Today, in our range, we hosted one of the Laugo Arms presentation days for the new Alien.
As range master I attended and helped set up the range, check for security and other small organisatorial jobs.
I didn’t know much about the pistol, other than it is extremely expensive, has a low bore axis and works with a gas piston.
Well, I learned some today.
It is not a striker fired pistol, although it looks like one.
Trying the trigger pull, I told the guy from Alien that it was the first time I ever found a trigger like that on a striker fired pistol. He giggled a bit and took the gun down, showing me the reversed internal hammer.
The gas impingement system does not push a piston. It pushes the slide forward, keeping the chamber tight. As soon as the pressure drops, the remaining backward impulse allows the parts working as slide/bolt to slide back, extract, expel and rechamber, like on a simple blowback system. Nice.
I shot 10 rounds when they called me after having all registered hosts shoot.
Although I’m not used to red dots, I decided to shoot it that way.
I was fairly impressed. It does not kick much. The impulse hits the palm, between index and thumb like a short, light hammer blow. You don’t feel much, if any, muzzle raise.
All in all a very pleasant shooting and a quick return on target.
The results were absolutely not bad at all. Aiming at the bulllseye, without too much concentration and “mental preparation”.
Cost of the “full optional” version is here 6.700€. Maybe something less at the gun shop.
Would I pay all that money?
If I had money in excess, yes. Not so much for the performances. My Bernardelli VB Elite does pretty much the same job and has an even better trigger (we’re talking stellar level for both). Probably, if I were a competitive shooter and the red dot or fixed sights were allowed on the non-moving upper structure, that would be a great advantage, but it seems that at Laugo Arms they had to develop a specific mod. with the sights/red dot reciprocating, so that advantage remains for leisure shooters only.
I would buy the pistol for the unbelievable quality of the whole package (gun, machining of each and every part of it, of the holster, of the transport box…), and for the technical solutions, because they are really particular.
Other than that, I was very curious and am glad that I could test such a special gun.
Thank you Ovidio for posting this, I had to google the firearm to find out what the 'Alien' pistol is all about. I'm always interested in new developments in the firearms world and it's great to see that innovation is alive and well.
Here a link to Forgotten Weapons.
It’s a couple months old, but I only saw it now.
At 8:55, Ian starts showing the Alien.
A very interesting video in general about gas delayed blowback operated pistols.
I had a red dot on my S&W stainless K frame 357 mag for action match the beauty of a red dot is it does not matter where that dot is inside the scope as long as its on the target that's where it will go.
In one event I think it was from 7 meters from the holster you had 2 seconds to draw and fire at your target sounds like a long time but you have your hands above your shoulders prior to the beeper going off, get to your holster, clear it, get the pistol up, find the dot & target, then fire 1 round yeah it's not a lot of time.
But I sure liked the concept of the red dot V's a standard scope with crosshair as you cannot afford to have an off centered view.
I'll keep my EAA Witness made by Tanfoglio in Italy that I paid $269.00 for new. I put a Vortex Venom HWS, which cost almost as much as the pistol and I hit A zone shots on an IPSC target at 25 yards all day long.
PM
