SAR USA P8L

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We had a flurry of Sarlsimaz guns on the channel a few years back and I was excited. Having seen the full lineup at the manufacturer's booth at SHOT I was anxious to see more Sarsilmaz guns hit the US market. Unfortunately the importer back then dropped the line and just as quickly as Sarsilmaz guns had appeared in the US they disappeared.

At my publisher's event in 2020 I got to meet SAR USA, a new importer of Sarsilmaz that was factory-backed. Considering that Sarsilmaz proper makes weapons up to and including missile parts for NATO we can consider the venture to sell handguns to US consumers a passion project, but a project none the less. The introductory lineup is general the same as was imported a few years ago with slight changes to the packaging and the replacement of hard plastic grips with rubberized grips on applicable models. One of the models I didn't get to try previously was the P8L and so when I spotted it available at a reasonable price we bought one for the channel. That purchase was made possible by our Patreon supporters so if you ever see one of their names (in the end credits) commenting and you appreciated this review thank them for making it possible.

SEE CURRENT SAR USA LISTINGS HERE

Let's get to the gun:

The specs according to the SAR USA website are:

• MODEL: P8 L

• CALIBER: 9x19 mm

• CAPACITY17

• BARREL LENGTH: 4.6"

• OVERALL LENGTH: 8.0"

• OVERALL HEIGHT: 5.5"

• OVERALL WIDTH: 1.4"

• WEIGHT: 37.9 oz.

As you can see the all stainless steel construction (that's right, under that Cerakote is stainless steel) makes this thing a bit beefy. Not only is it heavy, but the safety lever and slide lock/release are making no effort to hide. The P8L is unabashed. Despite the heft Ms Teya found the size manageable, partially thanks to the rubberized grip panels providing such great traction. Another feature that makes this full-sized gun manageable is that although the action is DA/SA, it does not decock, so the trigger reach is always single action unless the slide hasn't cycled. You can watch how it performed in the Shooting Impressions video below.

As said in the video, the P8L didn't need to be broken in, but it did seem to break in as we shot. The trigger and action got smoother, or perhaps we were just getting ore accustomed to the way the gun handled. Our opinions rose from an initial, "meh" to one of being rather impressed. I'm not sure what role this gun could fill in that it's too heavy for daily carry and lacks a rail for attaching lights for home defense, and the 1970's-era feature set (the P8L is essentially a stylized CZ75) is a bit dated for competition. The role it seems to have served us was in making for a fun day at the range. Comfortable to shoot, rather soft recoiling, and easy to operate.