Lionheart Industries LH9C
The Lionheart Industries “L” series of pistols were introduced earlier this year and recieved a lot of attention. To give you a background of this pistol series it helps to know who makes them. Lionheart formed a strategic alliance with S&T Motiv in order to bring these pistols to the American market. Now you’re probably asking yourself who the heck is that. Well you know them by the more common name of S&T Daewoo based in south Korea. Daewoo is an experienced company that most people know from the 1980’s when they introduced the Daewoo 5.56 carbine. Those familiar with the company know they make excellent firearms. In fact they manufacture most of the South Korean military small arms.
Lionheart opened it’s doors in November of 2011 in Redmond Washington in a brand new 70,000 square foot world headquarters. Not long after they partnered with Daewoo in designing this new pistol series. The “L” series comes in a compact version which is the LH9C. The second and third versions are the full size LH9 followed by the full sized rail equipped LH MKII. All versions are currently chambered in 9MM. All “L” series pistols are finished in Cerakote in a variety of colors as well as two tone models. Both full size models are shown below.
If appearance is any indication these are going to be excellent pistols. We’ll know for certain before to much time has passed. We’ll be doing a review of the LH9C fairly soon.
Retired police officer with 30 years of service. Firearms instructor and SRU team member. I still instruct with local agencies. My daily carry pistol is the tried and true 1911. I'm retired as associate editor since December 14th 2017. My replacement is my friend Pete M email: pete.m@staff.thefirearmblog.com you can reach Pete for product reviews etc.
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I first looked into Lionheart after a customer brought them to my attention earlier this year, and have since sold three of their pistols. I've had the opportunity to shoot the compact model and was impressed by it overall, but share many of the reservations about the price point that my customers have discussed. They are very well finished and have a moderately heavy single action pull along with a long, smooth DA pull much like a Beretta 92 would. They do work with S&W 59 type mags but the fit is not great, so fair warning! The soft case is a nice touch and is quality, but many people would rather have a price break or a third magazine instead of a case they won't use.
Lionheart has recently partnered with Novaks and will be phasing out the current fixed sight first gen pistols with a "gen 2" that includes Novaks wide notch combat sights. Blacked out rear sight, large white dot front. I received one of these last week and the new sights are a massive improvement in my opinion. They also tweaked some of the internals such as strengthening the safety lever detent for a more positive click. Flat baseplates for the compact mags should be forthcoming as well.
Along with these changes they shifted the price points around and have actually raised the MSRP to give dealers a bit more room to work. The folks at Lionheart claim to have a full stock of spare parts for the pistols in addition to their warranty services.
Overall the pistols are solid and definitely provide a good alternative to the dying alloy frame hammer fired pistol market, but the price seems to be the big factor for most folks. Personally I think "it's just a Daewoo" in the same way that a Springfield TRP is "just a 1911"... the bells and whistles appeal to some but aren't worth the price to others.
I have a LH9C and it is a great gun, accurate and reliable.