Hi guys, thanks for tuning in to another video on ForgottenWeapons.com.
I'm Ian McCollum, and today we're going to take a look
at the Slovenian Arex Delta Gen2 pistol.
Now we're not looking at this because there's anything
earth-shatteringly new about its design,
but rather for the opposite reason.
I think the Delta is a really good example
of the sort of iterative improvement
that happens to firearms designs over time.
And this is ... certainly a trend outside of just firearms,
but it's a trend that we've seen in firearms for literally hundreds of years.
Someone will come up with a relatively novel new system,
say, the Glock 17.
Yes, I know this isn't the first polymer frame pistol, but it's the first really successful one.
And then over time, as people start to understand the system
and get experience both using it and manufacturing it,
the features get refined and get improved.
And you can see that even just within Glock.
The improvements from a Gen 1 Glock to a Gen 5 Glock are pretty substantial.
And we see this also in the wider world of polymer-framed striker-fired pistols,
where Glock is basically the first really successful one.
You might put them on par to the C96 Mauser in that sort of anecdote.
But other companies have been able to look at what Glock does, and what other competitors do,
and build an understanding of what's going to make the best pistol of this style.
And I think Arex has done a really good job of coming up with a really good set of features
based on this basic style of polymer-framed striker-fired pistol.
So, a little brief history of Arex.
They ... were originally a manufacturing company, they made stuff for people,
which is pretty typical in the industry.
In, I want to say it was about 2015, they decided to get into manufacturing of firearms themselves.
And in 2017 they released their first pistol, which was the Arex Zero 1,
which was essentially a copy of the SIG 226.
There's was compact version that's essentially a SIG 229.
Now when I say copy, I don't say that in a derogatory manner because frankly,
most of the firearms industry is copies of things to one extent or another.
When they're not straight copies, they're generally taking two different ... elements,
and copying both elements and combining them in a new, or at least somewhat new, manner.
So this is essentially their fourth pistol design, the Gen2 Delta.
They had the Zero 1 which was a SIG copy essentially.
They have the Arex Delta, the first generation of this,
which goes from an aluminium frame to a polymer frame.
They have the ... Arex 1, I believe, they have a competition style pistol, and they have the Gen2 here.
So this isn't their first attempt, which I think is important.
Everyone's first gun always has some issues of some sort.
They've got some experience now, and I think they're making a really good pistol.
So let's take a look at the different minor little iterations
that are all put together that turn this from just a straight copy
into a good example of improvement over time.
I'll just jump straight into the features that I like.
First off, controls are completely ambidextrous.
So there's a slide release on each side.
The magazine release is not simply reversible, it actually just works ... from both sides.
These are some of the elements that it's easy to look at an early gun and go,
"Oh, why didn't those idiots make an ambidextrous magazine release? It's such a simple concept."
And the reality ... is that there's friction, and there's time,
and there's cost involved in developing a new firearm.
And you can't just take every possibility into consideration.
There are always going to be things that someone will miss
that can be iterated on and improved over time.
And frankly that's ... the reason that we always see early models
lacking some of the features, nuances or developmental improvements of later models.
A similar example would be the rail on the front.
People think of that as, "Well, that's obvious, standard, why wouldn't you do it?"
Well, Gen 1 Glock, no rail out there.
It just wasn't something that necessarily occurred to people
as being something that everyone would want.
One of the things that I particularly like is the fact that the Arex uses a sheet metal magazine,
where Glock uses a polymer magazine with metal inserts.
Now there's nothing ... reliability-wise wrong with a Glock magazine.
However, by using just metal you're able to make the magazine narrower.
And it's not a lot narrower, but it is a little bit narrower.
That transitions into the frame itself.
And well, one of the objections to the Glock is that it feels like a brick in your hand.
The later generation Glocks have got a little bit better about this
by incorporating interchangeable back straps, as this one does.
Although I've got it on the smallest size at the moment.
Arex has done the same thing, and they're not the only company to,
but they've done it pretty darn well.
They have a nice narrow grip, they've got a good beaver-tail cutout here at the back
that I find very comfortable. They've undercut the trigger guard.
They've actually flared the magazine well just a little bit
without making it obnoxiously large here at the bottom.
You can see a little bit of a flare at the toe there.
And they have interchangeable back straps which allow you to
not just make the gun larger or smaller depending on hand size,
but also allow you to tweak the grip angle a little bit.
Because it's the palm swell here that is getting larger or smaller.
And again, small little details of incremental improvement over time.
Another good example is the disassembly.
Where the Glock, and a number of early striker-fired pistols,
require you to actually pull the trigger, if the striker is cocked, before you can disassemble it.
And that's just a simple mechanical issue of
if the striker is being held back by a piece in the frame,
the sear that's holding it back is going to be in front of the striker,
and that will impede the slide coming off the front of the gun.
So the obvious solution is, well, you just pull the trigger
and that allows the striker to go forward and then you can pull the slide off.
Well, over time we realised that some people are in fact idiots,
and don't check the pistol before they disassemble it.
They then pull the trigger for disassembly and fire off a shot.
It's easy to say that they simply shouldn't do that.
But why not fix the problem at the source,
and remove the need to pull the trigger before you disassemble the gun.
And the Arex has done that. And again they're not the only one to, but they've done it nicely.
So pull the slide back just slightly, pull down on ... this little disassembly stirrup.
And you don't even have to pull the slide off the front,
you literally just move it a few millimetres forward, and tip it off the side of the frame.
Captive recoil spring, again something that we consider obvious today.
But for a long time recoil springs weren't captive.
And there is really nothing phenomenally new or innovative about the top end of the gun.
It's got all the standard sort of safeties that you would expect.
This is a partially cocked system, so when the slide cycles
it's going to cock the striker back part way, but not fully.
And it is in fact your trigger pull that pulls
the striker the rest of the way home, and then releases it.
And that's a relevant safety feature.
Because if the striker is fully cocked with enough power to detonate a primer,
then if something fails in the fire control mechanism and allows the striker to drop,
you have an accidental unintended discharge.
If the striker is not actually tensioned enough to fire a primer
until you actually physically pull the trigger, you have a much safer system.
Now in this case, Glock ... uses the same system.
But there are a number of striker-fired pistols out there
that have gone to a ... fully-cocked striker on reset as a way to improve the trigger press.
That's going to be one of those trade-offs.
... You always have to consider: what's your purpose for the pistol?
Which one is better suited to you?
In fact there's a similar argument to be made about the magazine release on the Delta,
which is in fact very low profile.
Now if your concern is accidentally engaging the magazine release,
you can see that on the original Glocks that's kind of out there and unprotected.
Well, the Arex is a lot less likely to unintentionally drop a magazine.
However, it is so low profile that some people
complain that it's actually too hard to intentionally release the magazine.
This is an area where there is no right answer,
there is what's the best answer for you?
I like the fact that this one came with two magazines,
one standard 17 round, and then a second one with a plus 2 base plate on it.
So you can get 19 rounds into the gun if you're not particularly concerned
about a little bit of added length on the grip module there.
From a ... legal perspective one of the interesting developments we've seen,
in particular from SIG (SIG Sauer USA), is coming up with systems that
don't use the actual grip module of the gun as the legally serialised firearm part.
This is really much more relevant to the United States I think than some other countries,
but on this we have our serial number right there.
That is not part of the plastic, and that can be removed.
So if we tap that pin all the way out,
I can then just pop this element out.
Now if you're going to change the ... grip frame I suppose you'd call it,
you also have to take out the rear piece, and that's just another pin.
What I want to show you ... is that's your serial number.
This component is actually, legally speaking, the firearm.
And what makes that really cool,
and of course Arex is not the first company to do this,
but what makes that cool is it means that this element can be replaced.
If you decide you want a longer or shorter grip frame,
if you decide you want a different colour, if they do special edition releases
or something in the future that have different or distinctive features,
this element is not legally controlled, it's just that little guy.
I will say that I have absolutely become a big fan of red dots on pistols.
We have red dots now that are technically totally capable
of handling the stress of being mounted on a pistol slide.
I like the way the Alien has a truly innovative system
where it's not mounted to a reciprocating slide,
but I think there is minimal excuse for any new self-loading Browning-style pistol like this
being produced today to not accept optics mounts.
And what's cool, again little minor iterative changes,
what Arex has done is include a slide cut here and like four different mounting plates,
that can between them except virtually any pistol red dot sight that's out on the market today.
So there are a lot of striker-fired pistols out there, pistols in general out there,
that have proprietary or kind of complicated mounts.
Trying to figure out what adapter do I need? What sight can I put on what pistol?
Arex has bypassed all of that by, essentially, with the gun
giving you every mounting plate combination you will need
for the significant optics that are on the market today.
I in fact chose a Leupold DeltaPoint on this one, because I could get it in coyote.
That's my significantly researched, high-tech, nuanced rationale for why the DeltaPoint here.
(Because it matches colours.) ...
OK, that's probably not the answer that I ought to have,
but let's be honest, that's the same rationale that a lot of people are going to have. So.
All of that stuff makes the gun sound pretty cool.
Let's head out to the range and actually see how it runs.
Let's see, so I've got a nice little textured area right here, that serves as a really good thumb rest.
And it's on both sides, so lefties and righties.
I can rest my other ... thumb on the side stop, just hold it down.
... Although in theory ... if I do that too hard, that might prevent it
from locking open on an empty magazine. So we'll just stick the thumb there.
The very first shot had enough power to not just hit the centre plate
in my little Mini Mozambique there, but actually stand it up on the back side.
So let me knock that back down.
Pretty easy to work with.
It is a striker-fired ... partial reset trigger, so not quite a Glock trigger.
It's not a bad trigger, but it's certainly no single-action 1911 trigger.
I have two magazines that came with this, a 17 round and an extended 19 round.
And I do also have a spinner, so ... kind of obligatory that I try this out on the spinner, right?
I really should know better at this point than
to try to force over the top plate on the spinner, but I tried it anyway.
That would have been a piece of cake if I'd done it right.
I should probably do it right, we'll be right back.
That was embarrassing, so let's do it right this time.
Oh.
Not falling for it.
Should have fallen for it maybe.
There we go. Alright, it took me the whole magazine because I missed a couple of times.
But, a lot of fun. Spinner's always a great practice target.
I don't know what more I can tell you about this, I think
these things, ... they feel great in the hand, they shoot really nicely.
You'd never know this was like a $400, $450, maybe $350 on special, pistol.
I think it's a really cool example of how over time,
once we get familiar with the design and the manufacturing concepts,
the price, the economy of a technology like this can really drop.
So props to Arex, this thing's a lot of fun.
In fact, it's so much fun that I'm going to go ahead and use one of these
coming up in just a couple of weeks at Slovenian Brutality.
So we'll find out for sure if it can handle the rigours of a brutality match, I'm pretty sure it can.
Thanks to Arex for providing the pistol here. Go ahead and empty out the magazine.
Hopefully you guys enjoyed it. Thanks for watching.