Who would have guessed that surprisingly nice firearms would be coming out of…Slovakia? Not to insult the good people of Slovakia, but I can’t recall any historically significant guns from that country. Yet now, in 2024, we’re seeing impressive imports from two companies, Arex and Grand Power.
I’ve been a fan of the Arex Delta Gen 2.0 series for quite some time, but my experience with Grand Power amounts to zilch. I know they make the well-regarded Stribog, but somehow that gun has managed to avoid me. Yet a recent unexpected opportunity allowed me to get hands-on with a Grand Power P1 pistol.
One of the most consistent and downright scientific gun reviewers on YouTube, GB Guns, a.k.a. Graham Bates, has been a fan of these guns for a long time now. As a fan of GB Guns, I knew his opinion, so I was open to the idea of the P1. So whe I found one available for only $299, I snatched it up. Admittedly, even without the endorsement of a gun guy I respect, I probably still would have been interested.
Why Makes the P1 So Appealing
The P1 a DA/SA hammer-fired gun, which is a big selling point to me. It has a polymer frame, which puts it in a relatively small group of hammer-fired polymer frame guns. It’s a modern 9mm with a double-stack magazine and a sleek, modern look.
When you start handling the P1, it becomes even more appealing. The pistol features fully ambidextrous controls, including the safety, magazine release, and slide lock. Even the take-down tabs are ambidextrous, a rare treat in the world of modern firearms.
The Grand Power P1 comes with replaceable backstraps and has steel sights, a welcome change from some cheap plastic sights that still adorn other guns. Up front there’s a short rail for lights and whatnot.
That’s all fairly nice. Once you work the slide a little, you may notice that the barrel doesn’t tilt rearward like a traditional Browning short recoil system. That’s because it’s not a Browning short recoil system. Rather, it’s a rotating barrel design. (To be fair, Browning also designed the rotating barrel.)
The action rotates inside the slide. The rotating barrel system claims to reduce felt recoil compared to tilt actions. Plenty of guns have used the action over time, but it’s never taken off the same way a Browning tilting action has. I’d imagine it’s more time-consuming and expensive to produce. Does the tilting action actually make a difference? Well, I guess we’ll find out.
The Grand Power P1 In Hand
Having ambidextrous controls doesn’t mean a damn thing if you can’t reach them. Luckily, the controls on the P1 are far from challenging. The safety will feel familiar to anyone who has used a 1911. It’s frame-mounted and pops up and down easily enough. The safety can only be engaged when the hammer is cocked to the rear or half-cocked.
The safety isn’t a de-cocker. If you want to de-cock the gun, you’ll do it the eastern European way. Use your thumb to hold the hammer, press the trigger, and ride it slowly down to a de-cocked position. Just be sure to keep it pointed in a safe direction when performing that maneuver.
Grand Power went with a nice, round magazine release. It lacks the stiffness that’s associated with most ambidextrous magazine releases. The grip has a bit of a rest above the magazine release, which gets in the way just a bit but doesn’t stop me from swapping mags and taking drags.
A large slide lock/release makes it easy to drop the slide with either hand. The slide release sits far enough on the frame to keep your thumbs from resting on it. That’s a plus to me.
Overall, the Grand Power P1 reminds me a bit of a CZ firearm. The Czech Republic and Slovakia are neighbors and used to be one country, so maybe there is a little cross-pollination, good taste in firearms, and fantastic ergonomics design.
At the Range
First things first…what does the P1 and its fancy rotating barrel do for recoil? I typically just shoot 115-grain 9mm range ammo. It’s cheap, widely available, and perfect for testing guns. However, 115-grain pills don’t exactly have a ton of recoil, and the difference the rotating barrel makes doesn’t seem substantial. To get a little friskier, I grabbed some 124-grain +P JHPs and let it rip.
I felt a difference with these hotter, heavier loads. There seems to be a lot less upward recoil than with traditional short recoil-operated handguns. Since the barrel isn’t tilting upward and creating any upward force. The P1 recoils straight rearward keeping the recoil momentum going back into your shoulder where it’s more controllable. The rotating barrel works quite well in reducing recoil.
The P1 may not turn snappy 9mm into a tame .22LR, but it mitigates some of the recoil. Enough to make shooting faster and easier. Dumping six rounds into an IPSC-sized A-zone and producing a group no larger than my palm in a second and a half proved that the recoil-reducing rotating barrel works. The single-action trigger helps a lot here. It’s super-light with a short pull, making those splits fast and easy. The double action pull will surprise you. It’s heavy, but smooth and not super long.
Splitting Steel
At 25 yards, I could land consistent double-action shots on target in less than 1.5 seconds. The target was a 10-inch gong. The double action really puts in good work, or my time with revolvers is starting to pay off. At 50 yards, I could ring that same gong with single-action shots. I had to take my time, and there was no need to use the timer. Against an IPSC target, I was able to land a consistently quick shot at 50 yards.
That’s not bad for an iron-sighted pistol. After seeing what I could do with irons, I started looking at the optics-ready models. I could only imagine what I could do at range with this gun and a red dot sight. The P1 proved to be accurate in both deliberate and rapid-fire shooting.
Speaking of the latter, I worked in several quick drills: double taps, multiple shots on multiple targets, failure-to-stop drills, and more. The P1 excelled, putting rounds where my skills allowed me to put them as fast as my skills allowed. The gun didn’t hold me back by any means. It’s a competent combat handgun and one we shouldn’t be ignoring.
My biggest complaint about the P1 would be the grip texture. It’s quite light, and you can feel the gun slip here and there when my hands get sweaty. Your grip can only tighten down so much, and you’ll see performance slip as the gun starts to slip. Smaller issues include a lack of holster support, but thankfully, the Safariland Pro Fit series exist.
Another issue is how hard it is to put the weapon back together after its been stripped apart. Its a real hassle to get the slide back on the gun once its been taken off.
An Underrated Gem
The Grand Power P1 is a gem that too few people know about. The P1, K1, and the entire Grand Power series aren’t talked about much, but if they’re anything like the P1, they are solid weapons. The P1 proved to be a reliable, easy-shooting, and accurate handgun. Grand Power might be mostly known for the Stribog, but don’t sleep on their pistols.
A nice looking pistol. Obvious not optics ready. I guess I’ll have to find their website if I desire specifications.
The rotating barrel is not new, I have a Ruger KP345, as well as a few Beretta PX4s that all have a rotating barrel. The PX4 is an excellent pistol that has a proven record. The Ruger KP345 is another gem that time forgot! The Ruger uses modified 1911 magazines which is a bonus…many years ago I had a czech .32 caliber pistol that was a rotating barrel, too; I sold it to a collector as he wanted it for his collection and I really had no use for it at the time. I appreciate the workings of a good machine! The GP line of pistols looks outstandingly well made. I certainly would like to shoot one or more of their offerings
“The rotating barrel works quite well in reducing recoil”
Its not really reducing the recoil energy, its just redirecting more of it in a more straight line back along the arm into the shoulder and this (traveling more back along the arm to the shoulder) dampens the energy making it ‘reduced felt recoil’. The same recoil energy is there as is there in the tilt-barrel, one (the rotating barrel) uses your body to dampen it and the other (tilt barrel) doesn’t.
Big fan of Graham Bates also And would love to get to K100 model grand power pistols are definite sleepers. Another sleeper you should check out is the Sar nine more specifically is there 45 caliber all steel version K2 45. It’s kind of a CZ takeoff but more of a tanfolio I have a K2 45 compact with Cajun Gun Works Pro packaged done to it. It is quite the shooter for the money got expensive quick but you can still find good deals on these guns, but the prices are starting to go up.