Tinkering Tuesday - Honing the Hudson

So, Pudge was out and about defending us from Pinelandia agression. And well, I was drinking beer and watching football.

Hudson H9A (Worth the weight loss?)
Everyone here knows how much I love my Hudson H9 and how much I continue to gush over it every chance I get. Every time I shoot it next to another gun it reminds me how glad I am that I took a leap of faith. And even though that company went defunct, I recently took another leap of faith. The second year of Hudson’s existence they teased at the idea of an aluminum framed Hudson dubbed the H9A.

Well before that could come to fruition the company fell into issues and is now a thing of the past. However, KE Arms decided to throw us H9 owners a bone. KE Arms were the ones who were preparing to produce the aluminum frames for the Hudson and after all the proceedings got sorted out KE decided to release the frame. So, the moment I saw these hit the store I grabbed my credit card like a giddy boy on his first date trying to impress a girl. (He did go to West Point, so in his defense that was like five years ago - Ed)

After a hiccup of getting a slightly out of spec frame on my first go around I received its replacement and I was back in business. (As a quick aside, KE Arms was absolutely amazing to deal with. I did get a bad frame but replacing it was as quick and painless as waiting for a new toy can be.)
After receiving my frame I quickly fired up the old youtube like any good gunsmith and found someone who had already figured out how to fully disassemble the pistol and I went to work. It took me maybe 30 minutes total to find a video and get all the parts switched out and have my very own working H9A.

The majority of that 30 minutes was me examining the pistol so I knew exactly how everything worked on this machine. Now the H9A that I now have is slightly different than what was planned to be released but ever so slightly. The planned release handgun would have barely noticeable different slide serrations, polymer grips, and a G10 beavertail vs the steel one currently in place.

Besides these parts my H9A is as close to coming out of the factory as it could be. One of the best parts about this transition is that the Hudson uses a chassis system so all the hard abuse contact points that one would worry about with other aluminum handguns is a moot point here.  I’m expecting my H9A to hold up just as long as it’s steel frame brother.

Now to the couple of key facts and information that everyone really cares about. By just changing out the frame my Hudson went from a solid 34 ounces to a much lighter 28 ounces. That may not sound like much, but, almost half a pound in handgun speak is a ton of weight. This 28 ounces is much closer to Mack’s favorite Tupperware the G19 which comes in at 21.52 ounces and is very similar to the standard 4” aluminum framed 1911.

Still heavier than plastic but much more agreeable for a long day on your hip. But the best part about this diet is that this gun is amazingly balanced, dare I say even more so than the original, and still shoots amazingly. I was trying to keep my expectations low because I really didn’t believe that it would shoot the same, maybe close, but not the same. Well, I was very happy to be wrong here. This gun just plain shoots. It almost makes me look like a competent handgun shooter.

Thanks to Mack and some other friends who love to help me spend my money, I actually used a second Hudson for this and in turn was able to use my steel framed gun side by side. Minus actually feeling the weight difference when picking the guns up I could not tell any difference in the recoil. I shot everything from steel cased 115gr to 158gr (158 grn? What the hell were they? - Ed) hollow point self-defense ammunition and the gun recoiled the exact same round for round as the original.

I haven’t had any issues conceal carrying my steel H9 but I can tell you right now it will get replaced by my new H9A due to the fact that it shoots just as smooth but with less weight. My steel gun will still get run hard during competitions but my new carry gun will be the H9A. And just as before, if you run into a guy that goes by Pudge at the range, stop by and say hey and I’ll probably force you to shoot my H9 and now H9A.