Review of the Alfa Proj 9231

[C0untZer0]

What it is​

Alfa Proj is a small arms manufacturer in the city of Brno, Czech Republic. CzechPoint USA, run by Dan Brown, is located in Knoxville Tennessee and is the exclusive distributor of Alfa Proj revolvers in the U.S.

CzechPoint USA imports a number of different Alfa Proj models ranging from .22LR, .32 S&W Long, to 9mm and .357 Magnum. CzechPoint, Inc. They don't import many of the 9mm revolvers so when they came in, I purchased on right away. At the end of the next day, they were all out.

Alfa Proj sells two main versions of their 9mm revolver. One version called “Classic” and the other version is called “Luger” Both versions of the gun are built on a 357 magnum frame. The “Classic” has a fluted .357 magnum sized cylinder that fits the frame window:



The Luger version has a shortened non-fluted cylinder which leaves a gap in the frame window with the barrel coming back into the cylinder window to meet the cylinder:



The 3” version is imported by CzechPoint USA and called the CzechPoint 9231

I purchased the revolver directly from www.czechpoint-usa.com for $489.00 + 15.00 S&H and had the revolver delivered to my local FFL. The online transaction went smoothly and the revolver was shipped out the next day.

 

[C0untZer0]

The CzechPoint 9231 is a 3 inch, steel-framed six-shot, single action / double action revolver chambered in 9mm. The sights are comprised of a black ramp with bright orange insert for the front and square-notch blade in the back, adjustable for elevation and windage. The barrel is actually a 9mm barrel not a 357 magnum barrel.

The overall length is 8.5 inches, it measure 5-3/8 inches high and weighs 31.04 ounces.

The revolver comes in a pretty spartan plastic case, which contains a manual, two cleaning brushes – one plastic and one brass, two moon clips and a de-mooning / case removal tool.

 

[C0untZer0]

Impressions
​

Fit is good, I don't see machines marks/chatter marks, nicks, gouges, or scratches anywhere on this revolver. The finish though is not so great. When I put a light coat of oil on it, it looks OK,



But when you wipe all the oil off it looks like coal.



There are also a few spots where I can see metal starting to show through – the back of the sights is one such spot and if you look at these photos you can see spots here and there where the finish just hasn't been applied that well, you can see bare metal in places.

 

[C0untZer0]

Here are a few pics of the gun:

 

[C0untZer0]

The chambers are actually smooth those lines you see in the picture are just a reflection of the blue mat I had the revolver sitting on while I took these pictures.

 

[C0untZer0]

Just handling the revolver, the grip feels a little more vertical than I'm used to. If you look at the 9231 shown here next to the Charter Arms PITBULL and the S&W 929, you can see that the grip angle on the 9231 is more acute, more straight up and down and less swept-back. It isn't the only revolver with that kind of grip angle, but its just not my favorite.

Also the grip seems a tad short as my pinkie doesn't fit totally on the grip and the pinkie of my non-shooting hand curls under. Surprisingly there are some grip options out there, a few companies in Canada – Blue Line Solutions, Al Flaherty’s Outdoor Store in Toronto, and Lockhart Tactical, sell wooden grips for the Alfa Proj revolvers. Unfortunately Hogue doesn't make anything for the Alfa Proj guns so a lot of the neat grips that you can get for Smith's and Rugers are just not available for an Alfa Proj.

 

[C0untZer0]

Firing​

I have to say that the gun is fun to shoot. Shooting standard pressure 9mm loads out of the 9231 results in fairly mild recoil. Unfortunately, the only indoor range that allows me to bring a chair and sandbags does not have digital target movers. They have lines painted on the sides of the walls and I can't see well enough past 7 yards to know how far my target is out. I can line the target up at the 7 yard line – so my initial firing was done at 21 feet. I think the revolver is pretty accurate. This first target. I was nailing the bullseye on this first target from 21 feet. A couple of guys took the stall next to me the shoot and just when I was just squeezing the trigger, they let loose with a 12 slug from their VEPR-12, so anyway it threw my shot off and that resulted in the one hole there in the 8-ring. After that I waited for them to reload before I shot.



Here is a better shot group, but before I adjusted the sights:



I was pretty happy with my shot group standing shooting offhand.



That's six shots on that target but only 5 obvious black rings. Since I doubt I missed the target completely I'm guessing one round went between the two holes that are connected.

Here is the factory target that comes with the gun:

 

[C0untZer0]

I didn't have any problems clearing brass.

Czechpoint.com now has this warning on the 9mm page:

IMPORTANT NOTE: Never use steel case ammunition in this revolver as the cylinder may not rotate and/or cases become stuck in the cylinder. Use only high quality brass cased ammunition as the tolerances are extremely tight with this 9mm revolver. WE HIGHLY RECOMMEND CZECH S&B MANUFACTURED AMMUNITION BE USED IN THIS REVOLVER FOR RELIABLE FUNCTION.

I didn't use any steel cased ammo and I never will. The de-mooning tool that comes with the gun is pretty nifty and I use it for taking the brass out of my S&W moon clips too.

After firing 24 rounds through the pistol, the cylinder wouldn't turn. The problem was with just one chamber, I noticed that the cartridge wasn't fitting as deeply as it should. When I examined it, I noticed a gold-colored ring in the chamber right where the case mouth would sit. I don’t know if this was copper or brass, but I dragged a .45 cal copper brush from the front to the rear while rotating the brush a few times, followed by a cotton bore mop and the cartridge seated fine after that. So I think the tolerances are pretty tight on this revolver and I have to make sure I have cleaning supplies with me when firing this revolver. Maybe that will change in the future but for now I clean the cylinder after 12 shots. One of the reasons I think the tolerances are tight is that I noticed that I was able to use Tipton Snap-Caps in the 9231, but A-Zooms wouldn't fit. A-Zooms drop into my 929 and Charter Arms PITBULL, but they won't fit into the chambers of the 9231. I haven't used aluminum or steel cased ammo, but all the brass I shot through it worked fine, with the exception of that one time that I had copper build up in the one chamber.

Here are some close ups of the sights:

 

[C0untZer0]

I enjoy this revolver quite a bit. I'm glad I got it... I wish it had a better finish. I don't think the finish would hold up well to every day carry, but my Alfa Proj goes back and forth to the range in a case, and I don't expect the finish to see much wear.

 

[Michael Tinker Pearce]

Good review- thanks for doing it. My first thought when I saw the price was, "There are a lot of very nice revolvers I can get used for that price." So my question is other than the caliber- 9mm- is there any stand-out reason to buy this gun rather than another?

 

[barnbwt]

But when you wipe all the oil off it looks like coal.

Just an FYI, that's because of machining marks that weren't polished/ground out before finish . I can see turning marks on the cylinder exterior as well, but as you say, the important part (chambers) look pretty good.

Your side-by-side is interesting; not only is the grip more vertical, but it also looks much shorter front-to-back at the upper portion. Does that feel different on your middle finger, or is the grip proportionately wider in this area (i.e. rounder)? Did you note any unpleasant contact between your middle finger and the trigger guard during recoil? Seems like it could rap you a bit with a powerful enough cartridge, what with your digit tucked in that little nook.

Those sights look quite similar to the ones on my S&W; looks like a nice sight picture.

What did the trigger feel like? I'm *guessing* the mechanism is similar to the S&W since that's the most common any more, but it'd be interesting to hear if the stacking of the DA is significantly different from your 929 (it's probably heavier/rougher, but that's to be expected & will polish out in time)

TCB

 

[C0untZer0]

I mainly got this because it is a 9mm revolver and I'm a 9mm revolver nut.

I forgot to post the trigger pull averages

In SA, the Alfa-Proj trigger pull is actually lighter than my 929. A 10-pull average shows the SA trigger weight at 3 lbs 13.52 ounces while my 929 averages 4 lbs 3.82 ounces. But I still have to say that the 9292 SA trigger is better. The Alfa-Proj has a slight bit of movement before it breaks whereas the 929 in SA mode just breaks. In DA mode the S&W 929 has a larger cylinder holding 8 rounds, so its a shorter stroke. The 929 is much smoother in DA and the trigger weight in DA for the 2 revolvers is about the same - about 10.5 lbs The Alfa-Proj does stack in DA but its not too bad.

By comparison, the SA trigger on my Charter Arms PITBULL, which started out "not-so-great" has gotten a lot better over time and it averages 3 lbs 4.8 ounces, The DA trigger on the PITBULL stacks quite a bit right before the cartridge moves in alignment with the barrel, then it lets up, the DA trigger pull on the PITBULL is a pretty consistent 11 lbs 7.5 ounces.

I didn't notice any unpleasant contact between my middle finger and the trigger guard with the Alfa Proj, but there's hardly any recoil with 9mm ammo. I think I'd have to stoke it with 147gr +P+ ammo to get it to recoil to the point where I'd notice something like that. The grip does have a ridge that runs along it, to guide your shooting hand thumb I guess? I don't really like it. Sometimes things gets over-engineered and they end up not working for some people. The gun would be better off with a pair of simple non-grooved grips, but there is hardly any after-market for grips for Alfa-Proj revolvers.

 

[bannockburn]

C0untZer0

Great job! Well done review and photos! Very informative and presented in a clear and concise manner. Thanks for the info.

 

[ATLDave]

Thanks for the great review. I think one of their .32 models is in my future, given the extreme difficulty of finding a mid-sized revolver in that cartridge that isn't insanely expensive.

 

[Michael Tinker Pearce]

Thanks for the great review. I think one of their .32 models is in my future, given the extreme difficulty of finding a mid-sized revolver in that cartridge that isn't insanely expensive.

I saw one of these new on Gunbroker for $339- not bad at all!

 

[GooseGestapo]

Buy it direct from AlphaProj for $290 plus shipping and FFL transfer.
I'm leaning towards a .32 also. Supposedly, they use the HKS speedloader for a S&W and Charter Arms.

 

[Analogkid]

5 + month wait as of yesterday for out of stock Alfa proj revolvers. I had a email into them about the 6" 357

 

[PabloJ]

I tested one sometime ago. The only issue that came up was after about 250 rounds the chambers had to be cleaned and scrubbed because loaded moon clips became difficult to insert. I also found that Remington 147gr subsonic hollow points did not want to go in even into clean chambers. Ball ammo from Remington, Federal, Winchester and American Eagle plus Hornady, Speer, Winchester JHPs functioned fine. The only other shortcoming was difficulty of obtaining spare six-shot 9mm moon clips. The importer limited sales at the time I had it and they are made of un-obtainum otherwise.

 

[C0untZer0]

I have one chamber that gets a shiny gold-colored ring right where the ledge for the case lip sits. It happens after about 30 rounds. To clear it I have to pull a bore brush back through the chamber from the front of the cylinder. I'm not sure whats going on. I don't think its brass. It doesn't make sense that that the lip would be shaving off copper, most of the bullet sits forward of this lip, but maybe that's what's going on... I don't know.

 

[C0untZer0]

but it also looks much shorter front-to-back at the upper portion. Does that feel different on your middle finger, or is the grip proportionately wider in this area (i.e. rounder)? Did you note any unpleasant contact between your middle finger and the trigger guard during recoil?

Sorry, I didn't totally answer these questions...

1) The grip feels more vertical than the other revolvers I have but I don't notice a different feel for my middle finger. The grip on the 929 is wider and fills my hand more than the Alfa Proj. The grip on the Alfa-Proj is egg-shaped, wider toward the back - I took a photo:



My middle finger wraps all the way around the grip as you can see in this picture:



You can also see that there is probably 1/8" of space between my finger and the trigger guard. Maybe people with thicker(fat) fingers would have their middle finger actually touching the trigger guard - I don't know.

.
For me, the tip of my middle finger ends up just touching the base of my thumb when I'm shooting the revolver.

2) The gun is heavy enough that there is hardly any recoil to it. I haven't shot +P+ rounds through it but I'm guessing you'd have to shoot 135 +P or 147 +P+ to even be able to test out if your middle finger would get whacked by the trigger guard.

 

[Jim NE]

I can't think of any other company making a decent quality revolver in .32 S&W long, can you? I know that's largely because there are many companies making .32 H&R mag and .327 revolvers, but the idea of a good .32 S&WL only handgun is appealing. I saw one recently on gunbroker, but have avoided the temptation because I spent a lot on a Single Six in .32 a year or two ago. If I hadn't done that, I'd snap one of those up. (I still might )

 

[Monac]

Thanks for the comments and the pictures, C0untZer0! Like Jim NE, I have been interested in the 32 Long version of this gun. I think it has a zinc alloy frame instead of the steel frame of your 9mm version, which is not going to do anything for the appearance of the gun.

The thing that caught my eye was what a strange cylinder ratchet your gun has. It reminds me a little of the old High Standard Sentinel, but IIRC, that had drilled holes instead of those odd protrusions. I'm glad to see innovation is still going on in revolver design.