BOBERG ARMS XR9L: SMALLEST LEGAL PISTOL!

Here's an interesting thought: ever since the creation of the firearm, their loading paths have been moving steadily rearward in relation to the shooter. Take handguns for example. From their creation in the 13th century, to their eventual demise in the 19th century, muzzle-loading pistols required the charge and projectile be loaded down the barrel and driven to the rear by a ramrod prior to firing. The adoption of revolvers saw the end of the muzzle loading era, and first required the charge and projectile be loaded into individual cylinders rather than down the barrel; bringing the ammunition slightly closer to the firing mechanism still. With the creation of cartridges, revolvers quickly transitioned to a loading system that required rounds be loaded in from the rear of the cylinder, allowing for even smaller pistol designs and moving the feed path for loading even further rearward. Then came the semi-automatic pistol revolution. With box magazines feeding rounds up within the pistol's grip, loaded rounds resided within the shooter's grasp, and allowed guns to shrink accordingly. And for many years, gun enthusiasts conceded that this method was simply as good as it could get. Boberg Arms would like you to reconsider.

The smallest restricted handgun available in Canada, the Boberg Arms XR9L embodies, perhaps, the next evolution of this progression. While still loading a box magazine into the grip as you would on any other semi-automatic pistol, any similarities between the Boberg and a conventional handgun end there; as the magazine actually resides below the chamber rather than behind it. In order to make this feed path work, the Boberg's action actually pulls rounds backwards out of the rear of the magazine, tilts them upward, and then pushes them forward into the chamber, making the overall package incredibly small. With a full-size 4.2" barrel, our test unit's slide was just over 5.8" long! Some have called this action a sort of bullpup handgun, and while that may be a great way to describe the manner in which the pistol's action has been moved further aft than usual, it's not entirely true. On a conventional bullpup firearm, the grip and trigger has merely been moved ahead of the magazine, while maintaining the traditional feed path of stripping rounds forward into the chamber. In the case of the Boberg, the action is much more complicated than that, and even requires that rounds be rounded nose-down into the magazine.

If anyone ever questions the complex machinations at work within the Boberg's slide, simply field stripping the tiny little gun will certainly correct any misconceptions they may have. This is accomplished by moving the slide fully to the rear, and rotating the takedown lever positioned on the left side of pistol 180 degrees. The slide can then be pulled forward off the frame and examined. It contains four major components: the recoil spring and guide, the unlock block, the barrel, and the loading claws and extractor. When the gun is fired, the barrel and slide move back as a unit initially, to ensure the chamber remains sealed until bullet leaves the barrel. After a short distance, a vertical lug on the bottom of the recoiling barrel engages an s-shaped slot milled vertically into the unlocking block (which is itself affixed firmly to the frame), and as the barrel moves rearward this s-shaped slot pushes the lug to one side, causing the barrel to rotate just a few degrees. This rotation unlocks the barrel from the slide, allowing the slide's momentum to continue its rearward movement. In doing so, it causes the very, very beefy extractor to pull the fired case from the chamber, while the spring-loaded ejector pushes it out of the action.

While all this is going on with the barrel and the fired round, underneath the chamber, the rearward movement of the slide has allowed the loading claw to pull a fresh round backwards out of the magazine. As the slide continues rearward, the claw is tilted up, and eventually carries the round over a lifting plate housed in the bottom of the frame. This plate pushes the round up out of the loading claw and onto the breech face where the round's rim is captured by the extractor on one side and a small lip on the other. Then as the slide travels forward into battery, the round is chambered.

That is obviously a vastly more complex operation than you're liable to find in most delayed-blowback operated semi-automatic pistols. Add yet, while shooting the diminutive little handgun, you'd never know any of that was going on. In fact, the only thing most notice while shooting the Boberg is it's oddly flat hammer that really looks like it's slapped the firing pin more than it is hitting it, and the lack of slide-lock back. The former is obviously an homage to the gun's concealed carry aspirations (cue the disappointed Canadian sigh here) as it reduces the overall size and removes one protuberance that could snag or hook clothing, while the latter is simply the side effect of the seven-round magazine not using a conventional follower; the rounds are simply loaded atop the magazine spring. Once again, we imagine this is done to reduce the overall size of the magazine without reducing capacity, and there have been some reports of magazine springs partially working their way out between the feed lips. However, we had no such issues with our test sample, and although we were skeptical of how easy it would be to load the magazine without a follower it ended up making no difference.

What will make a difference, however, is what you put in the magazine. Due to the fact that the rounds are pulled backwards out of the magazine at the same speed at which the slide recoils rearward, Boberg has a specific list of ammunition that is recommended for use with the XR-9L, most of it selected based upon the strength of its crimp. While the Boberg will fire just about any normal 9mm ammunition you could ever want to feed it, that rearward pull out of the magazine can unseat ammunition that either isn't crimped at all or has a poor crimp, which in turn can had to a strange malfunction in which your gun tried to chamber an unfired brass case while simultaneously depositing powder and a projectile in your magazine. The list is extensive and does include everything from high end personal defense ammunition too most of the cheaper target ammunition varieties from larger manufacturers. We used a mix of Winchester White Box FMJs in 124 grain and Remington UMC 115 grain FMJ ammunition without a hiccup.

So, after all that technical information, what's it like to shoot? Well, surprisingly mild. Having had the opportunity to shoot some proper pocket pistols from Glock, Kahr, and a few others down south, I was surprised at the Boberg's ability to tame recoil. I know their press documentation and advertising campaigns all claim to reduce recoil, but having heard that claim before, I didn't have too much faith that it'd be true until I pulled the trigger. The combination of a small gun with a full-size barrel and a slightly longer than average lockup time sounded like a recipe for recoil to me. But, by moving more of the gun's weight to the rear, and reducing the amount of weight hanging out by the muzzle, Boberg's brought the gun's center of mass closer to the wrist. As a result, when that mass recoils, it has less leverage on the wrist and the sensation is one of mild recoil and an easily controlled muzzle.

And the trigger. Oh, the trigger. While I'm not one to fawn over a double action only trigger (being a larger fan of single action or DA/SA guns), the Boberg's double action trigger is about as slick a trigger as you're ever going to find in double-action. It makes even the mighty CZ 75 SP01 Shadow's DA trigger pull feel nothing short of heavy, gritty and snatchy, and is probably closer to what you'd expect from a pretty decent revolver. It takes up with a linearly weighted resistance and is smooth as butter throughout its entire travel. And if you want to take up that travel and stage the trigger, you can do so with so much finesse that you'd swear you can feel the trigger starting to approach the sear. It's really that good.

In fact, the trigger's so good that one of the few things we found ourselves wanting was a slightly larger gun. While the Boberg's unique mechanism definitely makes it a pretty interesting gun to own as far as semi-automatic pistols go, it's diminutive grip can make it difficult to grasp for those of us with larger hands. With a pinkie finger dangling off the grip and a second hand having almost no contact with the gun due to the extreme thinness of the grip, it's a different experience than what most Canadians will be used to and it definitely takes some practice to get accustomed to. Even the beavertail below the abbreviated hammer, which does allow you to get your hand pretty high up on the gun, makes concessions to the gun's size by virtue of having some pretty square edges to allow space for the various functions housed within. Boberg could have simply moved the beavertail down slightly and given it the nice familiar radius we're all used to, but instead they kept it high, which means it's a bit of a trade off. On one hand (no pun intended) you can get a nice high grip, but on the other, the more squared off edges of the beavertail can beat up your hand after a long range session. For the record, we think they made the right choice.

The only other thing that we wish the Boberg had was slightly better grips. The solid black plastic grips are incongruous with the quality that otherwise oozes from every pore of the XR9-L. Sure, they are fitted extremely well to the frame and are equally well finished, but they just don't feel as nice as the rest of the gun. And sure, Boberg will happily supply you with red or green grips and matching magazine floorplates, but when you consider the gun's price point and overall look we can't help but wonder just how great some nicely laser-etched wood grips would look on it. Especially with the all-silver Platinum model.

Which brings us to the final point that simply must be mentioned in any discussion about these Boberg pistols: the quality of their manufacture and assembly is quite simply superlative. It is, without a doubt, superior to almost any other mainstream production pistol out there, with some possible exceptions from the more boutique brands like  and special flagship models such as Sig's enviable and legendary P210. It's incredible. The machined surfaces are all finished expertly, and the fitment of the moving components is so tight that you can literally hammer on the slide with your fist and still not elicit a single rattle. Although having been designed with a very specific purpose in mind (concealed carry) the gun's creator, Arne Boberg, spent obvious time ensuring the gun wasn't the simple appliance that so many other compact handguns are. The take down lever, for example, resides in an inset channel so that it's completely flush with the frame of the pistol rather than protruding from it, and has been shaped in such a manner that its grip actually follows the line between the grip and the frame. Inside, all the complex steel shapes required to make the gun function are exquisitely machined, and there's nary a machine mark nor a sharp edge to be found inside.

Outside, the aluminium frame and stainless steel slide are equally well made and fit together extremely well, but the slide serrations are quite aggressive. During take-down, which requires the slide be moved backwards to the point that the recoil spring's compressed completely, it became pretty obvious that repeatedly working the slide to that degree was going to result in losing skin. For Americans that will have the opportunity to carry this firearm concealed, undoubtedly the more aggressive serrations are nice, since they mean there's less chance of the slide slipping through the shooter's grasp in an emergency situation. For us Canadians though it can make for sore thumbs after a long day at the range, especially since the lack of a slide lock-back function means the slide must be racked for every reload.

diminutive elephant that the Boberg XR9L introduces to the room we call Canada: does this gun, and it's $1,449 price tag, make sense in a market incapable of making use of its single most beneficial feature? In other words, does a $1,500 premium pocket pistol have a place amongst the collections of Canadian gun enthusiasts who cannot carry a concealed firearm? Some have alleged that the Boberg is just an overpriced novelty up here north of the 49th where its status as the smallest restricted firearm available today has no bearing on its actual usage, but that's sort of like saying a Ferrari 458 Italia is an overpriced novelty because it's capable of doing triple the legal limit. In both cases, you don't need to be using either device to the degree that it was designed to be used, in order to appreciate it. And in both cases, the purpose for which they were designed has not diminished their ability to be used and appreciated in other manners. The notion that the Boberg is a novelty gun with too high a price tag hinges upon the idea that you're paying for the size, rather the quality, which isn't the case at all. The Boberg is just as finely made as any other gun costing the same amount of money, and benefits from a design that makes for a smaller pistol without sacrificing performance, and in doing so takes the next step in a long line of pistol development that began hundreds of years ago.