Sarsılmaz is making waves in the Turkish small arms community today for a number of reasons. The company recently upped their quota of MPT76s from 15,000 to 50,000 for the Turkish Army (conversation with Sarsılmaz Booth). In addition to the rifle contract, the company’s 9x19mm NATO SAR 9 has recently scored a major contract with the Turkish Military and National Police forces, for over 100,000 handguns. We were able to take a look at the SAR 9 at Range Day and even shoot a few magazines through it.

At Range Day-

According to the catalog given out at the show, these are the specifications of the handgun-

It appears that apart from perhaps a few markings, the mode being imported into the United States is indistinguishable from the version being issued to Turkish soldiers and LE officers (unless we are mistaken). Notice that the Military/LE contract version is retaining the manual safety, which can be rare on polymer framed, striker fired handguns these days (Sig 320 MHS aside). The handgun is very similar to a Walter P99 design, even down to the disassembly lever that slides up and down on the frame, releasing the slide.

There are also removable grip straps that can interchanged for larger or small hand sizes.

Located on the trigger is a trigger safety shoe that must be fully depressed in order to fire the handgun. The red portion on the trigger appears to be a colored part and doesn’t actually do anything in terms of handgun operation.

The handgun is available right now for under $500, and is being imported into the United States by SAR USA based out of Des Plaines, Iowa.