Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns Anyone Own or Shoot a Coonan .357?

Interested in impressions from those who own or have shot the full-size or new compact version.

Wow, have I officially stumped the 'Fire? Say it ain't so...

Hunter (Fred Dryer) liked his...

I always wanted one, just couldnt justify the coin to buy one.

Back in the late �80�s and early �90�s I worked on and off for a gun shop that carried them quite often. My boss had a thing for them so I got to shoot them from time to time. All of his worked and shot well, but they�re not what I�d consider self defense reliable.

I thought the guns were very well made. They are cast stainless throughout and it�s the older stainless (I don�t know what number) that is prone to galling, so you have to lubricate with white lithium grease. If you keep the slide rails lubed up, generally you don�t have any problems. The trigger is smooth rounded face and the trigger break on all the ones I shot were very good. My recollection was that the hammers were made of tool steel and electroless nickel�d to match; which is a good thing.

Loading magazines was a PIA. They come with a little �key� (like a Luger) to stick through the follower to help pull the follower down; without that you�ll never get more than about 5 rounds in the magazine. The little key was on a keychain with a little rubber Coonan gun. I wanna say it took a separate magazine and recoil spring to shoot .38 Special. I never fired .38 Special through a Coonan so I have no clue if it works, or how well it shoots.

The grip is pretty darned big, but not as big as you might think. I found it only slightly uncomfortable, but manageable; wasn�t really a problem for me but I have pretty large hands.

There was the original Coonan and then the model B. I don�t remember exactly what they corrected with the model B, but it was significant enough that they called it the model B. I�ve fired both and both worked and shot pretty much the same. Maybe the A version had the barrel link and the B version had a Hi Power type barrel cam�sorry, I don�t remember for sure.

I�ve shot the full size and the �compact� (can�t remember what they called the compact version), and both worked well and were rather accurate. Recoil was smooth and much lighter than a .357 revolver.

Overall manufacturing quality was excellent. I did note that it did have quite a few sharp edges. I recall the bottom of the slide was a bit sharp, if it were mine I�d take a needle file and break that edge at the very least.

It would never be the only handgun I owned, but they�re cool and fun; I wouldn�t mind having one.

I'm not sure how different today's Coonan 1911s are from the old ones... I know the original company went out of business some time after some of the employees split off and formed Magnum Research. I think Coonan Inc. came back around 2010 with the "new" Coonan .357, and the Compact is their newest model.