Transcription
[Music] Hey everyone, James Reeves, TFBTV. We are looking at the Springfield Kuna. You guys have seen this before; in fact, hundreds of thousands of you watched our coverage of this at IWA. We got a little sneak peek, but if you’re watching this video today, this gun has released. A lot of videos are dropping today. This isn’t some kind of paid campaign. Maybe some of them got paid; I certainly did not. It’s a press embargo, so you’re going to see a bunch of videos today. Don’t be like, “Oh, James is here. He is whoring out again.” Speaking of horse… uh, I’ve got my good friend Reginald Worthington III. Oh, I’m sorry, PSR. Hey, very special treat, good friend of mine. We are over here at the Neutral Ground Gun Company. Look at this. Speaking of shill… oh yeah, this guy, for us. We are going to shoot the Springfield Kuna, and we’re going to tell you what we think. Let’s go ahead, give it a shot, see how it [Music] does.
This video is funny to me because I’ve been told so many times that pistol caliber carbines are dead, supposedly replaced by centerfire rifle caliber PDWs. But these silly manufacturers, they keep cranking them out, selling tons of them, and you guys keep watching the videos by the hundreds of thousands. But the PCC’s dead as disco, right? Sure. Newer, lighter, more modular centerfire carbines like the MCX Rattler or the Honeybadger have been supplanting 60-year-old platforms like the MP5. But that ignores the fact that newer pistol caliber carbines are too, and they can still be smaller, lighter, more concealable, and certainly easier to suppress than rifle caliber options, especially more modern pistol caliber carbines like the Springfield Kuna that we’re looking at today. Indeed, pistol caliber carbines seem to serve as an effective bridge platform: lighter, smaller, quieter, and easier to use and easier to suppress than rifle caliber options, while being generally more effective from a terminal ballistic standpoint, more accurate, more modular, and higher capacity than a pistol. Like my felony convictions, pistol caliber carbines ain’t going anywhere. That’s what Springfield’s betting on with the Kuna, and I’d say it’s a pretty smart bet, unlike my usual NFL season 12-leg parlays.
Because my video about the Kuna from IWA this year ended up being one of our most popular videos from the entire show, with 450,000 views in one month, generating tons of buzz. But I thought pistol caliber carbines were dead. I’m going to integrate an abbreviated version of the conversation I had with Springfield about this gun into this video. This is from IWA. I apologize if you’ve seen it already, but I’m going to cut out a bit of it, and there’s a lot of good detail in here about the Kuna, so here it is.
“This is a Croatian product, correct?”
“Yeah, made at HS Produkt.”
“This has even been tested by like some anti-terrorist units or like police forces?”
“In… this was designed specifically for a military contract, military tender, so um, obviously we’re going to make a civilian version for the United States market, but the gun… this… that you’re seeing right here is a full-auto version for military and government use. Um, got your selector switch there, full-auto forward… forward handle, folding stock. The version in the United States obviously won’t be able to have this, cuz you’re looking at a SPR here. Is the gun that is being used by military around the world, AR-compatible pistol grips, exactly. So you can change it out, whatever favorite style your AR pistol grip is.”
“Some of the features on this, you got your full Picatinny rail across the top, fully ambidextrous controls, so you got your safety selector switch on on either side, mag release on either side, charging handle on either side, so fully ambidextrous set of controls on this. 30-round magazine… um, this is actually the uh… uh… this gun here, because we were doing a military contract, is chambered in .40 cal… it was definitely… Brazil…”
“Got it.”
“Okay. As we know, .40 cal is not all that popular in the United States, so we’ll have a 9mm version as well as a .40 cal version.”
“Okay. And that is partially why you guys use proprietary magazines, correct?”
“The proprietary magazine because the the gun was originally designed to be in .40 cal, and so the magazine we we went with our own proprietary magazine, but the good part about the the magazines are they are not going to be expensive. So MSRP on the magazines when it hits the market in the US, it’s going to be $24.99.”
“Oh, oh, okay. Well, in that case, that’s not that big of a deal, correct?”
“It’s not prohibitive in the cost of the magazines, and so you know, polymer body… magazine and and it’s an inexpensive… it is a proprietary design though, and and don’t [ __ ] me if this will work with .40…”
“Would you guys ever consider making this in 10mm if it’s popular enough?”
“Oh, 10mm… pock… really? Oh, I didn’t know that… um, of course it might be… we’ll see. Kuna is actually the European version of an American pine margin, so… and in… because this gun was made in Croat… is made in Croatia, excuse me. The Croatian currency before they switched to the Euro is called the Kuna, so it’s kind of like the the the national animal of Croatia, if you will, and so a really really cool name, good story to go with the name.”
“Yeah. M-Lok? You’ve got some sockets here for slings?”
“Yeah, all over adjustable.”
“Yeah, the flip-up irons, which I just now noticed, which is cool because you could… what I like about these, you can use them, they’re almost like uh… like Springfield uh… Hellcat style sights when they’re folded down, but folded up you get more precise, like rifle…”
“Yep.”
“Yeah, you got your white notch there.”
“Yeah, with the white dot front and uh… is exactly right. Yeah, that’s… I mean, this seems like… you know, I knew about this gun, I knew this gun was coming, I thought it was just going to be some [ __ ] AR9, like just some… this is actually… it’s the real deal.”
“No, no, no. And especially if it’s coming from HS Produkt, who I trust. They have… I don’t know of a bad… millions and millions and millions of rounds that they’ve tested to this platform, so you know, this thing has been…”
“Yeah, you can’t test it anymore.”
“The tidbits… what a weird word, by the way. Have we thought about that?”
Tidbits from that interview reveal why everyone is so hyped about this. First, this is a gun made by HS Produkt. If you’re not familiar with HS Produkt, you should be; you’re definitely familiar with their work. HS is a Croatian company that makes military-issue weapons like the legendary VHS series, what Springfield calls the Hellion here in the US. They’re also responsible for guns like the XD, the Hellcat, and the Echelon. They know what they’re doing, and they do it well at a fair price. Expect the Kuna to be a military-grade PCC. They call this a roller-delayed gun, and when people hear roller-delayed, they think of the HK MP5, but this isn’t the same design, not even close. HS has a more simplified delay system, not very close to the MP5’s, and even though it’s simplified, the end result seems to work very well.
“What do you think, Christian?”
“That’s actually really nice. It’s super smooth. I was kind of expecting it to be a little more poppy.”
“You know, this is Christian, he’s the CEO of Neutral Ground Gun Company, a great shooter and a subpar human being.”
“Yes, and that’s why he fits in well here.”
“Christian, I would say not quite like MP5 levels of like recoil reduction, but this is definitely better than pretty much every like regular blowback PCC that I’ve ever found.”
“Yeah, it’s a whole hell of a lot smoother than most of the other ones on the market, that’s for sure.”
“Yeah, I’m definitely surprised.”
“But yeah, me too.”
“No, I I was as well. I think we’re going to have to get one of the High Point carbines from behind the counter and kind of do a face-off, see which buttons you have better.”
“And the trigger is really pretty good too, honestly, for for what it is, like comparing it to the other guns in this class, I would say as a stock trigger goes, it’s pretty damn good.”
“And you can… outstanding point. Totally agree with that. And the uh… the grip is an AR grip, so you can put whatever you want on there. Fully ambi… those Croatians, they know what they’re doing. Fully ambi too, dude. Locking the bolt back super easy on either side. AR, you know, it’s just that familiarity with the AR.”
“Sure. I mean, I will complain the safety is a bit stiff, but I bet that would break in.”
“Something to highlight for the video. See, they’ve got grip texture here at the magwell if you prefer to hold that way, and non-reciprocating charging handle, and a non-reciprocating…”
“That means this charging handle isn’t going to move while you’re shooting.”
“Thank you, PSRC. That’s why it’s good to have professionals on the program.”
“It’s not like the same impulse as an MP5, but it’s definitely lighter than an AR9, way lighter than an AR9, and it’s sleek. It’s like… it’s… it’s not thick at all. Like if you look at the width of it, it’s… it’s nice and thin and low profile. Recoil is soft, so soft that even a couple of production assistants from a documentary we filmed at the Neutral Ground Gun Company who had never shot a gun before today loved it.”
“So it is hot. It is ready to run. All you have to do is pull the trigger.”
“Okay, so you have to show me how to hold it though.”
“That’s fine. And then you kind of tuck that into the pot, and the joke is you’re not supposed to do that with these, like they made it… it’s… it’s… I’ll explain it later. It’s like a lot of technical… it’s insane. Like you can… this doesn’t have… Never mind. I… We’ll expl…”
“It is so… it’s one of those things like trying to explain football to somebody from Europe where you’re like, ‘Oh, it’s super easy.’ So what happens is… and you’re like, ‘Oh [ __ ] this isn’t easy at all.’”
“Yeah, no, that looks great. That looks great. That actually is nothing bad.”
“Oh my god. Oh my god. You… there you go. Slow squeeze, nice and easy.”
“All right.”
“Oh god. Come back, come back, come back, come back.”
“You got to shoot it forward.”
“That was not bad at all. I told you. I told you. I mean, you thought we were [ __ ] with you, but I know…”
“Okay, so what do I do after I fire?”
“You keep shooting. All you do is keep it pointed down range. As long as you keep it pointed down range, it’s fine. So you can… you can celebrate. You can be like, ‘Guys, did you guys see that [ __ ]? How crazy was that?’ As long as you got it down range, you’re good to go. Hop back in, hop back in. You didn’t flag me.”
“I was just making sure you didn’t.”
And maybe that’s another reason why the 9mm subgun platform remains so popular: it’s easy to shoot. It’s also very compact. The Kuna is only 15 inches long folded, weighing 4 lbs 10 ounces without a stock. It’s super compact, basically the same specs as the HK MP5K PDW. The [ __ ] is built around a monolithic aluminum upper, one solid chunk of forged 7075 steel. Feels like a quality piece. There’s M-Lok at 3, 6, and 9 o’clock positions on the aluminum handguard, a full-length Picatinny rail up top for optics, and flip-up metal hybrid sights built right in, which are really clever. Folded down, they’re similar to pistol sights, almost identical to the Hellcat. Flipped up, you get a peep sight setup similar to the Hellion. The lower’s glass-filled polymer. It’s got AR-style controls, including a familiar grip with storage inside. It’s fully ambi: safety selector, bolt catch, mag release, all mirrored. The charging handle’s non-reciprocating, reversible. It folds down flat when not in use. This gun’s extremely well thought out and easy to handle. The trigger is a flat-faced metal jobby here. It’s got a solid wall, clean break, short reset. For a PCC, it’s much better than what you’d expect, definitely better than a standard MP5, really better than a lot of the PCC’s that are out there. The only trigger, actually, I have felt that’s better as far as PCC’s go has been the new BNT TP9 Pro that’s going to be coming out this year, but that one is an exceptional and expensive adjustable titanium trigger. In the meanwhile, this gun’s going to cost less than a grand. It’s got a multi-port muzzle brake at the end of the 6-inch cold hammer forged barrel, melonite treated for durability. The barrel is… the barrel is also suppressor-ready out of the box with a ½x28 threaded muzzle. Now, the version I saw at IWA did have a tri-lug, so I know they’re capable of making it, but the version we reviewed was thread-only. It’s a little disappointing for us MP5 guys, since a lot of our cans are already set up for tri-lug, and it is the superior way of mounting a suppressor. Hopefully Springfield brings that configuration to the US. The Kuna is going to come with two 30-round translucent magazines that have metal feed lips. They’re proprietary; they’re not Glock mags, but they’re very well-made, and they’re double-stack, double-feed. Honestly, I don’t really like Glock mags anyways for PCC’s; they don’t look as cool with the angled design, and they are single-feed, which is kind of a pain in the ass, even on my APC9, which can accept Glock mags. I just go with the MP9 mag lower. The Sig MPX uses MPX mags; the MP5 uses MP5 mags. A lot of these guns use proprietary magazines, and as far as proprietary mags go, this is a wash. Springfield told me they are going to be dirt cheap. They’ve got great witness marks; they look cool, and the steel feed lips seem pretty robust, so this could give the Kuna an edge as far as proprietary mags go.
We only got an hour to spend on the range with the Kuna, so myself and my buddy, Print Shoot Repeat, international celebrity and champion of the 3D printers everywhere, the furries of the gun industry… we only ran about 300 rounds through it, but it ran flawlessly. Our general verdict was that it shoots way smoother and with less recoil than a typical blowback 9mm PCC or AR9. Not quite on MP5 level, but pretty damn close, and handling is excellent. Time for a brace-off between me and PSR. We’re going to fire, arm brace only, as God and the ATF intended. Going to fire five rounds. We’ll take the optic off and use just the emergency sight. All right, there we go. That goes… it’s off now. God, how do you even… it’s impossible. Go Tech N9 style, dude. I’m going to say that’s not bad. The Catus Ever… all right, I don’t know. So that… that looks like an eight to me, but I’m going to give myself a seven since we’re at my range, so we’ll say seven. We’ll say eight. That’s 15. I would give myself three nines here for the… so that’s going to be 42. Do we… we agree with that? But this is bad news for me. I think I got you. That’s 29 plus… ah, it’s 45. So we’ve got the brace champion right here. Have a look at these targets. See, the thing is my body just rejects these types of… all forms of stepping… like whenever you have treading upon rights, my body rejects it. It can’t shoot that well. See, I’m a brac… and you’re not, and that’s the difference. Yeah, dude, I’m a huge bracist. I’m a bigger bracist than you are. I… I hate braces. Oh, the bracy lu… my only complaint is that the safety’s a little stiff, but that might loosen up with use, and it’s not that big of a deal. Another clever detail is the grip texture in front of the magwell, in case you’re one of those guys who likes the MP5 old-school magwell grip. Nothing wrong with that. The Kuna packs a lot of features in you don’t even get on more expensive guns like the MP5: monolithic M-Lok handguard, fantastic trigger for a subgun, included Picatinny rail adapter at the rear for mounting a brace or stock of your choice, which is replaceable and very easily… you can just pop it right out. I’m hoping that means that Springfield is planning on bringing the OEM stock for the Kuna that we saw on the international model at IWA, because that looked really cool and way better than using a Picatinny rail adapter. But as is, you can run the brace or stock of your choice, and you got a full optic rail, unlike the MP5.
Now, what else is out there at this price point? The only PCC’s I personally own: the MP5, several BNTs, the Sig MPX. I think it’s safe to say the Kuna may have priced itself into a very favorable position in the market. My German HKs, my Swiss BNTs, they cost two to four times as much as what street price is probably going to be on this $999 MSRP Kuna. That means its only real competition in terms of a delayed-action 9mm carbine that is not just a straight blowback like the Scorpion is the Strybog SP9 A3, which has a similar MSRP. But Ryan, my camera guy and hetero lifemate, had a Strybog a few years ago. It was unreliable dog [ __ ] even after we sent it back to the factory. I know a lot of people love those guns, but based on that experience alone, I’ve always been unimpressed, and personally, I would rather place more faith in HS Produkt’s experience and excellent reputation. So yeah, Springfield and HS Produkt didn’t just phone it in with the Kuna. This isn’t just another blowback AR9. It’s not trying to be an MP5; it’s its own thing. It’s well-built, thoughtfully designed, and it’s got a delayed blowback system. Compact little blaster; it just works, and it does it for under a grand. Soft-recoiling, good ergos, modern features, and at least from what we saw, which was very limited—we’re talking about 300 rounds—solid reliability. But I would be shocked if this ended up being an unreliable gun at all. The safety is a little stiff; I’m sad that there’s no tri-lug, even though the one that I saw at IWA had a tri-lug, and it’s running proprietary magazines. But it’s hard to complain too much when this thing gives you most of what makes its competition that cost much more money great, plus a bunch of features that classics like the MP5 never had, at a fraction of the cost. So is the PCC dead? Apparently not, and the Kuna may just be proof that it’s actually entering its golden age, if anything.
Thanks for watching the video, guys. Thank you to Ventura Munitions, our beloved sponsor. By the way, we filmed this at the Neutral Ground Gun Company; that is the range I co-own with my partner Sam and Jason. We were not compensated by Springfield for this review. We rely on you guys, so please go over to subscribestar.com/tfbtv, think about supporting us. We give away almost $2,000 worth of gift certificates to Blue Alpha and Top Gun Supply every single month. We need you to stay independent, but we’re also just glad you’re watching. Take care. [Music]