Transcription
The Daniel H9. So I already did a video on the Daniel H9. I'm a huge fan of the Daniel H9. I actually love the Daniel H9. Um, a lot of it is because of how unique it is. A lot of it is how flat it shoots, and just the ergonomics in general. However, there have been people, some gun YouTubers, and I guess some people who have bought the gun, um, who have had problems with the Daniel H9. So what you're going to get sometimes is—what a lot of people don't understand is—when you come up with a new product, I'm talking a brand-new product. So essentially, Daniel Defense acquired the IP of the Hudson H9, and you can go and watch my first video to understand the whole history behind that, but they acquired the IP and then decided that they were going to come out with their own handgun based on that IP. The problem was, when they got their hands on it, they realized they had to make way more differences, to the point where they essentially created a whole new gun. So the overall silhouette and the kind of trigger design feel kind of the same as the Hudson H9, but this is a whole new gun. This isn't, this isn't just the Hudson H9 revamped; it's a whole different gun. Now, anytime you're dealing with bringing a new product to the market like this—this was one of the more, most unique handguns that had come out in the last five years when it came out—and then now you have basically a complete redesign of that. So anytime you do something like that, the first batch, whether you like it or not—Daniel might have a problem with me saying this—but everyone who buys the first batch is a beta tester. And the reason why that is is because you can only do so much testing with a gun to bring it to market and account for every single variable. You got to think about how different people are. Like one of the issues that some people were saying—I saw a guy; he was saying he had issues where he felt like the gun was kind of cutting his thumb up a little bit or rubbing his thumb raw under recoil. I've yet to feel that whatsoever, and I've run a ton of rounds through this gun. I haven't felt that at all. I have no issues with this first gen of the gun, none at all, absolutely none; no issues. But there are people out there who do. And as you scale the amount of guns you build and put into the market, that's when you start encountering all the variables you couldn't possibly account for until you put some of them out into the market and understand what's going on. And that's where this comes in. Gen two. I'm calling it gen two; they're not officially calling it gen two. I'm calling it gen two largely to make it easier for me to talk about it on camera, 'cause they basically look exactly the same unless you start doing this micro-investigation and then learning the differences. So, for, for purposes of this video, the Gen 2 is the one with the red dot on it—a Holosun Delta Point Pro—and the Gen 1 is the one with nothing on it, just so that you understand.
So, as we look here, like one of the things I didn't notice until later on was the damn beavertail. So as you look here, the beavertail on the Gen 1 is more pronounced than the one on Gen 2. And not only that, they've kind of rounded off the edges on the Gen 2 versus the Gen 1, as you can see here. And I'm assuming that has to do with some of the people complaining about it kind of rubbing their thumb raw. You wouldn't learn that or know about that unless you had a bunch of these out there with people with different hand sizes shooting the gun. So there's that. Now what I want to do is—so Daniel, Daniel sent me their Gen 2, and they were like, "Hey, can you talk about some of the changes that we've made to the Gen 2 versus the Gen 1? Because we want to let, we want to let the market know that, hey, we're listening to what you guys are saying out there, and we want to…" Look, I was intimately involved with this gun and the production of this gun, so I know for a fact that this is Daniel Defense's baby. This is their baby; it's their first handgun ever. So for them, they're kind of feeling it a little bit, and I don't think that's a bad thing. And here's why: because when your feelings are into something, you have a baby, you have a creation that you come out with, and people are telling you some, some of the things that are good and some of the things that are bad—when you kind of have a little bit of your emotions invested in it, and you genuinely want it to be good, what you're going to do is you're going to make those changes. Now, the difference is, sometimes people let their egos get involved and they're like, "No, the gun's perfect, and that's it," right? You're just shooting it wrong. Well, in this case, Daniel's like, "No, we want to, we want to make sure this is right because this is our baby." So even off—I've already, I've already shot this thing off-camera, so I already know—to me personally, the differences are negligible in my mind, and largely because I never had a problem with this gun. I never had a problem with the Gen 1, but I'm also one example. And because I am one example, I can't say that's the case for everyone. That's just the way the game works. But either way, what I'm about to do is I'm about to shoot these back-to-back and then give my impression on the changes that they've made and whether or not those changes are noticeable and whether or not they make a difference to me. Now, I'm going to keep an objective mindset by understanding that everybody ain't me. I'm sorry, everybody can't be perfect, but I'm going to shoot them back-to-back, Gen 2, Gen 1, and then give you my take on whether or not these differences make a difference.
Now, I know you're watching the video, but I want to talk to you about ammo real quick. If you're tired of scrambling for ammo, you need to check out AmmoSquared. These guys have revolutionized the way we stock up. You can set your budget, pick your calibers, and AmmoSquared handles the rest. They store it for free and deliver it right when you need it. Remember back in 2020 when ammo was nowhere to be found? Well, yeah, AmmoSquared customers just clicked the button and had theirs delivered. It's kind of like an ammo 401K, kind of smart, right? Now you can switch calibers or cash out anytime; it's pretty much effortless ammo management. So stop stressing and start prepping and check out AmmoSquared today, and always be ready. And thank you, AmmoSquared, for sponsoring the channel. All the ammo used in this video was brought to you by Nosler, maker of the most innovative, most accurate, and most effective bullets and ammunition in the industry. All right, so this is the Gen 2 or the Gen 1 version of the Daniel H9—the Gen 1, not the Gen 2. Gen 2 has the, the optic on it, or the red dot on it. Um, so what I want to do is I want to see if there's really a difference in the trigger. So let's find out. So I'm going to start by shooting one-handed, kind of get a feel. I kind of already know what this trigger is like because I already did a video on it. As you can see here, you have that nice, you know, accordion take-up right there, hit that wall, little creep, and then there's—boom! I don't really know what they supposedly are improving on this trigger, 'cause I actually really like this trigger. Um, so it's kind of odd to me that there—I guess some people didn't like the trigger. I… So now I'm going to go to—hand it's just—see? Okay, trigger's good in my mind. I, I don't know. So, but this is the original. I guess some people felt some type of way about the trigger. I think some of the people were like, "Well, for a gun of this price point, the trigger should be a lot better," or, "should be better." I think the trigger is actually really good, but I will say this: if you're not a custom—like this trigger is a very unique trigger. It's different from a lot of triggers; actually, it's one of the most different triggers on the market for a gun in this category. And like I said, you kind of have that like accordion kind of take-up right here, and if you're coming into it from the perspective of a typical trigger, it's going to throw you off a little bit, and you're going to feel like, "Wait, this trigger is, is not that good," because you're, you're basing it on a traditional-style trigger. And I actually like this trigger better than traditional-style triggers, but it's, it's kind of a combination of a traditional striker-fired style trigger and a 1911 trigger, essentially. It's kind of what you're getting. And for me personally, I, I like it quite a bit. Like I run the gun really easy. So, but let's see what the other one is like. Let's see if I can have any noticeable differences and improvements between this Gen 1 version and the Gen 2.
So now this is the Gen 2 Daniel H9. Um, so essentially what they've said they've done is they've kind of, kind of improved the coating, changed some tolerances. So essentially, this should be kind of a shorter trigger pull, cleaner trigger pull. Here we go; find out. Let's see. First of all, like I said, I'll start off shooting one-handed and see how we go from there. So initial take-up, honestly, kind of about the same for me, actually. It's ever so slightly cleaner, that—well, yeah. So yeah, actually, is kind of clean. Okay, so the reset is definitely shorter. Um, so much in fact, I, I thought I didn't reset the trigger. So that sec—that last shot that you just saw, the last shot that you just saw actually was, was kind of surprising to me. Like I knew that it might go off or might not go off, 'cause I wasn't sure if the trigger actually reset, but it did. And so here—let's see here. Okay, really where I'm seeing the biggest difference—there's not much of a difference here in terms of take-up; it's ever, ever, ever so slight, but not really. It's that reset that's where I'm, I'm getting that feeling from. And then even from a trigger-pull standpoint, it's ever so slightly lighter, but really where you're noticing it is the trigger reset feels shorter. Now, whether or not it actually is shorter, I don't know, but it feels shorter, 'cause it could just be that it's just cleaner. I get the impression that it's shorter or lighter, but I am noticing that the trigger resets—it, it, it resets a little bit noticeably shorter than on the original. So if I had to pick and choose between, between the trigger, between the Gen 1 and the Gen 2, I'm going to go with the Gen 2, um, largely because of that reset. And that allows me to sit on that trigger and mag dump that—I'll show.
So now we have the Gen 1. Um, so one of the things that were called out as far as issues were some people were saying that their gun was keyholing. And for those people who understand what keyholing is—when you're shooting on paper, sometimes a keyhole is basically the bullet tumbling. So something about the barrels causing the bullet to tumble. I hadn't experienced this whatsoever on my Gen 1. However, on paper, for some people, they said they've experienced that. So Daniel Defense has improved their barrels, and Daniel Defense is known for their great barrels, so I'm even surprised that this is even happening in the first place, as far as I'm concerned. But again, brand-new product—as you get more of them out there, you're going to possibly have some issues with some, as you scale up production. And then the only way to deal with that is to fix it in real time, and that's essentially what they're doing with this Gen 2. Again, they don't call it a Gen 2; I just—so what I'm going to do is I'm going to shoot on this paper target. I'm about fifteen yards away, and I'm going to shoot just on the left, and I'm going to purposely have a wide group, which is just an excuse for me not to have to shoot accurately, so I don't embarrass myself. But also I'm doing it so that we can see that there generally is no keyholing going on. So this is the Gen 1 version of the gun. All right, so, so as you can see here, three, six, nine, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen—fifteen rounds, no keyholing. If there were keyholing, it would look something like this, or something like this. Now this target was already torn, but as you can see here, there's fifteen rounds, no keyholing with the Gen 1 version of the gun. I—that's not to say that it did not happen or it hasn't happened to other people; I'm just telling you from me and my experience, I haven't experienced it. But clearly it's happened to a degree where Daniel Defense felt they needed to address it, and that's what they're doing now. So as you see here, no keyholing. Now at this point, I guess I technically would say, "All right, well, the new gun should definitely not do it," so there's no point in checking to see. But look—all that—let's go see if the Gen 2 does it. All right, so now Gen 2, let's see if it keyholes. If what I think happened happened, I'm going to be so pissed right now. Yep, I think it happened. Let's count: three, three, six, nine—nope, it didn't happen. All right, so what I thought happened was this little rip right here. I thought one of the rounds went through there, and then when I would come up over here and count the number of rounds, one of them would be here and be like, "Look, we told you, keyhole in, keyhole in the paper." No, it didn't; that was already there. But as you can see here, all fifteen rounds, no keyholing. Not much to talk about. Gen 2 didn't keyhole; Gen 1 didn't keyhole; no keyholes. You know, when you start saying "keyhole" over and over and over again, it starts to sound inappropriate, like, you know, just like, "No keyhole, no keyhole, no keyhole." I think that's just in your mind. "And I am a child," so I guess you got a point. I will agree with that. "Shut up." All right, so there you have it. Like I said, this video is a little frustrating for me because I didn't have any issues with my first Gen version of the gun, but that's not to say that other people haven't had issues with their gun. Um, if I had to pick and choose, I'm going to go with the Gen 2 because clearly they've made updates to it and improved it, no matter how slight—still an improvement. But if I had a Gen 1, I really, I don't, I can't say that the improvements are enough to make me want to go and up and upgrade to that model, so to speak. But um, if I was weary about some of the things I was hearing about Gen 1 that are out there on the market, the Gen 2 works just fine. Um, again, I never experienced any issues; that's not to say they haven't happened. But God, this is such a good-looking gun. I really like the way this gun looks. Honestly, I really, really, really like the way this gun looks.
Oh, that being said, too, uh, as you can see, we're out here at Whiskey Hollow. I've done a video out here before. We're out here in Montgomery, Texas, which is essentially Houston for all intents and purposes. But if you wanted to come out here and, uh, I don't know, Airbnb it and come out here, and you got your own little private gun range back there, you got this barn-dominium over here. It's just, it's really nice. It's interesting 'cause it's like, it's like a getaway within the city. Like how many places do you know within the city where you can shoot outside like this? Like you're in the middle of nowhere, right? Then it's just literally a forty-minute drive—okay, I underestimated it; it's like an hour, hour drive back into Houston. Um, but, but just even around here, like once we leave here, there's a freaking Chick-fil-A and a bunch of other stores and shops and all bunch of [expletive]. It's like a really—it's a city; it's crazy. And there's like, like nice houses right outside of these tree lines, and it's just, it's a dope spot. So if you're looking for somewhere to Airbnb, trying to get away for the weekend, yeah, check out Whiskey Hollow. I'm pretty sure Peter's going to do his little editing thing and put that on there, you know? It's become more of a thing. Peter—I keep saying Peter's going to do his editing thing, you know, like kind of like I'm just downplaying what you do, that you really don't have any value or use—just do a little editing thing. You don't even have to say it, 'cause I'm going to do it anyways. I think I do that because I use it as filler language, which you're doing right now to stall for time. The video has been done for like five minutes now. I'm not even recording this. I wonder if we can Uber Eats out here? Yeah, let's find out, 'cause I'm hungry. Yeah, this—let's see. I doubt it. Either way, Whiskey Hollow. All right, so that's it. You got the Gen 1, then you got the Gen 2. Yeah, there's not really much to say other than—at least in my case—they both work just fine. This one's a little better, Gen 2, but still good. Oh, so now when I stop talking and the video's over, you're still recording. But just a minute ago you were complaining about the fact I was stalling for time. I'm not recording. So why are you putting a camera…? I'm just holding it; we're not even going to use this. So, um, yeah, right when you start editing, you're like, "I think I might use it."