Cobra Patriot .45 Review 10/1/2004
Name brands don’t mean a lot to me. I am much more concerned with the value of a gun rather than the brand name stamped on the side. To me value is a combination of quality, reliability and price. You can get different combinations of each to arrive at the best value. Although in my mind reliability is the most important element for a concealed carry weapon.
When I first saw the Patriot 45 a few months ago I was intrigued. It was a very compact .45 caliber handgun that looked like a Kahr P45, if Kahr made one. It was very light and felt good in my hand. The quality seemed pretty good. However, I had never heard of Cobra. After a lot of searching I was finally able to find some information about them. Mainly at this website. The reviews seemed pretty good so I decided I would risk it.
Two weeks ago on a Friday I went to Witzel’s Pawn in Salt Lake City and purchased a new Patriot for $225. (It seems none of the mainstream firearms dealers carry them.) The next day I was off to the range. I was incredibly disappointed. Quite frankly I felt I hand been ripped off with a piece of junk. All the way home from the range I was trying to justify how in good conscience I could try and sell this piece of junk to someone else. Fortunately the story has a happy ending.
It jammed the first time on round three and continued to jam or malfunction in some way every few rounds for the next sixty shots. At sixty is stopped working altogether. It did tend to rotate the problems quite nicely. First it would partially extract a spent cartridge before it would jam against the next round in the clip. This took considerable effort to correct each time it occurred, which was a lot. Second, it would fail to extract a cartridge altogether. Third, it would develop weak primer strikes. Sometimes it would take three strikes to finally ignite the charge. This happened with two different types of ammunition so I don’t believe the primers were the issue. Finally, at the end when I would pull the trigger the entire slide would move rearward. This is when I stopped trying to make it work. Bottom line in malfunctioned multiple times in every single clip I fired.
I also experienced what others had reported. The trigger pull was quite hard and gritty. It has a long double action pull and then the last fraction of an inch gets very heavy. Someone mentioned that they had a blister on their trigger finger quickly. I had the same experience. However, the person that suggested that the blisters go away with a little 220 grit sand paper to the trigger was absolutely correct.
Monday morning I personally dropped off the gun at the factory. One of the benefits of living in the same city as the manufacturer is that you can express to them face to face on what you think of their guns. This is where the story takes a very positive turn. Their customer service was excellent! Within one hour they returned my gun along with an extra seven round clip for my trouble. They replaced one of the trigger linkages and the extractor. They also repaired the problem with the striker. When I pulled the trigger on a snap cap I could immediately recognize a change. The trigger pull was a little lighter but much more smooth. I am feeling optimistic at this point.
On Wednesday it was back to the range. This trip was not perfect but much better. In the next 120 rounds it jammed 5 times. All of these were partially extracted shells. I never and a weak primer strike or a shell that was not extracted at all. Most of the jams occurred towards the end when the gun was dirty.
Accuracy of the Cobra Patriot .45 was not bad. About what you would expect for short barreled .45 caliber. At 15 yards I could keep all shots on an 8 ½ x 11 target, however, my groupings would not win any prizes. Good enough accuracy to get a bad guy though.
Today I took the gun to the range again. I’m starting to feel very good about this purchase. Eighty rounds without any malfunction at all. I fired three different loads including some hollow points. Even though the manual does not recommend these they worked just fine. By the way, the manual also says that +P’s void the warranty.
Overall I feel like I found a good value in the Cobra Patriot .45. It is a lightweight, very concealable .45 in a package the size of a .380 Walther PPK. And by the way I can buy four of these for the price of a compact Kimber. In my last trip to the range it worked perfectly. Recoil isn’t bad at all and I can generally hit what I am shooting at. I plan to put a bunch more rounds through it before it becomes my concealed carry gun, but right now I am very happy that I purchased it.
MrValue
Name brands don’t mean a lot to me. I am much more concerned with the value of a gun rather than the brand name stamped on the side. To me value is a combination of quality, reliability and price. You can get different combinations of each to arrive at the best value. Although in my mind reliability is the most important element for a concealed carry weapon.
When I first saw the Patriot 45 a few months ago I was intrigued. It was a very compact .45 caliber handgun that looked like a Kahr P45, if Kahr made one. It was very light and felt good in my hand. The quality seemed pretty good. However, I had never heard of Cobra. After a lot of searching I was finally able to find some information about them. Mainly at this website. The reviews seemed pretty good so I decided I would risk it.
Two weeks ago on a Friday I went to Witzel’s Pawn in Salt Lake City and purchased a new Patriot for $225. (It seems none of the mainstream firearms dealers carry them.) The next day I was off to the range. I was incredibly disappointed. Quite frankly I felt I hand been ripped off with a piece of junk. All the way home from the range I was trying to justify how in good conscience I could try and sell this piece of junk to someone else. Fortunately the story has a happy ending.
It jammed the first time on round three and continued to jam or malfunction in some way every few rounds for the next sixty shots. At sixty is stopped working altogether. It did tend to rotate the problems quite nicely. First it would partially extract a spent cartridge before it would jam against the next round in the clip. This took considerable effort to correct each time it occurred, which was a lot. Second, it would fail to extract a cartridge altogether. Third, it would develop weak primer strikes. Sometimes it would take three strikes to finally ignite the charge. This happened with two different types of ammunition so I don’t believe the primers were the issue. Finally, at the end when I would pull the trigger the entire slide would move rearward. This is when I stopped trying to make it work. Bottom line in malfunctioned multiple times in every single clip I fired.
I also experienced what others had reported. The trigger pull was quite hard and gritty. It has a long double action pull and then the last fraction of an inch gets very heavy. Someone mentioned that they had a blister on their trigger finger quickly. I had the same experience. However, the person that suggested that the blisters go away with a little 220 grit sand paper to the trigger was absolutely correct.
Monday morning I personally dropped off the gun at the factory. One of the benefits of living in the same city as the manufacturer is that you can express to them face to face on what you think of their guns. This is where the story takes a very positive turn. Their customer service was excellent! Within one hour they returned my gun along with an extra seven round clip for my trouble. They replaced one of the trigger linkages and the extractor. They also repaired the problem with the striker. When I pulled the trigger on a snap cap I could immediately recognize a change. The trigger pull was a little lighter but much more smooth. I am feeling optimistic at this point.
On Wednesday it was back to the range. This trip was not perfect but much better. In the next 120 rounds it jammed 5 times. All of these were partially extracted shells. I never and a weak primer strike or a shell that was not extracted at all. Most of the jams occurred towards the end when the gun was dirty.
Accuracy of the Cobra Patriot .45 was not bad. About what you would expect for short barreled .45 caliber. At 15 yards I could keep all shots on an 8 ½ x 11 target, however, my groupings would not win any prizes. Good enough accuracy to get a bad guy though.
Today I took the gun to the range again. I’m starting to feel very good about this purchase. Eighty rounds without any malfunction at all. I fired three different loads including some hollow points. Even though the manual does not recommend these they worked just fine. By the way, the manual also says that +P’s void the warranty.
Overall I feel like I found a good value in the Cobra Patriot .45. It is a lightweight, very concealable .45 in a package the size of a .380 Walther PPK. And by the way I can buy four of these for the price of a compact Kimber. In my last trip to the range it worked perfectly. Recoil isn’t bad at all and I can generally hit what I am shooting at. I plan to put a bunch more rounds through it before it becomes my concealed carry gun, but right now I am very happy that I purchased it.
MrValue
