When the marketplace of micro-compact handguns took off, many manufacturers began rolling out their own take on the easily carried 9 mm handgun, but for years, there was one clear exception: Heckler & Koch USA. All that changed when the company launched its CC9, which proved to be one of the most robustly built micro-compact handguns yet made. Watch our "American Rifleman Television: Rifleman Review" segment above to see the details of the HK USA CC9.
"It comes with a lot of features packed into a small space," former American Rifleman Editor in Chief Brian Sheetz said. "There's a tritium front sight that's dovetailed to the slide. There's a plain serrated C-notch rear sight again dovetailed into the slide. And then you'll notice that there's this cover plate here. And that is for a Shield pattern or Holosun K pattern red dot that can be affixed directly to the gun. On the CC9, the magazine release is bilateral. The trigger’s of the blade and shoe style that we see so often nowadays, and there is good stippling on both the backstrap, the front strap, and the side panels of the grip frame. Here's the salient feature of the CC9: this is a chassis-based gun."
The Heckler & Koch CC9 measures 6 inches in overall length and 4.92 inches in height with a flush-fit, 10-round magazine. A 12-round extended magazine also ships with each pistol. The 3.25-inch, six-groove barrel features a 1:9.8-inch rate of twist. Unloaded, the CC9 weighs 18.4 ounces. At its widest point, the gun measures just 0.99 inches in width.
"What I think is particularly unique about the CC9 is that the chassis is machined out of a single piece of steel. So the locking block area at the front, the rails and the portion at the back again, part of which you can see with the serial number engraved on it, is all one piece," Sheetz said. "What that does is it gives you a very rigid platform on which all of the fire control components can be mounted. So that's a fairly unique way of approaching the construction of this gun. And I think H&K really wanted to ensure that their brand and their reputation was upheld by this gun with many concealed carriers today."
Like many of today's carry guns, the CC9 is outfitted with a bladed trigger, and on our test sample, the trigger broke with a pull weight of 5 pounds, 12 ounces. One of the other salient features of the CC9 is that the design is entirely ambidextrous, with mirrored push-button magazine releases located just to the rear of the trigger guard, as well as bilateral slide-stop levers. Additionally, the top of the slide is cut to accept red-dot sights of the Shield RMSc or Holosun K footprint.
"With some of the options and carry such as appendix carry and so on, its flatness at less than an inch, its weight at just over 18 ounces, its capacity at 12 rounds, all of that translates to a subcompact pistol that has a great deal to offer the concealed carrier," Sheetz said.
To watch complete segments of past episodes of American Rifleman TV, go to americanrifleman.org/videos/artv. For all-new episodes of ARTV, tune in Wednesday nights to Outdoor Channel 8:30 p.m. and 11:30 p.m. EST.
