SilencerCo announced the Maxim-9 pistol in late 2015. Having gone through some huge growth of the past few years, the company wanted to expand its capabilities and thought that the time was right for a modern integrally suppressed pistol. It was a unique new design of modern semiautomatic pistol build from the ground up to be integrally suppressed. The action is a proprietary delayed blowback system with all of the moving parts in the back half of the slide. This leaves the front of the gun dedicated entirely to suppressor volume.
The guns were released at SHOT Show 2017, and were relatively slow sellers, because of the high price and the required NFA registration. The expected passage of the Hearing Protection Act around that time would have been a huge boon for sales, but did not ultimately happen. Still, production continued until tapering off in early 2021 as SilencerCo shifted priority to regular suppressor manufacture in the face of a boom in demand.
The project may not have been a massive success for SilencerCo, but it was still a worthy endeavor that they do not regret. It helped mature the company, forcing them to embrace new proficiency in things like GD&T and advanced quality control machinery. And the pistol is, in fact, very cool.
Well, i for one would love to own one
Maybe they are just big Bialik fans.
Ian mentiones that SilencerCo took inspiration from the Benelli B76 pistol, with its hesitation lock, when they designed the action. I belief his expertise, but am I the only one who also sees traces of the original Maxim Silverman M1896 prototype pistols, in particular those with the retroactively added delay spring on the side of the system, in the Maxim9? Ian has, after all, some nice videos on these guns.
Let me all allude to what I mean:
The position of the “claw” on the left side of the bolt, recess in the system for it and the force of a spring, which is to be overcome to open the system (in the originals a stiff leaf spring, in this very one I assume a little coil spring) and both guns are delayed blowback. For me a bit too much coincidence to rule it out. And the name itself could also be a tribute to not just the inventor of the silencer, but his first pistol creation as well.
Is there any information/documentation out there, that may be revealing more information on the development of the Maxim9, that may proof or disproof my very assumption?
I think you could be right on that one!
“(…)inspiration(…)”
https://modernfirearms.net/en/handguns/handguns-en/u-s-a-semi-automatic-pistols/maxim9-eng/ does suggest that this design might be influenced by Type 64 made in PRC
https://www.militaryfactory.com/smallarms/detail.php?smallarms_id=101 as it is conceptually similar in the basic layout of the slide return system and asymmetrical suppressor shape.
Maxim-Silverman was produced by Hiram Stevens Maxim (and Silverman).
Silencer was invented by Hiram Percy Maxim, his son.
The thing probably handles fine. But it looks like a pistol/brick hybrid. Too many gun buyers get tied up in looks cool not works well. Say “suppressor” and most folks think Napoleon Solo and that wicked silencer on his PPK, longer than his…er, a baby’s arm
Napoleon Solo of UNCLE with a silenced PPK???
This is not at all how I remeber the UNCLE series.
P38s with a cut down barrel were what UNCLE agents used, while their THRUSH opponents preferred the good old “bad guy” Luger, although sometimes wielding a typical U.S. 2 in barrel revolver.
The first “U.N.C.L.E. Special” sidearm was a Mauser 1934 .32 with all the add-ons later seen on the “shorty” P.38. In the pre-title “strip” used in the first season, Kuryakin (David McCallum) is seen assembling it. However, in that season, Solo (Robert Vaughn) mostly used a P.08.
The security detail at U.N.C.L.E. HQ more sensibly used FN P35 High Powers throughout the series four-season run. The women “technicians” ostensibly carried Beretta Model 1934 .32s. They were actually plastic “dart” pistols, painted black (most of them were moulded in bright blue or bright green).
BTW, those dart guns were apparently “painted up” originally for the science fiction movie The Time Travelers (Dorei, released by UA 1964). Set in the year 2071, survivors of a nuclear war holed up in an underground complex all carried the small pistols in belt holsters due to frequent incursions by “mutants”.
The movie is actually better than it sounds, and the futuristic costumes looked nice on the young ladies in the film.
cheers
eon
cheers
eon
I stand corrected as to Solo’s gear.
Are the suppressor components the die-cast aluminium alloy they look like?
It’s interesting if that works and is durable, though I think the fact that the first expansion chamber is unusually spacious may help.
(I assume they won’t say what the exact alloy is…)
I may betray myself as a nerd here, but the high-end Casella-Cel Instruments sound meter/analysers have precision-die cast cases and assuming that Silencer Co own one or two of these in their noise lab (everyone should have a noise lab!) that might have appealed to the company’s obvious sense of fun.
A long time ago, when Cel Instruments was still part of the Tech giant once known as “Joseph Lucas Lamps and Oil” “precision” investment-casting casings were tried and they turned out to sometimes vary in length a lot more than had been anticipated, but it took a deep breath before Joe Lucas would fund die-cast tools. After which, several successive models of meter got fitted into the same casings to pay the cost of the tools back!
This may be partly why every suppressor part on the gun which can be used twice, is used twice!
The white ash deposit inside the die-cast parts of the auction gun reminds me of blank-firers. I do hope the alloy isn’t ZA8!
This is another one of those things where I’m left going “Cool toy… Now, tell me: What’s the use case for it?”
I’m really not seeing it, TBH. Dedicated silenced pistol… Great. For what? There is not a huge market for these things, being as anyone wanting a dedicated training weapon that is ear-friendly is also going to want things that this pistol can’t give them, like fidelity to actual duty weapons and so forth. Say you want to do your draws and all that… How does this help you develop muscle-memories for that sort of thing, with your most-likely carry piece? Who is making holsters for these, and how would those holsters help you train? The advantages to be gained from this pistol’s characteristics don’t do much for you, in the real world. It’s a toy, I’m afraid.
As well, if you were to carry one of these for “duty”, what, exactly, does that “duty” consist of?
There are some ideas out there that are simultaneously really, really cool, and at the same time… Really, really senseless.
I think this might be one of them.
Still, cool pistol. I like the whole package, esthetics, mechanics… All of that. I just don’t see the “practical utility” point of it. At all.
I never understood the user case for it, either. SpecOps sentry or guard dog removal was about the best I could come up with. Assuming you define 9x19mm as sufficient for that, which I don’t. (Large canines are tougher than most people think.)
Mostly I suspect it was intended to appeal to people who wanted something that (1) most people couldn’t afford and (2) most people would not be able to legally obtain. Like “progressive” types who are foursquare in favor of “gun control” for everybody but themselves. “Hey, look what I can have that you can’t. Suck it, peasant.”
It would go well as a thing in the top right-hand drawer of the luxury seven-drawer cocobolo-wood desk in their study. In their mansion, on their estate, where they were protected by their army of hired bodyguards.
It’s the whole image thing, you know.
clear ether
eon
Special operations guys aren’t going to want to carry the mass and weight of one of these for just those specific missions. That’s why the Hush Puppy lineage of weapons didn’t have permanently integral silencers as a specification.
I honestly think that the sole reason this pistol exists is because the designers had the money to burn to be able to say “We can do this…”, and that’s about it. The sales numbers would never have been all that great, even if the legal infrastructure for silencers had changed… I dare say that if that does change, then these won’t be coming back, either. The market for “Cool pistol” at those prices just isn’t big enough.
“(…)don’t see the “practical utility” point (…)”
According to patent https://patents.google.com/patent/US11105577B1
BACKGROUND
Sound suppressors for firearms, particularly pistols, are well known and are coming into widespread use for shooting sports such as “plinking”, competitive target shooting, and target practice as shooters begin to realize the advantages to comfort and hearing protection afforded by suppressed firearms.
Suppressors according to the prior art, when mounted on pistols, extend the length of the pistol and thereby alter its handling and balance characteristics. The extended length of prior art suppressors also makes it difficult to holster a suppressed pistol, for example, when carried by elite military units. There are clear advantages to be realized by a pistol having a more compact yet effective suppressor.
If this were a “more compact yet effective suppressor”, I might agree. It is not; that thing is like a damn 2X4 on a handle than it is an easily wielded pistol-format tool for much of anything. It’s also effectively unholsterable, to coin a term, and useless as a defensive tool for anyone that might need such a thing outside of their bedroom nightstand.
Nightstand gun is a use-case I could maybe see, were it coupled with some other features like a built-in camera system for legal protection in some judicial regions. Outside of that, I’d prefer something I can carry concealed, if I need to.
Me either. I carry a pistol when I don’t have room for anything else. If I have room for a suppressed pistol, I have room for something better than a pistol.
Pistol’s patent… US10677554
A very successfull application of roller delay transferring to lever cam delay… With a bolt which quickens the bolt carrier through different camming slants.
As seen in video… Trigger system seems somewhat differed Glock design… Disconnector seems a horizontal rod with its spring instead of original one piece of leaf spring… Trigger remains at back when the gun in uncocked mode being very similar to Glock.
When I look at that, I think it would be better upside down; overall shape, think sort of staplegun… Quite. I mean, turn it upside down, Quite. Then link the bottom – Top now, of the pistol grip to the front of the handguard; move the trigger as relevant… You then get… A PDW, because you hold it different. Different enough, maybe no need for a stock. It’s not a Flintlock why do we need to make the layout a pistol grip with stuff hanging off to the front off it; we don’t in my opinion “Staplegun layout” as above, you get a foregrip. Is that not more accurate; no wrist bending.
Yes you load it from the top, is that terrible?
If anything the slide moving at the bottom, pushes the “Pistol grip” hand, up, while the supporting hand “Forend grip” pulls it down… Just redesign holsters, A snap off mount on the side, like a radio. With a corresponding holster. Flintlock pirate designs, waving a wobbly thing at folk. Pointless. Aye it is slightly bigger, slightly. Overall. But a better hold etc.
Thumbhole, something; pistols are the wrong way round… Premise Hudson, well there you are; if there is something in that, there is definately something in doing away with the wrist bending thing per se. Holsters, make new ones.
Basis for this thought; I have been considering seriously, a fn90 mag style “staple gun” staple gun action, quite… Silenced pistol; your hand does the locking part, and the reduces the “clunk” like a Welrod in theory. But overall, c’mon, no need for Flintlock pistol designs, it’s 2025.
Aye we could get Hi-point to do it. Cheap. Purpose; Squirrels. Invasion, of. Space Squirrels, might happen.
Fact, Musk high, sends a rocket to Mars comes back covered in Space squirrels; shit happens. Think of the future. Not Flintlocks. I like Flintlocks, but in general.
My highpoint style staplegun, is/would be very “Impolite” mind, and cheap. Sooo… Room for; not Flintlocks, wobbly handgrip, type ideas. Advance, Flintlock hold barstewards. Schnell!
A gun for 1945.
Ok I had been drinking, but I still think the point stands “Wobbly things” and the action of my (Staplegun) is quite interesting*, it is basically a rotating stamp; you know like they used to use in libraries, this feeds from the Fn90 style mag above and acts via your hand “assisting” locks the “bolt” Because it squishes down on it in a \| sort of shaped notch; BANG!!! Via full compression of handle, half depression; has cartridge rotated and the “Stamp” flips it inline with the breech (Semi circular frame ( shaped’ish section allows this) it cocks the pin via pulling said bolt back – Probably Lewis type mech – then when you carry on fully depressing the lever the bolt chambers the round, and the “Stamp” engages the notch, you start to release the lever/handle thing; staple gun eh, and it fires, pressure on the notch assists your hand going up; bullet out. *= Well I say interesting. But maybe potentially viable, in-built silencer similar to this, which is why I mentioned it – Ok short range as your not aiming as such, but with the horizontal mag feed; fair number of rounds. Probably slight delay in “Functioning” compared to normally, but it might be cheap – Laser sight, probably help. Anyway, meh; wobbly Flintlock grip, is a point for pistol design.
Your hand grip, would want to losen as the handle; unlike a staplegun, is spring loaded for the action, before the pressure from said BANG!!! So it would have a sort of “Mushy” springy feel to it, pushing up… Like. Compact, more so, than big sliencer sticking out.
The \| notch, might need to be the bottom part of a circular piece, that rotates “Under spring pressure” bullet exits quick, that adds bit move delay… Might work.
Maybe .380 he he, rotary notch thing, attached to stamp thing; engages spring/handle tension when it rotates | from _ Be away.
Would be that (Attached to the stamp) as your squishing the spring with the handle/lever; as you start to release said bit engages… Anyway I will shut up.
Said bit, the notch wheel thing, spring loaded circular spring itself. Also. Hee…
Angle “Stamp” \ thus, ish… Depress lever, pulls it back against a /’ish to depress’rotate… Pen,if you have one… I have a pen but I can’t find it. Along those lines. Stamped etc, like a Staplegun. Cheap.
Maybe needs inner slide lark holding barrel, stamp thing; if you design and it isn’t piss cheap, buy a new pen; unless it’s better in which case crack on.
Not cheap, hinge the other bit the above impinges on; cheap again – Pops out the bottom \ ish angle, so what.
Hinged, were is my pen probably; threw it somewhere. Anyhoo… He he.
Can’t get on here in the U.K, bar a VPN now you know; not especially an issue for me as like a good perv on Nikky Dandelion on Porn hub, but anyway changing world of internet censorship.
She has a funny face and really sexy feet. No appolgies from me Sir Keir worst P.M since Boris, censoring critism. Anyway what was I talking about, he he.
Porn hub, Karl; your mate, he he.
Is that a Maxim 9 or a brick in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?