It may appear that the handgun market has become a seemingly endless sea of black, polymer, striker-fired offerings. Therefore, companies must find little things to help set their guns apart from the crowd. When it came to the design of its STR-9 Thinline, Stoeger, rather than try to be something it isn’t, kept things simple by sticking with a fairly straightforward design, but incorporating an ideal size for a concealed-carry pistol while providing value to the shooter.
Built around a polymer frame and steel slide, the overall profile of this version is noticeably slimmer than previous STR-9 models. But, just because a gun is smaller doesn’t mean sacrifices must be made to overall capacity. The STR-9 Thinline boasts an impressive round count of 16 +1 and ships with two additional magazines, each holding 14 rounds. With an overall width of a mere 1.08 inches, this pistol certainly earns the name “Thinline.”
Not only does this reduced width make it easier to conceal, but also makes it a viable option for more shooters, particularly those with smaller hands. The grip features a medley of textures, including a checkered backstrap, a finer stippling along the sides and a frontstrap with a texture falling somewhere in the middle. While some shooters may prefer a more (or less) aggressive texture to their grips, I was satisfied with the amount included in the product’s final design. It provided ample purchase and felt secure in my hands during handling and live fire, without feeling overly aggressive or cutting into my hands. The same fine stippling found along the sides of the grip is also placed just beneath the slide on the top portion of the frame, serving as an excellent reference point for both your thumb while fully gripping the gun and your trigger finger when not actively shooting. Further, the frontstrap exhibits the slightest of a single-finger groove. It is barely discernible visually, yet it combines with the undercut trigger guard to make the pistol exceptionally comfortable to hold. Mag wells are a point of contention among concealed-carry practitioners. The tapered top of a double-stack magazine is much narrower than the opening in the grip frame, so some feel a mag well on such pistols is redundant, only serving to make the pistol wider and less concealable. Be that as it may, the one on the STR-9 Thinline, though it does confound the efforts of the company to make the gun as narrow as possible, nonetheless does a nice job of securing the hand on the grip frame, making a nice, snug fit for those with medium to large hands. And, in any event, the mag well is removable if you don’t care to use it.
Knowing this gun would likely cater to the concealed-carry crowd, Stoeger’s R&D brainstormed ways to incorporate features that would add value and benefit the shooter during real-world use. Serrations are found on both the front and rear portions of the slide, providing a handy, tactile grip. In addition to those serrations is a widened area at the rear of the slide. Similar to the “ears” on the Heckler & Koch VP9, this area allows you to quickly grasp and rack the slide without interfering with other gun manipulations. That gripping area is particularly needed, as the slide release is quite small on the Thinline and proved difficult to operate, particularly in a hurry. You are best off working the slide with your off hand, assuming it is available.
Sighting systems were kept simple and include a set of tritium three-dot night sights, with the rear sight drift-adjustable within its dovetail for windage. The Thinline is optics-ready, with the slide cut to accept direct mounting of any optic sharing the popular RMSc footprint.
Range-day testing was completed with the gun’s defensive nature in mind. Setting up at a typical defensive distance of 7 yards, I tested three different 9 mm loads from Hornady, Black Hills and Winchester, with reasonable defensive accuracy. The entirety of my testing was uneventful—not in a way that left me with a lackluster feeling about the Thinline, but free of any sort of malfunctions, stop- pages or other surprises. Shot after shot, I was able to get back on target quickly, and the same goes for transitioning between targets. There is modest take-up in the trigger, but it returns with a short, well-defined tactile reset.
The STR-9 Thinline was a pleasure to shoot, and I appreciated how it was simple, straightforward and just worked. Its designers didn’t incorporate unnecessary features to overcompensate and distract from poor performance or an inferior build. What they instead did was successfully develop a handgun that included everything that was needed, and nothing that wasn’t—no more, no less. Mix in a few clever additions pertaining to ergonomics, slide design and optics compatibility at a sub-$600 price point, and you are left with ample funds for ammunition and maybe some quality training.
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