One of my busiest times of the year is when I settle in to work on the two Ballistic’s Best articles that I’ve done the past several years. This year has turned out to be even busier than usual since, for this Full-Size article, we are reviewing 13 pistols, and I believe that’s the most we’ve ever done to this point. We evaluated 11 pistols for the Compacts article as well. Getting ready to review 24 pistols at once involves a good amount of logistics, communication, research, planning and making lists, running back and forth, and a lot of detail work. Now, that’s what it takes just to get ready to actually do the work.

Ballistic’s Best Full-Size Pistols 2024

None of the above factors in the time involved with the actual range day testing, taking pictures and video, the writing process, nor does it include the time and work involved editing videos and pictures and then assembling everything together for publication. But hey, all of that is just the price of admission to get to play with some of the newest, hottest and best pistols on the market all at one time, and it’s worth it. But even with everything I’ve described up to this point, none of this happens without one critical thing—ammunition.

A Note of Appreciation

I touched on this in the Compacts article, but we had several ammunition companies jump in and supply a hefty amount of ammunition for our testing. For my two articles, we had 24 pistols in total to evaluate. The team consisted of four guys (including myself) for each category. Each evaluator firing only 100 rounds through each pistol numbers a total of 9,600 rounds needed. And we ended up assembling 12,000 rounds thanks to the generosity of these companies.

Federal did us right by sending in a variety of their range loads including their American Eagle lead-free offerings in 9mm, .380 ACP and .45 ACP, and they also sent a good batch of their Syntech loads, which are the cat’s pajamas for training since the point of impact is the same as their HST line. Additionally, they also sent a good sampling of their Hydra-Shok Deep loads in 9mm and .380 ACP and some of their 124-grain HST ammunition for 9mm pistols. 

Wilson Combat and Lehigh Defense stepped up with products in 9mm, 10mm, .380 ACP and .45 ACP. Those included loads from Lehigh’s XP, XD and CF lines and Wilson’s XTP line of 9mm offerings—not to mention all the 135-grain remanufactured ammunition they sent. I’m really warming up to the Lehigh stuff since it delivers penetration and blistering speed with the lighter-than-lead copper solids, and it still delivers the type of cavitation found with hollow-point ammunition.

Ammo Galore

Remington and Blazer both sent out an abundance of ammunition including Big Green’s Range line of ammo, their UMC line and even their Range Clean series of ammunition. Calibers included .380 ACP and 9mm. Just as a little extra, Remington also included some of their fantastic 147-grain Golden Saber Bonded load, which is in many a law enforcement agency across the country. Blazer’s offering was a couple cases of the tried-and-true 115-grain FMJs we all know and love from range days past and it was much appreciated by us.

Hornady and Black Hills were also in the mix with some outstanding contributions from them as well. Hornady shipped a swath of 9mm and .45 ACP ammunition from the company’s American Gunner line that uses their XTP bullet. Additionally, they sent out a healthy amount of their Critical Duty load for both 9mm and .45 ACP and some of their 9mm Critical Defense stuff as well. Black Hills rounded it out with a solid chunk of their .45 ACP 185-grain JHP ammunition and nice batch of their specialty Honey Badger ammo for both 9mm and .380 ACP. The .380 load was also a sweet match for the S&W Bodyguard 2.0 with that 60-grain copper solid hitting some blistering velocities for its size.

Look at the prices that are out on the market for premium ammunition—not just range loads—and you’ll understand that this testing and scoring process doesn’t happen without the assistance of the ammo manufacturers. It wouldn’t be economically feasible to do this type of large-scale testing without them. That’s why I wanted to take the opportunity to recognize and thank all of the companies that participated so that we could bring this information to our audience.

The Price is Right?

I’ll tell you one thing; ammo isn’t the only product to have gotten pricey the last few years, and that is illustrated by the full-size pistols we reviewed for this edition. Out of 13 full-size pistols tested and scored, 11 of them are over $700. Eight of them retail for $999 and higher. Out of all the pistols in this review, only the CZ P-09 F Nocturne is under $600. Whew!! So, I guess part of our testing was to determine not just whether all of these pistols live up to their hype, but also whether they live up to their price. You’ll have to read on to see if they do.

Interestingly enough, exactly half of the full-size pistols have metal frames and the other half have polymer frames. But wait a second, there are 13 pistols in this review. How do we get to exactly half of them polymer and the other half metal? 

Rock Island Armory RIA 5.0E

Well, we start off with the Rock Island Armory RIA 5.0E, which borrowed a little from the 2011-pistol playbook and has a bit of both. The 5.0E is a fairly unique design that has an aluminum chassis onto which fits a steel slide. The actual grip consists of a polymer composite attached to that aluminum chassis. The composition of the grip and chassis isn’t what’s unique about the RIA 5.0E, though. 

The pistol uses a novel linear recoil system called the Ram Valve System. The barrel does not tilt via the Browning system like most pistols on the market. Instead, the barrel only moves back and forth slightly allowing the valve to unlock to allow the slide to cycle. It’s a complex process that’s too long to describe in this brief overview, but it’s a very interesting system that has a nose-heavy bias with its trapezoidal-ish barrel and a very low bore axis with a rail system similar to a CZ 75.

While it looks like a striker-fired pistol with the absence of an external hammer and the included trigger safety, the RIA 5.0E uses an internal hammer system instead. The “E” in the RIA 5.0E’s name stands for “Enhanced,” as this model is the newest iteration that includes an optics cut in the slide, more aggressive slide serrations and the company’s Elite-series finish. Other amenities include a set of Night Fision sights with a fiber-optic front sight and a Picatinny rail that round out the package for an MSRP of $1,988.

Wilson Combat EDC X9 2.0 Comp

While we’re up there in the price stratosphere, we can go ahead and knock out the Wilson Combat EDC X9 2.0 Comp, which has a price of $3,937 with the optic cut, ambi safety upgrade and the optional magazine well installed. While looking sleek and sexy, the EDC X9.20 is all business at the same time with its new solid-frame design that wears 1911-style grips for easy customization and a bevy of custom components. Built completely in-house, the EDC X9 2.0 is a Single Action Only pistol that borrows heavily from the 1911 for its design cues and operating system.

The list of standard parts for the EDC X9 2.0 are anything but standard considering the quality of machining and gunsmithing involved. There are Wilson’s Bulletproof parts including the hammer, magazine release and thumb safety. Then there’s the suppressor-height Battlesight arrangement that includes a fiber-optic sight up front. At the heart of the pistol is the Enhanced Reliability frame-rail system and the four-inch, stainless-steel cone barrel with the Reliability Enhancing Lockup system.

Custom Touches

Backing out to a bird’s-eye view, we can see all the extra touches that go into the visual aesthetics that, in some cases, are just as functional as they are beautiful to the eye. There’s the Tri-top slide that aids in easier re-holstering. Then you’ve got the 30 LPI serrations on top that are attractive but also help mitigate glare. Adding to the pistol’s sex appeal is the fluted barrel, X-Tac treatment on the slide and the front and backstraps, and a black Armor-Tuff finish for a sleek and tough presentation.

For those in our audience that enjoy competitive shooting, we’ve got three competition-style pistols with metal frames in our full-size round-up. The metal frames don’t offer the flex found with polymer-framed pistols, but they do offer extra weight to soak up recoil and help tamp down muzzle flip.

SIG Sauer P320 X-Five SXG

The first pistol in the competition section is the new Sig Sauer P320 X-Five SXG, which weighs in at a massive 49.8 ounces and boasts an even more massive MSRP of $1,979. The P320 X-Five SXG showcases both a stainless-steel slide and frame with contrasting black controls and black G-10 grip panels and backstrap by LOK. At the heart of the P320 is Sig’s chassis system, the actual serialized firearm that can be swapped out from one frame to another without having to do any paperwork for the feds.

The P320 X-Five SXG is also host to quite a few other quality-of-life features such as the front and rear cocking serrations, reversible magazine release, and the ambidextrous slide stop lever. An accessory rail is present, though it only includes one slot to help maintain the extra weight for recoil control, and an included magazine well will help with faster and more confident reloads.

Atop the slide resides a fiber-optic front sight with a heigh-adjustable rear sight. It comprises part of the cover plate, removable for mounting an optic. Finally, a flat-faced trigger enhances trigger geometry for an improved trigger break. To get you rolling out of the box on race day, the P320 X-Five SXG ships with three 21-round magazines and three recoil springs of different weights to tune the pistol in accordance with your needs.

Walther PDP Match Full-Size Steel Frame

Just one rung down the price ladder is Walther’s newest competition pistol, the PDP Match Full-Size Steel Frame at an MSRP of $1,899. Looking like a blend of something both James Bond and Flash Gordan would use, Walther’s latest competition pistol tips the scales at 41 ounces and is essentially the same pistol as the PDP Pro but just with a steel frame for the extra weight.

The sweeping curves of the PDP’s sublime ergonomics create contrast against the PDP Match’s aggressive slide serrations from from lightening cuts in the slide. But it works. The PDP’s duty heritage shines through, including a Picatinny rail, adding more versatility to the package. It gives up extra weight, a desired aspect for competition pistols. A wrap-around grip on the steel frame provides extra comfort and superb traction for recoil control as well.

More standard features found on the PDP Match Steel Frame Full-Size are the reversible push-button magazine release, the ambi slide stop lever and the optics cut on the slide. Not-so-standard features are the included magazine well and the Performance Duty Trigger that makes the PDP Match Steel Frame have one of the absolute best trigger pulls and breaks of any striker-fired pistol on the market. The PDP Match Steel Frame features a robust nitride finish for excellent protection and it ships with three 18-round magazines.

Beretta 92XI Squalo

The third contender in our competition section is the new Beretta 92XI Squalo with an MSRP of $1,329. The Italians know how to build machines with real sex appeal. Aside from its beautiful appearance, the 92XI Squalo even feels beautiful in the hand. Building off the platform of the Beretta 92, the Squalo brings extra features and refinements to an already proven system. 

The Squalo is a Single Action Only variant that showcases a Vertec-style frame that offers up plenty of checkering on the straps and an aggressively textured Hogue grip for superb traction and recoil control. Beretta includes its flat-faced, X-treme S single-action trigger that works in tandem with the ambi thumb safety for cocked-and-locked carry. All of the trigger components and the skeletonized hammer utilize a DLC coating.

Competition features include the fiber-optic front sight, a Toni magazine well to speed up reloads, and the three included 22-round magazines that should be enough for any competition or defensive encounter for that matter. The 92XI Squalo also includes an optics cut to use in conjunction with various available adapter plates for your favorite optic. More routine, but handy, enhancements include the reversible magazine release and Picatinny rail for mounting a weapon light or other accessory.

Sporting a 4.7-inch barrel, the 92XI still isn’t a heavyweight when it comes to competition pistols. It weighs just 33.3 ounces with its aluminum frame, so it will ride on your belt comfortably all day in a defensive capacity should you so choose. Given its price point, features and its intended audience, the 92XI Squalo is a comprehensive package with stunning visual appeal at a very reasonable price.

Canik TTI Combat

Straddling the line between competition pistols and performance defensive pistols comes two products action-packed with features. Each offers excellent value for the money. The first, the Canik TTI Combat, comes from a collaboration with Taran Tactical Innovations. The TTI Combat is largely based on Canik’s polymer-framed, striker-fired Rival, a pistol that had a lot of race-gun features at an attractive price point.

Being a lighter, polymer-framed pistol, the Rival isn’t the typical competition pistol, and it has a decent amount of muzzle flip. The TTI Combat model was designed with an attached compensator to help overcome that issue while keeping the relatively light weight. In keeping with the performance enhancements, the TTI Combat includes a serrated and ambidextrous slide stop, a spiral-flute barrel, an aggressively textured slide with front and rear cocking serrations, aggressive grip texturing, and an aluminum mag well.

The fun doesn’t stop there. Also included are two 18-round magazines, one with a flush-fit baseplate and one with an extended +3 baseplate. The user will also find a Picatinny rail, reversible magazine release, and a slide cut to mount an optic with the three supplied adapter plates. The TTI Combat is finished with a bronze Cerakote and it also includes three interchangeable backstraps to tailor the fit to the user. For extra value and to get the user rolling quickly, the kit ships with a hard case, holster, tool punch, cleaning kit and a speed loader. That’s a lot of value for its MSRP of $949.

Smith & Wesson M&P 9 2.0 Metal Spec Series

Another great value proposition comes from a company that’s been surprising me more and more lately. The new Smith & Wesson M&P 9 2.0 Metal Spec Series is another pistol that’s built with a ton of performance features at an extremely reasonable price point. Draped in an Olive Drab Cerakote finish, the Metal Spec Series is also a striker-fired pistol that sports the company’s latest-generation trigger that offers a very clean pull and surprisingly crisp break.

Though it integrates an aluminum-alloy frame, the Spec Series wears nicely textured polymer grip panels to aid in recoil control. The frame also incorporates a Picatinny rail for your favorite accessory. Up top, fore and aft slide serrations are present and are just deep and aggressive enough to facilitate easy manual manipulation of the slide. Also present on the slide is a set of outstanding suppressor-height sights with white outlines around the tritium inserts. Those sights co-witness with a red-dot optic mounted in the pre-cut slide cut with various available adapter plates.

The M&P 9 2.0 Metal Spec Series includes a reversible magazine release and ambi slide stop, welcomed by left-handed shooters. A threaded barrel with attached compensator designed by Faxon, helps reduce muzzle flip. In another twist, the Spec Series is the only pistol in our Full-Size lineup that ships with four magazines, two 17-rounders and two 23-rounders. If that doesn’t sate your appetite, you’ll also get a challenge coin and a Karambit-style box opener. The last two items, not blowing anyone’s hair back, come with a reasonable MSRP of $999.

FN 509 CC Edge XL

There’s a lot of us pistol aficionados that don’t shoot in competitive events, but we’re still looking for the very best components and build quality in our carry pistols—even if we have to pay a little bit more. That’s where our next two full-size pistols come into play, starting with the new FN 509 CC Edge XL. The Edge series of 509 pistols has a few more bells and whistles than the standard lineup does, and the XL version sits right in the middle between the LS Edge and the CC Edge when it comes to size and capacity.

The CC Edge XL incorporates a full-size frame that natively accepts 17-round magazines and it features a 4.2-inch barrel. The primary stand-out component of the CC Edge XL is the quick-detach compensator which FN claims reduces muzzle flip by up to 25 percent. The barrel wears a gold titanium-nitride finish that contrasts nicely with the slide’s tungsten-gray treatment. That gold finish on the barrel also shows up well under the lightening cuts in the slide that double as cocking serrations.

Serious Build Quality

The other prominent aspect of the CC Edge XL is the over-the-top build quality. It just doesn’t feel like a regular polymer-framed pistol. That’s reflected in the suppressor-height sights that include a fiber-optic front sight and a rear sight that’s protected by a set of steel wings. The slide is milled for mounting an optic with FN’s comprehensive optics-interface parts kit, though the protective wings come off when the slide’s cover plate is removed.

The CC Edge XL hosts a number of other features that make it a fantastic fighting pistol including an integrated magazine well and weighted magazine baseplates for quicker reloads. The pistol also includes a flat-faced trigger that works in tandem with a conical striker for an improved trigger break over other 509 pistols. Beyond that, it includes other expected features such as a Picatinny rail, ambi slide stop and a reversible magazine release. 

Throw in aggressive, differential texturing on the grip, two interchangeable backstraps and the fact that it ships with three 17-round magazines (where allowed), and a ballistic carry case, and you’ve got one hell of a package with the 509 CC Edge XL. That said, you’re also going to pay one hell of a price for it since it has an MSRP of $1629, a price that’s getting into the range of a custom pistol.

Langdon Tactical LTT PX4 Full-Size G-SD

Speaking of custom work, the next pistol in this section has almost exactly the same price with an MSRP of $1,640 and that’s the Langdon Tactical LTT PX4 Full-Size G-SD. It’s important to point out the stuff that comes from the Beretta factory subsequent to the company’s collaboration Ernest Langdon like the heavy-profile barrel. Since the PX4 uses a rotating-barrel recoil system, it’s already a very flat-shooting pistol, but the heavy-profile barrel helps mitigate muzzle flip even more. As a result of the collaboration, Beretta also includes the Carry Type G decocker and oversized magazine release to enhance the capabilities of the pistol’s defensive posture.

Once the folks at Langon Tactical get ahold of the new PX4 G-SD, they put their own custom touches on it depending on what work the customer wants done. The pistol we received for this evaluation includes the NP3 Package which includes a cut and crowned barrel, the LTT trigger job and an NP3 treatment on the barrel, magazines, hammer, and the trigger group internals. The trigger job itself includes coating the Performance Trigger Bar with ArmorLube DLC, installing an 11-pound chrome-silicon hammer spring, and tuning the engagement surfaces by an LTT gunsmith. 

Upgrades Abound

The pistol we received also had the Gray Guns steel flat trigger installed and it included the RDO cut for Holosun EPS red-dot sight. Now, the pistol that came in also had the actual Holosun EPS installed and that pushes the price up to around $2,000, but it saves the customer the hassle of buying and mounting one. 

Of course, the customer can always opt for the rail-mounted compensator made by VP Armory and/or the Springer Precision magazine kit that is supplied with a magazine well. If you add every option available for the PX4 Full-Size G-SD at Langdon Tactical, then you could easily push the $2,600 price point, but you’d also have one outstanding carry pistol that offers just about the best shooting experience you’ll find with a DA/SA pistol.

CZ P-09 F Nocturne

Now we can catch our breath for a bit as we take a quick look at some full-size pistols that are a little easier to afford for the majority of gun enthusiasts. The first out of the gate is our least expensive full-size pistol and that’s the brand new CZ P-09 F Nocturne with an MSRP of $549. The Nocturne model is a moderate enhancement over the second-generation P-09. It still integrates CZ’s Omega DA/SA trigger system and it still features a glass-reinforced polymer frame, but that frame features improved texturing in several areas for better control.

Up top, the Nocturne’s slide wears aggressive front and rear cocking serrations, and it also showcases serrations on top of the slide for both glare mitigation and visual appeal. There’s a set of three-dot luminescent sights that are fairly basic but still good quality and quite useable. The slide features a cut for directly mounting an optic with a Shield RMS and Holosun K footprint. A robust nitride finish provides excellent corrosion resistance.

Aside from the price, there’s a number of other features that make the P-09 F Nocturne appealing. There’s a Picatinny rail up front for mounting accessories, a reversible magazine release, a re-designed stop, and an ambidextrous thumb safety/decocker. The Nocturne includes an oversized trigger guard to easily accommodate gloved fingers and it still incorporates CZ’s excellent ergonomics with the extra relief under the beavertail and the undercut trigger guard. Luckily for me, the Nocturne is compatible with CZ’s appropriately sized P-10 magazines. The standard magazine capacity for the P-09 F Nocturne and the P-10 F is 19 rounds.

Taurus 917C

Another relatively inexpensive option is one with a very recognizable profile. That’s the Taurus 917C that rings in at an MSRP of $607. The 917C draws its heritage from the Beretta 92 platform, but Taurus has been manufacturing the design so long, the folks there have had a chance to add their own tweaks and refinements. The 917C, a DA/SA pistol, sports a shortened 4.3-inch barrel housed within the iconic open-top slide. Taurus bills the system offers better reliability and reduced slide mass for less muzzle flip.

Unlike the standard Beretta 92 or Taurus PT92, the 917C comes with a frame-mounted, ambidextrous thumb safety that also serves as a decocker and it allows the pistol to be carried cocked and locked, similar to a 1911. There are no slide serrations up front but those at the rear are quite aggressive and provide plenty of traction for the user. A set of three-dot sights include a drift-adjustable rear sight and an integral sight up front that’s part of the slide. 

Both the stainless-steel barrel and the slide are given a matte-black finish for an all-business look to the pistol. And to improve the 917C’s effectiveness at doing that business, the two supplied magazines have a capacity bump to 18 rounds. The aluminum frame also has a matte-black appearance and it incorporates a Picatinny rail up front and a set of finger grooves on the grip that some people love and others might despise. The frame is finished off with a set of black polymer grip panels with a bit of subtle texturing.

Glock G17L Gen5 MOS

Another all-business type of pistol is the new Glock G17L Gen5 MOS that jumps into the race with an MSRP of $851. In a slow but steady trend of offering refinements to their pistol lineup while staying true to the original designs, Glock has brought several improvements to the new G17L Gen5 MOS. The first you’ll notice are the cocking serrations up front and the ability to mount an optic via the slide cut that accepts several MOS adapter plates for available red dots on the market.

With its long slide and 6.02-inch barrel, the G17L Gen5 MOS can be used for both competition and home defense, though it ships with a trigger that breaks at a slightly lighter weight for competition purposes. A single-slot accessory rail will accommodate a weapon light or laser while an ambi slide stop and reversible magazine release will ensure sure that southpaws aren’t left out of the fun.

The sights are the same style of plastic, white-outline Glock sights that we’ve seen for decades, but there are three interchangeable backstraps shipped with the pistol to allow for a more custom fit to the user. The grip offers an ample amount of texturing for a comfortable purchase on the pistol, but the trigger guard is still small with not a lot of room for gloved fingers. However, there’s a little redemption to be found since Glock includes a package of four adapter plates right in the case so you can mount your favorite optic as soon as you pick up the pistol.

Springfield Armory Echelon Comp

The last of the pistols to cover in our prefatory overview is the Springfield Armory Echelon Comp with an MSRP of $749 and a plethora of features for even the most demanding consumer. Released last year, the Echelon introduced an innovative design for mounting optics called the Variable Interface System. This system allows for over 30 optics currently available on the market to be mounted to the Echelon without the need for adapter plates.

Not stopping there, the folks at Springfield included a radical slide design that was host to very aggressive slide serrations as well as a pinch point called the “trench” to allow the user to manipulate the slide from the front in a much easier fashion. Throw in a Tactical U-Dot sight system with a high-visibility front sight with a tritium insert and cocking ears at the rear of the slide for a top end that’s chock full of features and value.

Chassis System Design

A chassis-system pistol, the trigger group is the actual “firearm” piece of the mix and it can be swapped from frame to frame to customize the size of the entire package and to accommodate various magazine sizes. The grip frame of this model natively accepts 17-round magazines with the option to use the available 20-round models. The frame also wears Springfield’s Adaptive Grip Texturing to lock in the user’s hand for superb control over the pistol during recoil.

Other amenities you’d expect in a modern defensive pistol include the Picatinny rail, ambidextrous controls for the slide stop and magazine release, and the Echelon includes an oversized trigger guard to accommodate gloved hands. In keeping with the compensator trend, this particular model includes an integral, low-profile compensator cut into the barrel and the slide to help reduce muzzle flip. Additionally, the kit includes interchangeable backstraps to change the fit of the gun, and if that’s not enough, different grip frame sizes are available for an even wider selection of fit options.

Four-Man Gauntlet

It was a beautiful weekend in October when we finally hit the range to test and score the 13 pistols for this Ballistic’s Best edition. To assist with the process and for a little more diversity in opinion, I enlisted the help of three other people with a good amount of experience between them. Brad and Addison are both managers at my local gun shop, so they’ve seen everything under the sun and have decades of combined firearms experience. Chase is new to our process and served in the United States Marine Corps and is currently a local law enforcement officer with about 10 years of experience with firearms of all types.

After establishing our test parameters and discussing range rules and the scoring system, I let the guys jump onto the line and try out whichever pistols they wanted to shoot first. A little warm-up was in order to help get the ball rolling. After that, we got into the serious work of shooting each pistol with a variety of ammunition on hand, making our observations and then recording the scores.

I don’t know if there was something in the air, or what it was, but like when we tested the compacts, we experienced several malfunctions with a few pistols—more than we have in the past with our Ballistic’s Best evaluations. In no particular order, the Canik TTI Combat had a couple of failures to eject with two of our evaluators and with two types of ammunition. There weren’t a lot of malfunctions but enough to be concerned with, though it’s probably an issue with how the pistol is sprung and would be a fairly easy fix.

Big Surprises

The real surprise in this area was with the FN CC Edge XL. It had quite a few malfunctions with three evaluators including failures to eject, failures to feed and one of the magazines had a follower that would get stuck halfway down the magazine body. This was a real heartbreak for Chase since he’s a huge FN fan and was wanting to try the CC Edge XL for a potential purchase. I’m also a big FN fan and have reviewed a multitude of FN 509-series pistols and have never encountered an issue like this. I’m hoping it was just a bad day at the factory or some other one-off thing that is rarely encountered with FN’s 509 line.

Other pistols that had some hiccups included the Glock 17L, RIA 5.0E and the Walther PDP SF Match. Each had two failures to eject and, interestingly, they all occurred with the same ammunition. After being checked and switched out to other ammo types, there were no other problems. This just illustrates that sometimes it’s the gun but sometimes it could also be the ammo. That’s why it’s a prudent exercise to do extensive testing with your pistol to check for any issues and to ensure that it runs properly with your defensive ammunition of choice.

Bigger Results

With the not-so-great news out of the way, there were still plenty of highlights from our time with the full-size pistols at the range. Even the pistols that had some reliability bobbles still had some positive aspects to them making the pistols worth looking at and owning provided the kinks are worked out. For example, the Walther PDP SF Match got tons of praise for its ergonomics, recoil control and its fantastic trigger. The Canik received kudos for its appearance, excellent texturing and also for it’s superb trigger as well. The CC Edge XL also drew a lot of praise with its tank-like construction and its styling with the titanium-gold barrel and lightening cuts.

One pistol that didn’t exactly get the highest marks, mainly because of its older design and minimal features due to price point, still got a lot of positive comments. The Taurus 917C was a surprise hit during our testing. The finger grooves weren’t popular with everyone, but everybody still agreed that it shot great, was very accurate and had a fairly good recoil response. Another selling point was the extremely sleek and clean presentation of the finish on both the slide and frame.

Frame Heft

The hefty Sig P320 X-Five SXG had some admirers due to it having minimal felt recoil and being a flat shooter thanks to its extra weight. It also picked up points for having a pretty good trigger break, fairly short trigger reset and for the placement of its controls. A couple of the guys liked that all the controls were easy to access and engage without having to shift their grip on the pistol during the process.

There were a few pistols that received high praise for their value proposition in addition to their build quality and performance. The first was the Smith & Wesson Spec Series M&P 9 2.0. The texturing on the grip panels was well liked as was the pretty decent trigger pull and break. Accuracy was solid and there were no reliability issues at all. But what put it over the top was the plethora of features like the compensator, optics cut, ambi/reversible controls and the superb suppressor-height sights. When you combined all of that with the inclusion of four magazines in the box, everyone felt like the Spec Series offered a ton of value for the $999 MSRP.

Value & Performance

On the flip side, the CZ P-09 F Nocturne didn’t have as many features or number of magazines in the case, but it has an MSRP of $549, making it the least expensive pistol in this review. But that wasn’t why it was considered a great value. For a DA/SA pistol at that price point, everyone felt that it had a pretty good double-action trigger pull. More importantly, it was incredibly accurate during the testing, offered outstanding reliability, had a solid sight package and was easy to control due to the ergos and low-profile slide.

In between those two price points for the value-praised pistols is the Springfield Armory Echelon Comp at an MSRP of $749. High points for our evaluators included the U-Dot sight package, excellent grip texturing, excellent accuracy and the performance of the compensator. The comments on the Echelon’s compensator seemed to be more favorable than any other comp gun in our review. It seemed to offer more substantial recoil mitigation than some of the others. 

Comments on the Echelon from Addison included “Great sights” and “Love the comp.” Brad said that the pistol “Blew me away” and Chase even commented that “the price is amazing for what you get.” All of that adulation translated into very high marks for the Echelon Comp with it being just 0.97 points away from the highest scoring pistol in our group which was the Wilson Combat EDC X9 2.0 Comp.

Full-Size Features

Yes, having a price of over $4,000 gives the folks at Wilson Combat more elbow room to include custom components, extra features, more attention to detail, and it gives them more of an ability to build an awesome pistol. However, that doesn’t alter the fact that it IS an awesome pistol. During the testing, there were positive comments about the performance of the compensator, the recoil management, the ergonomics and feel of the pistol. There were also several remarks about how bad-ass the pistol looked with all components in place. 

Scoring extremely high in almost every category, the EDC X9 2.0 Comp pretty has it all as far as the evaluators were concerned. The lowest criteria score was for “Value” and that averaged 3.45 points. If you’ll remember, “3” was our standard to indicate that the customer is getting pretty much what they paid for at the retail price. So, it seems our evaluators feel like the EDC X9 2.0 Comp is potentially delivering even a little more that its price point. With comments like “Trigger is amazing”, “Incredible accuracy” and “Great in every way”, it’s easy to understand why the EDC X9 2.0 Comp got the top score and is our winner for the Full-Size category of our Ballistic’s Best evaluation.

READERS’ CHOICE AWARDS

For our 2024 Ballistic’s Best, our experts evaluated over 90 firearms, firing literally thousands of rounds downrange. They used our scoring system, drilling down on features such as accuracy, reliability, and more. Then the experts picked the very best performer from each and every group. 
Our readers, that’s you, get to vote on the very same groups our pros tested out on the range.

Check out our poll and CLICK HERE to cast your vote.