Longer barrel, shorter grip?

I wasn't sure where to put this since it's not exactly about the micro version but just my general musings. I love all the innovative designs of the XR9 but I don't find the incredibly short nose particularly aesthetic, nor do I think being that short will necessarily aid in concealment. It would certainly be helpful when used carried in a pocket or pouch, but isn't going to help when carried most other ways (IWB, ankle, chest, etc)...so I like the length of the XR9-L better.

I also like the shorter handgrip of the XR9-micro, as the height of the gun is largely what causes printing in most traditional carry methods. This opinion is also reflected in a poll here,

http://www.defensivecarry.com/vbulletin/concealed-carry-issues-disc...

However I don't think the overall height matters quite as much as length of the backstrap, which is why I think it would be nice to have a very short backstrap, the butt of which is embedded in the palm, and then a slightly longer fore-strap to allow decent finger grip room. Of course, having not held the XR9 or XR9-micro, I could be off.

Finally, I'm not really a fan of two-tone, so I hope future versions come out with an all-black version. I'm sure that's possible to do at a custom shop for a hefty price tag as well. Here's an image progression I made to demonstrate.

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Permalink Reply by Arne Boberg on July 1, 2010 at 10:38am

Very nice! Once we decide on offering the Micro, it is not hard to offer the longer barreled versions.
That angled bottom looks nice, but a squared-off bottom will offer more backstrap (for recoil absorption area) and print the same.
All-black is in the plan, after we have produced a certain number of two-tone models.
How did you make the image change like that?

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Permalink Reply by Stu on July 9, 2010 at 8:46am

Cool, it will be interesting to see what other variations you come up with.

As for the image, made an animated gif in Photoshop. Actually changing the gun requires some drawing skills :P

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Permalink Reply by Talibani on October 30, 2010 at 11:13pm

I concur with the longer barrel – great animation

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Permalink Reply by CWC on October 29, 2011 at 2:30pm

I was just reading old post and thought this changing pic deserved a bump.

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Permalink Reply by Sanford Walke on November 22, 2011 at 6:30pm

Holding my xr9-s, I was thinking exactly the same thing. Longer barrel, shorter grip. Add a polymer frame while you're at it and standard sight dovetails and you'd have an all around winner.