I own 2. I bought one from the very first run at cost since I had a buddy that was working for them at the time.
I was aware of the QC issues from talking with him but the design was interesting enough to me to want one.
Not sure about the snake oil comment. I can only relate my personal experience from shooting quite a lot of pistols.
The lowered axis does change the felt recoil. It reduced the muzzle flip action by about half from any 1911 style 9mm and a little more than half compared to a full size Glock in 9mm.
It won’t turn you into an ace shooter by itself but with the flip action of the recoil reduced your time back to target after recoil is reduced by the same amount.
Knowing the QC issue I haven’t put enough rounds through mine to gain the muscle memory to really take advantage of it. It really is an odd experience to shoot one the first few times with most of the recoil being linear.
I mainly bought the second one as a back up if this one fails and I can’t get parts.
I think most people hate it because it is kind of ugly.
That said I’d also be interested in one of the DD H9’s. But I’ll wait till someone else gets one so I can try it first since I’m not getting it at cost. lol.
The snake oil refers to how they marketed it. Hudson claimed lowering the recoil assembly and getting “the lowest bore axis possible” would achieve the flattest, and therefore the best and fastest, shooting pistol possible.
Problems with that marketing: flat means nothing, and even if it did, it’s not actually a “flatter” shooting design. It might feel weird or different compared to another gun in comparison, but it’s not actually any flatter.
(1) Flat isn’t fast, and within reason, isn’t inherently good or bad. Properly timed and balanced returns to zero without dipping. That’s more important than 12 degrees of vertical recoil versus 17 or 20 degrees. A preferred feel (soft versus snappy) is more important.
It’s a different story if we’re talking about a .38 Super Comp with a C-more riding an inch and a half over bore… but a basic minor PF 9mm? Flatter won’t make anything faster.
(2) Recoil spring placement and slide height (again, within reason) dont really affect the physics of recoil. The recoil spring could be beside or above the barrel. If there’s a solid object cycling over the centerline of your wrists, then the height of that object isn’t nearly as relevant as its mass and how it pistol is sprung.
If you’ve shot a Steyr, Caracal, or Arsenal pistol before, you know bore axis amounts to nothing past the marketing. CZs and 2011s, and even P320s now, are “tall” guns, yet they dominate every discipline based on speed shooting.
That’s from a Hudson marketing video. Note the brass position by the ejection port.
That’s my old P320 at a match. There are two pieces of brass visible: one crossing the edge of the hard-cover target, and one at the ejection port (like the Hudson video).
The “flatness” in those two images is identical despite the Sig slide being a quarter-inch higher off the grip
and a lighter pistol overall. But, light slide, and properly sprung.
I’ve shot the H9 as well as the Steyrs and Arsenals. Sounds like our subjective experiences are different, but I was not impressed by the Hudson and unsurprised by its first demise. I’m happy that people enjoy them, because they’re interesting, but it’s not for me.
danieldefense.com
