‘Proprietary magazines’ *cough* stupid *cough*
Now, I understand the business model concept, but if I were going to introduce something this close to the AR pattern 9mm ‘pistol’, it would either take the modified Uzi mags that Colt developed for their 9mm AR, or it would take Glock magazines. It’s like all the different versions of 1911s or HiPowers.
One magazine to rule them all
The gun has been in development for a while. At SHOT Show 2015, we got our first glimpse of it. Frank DeSomma, who tragically lost his life in an automobile accident in 2020, showed it to Guns.com. Back then, it was called the PSG, which stood for Patriot Sub Gun.
Despite DeSomma’s passing, POF-USA has continued to produce high-quality and innovative firearms. The Phoenix is no exception. It was officially released at this year’s SHOT Show. POF-USA engineer John Capps was there to show it to us.
DIRECT WEIGHTED BLOWBACK
It features a direct-weighted blowback system making it very easy to control according to Capps. “It is a monolithic upper. Billet lower. Has all AR-15 fire controls and ambidextrous buttons like our AR does. Bolt release, mag release button is ambi like our other rifles are. It’s going to ship with a MIL-SPEC trigger. It’s 4.6 pounds, so it’s fairly light and small for its size. It has a very small handguard compared to its competitors,” said Capps.
SMALL, LIGHT PACKAGE
It is 17.5 inches long and is compatible with a brace or stock that has a 1913 Picatinny rail on the back. It has a forward non-reciprocating charging handle that can be moved to the left or right side. It also hosts a new 9mm 1/2×28-threaded dual-port compensator.
PROPRIETARY MAGAZINES
The Phoenix will ship with a single proprietary 35-round magazine. The reason POF decided to do this was for reliability and to make the gun as much like an AR platform as possible. Twenty and 10-round mags will also be available. The price point for additional mags will be around $30 according to Capps.