Well built and certainly robust, the ST10 should prove to be a great pistol for those looking for solid performance on the range or for personal defense.

A while back the opportunity to test the Sarsilmaz K2 .45 ACP pistol from Turkey came up. Pistols often come my way, but my forte is certainly the long guns. But, it is always interesting to try something different. The firearms business has become kind of cookie cutter so it is fun sometimes to just try something out of the ordinary. That turned out to be one heck of a pistol. It has been fired extensively and remains one of my favorite pistols to just go out and shoot. It has served well in a couple of tactical classes and pretty much everyone who has fired it has commented on how well it was made, dispelling any misguided myths about the quality of Turkish weapons.

Turkey has been producing quality firearms for a long time, they just don’t really make it to this market. In the rest of the world they are one of the leaders, and one of those leaders in the Turkish firearms market is Sarsilmaz. It is the sole pistol supplier to the Turkish military and exports to 66 countries. Sarsilmaz remains one of the largest firearms manufacturers in the world and covers the gamut from sporting shotguns to military and competition pistols. Utilizing the latest in state-of-the-art CAD/CAM and CNC machining their weapons are well made and reliable. Their export company is SAR ARMS and has been on the world market for over 125 years. Currently imported by EAA, they are just starting to make it to America.

The Sarsilmaz ST10 is an accurate, reliable, Turkish-made pistol that points naturally and gets quickly on target.

Gun Details

The 9mm ST10 is geared towards the law enforcement market and personal defense. It is a full-sized high-capacity pistol suitable for any purpose a full-sized 9mm pistol is designed. When the opportunity came up to test this pistol it was looked upon with some anticipation. My expectations for the K2 were initially muted, but the actual pistol had excellent fit, finish and build. It was as nice as any production pistol these days and better than some.