{"id":415823,"date":"2024-02-19T13:00:24","date_gmt":"2024-02-19T19:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gunmagwarehouse.com\/blog\/?p=415823"},"modified":"2024-02-15T13:18:01","modified_gmt":"2024-02-15T19:18:01","slug":"the-under-appreciated-smith-wesson-csx-9mm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gunmagwarehouse.com\/blog\/the-under-appreciated-smith-wesson-csx-9mm\/","title":{"rendered":"The Under-Appreciated Smith & Wesson CSX 9mm"},"content":{"rendered":"

Introduced in early 2022, the Smith & Wesson CSX pistol<\/a> seemed an anachronism at the outset. It was an all-metal (steel with aluminum frame) hammer-fired single-action pistol designed for cocked and locked carry, in a time when the defensive handgun market was dominated by polymer frame striker-fired guns with a \u201cpoint and shoot\u201d manual of arms.<\/p>\n

The CSX\u2019s reception has been mixed. I\u2019m told one gun dealer in the Southwest sells them so fast he can\u2019t keep them in stock. Yet another dealer in Florida told me he can\u2019t sell them at all, because no one among his <\/em>clientele wants to learn an \u201cold fashioned thumb safety.\u201d However that particular dealer loves his, carries it often on his own time, and only wears a higher capacity 9mm at work because he\u2019s often alone in the store and figures armed robbers will come in large numbers to rob a gun shop.<\/p>\n

To see whether the CSX is right for you, <\/em>let\u2019s look at its attributes, some of which have gone unconsidered in magazine and Internet reviews of it that I\u2019ve read.<\/p>\n

Features of the Pistol<\/h2>\n

The CXS is ambidextrous,<\/em> with thumb safety levers and <\/em>slide lock\/slide release levers on both sides. It comes with a separate off-side (right side of the pistol) magazine release button that\u2019s not terribly hard for the user to install.<\/p>\n

\"S&W
Note CSX\u2019s ambi thumb safety and slide stop, reversible mag release, and tabbed trigger to help make it drop-safe.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The CXS has decent capacity <\/em>for its size. About the same footprint as a small-frame snub-nose .38 Special revolver \u2013 and, of course, flatter \u2013 it can take a 10-round magazine which leaves a very short butt conducive to concealment and counting the round in the chamber gives you the same ammo reservoir of a five-shot S&W J-frame and<\/em> a six-shot Colt Detective Special. It also has a slightly longer 12-round magazine which with one more torpedo in the launch tube gives you more shots at your disposal than two six-shooters.<\/p>\n

\"S&W
CSX holds 11 rounds with the short mag shown, 13 with longer, in same \u201cfootprint\u201d as 5-shot Gunsite Custom S&W 442, left.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The CSX is accurate. <\/em>The one I tested for American Handgunner <\/em>when the CSX first came out was dead on for point of aim\/point of impact out of the box, and averaged 2.5 inches for five-shot groups at 25 yards: extraordinary performance for a \u201cpocket pistol.\u201d Taking the best three of five shots fired hand-held from a bench rest, which tends to factor out unnoticed human error and give a good idea what the gun would have done with all five from a machine rest, the average was a hair under an inch and a half.<\/p>\n

The CSX is reliable. <\/em>Shot out of the box without cleaning or lube it never malfunctioned, except for one misfire with a cartridge that had been immersed in water for a long time and probably would have misfired in any 9mm handgun. Many testers and thousands of rounds have proven the CSX\u2019s reliability.<\/p>\n

The CSX has stand-off capability. <\/em>That means the recoil spring guide and the overall lockup are such that if you press the muzzle straight against something \u2013 such as an attacker who is belly to belly with you and trying to murder you \u2013 it will still fire and cycle instead of going out of battery and failing to fire like most auto pistols.<\/p>\n

The CSX has safety features. <\/em>S&W has assured me it has been tested to be \u201cdrop-safe.\u201d With increasingly popular appendix carry it\u2019s important to note that both the thumb safety and a hammer you can hold back with your thumb are safety nets against unintentional discharge when holstering if anything depresses the trigger.<\/p>\n

The CSX has a slanted, low-profile rear of slide in cocked and locked carry, <\/em>eliminating the potential for the rear of a square-back slide to catch on fabric and stall your draw from pocket carry. This is a significant problem with striker-fired subcompact pistols the size of the CSX.<\/p>\n

\"S&W
With CSX atop the same maker\u2019s Shield, we can see the CSX\u2019s smaller, sloping rear profile \u2013 less likely to snag on a pocket draw.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Shortcomings<\/h2>\n

No one pistol is perfect, or we\u2019d all carry that one and the rest would be in museums. The CSX does have some drawbacks.<\/p>\n

The big one is a \u201cfalse reset.\u201d When I was researching the American Handgunner <\/em>article on the CSX Smith & Wesson\u2019s Corey Boudreau told me the CSX \u201chas a firing pin block in the slide and if you ride the trigger forward through the reset cycle, you can feel the trigger bar sweep off the firing pin block just a slight tick before the full reset is achieved. I\u2019ve found that the more the gun breaks in the issue seems to go away.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the almost two years with the CSX since my original test, I found the same. However, it\u2019s only a problem for those who \u201cride the link\u201d when they shoot, that is, bring the trigger just forward enough to reset and not all the way forward. I learned over the years that in the grip of \u201cfight or flight\u201d response, our bodies redirect blood flow away from extremities such as the hands and into the internal viscera to \u201cfuel the furnace\u201d for extreme survival exertion. This means we lose much of our sense of touch in such circumstances, at the same time that the adrenaline dump is making us stronger\u2026and in the fingers, flexor muscles that pull the trigger are stronger than the extender muscles.<\/p>\n

This can cause a failure to fully reset and be able to continue shooting, so I learned (and taught) to let the trigger come all the way forward between shots until it stops moving. That\u2019s a palpation gross enough that we can feel it, and it guarantees successive shots.\u00a0 Shoot that way \u2013 with full trigger return \u2013 and this, the biggest deal-breaker with the CSX in the hands of some reviewers, simply ceases to be a problem.<\/p>\n

\"S&W
CSX has good trigger reach but wants the trigger to always return completely forward to guarantee reset.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

My only personal complaint with the CSX is that the 12-round magazine has a floppy rubber grip spacer that I just hate. I wish they\u2019d find a way to reconfigure that.<\/p>\n

Some people just can\u2019t bear wiping off a thumb safety. I\u2019ve been doing that with 1911s since I was twelve years old, but I understand why others may not be so habituated. I have to say the thumb safety on the CSX is extremely ergonomic, much like a 1911, and more ergonomic for me by far than the optional thumb safety on S&W\u2019s own polymer analog to the CSX, the earlier Shield. I\u2019ve seen enough people saved from death by a thumb safety when the bad guy momentarily got their gun away from them that I see that safety as a feature, not a bug; people with different life experiences may have a different outlook.<\/p>\n

\"Mas
Mas loves the shooting characteristics of CSX. Note where the spent casing (circled) from the last shot is, muzzle is already back on target.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Bottom Line Opinion<\/h2>\n

For this writer, the CSX\u2019s advantages far outweighed its disadvantages. I bought the test sample from Smith & Wesson<\/a>, and it\u2019s now part of my defensive battery and may even replace my usual backup gun, the hammerless snub nose .38 revolver.<\/p>\n

Do yourself a favor and check out the Smith & Wesson CSX 9mm. It has a lot going for it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Do yourself a favor and check out the Smith & Wesson CSX 9mm. It has a lot going for it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":415816,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2333],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-415823","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-firearm-reviews"],"small_media_thumbnail":"https:\/\/gunmagwarehouse.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/SW-CSX-feat-MFA-300x200.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunmagwarehouse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415823","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunmagwarehouse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunmagwarehouse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunmagwarehouse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunmagwarehouse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=415823"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/gunmagwarehouse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415823\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":422319,"href":"https:\/\/gunmagwarehouse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415823\/revisions\/422319"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunmagwarehouse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/415816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunmagwarehouse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=415823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunmagwarehouse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=415823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunmagwarehouse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=415823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}