To be totally honest, I’ve been waaaay too busy to shoot much lately. Between family commitments and other events to be revealed this year, I just haven’t had much time to get out there and get at it. I’m hoping that I’ll have this resolved by the end of the year, but for now, I’m suffering through a real shooting drought.
However, when the “back in stock” email for the Masada Slim Elite grip came floating through my inbox, I just knew I had a project to do. Now that it’s after Passover, I found time to do a quick grip swap with my Masada Slim. You’ll recall it from my review, where I found it to be a reliable micro-compact that took common mags and had somewhat mediocre iron sights.
Well, IWI released an “Elite” version that fixed a few problems with it, and nicely enough, the grip module is fully backwards-compatible with the original Slim’s FCU… time for an upgrade.
A buddy of mine was selling a certificate for a Masada Slim. I had passed on the original IWI Masada because I didn’t want to deal with the proprietary magazines. The Slim, on the other hand, uses standard CZ-75 / Tanfoglio small frame magazines, which is much more appealing to me as a shooter – and the Israeli connection obviously puts it in collector territory. I bought the certificate from him, and got it from IWI. Here are some thoughts after shooting it a bit:
Size-wise, the Masada Slim is pretty similar to a Glock 19 with a Glock 26 slide. It is a comfortable gun to hold.
The Tanfo small frame / CZ mag compatibility is a nice feature if you like to carry a larger mag on you for your reload. Most of the online reviews don’t seem to have tested this, so I’m here to tell you it works great. No problems, except that the 13rd Tanfo mags don’t seem to fit (14rd CZ mags do fit).
It does not seem to be ammo sensitive at all, and is quite reliable. Zero failures so far.
Sight return was shockingly good. I shoot competitively, I’m used to gripping my gun. This gun delivered. I fired, and the sights were pretty much right back to where they were with no intervention by me.
The iron sights suck. No other way to put it. Good enough for A-zone stuff, but too big with the hold way too high for smaller stuff like plate racks. I’m not saying it’s unusable, but I’d pretty much kill for sights that gave me a proper center hold and a smaller front sight. (The fact that nearly zero reviewers seemed to mention this makes me wonder how much payola is going on.)
The trigger is acceptable for a carry/duty gun. Lots of take-up, good break. Not too heavy or light.
Balance-wise, it’s a bit top-heavy. I don’t think this has much impact when shooting the gun.
Take-down sucks. It’s technically tool-less, but good luck getting the pin out without pliers. This isn’t a deal-breaker for me – I’m not really doing field strips outside my house – but it’s a negative.
Controls are intuitive, and I didn’t find myself having trouble with the mag release or slide lock.
Oddly, there is no accessory rail. I don’t think this is a deal-breaker, either, but it’s unusual to see in a gun in 2023.
If this became the mainline Masada platform, it’d be a smart move by IWI. Jericho mag compatibility is a big deal, and the rest of the gun (excepting the sights and take-down) is pretty solid. I wouldn’t rush out and tell people to buy this instead of a P365X, but it holds its own, especially with an optic so you don’t need the horrible iron sights. (I wound up using a cheap Primary Arms sight.)
As an interesting aside, it almost fits the IDPA BUG box. If you were willing to chop the grip and use the 13rd Tanfo mags, you might be able to pull it off. Unfortunately, without spare grip modules on the market, this is too much of a one-way trip to risk it.
The Hebrew Hammer 