Made by Burgu Metal of Turkey in the land of strong coffee and sketchy missile deals, Buffalo Cartridge Company of Ohio has released their BRG9 Elite to the American market. The BRG9 Elite follows the same theme as Buffalo Cartridge’s established ammunition line. It’s a reliable, solid, quality product at a very reasonable price.
For those of you currently shooting a popular European-made polymer-framed striker-fired 9mm pistol, the BRG9 Elite is going to look very familiar.
The sights on the BRG9 Elite are a common three dot set-up, with the rear ramp sight dots being white and the front sight red. Both the front and rear sights are drift adjustable.
The slide and 4″ barrel are made of 4340 steel. That slide takes a lot of design cues from other common polymer-framed striker-fired semi-autos on the market, with deep serrations fore and aft. A two-slot Picatinny style rail section near the muzzle allows for simple mounting of a light.
Each of the two 16-round magazines that ship with the BRG9 performed flawlessly. You’ll find an easy-to-hold plastic baseplate, beveled out in order to grab and strip the magazine should it become stuck.
The magazine well has a small inward bevel on each side in order to better feed the magazines themselves. I would have preferred if the front edge of the magazine well were beveled as well in case of a poor insertion angle, but overall the pistol is well designed when it comes to getting it fed and re-fed in a hurry, especially with an ambidextrous magazine release button that absolutely launches empties.
When it comes to safety features, the BRG9 Elite checks a lot of boxes.
The loaded chamber indicator is a small bar that stands up above the chamber when there’s a round in it. There’s also a cocked striker indicator at the back of the slide. When the little circle is filled, the striker is ready to fall with a pull of the trigger.
Speaking of the trigger, it’s got the BRG9 Elite has the now ubiquitous trigger blade safety. And then there’s that grip safety as well. The grip safety not only blocks the trigger, but also prevents the firearm from being cocked unless it’s depressed.
The BRG9’s trigger isn’t anything amazing, but it’s a whole lot better than I would expect for a pistol at this price point. The Buffalo Cartridge Company’s website states the trigger pull is 5 lbs. and that’s a pretty close estimate. On my Lyman digital trigger scale, the BRG9 Elite averaged 4 lbs. 10.5 oz over 5 trigger pulls. There’s a bit of takeup and squish before a not entirely crisp break.
Disassembly is window-licker simple and accomplished by dropping the magazine, unloading the gun, locking the slide back, rotating the take down lever, pulling the trigger and pulling off the slide.
The BRG9 Elite also comes with a lot of extras, especially for a pistol that retails for well under $400. The plastic case is better than most and arrives filled with a four brush cleaning kit, mystery lube, the legally required trigger lock, and a small cloth.
The case also houses a magazine loader, and the other two (small and large) interchangeable backstraps for the pistol.
I like a large backstrap on every pistol as it usually puts my trigger finger closer to the correct length of pull. That was the case withe BRG9 Elite. No matter which backstrap fits you, the curving shape, fully molded texture all the way around the grip, and the grip length itself, make for a solid hold during long strings of fire.
And fire it I did. I put 400 rounds of mixed ammunition through the BRG9 Elite in one very hot afternoon range session. That was before any accuracy testing. I never cleaned the gun at any point during this review until it was time to take photos, but I did lube it with CLP prior to shooting, and only then.
The BRG9 Elite never skipped a beat. Not one single failure to fire, load, chamber a round, drop a magazine, absolutely no issues at all during any point of the review. For this review, I fired FMJs, hollow points, truncated cones, and the weird but effective IMI die cut round. Weights ranged from 115 to 147 grains.
I went ahead and buried it overnight in a mulch pile, with the action open. I took it out the next day, shook it off, loaded a magazine and started shooting. I put another 100 rounds of 115gr Winchester white box FMJ through it. I limp-wristed the gun. I shot it upside down with my pinky on the trigger finger. Slow fire, fast as I could squeeze the trigger fire. Zero issues.
I was almost as impressed with how easy this gun shoots as I was with its reliability. At 30 oz. empty, it’s not particularly light, but it’s not race gun heavy either. It’s that weight, combined with good fundamental ergonomics and the 9x19mm chambering that make it easy to take the money you didn’t spend on the gun and use that cash turning noise into empty brass.
It was easy to get a good feel of the general precision of the gun during Mozambique drills, and the bench proved out my hypothesis. Good, but not great.
The best-shooting round was, oddly enough, the inexpensive 115gr Winchester FMJ round, firing 2.8″ average five-round groups over four shot strings. Only 1/10 of an inch larger overall was the 124gr Speer Lawman +P bullet. Remington 147gr UMC opened up quite a bit, to 3.5″ groups. All groups were shot in whatever time it took, off bags at 25 yards outdoors through a dirty bore.
You can get a decent OWB holster for the BRG9 Elite right from the Buffalo Cartridge Company website.
The BRG9 has an MSRP of $399 and can be currently found online for $50-$70 less than that. I shot the gun quite a bit before I looked up the price, and the fact that it was selling for so little surprised me a bit. In the current market, I would have expected more.
Buffalo Cartridge Company has brought a good, extremely reliable and very affordable pistol to the Land of the Free. I shot over 500 rounds through this gun in just a couple of days without even noticing it, and I have no doubt the BRG9 Elite would do it all again without so much as a hiccup.
Specifications: BRG9 ELITE – 4″ 9mm Pistol
CALIBER: 9X19mm
BARREL LENGTH: 4″
CAPACITY: 16+1
BARREL & SLIDE: 4340 FORGED STEEL, DUAL HEAT TREATED
FRAME: HI-IMPACT POLYMER
ACCESSORY RAIL: PICATINNY
SAFETIES: GRIP & TRIGGER
INDICATORS: LOADED CHAMBER & STRIKER STATUS
MAG RELEASE: AMBIDEXTROUS
OVERALL LENGTH: 7.36″
HEIGHT: 5.5″
WIDTH: 1.4″
EMPTY WEIGHT: 30 OZ
TRIGGER PULL WEIGHT: 5.0 LBS
MAGAZINES: 2, 16 RDS
BACKSTRAPS: S, M, L
MSRP: $399 (about $330 retail)
Ratings (out of five stars):
Style and Appearance * * *
Nothing stands out here. It’s all utilitarian, all the time.
Customization *
There’s not much yet in the American market specifically made for this gun. You can swap the included backstraps to fit your hand size. That’s about it.
Reliability * * * * *
Perfect.
Accuracy * * *
Around 3″ groups with both inexpensive target loads as well as high quality defense ammunition.
Overall * * * ½
The BRG9 Elite is a good value, especially in today’s market. It’s perfectly reliable, reasonably accurate, fun and easy to shoot. Points off for no optic mount, no current option for a threaded barrel, and a good, but not exceptional level of precision.
It’s a budget pistol, no need for optics cut or threaded barrel.
They sell a model with an optics mount and threaded barrel for 100 USD more :
https://brg-usa.com/brg9-elite-tactical
Seems like a good budget option.
It’s a Turk. They charge more than that and they get laughed out of the store.
Perhaps laughing individuals who evaluate country of origin and not the firearm should take up knitting…Such individuals forget they own products from around the world like from communist China, from Japan the country that bombed Pearl Harbor, from Germany the country of the third reich, from once fascist Italy, from Vietnam, etc. It’s called hypocrisy. bigotry…one of the two or both.
As for the Second Made InTurkey review in two days I prefer the first 9. Today’s BRG sounds acceptable but for me the grip safety on any firearm would make it my last choice.
Some items are not made in America. Sad but true. But plenty of firearms are made in America and other countries that are a bit more free than Turkey.
It is not bigotry to recognize that the .gov in Turkey is hostile to us and that their firearms are junk.
Some items are not made in America sad. So what do you want to do, stop importation like a tyrant?
Name a country that does not have issues with the US and vice versa? As if joe biden’s America has respect worldwide.
I hate to rain on your parade of excuses but by your own words you are not one to be calling any firearm junk. According to the authors both Made In Turkey 9s were determined to be quite the opposite of junk.
I have 3 Made In Turkey Sar9s and sold by referral 8 more. The first thing out of the box was dismantling the entire firearm to be tweaked in ways that you would never know to do in a hundred years. Anyone who knows firearms knows it is about what they can do to make the weapon perform its best. And when it comes to knowing the nuts and bolts of firearms the word “junk” is a neon sign that says someone is out of their wheelhouse.
Chances are very good you are using a Made in China device to display bigotry towards people who have just as much right to participate as anyone else. If it were just about the firearm you would have left your disdain for Made in Turkey off the table.
“The first thing out of the box was dismantling the entire firearm to be tweaked in ways that you would never know to do in a hundred years.”
A ‘good gun’ wouldn’t require being ‘tweaked’, cupcake.
It would work reliably out of the box with no problems, whatsoever… 🙂
Debbie, I can’t believe I have to spell this out. Japan is a different form of government with a different constitution than the one that bombed Pearl Harbor. Ditto for Germany today vs. the Third Reich. As for China, it is extremely difficult if not impossible to avoid all Chinese products or Chinese components in many consumer electronics products. It is extremely limiting when it comes to options, at best.
Turkey has a despotic regime NOW and it is extremely easy to avoid Turkish products when it comes to firearms, since the overwhelming majority of consumer firearm choices in stores are NOT from there. You have to go out of your way to choose a Turkish gun.
So please put the ridiculous argument about “hypocrisy”’ to rest. It may help you ease your conscience but it just sounds idiotic to everyone else.
I was pleased to see embossed on my knitting needles the words Made in China. Nothing l like better then supporting Americas favorite communist.
Awful defensive on a more recent example of state level racism (sorta more religious but almost applies) and genocide………do you hate the Kurds or the Armenians there toots?
That’s easy but intellectually-lazy to say it’s hypocrisy to not want to buy items made by a country that fundamentally hates individual liberty and specifically America and it’s culture. You have a CHOICE when it comes to purchasing a pistol’s country of manufacture, you don’t have a choice when it comes to most other things. If it was made in North Korea by political prisoners in a concentration camp would you still be defending it?
I suppose there’s a market for these pistols, but it ain’t me.
Not everyone is as fortunate as you and I are, GF.
For them, a gun like this perfectly fine. It sure beats the hell out of no gun at all…
I have one that I bought from Classic Firearms. It’s a nice pistol. For me, I didn’t have to clean it from the factory. It was clean and oiled. I could see the oil. Shooting was fine as well. The only issue with shooting close groups like Jon Taylor was “me”. I was the problem. When I anchored it well, it was remarkable.
There is one thing. I keep my Glock between the seats in my truck when driving. Sometimes it slides to the floor and rests on the steel seat support and never picked up a scratch. The finish on a Glock is remarkable. However, the little buffalo did the same thing. Except it did get a scratch down to the metal. Not a big one but I can see it. I thought,”Oh sorry little buddy.” And he replied,”what do you want for $200.00? I can’t do it all. I can do most of it, but not all.”
Scratches and holster wear don’t bother me at all. It’s the story of the gun.
So, in my opinion this is a fine little buddy who works and doesn’t fail. At lease not yet. I recommend it as a carry, truck, and fishing gun. If it gets confiscated due to poor judgement, it’s not a $1,500 safe queen that will run a man into depression.
Buy one. You’ll see.
By the way.
Your wife called and said it’s ok to buy one.
Warren, I DXd my wife and I never asked her permission to buy a firearm the entire time I knew her.
And I would never bought even her something from Turkey.
“the land of strong coffee and sketchy missile deals”
You can add “sliding into a theocracy” onto the end of that. But more than that, why not just save up a little longer and get something way better?
Cause I’m a cheap ass.
OMG, Look, a gLOCK. (Ok, ok, I know I’m being a jackass. This gun was inevitable, and is completely reasonable, given that GLOCK set the standard for the type. I am honest enough to admit that if an RIA 1911 can be considered a perfectly serviceable gun then this can be as well.)
HS2000, SA XD, BRG9. For that money I’ll go with a Beretta APX.
“We have a Springfield XD at home!”
Nothing wrong with the design, and I’m sure this gun is fine, but I see the real deal on sale for around $300 all the time. other than the carrying case full of goodies, what does this offer that the SA doesn’t?
bah copy of a XD. No one has any ingenuity to come up with something new? Copy this, copy that.
Sometimes development goes to refinement of the ubiquitous and incremental advancements of little things. Makes more innovative products all the more disruptive and attention grabbing when they do work out.
All my relatives have one of these including myself, this gun is amazing and as reliable as the top guns out there! Now if you are one of those that try to be cool having a expensive name brand then good for you BUT this gun will match whatever gun you put up against it but I will do it much cheaper.
I bought this model when it was on sale in Ohio. Brand new at $179, just before they released some new Optics models. My S&W, Ruger, and also a Tokarev all work well, too. I simply could not pass up the look-alike at that price. I am glad I have it.
ever wanted a Springfield Armory XD9 but you boycotted SA? don’t mind lowering Armenian civilian count? if so we have the pistol for you! 😉
My last pay check was $12000 working 12 hours a week online. my sisters friend has been averaging 15k for months now and she works about 20 hours a week. i can’t believe how easy it was once i tried it out. this is what i do. https://www.richepay.com/
Too many questions, people will drop out before finishing.
Thousands of scouts at an international Shutdown123 event in South Korea are being evacuated from a campsite
This is an impressive little gun for the price. Personally like the trigger and love the 3 dot sights! For an older guy they are brighter and just a touch bigger than some other pistols. Accuracy at 25 feet was a 2 inch group in the bull. My trigger was under 5 lbs. Very nice slide release. I got mine for under 200. Just a crazy good deal. I have an XD which I like, but this pistol is better in every way IMO. I don’t get all the hate for Turkish firearms. Most of their handguns on the US market are first rate for the price. Not a fan of their president or politics, but what’s that got to do with it?
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Takes XD9 mags fits SA XD & XDM holsters and can be had for 200.00 bucks…no brainer. Mine shoots great.
I got mine for 250 out the door. Shoots as good as the Springfield for half the price. Very happy with this pistol. No hiccups after 100 rounds. Decent trigger and sights. Puts a Glock to shame in most departments including ergonomics. Anti-Turk bias is ridiculous. Anybody remember we were fighting in WW2?
More than 700 Palestinians have pg slot vip
Put it this way: I despise the Chinese government even more than I despise my own, but I’m still not going to pass up any Norinco I come across at a good price. I got one of these for just $200 at Classic Firearms and it most definitely performs better than anything else I ever spent that little coin on.
Besides, our own elected leaders hand out billions of dollars to regimes that hate us every other week. My $200 isn’t going to be what emboldens them to invade.
A Japanese court has found three ex-soldiers shutdown168 guilty of sexually assaulting a female colleague.
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