Kalashnikov Concern has released the competition version of the PL-14/PL-15 Lebedev pistol. The new pistol is called SP1. It has some new features added to make it attractive for the competition shooters. The company markets it for use in Production or Production Optics divisions. Let’s take a closer look.

The slide of the SP1 pistol is compatible with Glock iron sights. It also has an optics cut which will come covered by a plate. The pistol is chambered in 9x19mm. The magazine release button, safety selector lever and the slide release lever are ambidextrous. SP1 has a Picatinny rail section under the dust cover portion of the frame. The pistol is fed from 16-round double stack single feed magazines. The company also points out that the pistol has an ergonomic backstrap design of the grip and relief cuts at the base of the grip designed to make it easier grabbing the baseplate of the magazine.

The Lebedev pistol was designed to replace the Makarov, however, looks like the UDAV pistol will be ultimately adopted as a main new handgun for the Russian armed forces and law enforcement units. Probably this is the reason why the company tries to adapt the pistol for the competition market considering that the civilian handgun market in Russia is virtually non-existent. Now, keep in mind that these are speculations of this author. You never know what the testing and trials will result in because these are largely classified processes in Russia. I think it is even possible that we’ll see them adopting both platforms in different scales and for different units like it was in the case of AK-12/AK-15 and AEK-971/AEK-973 rifles. We’ll keep following the developments around the new Russian pistol adoption and, as always, will keep our readers aware of the latest news.

Images from www.kalashnikov.media