to be snag-free for concealed carry it looks like a lot like a hook.

    Anybody have any thoughts?
     
    smores

    smores

    Creepy-Ass Cracker
    Feb 27, 2007
    13,493
    Falls Church
    lax said:
    same style of the ruger mark 2 they work
    Click to expand...

    Off the top of my head, Makarov, Tokarev, original Beretta 92, P38, and the old Ruger MkI/MkII had them. A lot of turn-of-the-century (19th to 20th) had either catches like that, or release buttons on the butt of the pistol grip behind the magazine.

    The 1911 and P.08 are 2 pistols that popularized the magazine release behind the trigger guard.
     
    Fustercluck

    Fustercluck

    Active Member
    Aug 4, 2008
    776
    Eastern Shore
    H&K P7PSP also had a heel magazine release. As stated above, they work and are no more prone to premature, umm, ejection than the more familiar American style mag release buttons. Many think the heel release means slower reloads, and I tend to agree.
     
    Bigdtc

    Bigdtc

    Ultimate Member
    BANNED!!!
    Dec 6, 2007
    6,673
    South Carolina
    My CZ52 has the heel mag release. It is a little slower but can be made quicker with practice. Hard to lose a mag with it, though..lol
     
    alucard0822

    alucard0822

    For great Justice
    Oct 29, 2007
    17,709
    PA
    For a pocket gun, a heel mounted release has a few things going for it. It is much harder to inadvertently drop the mag, it visually locks, and they tend to be more positive than frame mounted, or trigger guard mounted(sometimes also called a euro release) The downside is that they can be slower to reload. The fastest way I have found is to tilt the pisol 45 degrees with the grip angled twards your weak side, use your supprt hand thumb to push the mag latch back, grab the front edge of the floorplate with the side of your index finger, and yank it out, drop it or retain it, and slap a new mag in, all in all not much slower (especially if you retain the mag) and a lot more positive and sure movement than a pistol with a frame mounted button.

    The Rohrbaugh pistols are awesome, they are tiny for a 9mm, but there are a couple things to consider, the cost is very high, they are not rated to fire +p ammo, and you have to replace the recoil spring quite often, every few hundred rounds or so. They are very well made, and have good triggers, but the size can be a hinderance also being they can be hard to get a decent grip on, they have a pretty sharp recoil, and a slightly larger pistol like a Kahr pm9 not only requires less maintenence, can handle +p ammo, and costs almost 1/2 the price, but the larger frame, grip and MUCH better sights make it a much easier pistol to shoot, and not really any more difficult to carry. In guns as small as these +p ammo can help diinish the loss in velocity due to the short barrel, and put +p fired out of a 3" barrel BUG or pocket pistol(especially the Kahr with a more efficient polygonal rifled barrel) on par with a standard velocity round fired from a service length 4"-4.5" pistol.
     
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