My review of an Arcus 98 DAC

[scarletvw]

Arcus 98 DAC

So I purchased a Arcus 98 DAC the other week, I was looking for a 9mm pistol under 500$ that would hopefully have a double stack magazine and not a super short barrel. One of the other pistols I considered was a Rock Island Armory 1911 9mm, after looking around at different local retailers I found the Arcus at Fleet Farm in stock and well within my allotted price point and went for it, I would have gone with the 98 DA but was unable to find one locally.

Initial thoughts:

I told the salesman I’d take it after handling the case model and he brought out a new in box pistol from in back. He opened the box and safety checked the pistol, the first thing he said was “wow, now that’s smooth”. He was right, the action of this pistol was much smoother then the action of the cased firearm, and already I was happy with my purchase.

After taking it home I immediately cleaned the entire gun, it seems that in Bulgaria they pack their guns with lots of oil. Field stripping the gun is a very easy task, there is a notch in the slide that the safety will slide into and lock the slide all the way back, then simply remove the slide release from the frame and gently allow the slide to slip off of the front of the gun. From that point there is a guide rod and spring that easily come off of the assembly and allows the barrel to come right out. For standard cleaning you can stop right there, since the gun was new I dug deeper. Removing the firing pin was very easy, press down on the firing pin safety plunger while pressing down on the firing pin and slide out the firing pin stop, allow the firing pin to come back and out of the rear of the slide and let the safety plunger drop out of the bottom. After getting this far I stopped and cleaned out any manufacturing oil and reapplied Hoppe’s #9 lubricating oil.

Once the pistol was clean I had a better chance to handle the gun and get a better look at it, the finish was uniform and no defects, albeit drab and flat black. The fit of all the parts was good and everything functioned as it should. The single action trigger pull had a good feel to me. The back of the grip has a pronounced beaver tail and I was certain that I would have to be one hell of a goon to allow this pistol to bite me, the front part of the grip is a wrap around style and has finger indents that make for a good solid hold on the pistol. Two magazines came with the pistol, both held the slide open, and both held 13 rounds. I left the magazines loaded in the safe to allow the spring to break in and also left the gun in the safe till I was able to get to the range.

Range time:

Last night I was able to get to the range after excitedly waiting to shoot my new weapon. Upon first getting to the range I put up a target of a prairie dog and gave him his last rights. All shots out of the magazine went bang without a single issue. The recoil of the gun was good feeling while the entire pistol felt good in my hands. The 3 dot sights allowed for easy aiming while a front fiber sight would have been nice the range had plenty of light to allow the white dots to show up easily while aiming at my furry shooting buddy. The pistol shot where I placed the sights, minus my lack of pistol shooting skill. I was shooting factory reload FMJ ammo and the actual reloader escapes me. Out of 150 shots that I fired I had 0 issues, no fail to feeds, no fail to eject, no fail to fire, not 1 single issue. I am very happy indeed with this pistol.

As for the single action trigger when actually shooting, it felt great.

At this point, if I carried a gun I would have no problem trusting the Arcus, I have no reason to believe that it is somehow inferior to any other pistol or that it would somehow break when I needed it the most. More rounds down the barrel could change this, but for right now that is how I feel.

[rugersol]

I decocked the pistol and tried to shoot double action, I don’t know what it was but I wasn’t able to fire with one finger, I had to use my left pointer to help pull the trigger.
...
At this point, if I carried a gun I would have no problem trusting the Arcus, I have no reason to believe that it is somehow inferior to any other pistol

... as to carrying the gun ... I'm presuming this has a cocked 'n locked option?! ... regardless, I would expect most folks, who purchase such a gun, to carry it decocked! ... at which, from what yer describing of the DA pull, it sounds like this would be a very poor choice, for such folks?!

Regardless, a DA/SA gun with such a horrible DA trigger pull not only sounds "inferior" ... from what yer describing, I'd consider sending it in for warranty repairs!

Past that, I thought yer review was very good! ... and the pistol otherwise looks like it'll make a fine range gun!

[scarletvw]

I decocked the pistol and tried to shoot double action, I don’t know what it was but I wasn’t able to fire with one finger, I had to use my left pointer to help pull the trigger.
...
At this point, if I carried a gun I would have no problem trusting the Arcus, I have no reason to believe that it is somehow inferior to any other pistol

... as to carrying the gun ... I'm presuming this has a cocked 'n locked option?! ... regardless, I would expect most folks, who purchase such a gun, to carry it decocked! ... at which, from what yer describing of the DA pull, it sounds like this would be a very poor choice, for such folks?!

Regardless, a DA/SA gun with such a horrible DA trigger pull not only sounds "inferior" ... from what yer describing, I'd consider sending it in for warranty repairs!

Past that, I thought yer review was very good! ... and the pistol otherwise looks like it'll make a fine range gun!

Yeah, i don't know, it could have been fatuige from shooting or maybe it is somehow defective, but either way, I'm super happy with it. I'd probably have to have someone who knows more about guns shoot it double action to see if there is something wrong with it. Either way, i've heard most people say that the double action is super heavy.

[yuppiejr]

If you're not used to it the double action trigger on the Browning HP clones (CZ-75, EAA witness, etc..) can be long, gritty and heavier than a lot of people like. My CZ's have always smoothed out a lot after the first 500 rounds so perhaps a spring kit and more range time would be in order before dropping it off at the gunsmith for a full blown trigger job?

[Squib Joe]

This gun is is designed for military use and I would expect it to have about a 15# DA trigger

And I'm pretty sure these are set-up for condition one carry like the HP, although I don't know if I would personally

[bensdad]

Yeah, it's a cocked-n-locked rig for sure. That DA trigger isn't malfunctioning - mine is the same way after 1,000 rds. She has run flawless for the first 1,000, but I"ve been cleaning it. The next 1,000 will be w/o a cleaning. You can get more mags from Century if you fill out their paperwork. I like to have four mags for all my handguns.

The DA sucks, but the reset in SA is pretty sweet. Nothing you STI or Wilson guys would like, but pretty darn good for a $300 gun.