The SCCY’s The Limit
Bet-Your-Life-Grade Awesome for the CC Holder on a Budget
The SCCY CPX is a reasonably-priced, reliable, state-of-the-art pocket gun designed from the outset
for effective concealed carry. SCCY’s approach is to focus on a single design and make it perfect.
The CPXis available in a variety of colors both with and without a manual safety.
Finally in most parts of our country a law-abiding citizen not averse to a little administrative baggage can legally carry a gun for personal protection. Where previously the common citizen was reliably helpless in the face of criminal assault, now thugs have to think twice before approaching that young woman walking to her car in a dark parking lot. These days there is a fair possibility that previously-vulnerable lass might be packing heat.
Like most things in a capitalistic society, consumer goods are arrayed along a financial spectrum. For those blessed with extensive resources there is a holy fortune to be spent on top-end carry guns. For the Common Man, however, previously he had to settle for unreliable, antiquated, or suboptimal. With the SCCY CPX, however, those days are gone.
The SCCY CPX is devoid of appendages and comes with two magazines.
The CPX has the features you need without the fluff you don’t.
What the Heck is a SCCY?
It’s pronounced “Sky” and it has a colorful history. The initial offerings were well-intended but fairly fraught with problems. It’s hard to bring a new product to market and the 1st generation of these handguns had some well-publicized teething problems. After a massive re-think and the introduction of some serious talent from another very familiar and very successful polymer pistol company, the Gen 2 CPX is a tough-as-a-tank concealed carry tool at a price leaving plenty left over for diapers and rent.
SCCY’s approach to their handgun was to focus on a single pistol and make it perfect. The barrel and slide are indestructible stainless. The frame is Information Age polymer. The trigger is a long but smooth and predictable double action. A manual safety is available as an option. I am diagnosably paranoid about negligent discharges and I am comfortable without it. The magazines are stubby double stack 10-rounders. Though there is a lot of cool stuff in the works at SCCY, at present the CPX is available only in 9mm.
The manual safety on the SCCY CPX is generously fenced. This helps prevent unintentional
manipulation but can eat into your hand on extended firing sessions. The long, smooth double
action trigger makes for safe carry in a proper holster.
The SCCY CPX comes with a spare ten-round magazine and both magazines have both
flush and extended floor plates. Magazines are made in-house to ensure total quality control.
Put Up Or Shut Up
It’s easy to say you took a flawed product and made it perfect. How might you prove that claim? Check out SCCY’s warranty. If the gun breaks or becomes unreliable for any reason send it back. If they can’t fix it in one day you get a new gun. If your gun is stolen send them a police report and they’ll replace it without a fuss. Call the company and a real human answers the phone. They will sell 80,000 pistols this year and they have one guy who does repairs and replacements. He tells me he is frequently pretty bored for lack of work.
The gun is an amazing value. There’s a spare magazine and two extra floor plates both with a finger rest and without. Everything is made in-house, including the magazines, so they have complete control over every aspect of production. The mandatory gun lock is a proprietary design built from the outset for this gun’s geometry. There are strap-on lasers for folks like me with high-mileage eyes. The laser incorporates a nifty skin sensor so it activates whenever you grab the gun. The CPX has all the stuff you need without the fluff you don’t.
The sights on the SCCY CPX are robust and unobtrusive while sporting the expected three white dots.
The grips on the SCCY CPX are nicely stippled and the weight-reducing slots look cool.
Iron For The Common Man
SCCY’s goal with the CPX was to produce a flawlessly reliable and effective personal defense tool for the responsible American on a budget. The archetypal example of how well they fulfilled this mission is exemplified in the following true anecdote.
A young man received a CPX as a gift for his 21st birthday. As his concealed carry paperwork was not yet approved he left the gun in his book bag while he worked his retail job. He had never before squeezed a trigger but looked forward to training on the gun and carrying responsibly when all the administrative hurdles were cleared.
A thug with a gun of his own robbed the young man’s place of employment and bound up our hero along with a co-worker while he went to rummage through the cash register. His subsequent intentions for the subdued pair were assuredly malevolent. While the Bad Guy was distracted retrieving the money this young man slipped free from his bonds and quietly retrieved his unfired CPX. In the subsequent gunfight this young stud fired four rounds — the first four of his life — two of which connected. The thug was mortally wounded yet this gallant young man performed CPR on him until the ambulance arrived. As horrific as this experience was, our hero undoubtedly saved his own life as well as that of his friend. He had the means at hand because he had received a powerful, reliable, inexpensive personal defense handgun as a gift.
The sleek trigger guard-mounted laser sight from Armalaser fits the gun like a sock.
The device takes up little space and is practically weightless.
The Armalaser laser sight incorporates a nifty skin sensor activating the sight automatically
whenever you grip the firearm. There are no manual switches to remember in a crisis.
The SCCY CPX strikes a nice balance between concealability and recoil-mitigating width.
There are thinner options on the market but thin grips equal less surface area equals painful recoil.
Turning Ammo Into Noise
The CPX will handle any factory 9mm Parabellum loads to include Plus-P rounds. Function and feeding were flawless throughout our testing. Testing ranged from cheap imported steel-cased FMJ blasting ammo all the way up to high-end Winchester and Federal defensive hollowpoint loads. The stubby double stack grip forms a trifecta of capacity, concealability and recoil management. There’s enough width to make shooting a powerful round in a compact platform comfortable without being too bulky to wear with shorts and a t-shirt.
The trigger pull is long but smooth and it needs to be that way. The only thing worse than being defenseless in the face of attack is having a negligent discharge. The trigger on the CPX is still more pleasant than most corresponding DA revolvers. I tried the external safety-equipped CPX1 and it ate into my thumb a bit after an extended range session. The CPX2 without this appendage felt simply divine.
I have concealed carry options aplenty in my personal collection. These days it’s the CPX insulating me and my family from the ne’er-do-wells and bottom feeders with whom we share this flawed but marvelous world. This inexpensive pistol is comfortable, effective and priced for the Common Man. In its current form I simply cannot fault it.
