A few months ago, I reviewed the Thureon Defense carbine from Sunny Hill Enterprises. The carbine was chambered for the 9x19mm (9mm Luger) cartridge, and the Thureon Defense carbine exhibited excellent craftsmanship and match-grade accuracy.

Here, we are looking at the new Thureon Defense pistol. For all practical purposes, this is the carbine, with a shorter barrel and no buttstock, but this pistol is manufactured and sold as a pistol, so no special NFA registration is needed. You can buy this new pistol just as easily as buying any other semi-automatic pistol. Like the carbine reviewed here, this pistol is chambered for the 9x19mm cartridge, and uses Uzi-style magazines. Mags are available with a thirty-two round capacity for most of us, or with a ten-round magazine where limited by idiotic laws.

Like the carbine, this pistol displays excellent workmanship and quality materials. The two halves of the receiver are machined aluminum, as is the octagonal hand guard. The barrel is free-floated within the hand guard, and measures 10.75 inches in length, including the flash suppressor. The hand guard is drilled for a section of Picatinny rail, and the 3.75 inch section of rail included with the test gun can be attached to any one of the eight sides of the hand guard. The Thureon pistol is blowback operated, so no gas block or piston is needed. Very simple. The trigger and hammer are of AR-15 style, as is the polymer pistol grip.

The Thureon pistol measures twenty-two and one-half inches in length, and weighs one-half ounce over five pounds. The trigger pull on the test pistol released smoothly, with a pull weight averaging three and one-half pounds.

I tested the Thureon pistol with a Viridian C5L flashlight/laser sight combination unit. This is a very versatile laser sight with a green laser, and also includes a very bright white light, which functions in the constant on and also in the strobe mode. Likewise, the laser sight will also run constant on, and in a pulsating mode. The Viridian unit seems to be very well-made, and worked reliably throughout the pistol tests.

The Thureon pistol turned in very respectable velocities, very close to those recorded with the sixteen inch carbine barrel. I tested using the same brands and types of ammunition, and there was very little difference recorded using the shorter pistol barrel. Again, Buffalo Bore and Cor-Bon were top performers, with the velocity and accuracy edge going to the Buffalo Bore 115 grain hollowpoint ammo. This ammunition displayed superb accuracy, grouping under one inch at fifty yards. I usually do not test handguns at fifty yards, but this being an abbreviated version of their carbine, for comparison purposes, I did so, mounting a Leupold Mark 4 scope atop the weapon’s Picatinny rail. Velocity of the Buffalo Bore ammo also equaled that of the ammo fired in the carbine, with velocities averaging 1555 feet-per-second at ten feet from the muzzle of the Thureon pistol. Excellent.

Not much can be added here to what was written of the Thureon carbine. This Thureon pistol is just a shortened version of that exceptional carbine, resulting in a lighter, shorter, and handier weapon that is expertly crafted and one hundred percent reliable with all ammo tested.

Check out the Thureon Defense pistol online at www.thureondefense.com.

Jeff Quinn