Watch: The Grand Power P11: Full-size features in a carry gun

The Grand Power XCalibur stunned me.  From the first shot it was so smooth and easy to point that it didn’t feel like shooting.  The sensation was closer to pointing a magic long-range hole puncher at paper.  Squeeze the trigger and after a loud noise a hole appears exactly where you were pointing.  Truly ambidextrous controls, a rotating barrel that reduces felt recoil, and some of the finest machining I’ve ever encountered.  I couldn’t afford to buy one, but did anyways.  So began my love for the Grand Power line of pistols.

Built in an ISO 9001 compliant factory with 4 and 5 axis CNC machines shaping parts to within +/-.005mm (that’s 0.000196”!).  For reference that’s about 1/10 the thickness of a standard sheet of paper!

If you grew up with Common Core math, we’ll summarize with this: it’s accurate.  When a gun is made of 53 parts machined with that level of accuracy one might expect some accuracy out of the gun.

Accurate is an understatement in this case.  As an experienced and trained shooter, I consider my ability above average, but by no means Miculek level.  The Grand Power’s transfer some of their namesake into any shooter’s abilities as demonstrated by a grouping of 15 rounds at seven yards fired in short succession.

So when I had a chance to try a compact carry model you might understand my excitement.

Enter the Grand Power P11.  With the same precision, rotating barrel, and feel as the competition-oriented XCalibur, but in a more concealable size.   Typically, with carry guns the reduction in size also means a reduction in features.  With the P11 we lose the interchangeable back straps from the XCalibur, but gain a true double-action, single-action capability.