Aside from the M1911, the Glock G19 is perhaps the most imitated defensive pistol made, so it comes as no surprise
that TriStar Arms offers several renditions that look, feel and shoot like the Austrian pistol. The APOC Pro is the latest addition to
that line. TriStar imports the APOC line from Turkey, along with a variety of shotguns, rifles and handguns, with an eye toward buyers who value a firearm’s functional aspects over glamour or aesthetics. That’s not to imply that the APOC Pro is plain Jane; it’s not, but with an MSRP of $399, the Pro exemplifies TriStar’s strategy of selling guns that offer value over the cachet of a more established name.
The APOC Pro is chambered in 9 mm and is compact, with an overall length of 7.75 inches with a 4.5-inch, threaded barrel and an overall height of 5 inches with the magazine inserted. It weighs approximately 1.5 pounds unloaded and comes with two, 15-round, Glock-compatible magazines with a polymer shell wrapped around a stainless-steel liner. Also, like the “two pin” Glocks, the APOC’s polymer frame has stainless slide rails and a pinned-in ejector and locking block. Other shared features include the takedown procedure, dual captured-recoil-spring assembly of Gen4 and later Glocks and a simple, safe and reliable firing mechanism that Glock used for decades.
A triumph of passive safety, that mechanism uses a partially tensioned striker that is fully cocked and released by depressing the trigger, and a pivoting tab within the trigger face, which serves as a drop safety. There’s also a spring-loaded plunger in the slide that locks the striker until the trigger is pulled, thus allowing the pistol to be safely carried in a proper holster with a chambered round.
Though Glock similarities are many, there are material distinctions, most notably in the barrel, slide and certain aspects of the frame. The APOC’s barrel is threaded ½x28 tpi for attaching a suppressor and has broach-cut, land-and-groove rifling instead of polygonal rifling. The slide has two lightening cuts on top near the front, a black Cerakote finish,
and angled serrations fore and aft.
The APOC’s frame has the Glock’s characteristic grip angle, but lacks the “Glock bump” of some Glocks on the bottom rear of the trigger guard, which so many shooters found annoying and removed with sandpaper or a Dremel tool. There are two accessory slots on the dust cover instead of one, presumably for more certain attachment of flashlights and lasers. Perhaps signaling an enhanced APOC Pro in the future, the lower portion of the backstrap is detachable and secured by a cross pin with another pin sitting above, but replacements are not currently offered despite a cutout in the box’s foam insert seemingly intended for one.
The trigger behaves as you’d expect a Glock’s to, breaking just past 90 degrees with slight overtravel and a pull weight measuring slightly more than 4.5 pounds using a Lyman electronic scale.
Sights are Glock-compatible—but are steel instead of plastic—and use fiber optics. Up front is a post with a red fiber-optic insert and a U-notch bordered by green fiber optics sits at the rear. If you prefer an optical sight, an RMR adapter plate is included, which fits the slide cut, but some optical sights will require the rear sight to be removed.
Included with the APOC Pro, but not installed, is a “speed funnel” which, when attached to the heel of the frame with a single screw, aids in fast reloading. It does add the downside of extra bulk that detracts from an otherwise eminently concealable pistol under most types of clothing. Having the option of using it is a serious plus, though.
To assess precision and ammo preferences, I fired the APOC off sandbags at 15-yard targets using three different loads. The average five-shot group of all three loads was 1.28 inches wide measured at the shot centers. The most accurate loads were the Black Hills 124-grain +P JHP and Winchester WinClean 147-grain TMJ, which printed the single best groups measuring .875 inch and practically tied with a 5-group mean of 1.15 inches and 1.10 inches, respectively. This is good accuracy for any EDC pistol, and exceptional for one at this price point.
Reliability was flawless; no stoppages with any of the five loads tested in a 250-round session using TriStar, Magpul, Glock and KCI magazines. The sights are fairly well regulated, with the 115-grain Remington load printing about 2 inches high at 15 yards and dead-on for windage. If windage needs ad- justment, the rear sight is secured by a set- screw and can be readily drifted with a punch once lubricated.
The APOC is easily manageable and, like
the G19, a two-handed “wedge grip” works best for controlling recoil and muzzle rise. Textured ovals on both sides of the frame ahead of the trigger guard were useful indexing points for the trigger finger and support-hand thumb.
Where I think TriStar should have improved on the Glock is the slide lock lever, which is woefully small, reflecting Glock’s orthodoxy that sling-shotting the slide is a superior method of chambering a round from slide lock than depressing the slide-lock lever. A larger, wider lever would make reloads faster and jam clearance requiring a rearward locked slide easier. Further improvements could include deeper slide serrations, which would provide better purchase for slide racking, and better sights as the fiber-optic pipes in the sights are limited by the amount of ambient light (but these are easy to change to your preferred model).
While many companies have taken advan- tage of the expiration of the Gen3’s patents, each seems to focus on a few different as- pects of the original, making it more tactical or concealable or comfortable. TriStar has tweaked it in a lot of little ways because its goal wasn’t innovation so much as value. The buyer is getting an established mechanical design, but a lighter measured trigger pull,
an optics cut, a removable mag-well funnel and excellent accuracy, all for just short of $400. That’s some deal.
Turkish gun production has been on a streak of late. The recent designs and executions have left little to be desired. The APOC Pro does nothing to interrupt that streak. It’s a solid contender as an EDC pistol, one without glaring flaws or an absence of needed features. It presents quite a bargain to budget-conscious firearm shoppers.
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