The Sterling Arms R9 is a 9mm, blowback, semi automatic PCC. It looks to be a variant of the Akdas SA-9, a unique compact 9mm made in Turkey but this version has been modified and assembled in Canada for the Canadian market: using modifications such as a longer barrel so that it’s NR and a side charging handle instead of top. The Sterling Arms R9 sells for around $1600 at the time of this writing. Sterling Arms sent me this randomly-selected rifle for review along with many other gun reviewers.
Specs:
- Non restricted version comes with a 18.6″ barrel, counter bored for the last 7″ (so no muzzle devices can be affixed)
- They will be offering a restricted version as well at some point
- 6.8lbs (3.1kg)
- Telescoping stock with pic rail attachment
- Non-reciprocating, left side only charging handle
- Uses MP5-style mags. Comes with 1 – 5/10 magazine but 10/30 pistol mags are also available.
- 7075 aluminum for upper and lower
Why is this rifle non restricted while most of the other ones are not? Because it doesn’t have an FRT and has not been evaluated by the firearms lab.
The barrel itself is really interesting: it’s 11″ of rifled barrel and the rest is just hollow tube. When manufactured this way, it still legally counts as barrel length, so you get a lighter barrel. No need for nearly 19″ of barrel just to burn the powder in a 9mm cartridge. Taccom does the same thing for some of their 9mm and 10/22 barrels and I think it’s a good idea for constructing a lighter, but still legal-length barrel.
The stock is a tube style so you can upgrade it with any milspec AR-style stock if you choose. Interestingly, it attaches to the receiver via a picatinny rail mount so you could swap in a pic-rail style stock if you want. I like that this has become somewhat of a standard for rifles that don’t need a buffer.
The forend is a free-float aluminum style with MLOK slots. All good there.
The controls are interesting. Safety is a standard AR-style so you can upgrade that to ambi or whatever if you want.
The magazine release can be actuated on either side of the trigger guard by pressing down OR by pressing the side magazine release button on the right side of the magwell, kind of where an AR mag release would be but way further forward. Magazines may not drop free depending on your magwell/mag tolerances but they do have a last round bolt hold open. Realistically, you’re going to use the paddle style mag release unless you have freakishly huge hands because the side mag button is really far forward.
The bolt release is the familiar “ping pong paddle” style. Magazines are MP5 style and Sterling is selling 5/10’s or 10/30’s (for $65). The Sterling mags will hold open on the last shot but if you choose to use other MP5 mags, they will not.
Grips are AR-style, so you could swap those if you want as well (including beavertail style).
The trigger is proprietary so you can’t swap it with other triggers though I hear they’re working on making it compatible with standard AR trigger packs.
The bolt uses a captured recoil spring. It also has a firing pin safety to ensure the bolt is in battery in order to fire. That’s a welcome addition because many of the other PCCs don’t have very good protection against out of battery detonations.
Shooting the Sterling Arms R9
Coming after this weekend
Sterling Arms R9 vs other PCCs
As-is today, this is the best non restricted 9mm carbine because. . .well there isn’t really much else on the market. I’m not going to compare it to the Henry Homesteader or the Chiappa M1-9 because there isn’t much of a comparison.
Instead, I’ll compare it to the other 9mm PCCs that were available up until Dec 2024 because there’s a strong chance those guns will be unbanned once the CPC are in.
In the US, you’d see AR9’s and takedown PCCs. AR9s are so good in the competition sphere that there’s very little else needed. What that means for us in Canada is that the imported American PCCs that dominate our market are usually takedowns with longer barrels. Sub2000, M&P FPC, Ruger PC Carbine, JR Carbine, TNW ASR: all take-downs. The non-takedown PCCs are few and far between: the Raven 9, FX-9, Kriss Vector, and the IWI X95 in 9mm. Realistically, the R9 is only competing head to head with the B&T, Raven 9, and FX-9 as a proper competition-ready PCC rifle in Canada so lets compare it against those.
On price point, the Raven 9($1400), FX-9 ($1350-1550), and R9 ($1600) are close enough to each other while the B&T’s are quite a bit more ($2400-5500). As the B&T is WAY more expensive, I’ll pull it out of the comparison.
The B&T GMH9 with 18.8″ bbl is a bit chunky at 8.3lbs. Weight is pretty similar for the others in their NR barrel versions:
- FX-9 at be around 6-7lbs
- Raven 9 at 6.4lbs
- Sterling Arms R9 at 6.8lbs
All 3 rifles have similar safeties and bolt hold opens.
The basic charging handle on the FX-9 is a bit small. The side charger on my Raven shoots loose sometimes but you could use a top charger and since the Raven 9 uses any standard AR charging handle (unlike the Raven 556), you could use whatever. The side charging handle on the R9 is good: big enough to use and with a magnet to hold it forward when you don’t need it.
One issue that we run into here in Canada is over gassed PCCs (I know it’s not actually over-gassed cause there is no gas action in a blowback but lets just use that term because it’s more familiar with other rifles). Because most of the PCCs we get from the US are originally made for 16″ or shorter barrels, our longer 18.5″+ barrels give a bit too much jam. This is an issue on the FX-9. The R9’s unique barrel setup should mean that cycling isn’t as violent.
On magazines: I think the FX-9 and Raven 9 have a leg up because they use Glock mags. Those Glock mags are cheap, everywhere, and they drop free.
Durability: hard to say here but I can talk about some of the known issues. The Raven 9 has had some issues with broken firing pins, especially when run with Triggertech triggers. The FX9 had a few gen1 issues and has somewhat violent cycling with the NR barrel, which can cause failures with aluminum cased ammo. Neither the FX9 or the Raven 9 are really good at preventing out of battery (OOB) detonations, while the Sterling R9 does have a much better mechanism for that. I’ll have to get some more rounds downrange with the R9 to really get a feel for durability.
Flexibility: The FX9, Raven 9 and R9 all can swap grips & stocks with AR-compatible ones. The FX-9 and Raven 9 can swap in AR triggers although there are some issues running AR15 style triggers in PCCs. The R9 can take picatinny stocks while the others cannot.
Summary
This review is in early release, I’ll update it as I go. No summary yet!
