We've recently had a chance to take an early look at the Marksman IX, a gun we were anticipating ourselves. Ever since last year when the Maruyama SCW-9, or as some might know it as, the B&T APC9K, was released, It led to us acquiring a healthy amount of Glock big stick magazines. While these have been fun to shoot out of the SCW9 as well as our Umarex VFC Glocks, it led down a path of thinking a lot of practicality minded shooters tend to with real steel as well. The ever present question whenever a firearm is announced for sale; "Does it take glock mags?"
Having recently met the mastermind behind the brand MARKSMAN which surprise surprise, happens to produce the Marksman IX, we were given the opportunity to get our hands on these guns a little earlier than the street date set for release on them. As i'm sure some of you who also keep up with releases overseas is aware, this gun was delayed a few months, as it was originally announced summer of 23, and stated for release around Sept to November. Here we are in early January of 2024 now, and our first batch of orders are in our hands.
So a bit of background, and it took me a little bit of looking around to find all this. The gun appears to be heavily based off a Wilson Combat AR-9. There are no trades with the gun, but if it bothered one enough, custom engraving services will solve this issue. I'm not a huge AR PCC guy myself, so I wasn't too familiar with the wide scope of offerings in this market space.
Some differences i've spotted between the genuine article and Marksman's product would be the real steel version appears to have a different style of Mlok handguard, and comes with a Wilson Combat branded BCM Gunfighter pistol grip. The Marksman IX ships with a much more spartan set of furniture with its CAR15 stock and A2 pistol grip.
Looking at the handguard first, we have no clue where this design came from. It doesn't quite look like anything Wilson Combat is offering, at least currently as of this moment. However we think this is quite an attractive and no nonsense functional MLOK handguard, and doesn't really feel like something you need to replace, emphasis on the NEED TO. The length of the handguard measures 7 inches, but we'll leave it up to you guys to decide if that is enough usable space for an AR PCC.
There is a hole on the top of the 12 o'clock picatinny rail, which makes accessing and adjusting the TDC Hopup to be a breeze. The handguard uses one cross bolt to lock it to the barrel nut, reminiscent of a geissele handguard design. Not much else to be said here, it's function, it looks good. The TDC hopup is a nice commitment on Marksmans part. Going with a TDC hopup tends to be quite a foolproof design for a hopup, and should be more trouble free even with QC deviations in tolerances for the parts. We are hesitant to comment further on its performance as of this time, but initial shots look consistent and FPS fluctuations don't appear to be out of place compared to any other VFC AR, which is the OEM for this particular gun.
The lower receiver appears to be very well made, and replicates the Wilson Combat's glock lower very nicely. It features an extended knocker pin version of VFC's Version 3 AR system, and we expect it to be fairly reliable in that sense. The bolt stop design is similar to VFC's ARs with some changes to accommodate the dimensions of the glock magazines. It has locked back very reliably through out our limited time playing with this gun so far. The fire control group tends to be your standard VFC affair as well. Some notable points would be the additional of a screw on the hammer's strike face for the knocker. We speculate this is to allow the user to adjust the valve open time and possibly squeeze out a bit more performance at the expense of efficiency.
The hammer spring also tends to be a bit lighter than usual, and we speculate this could be to accomodate the glock magazines valves in an effort to combat cooldown from a pistol magazine. The trigger subsequently feels a bit lighter than usual, but retains the crisp break and reset VFC AR triggers are known for.
The magwell on this gun is notable for having some very good geometry. The APFG MPX comes to my mind personally when I think of a unreliable magwell design that tends to not be as tactile or positive feeling as it should be. The Marksman IX feels like the complete opposite and does a good job of guiding the magazines in and having a very positive tactile feeling when the magazines seat and lock. All this translates into fast and repeatable reloads.
The buffer assembly is also off the shelf stock VFC parts with the same AR buffer they typically employ. As a result this gun has a healthy dose of recoil to it despite the fairly lightweight bolt carrier it ships with. The bolt carrier itself has some interesting deviations as well. The nozzle return spring appears to be held on with a roll pin, versus the usual E clip. The nozzle itself is also a weird hybrid of the front of a VFC Glock nozzle, and the back of their AR one, as one would imagine being the case to make this whole chimera of a gun work.
We haven't taken apart the nozzle yet but will do so with a deeper breakdown article later, but it does not appear this gun has an NPAS as well. This could prove problematic at CQB venues with stricter low FPS limits as we've clocked it shooting around the 360-380 FPS range in the configuration it ships in. Speaking with VFC Pentagon we also were advised that the nozzle also shares the same internal valve as VFC's MP5 and MP7 so something like a bowmaster or Revanchist valve would get this gun shooting at the velocities desired.
All in all this gun feels great as a close quarters weapon with familiar AR compatibility for parts and handling. There seems to be an effort in its design to cater this gun for performance with the easily accessible TDC adjustment as well. We feel at its price point, similar to VFC's M733 with a lot of practical details more geared towards gameplay, and not collectors, ultimately makes this a compelling purchase, especially for someone who has or runs a VFC Glock and wants something more familiar with their AR platforms to utilize their spare parts bins or simply to be able to share accessories easier. We look forward to more releases by Marksman at this point.
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