Review of the SAR B6P

I recently purchased a SAR 4.5" 16+1 polymer-framed, SA/DA B6P. I wanted a cheap gun to keep in my car. I normally pocket carry a Rohrbaugh R9 and I can't really deploy it from a sitting position. I wanted a gun that I could access quickly while in my vehicle. Since I wouldn't be carrying it, weight and size weren't much of a factor so I wanted a full-sized pistol. Almost everything else I have is 9mm (besides .22LR), so I wanted to stick with 9mm. I also wanted something really cheap and not something that I would worry about exposing to the heat, humidity and freezing temperatures of sitting in my car.

I just used Internet search tools like Gun Watcher and SlickGuns to price sort all 9mm from low to high. At the bottom of the price range are derringers, then Hi-Points, then the Century Arms Zastava M88 / Yugo M70, then there was the SCCY, Kel-Tec and Diamondback DB9 all coming in at around $200.00, then there are the Taurus, and then there is the Sarsilmaz offerings – imported by EAA.

At one time the SAO version of the SAR B6P was on sale for $240.00 with free shipping, and that is what initially caught my attention, but I didn't know enough about the pistol at the time to just purchase it, the sale expired and I missed my chance. But I started researching it. I read all of the reviews I could and watched most of the YouTube reviews I could – some folks on YouTube have no business doing gun reviews, they either don't know about firearms, or they don't know how to do a presentation, so I didn't watch every single review on the B6P that is out there. BTW – I did like Rusty Shackleford's tabletop summary of the B6P. After I researched the pistol I decided it was a good buy at $240.00 Unfortunately it didn't go on sale again for that price for months and months.

I purchased the pistol for a total of $241.43 from Sportsman Guide. Sportsman's Guide really plays around with prices and different numbers. They advertised a price of $237.49 but that is with membership to their buyer's club which is $29.99 per year and the regular price is $249.99 plus $9.99 shipping but then I received an offer to join the buyers club for 6 months free and as part of that they would waive shipping fees but then they add a $9.99 fee for firearms period – so when you are dealing with Sportsman Guide you really have to get out your calculator and start adding and subtracting all of their different prices, deals, discounts, offers, fees and everything to see if the gun really is a good deal or not. When all the adding and subtracting was done, I ended up spending $241.43 for the B6P

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.

The Good:

Well kind of an executive summary here – the price and the value are pretty good . Two hundred and forty two bucks for a CZ clone that works – is a pretty good deal.

The fit and finish is good, I don't see tool marks on this pistol – even in places where it doesn't matter like the inside of the slide.

The pistol was fairly clean when I received it. It had been test fired and cleaned, and there was a tiny amount of carbon in the barrel and on the breach face – but no big deal. There wasn't excessive oil, gobs of grease or gook in the gun, no dust, debris or plastic or metal shavings.

The gun is shootable, not too much recoil with various 9mm ammo, but its what you'd expect with a full-sized nine.

The gun is accurate - not 25 yard competition accurate, but it is generally accurate. I know rating a trigger is subjective and I don't think the SA trigger is as good as some of the reviewers have led me to believe, but I am able to create 3” groups at 10 yards standing, shooting offhand and that’s good enough for me for a gun that I basically have for carjacking or other types of roadway emergencies.

The gun seems reliable – so far. I shot a little over 250 rounds today and the gun cycled everything I fed it – 115gr Winchester White box FMJ, 124gr Blazer Brass FMJ, 147gr bonded Golden Saber, 147gr Winchester Ranger “T” Series, 147gr Federal HST, 124gr Lawman TMJ, 115gr Federal “Champion” FMJ. 124gr Gold Dots and a box of 115gr Perfecta FMJ. I also mixed different cartridges within the same mag. I didn't experience any problems. I even put some cartridges in there that had experiences light strikes from other guns and the B6P fired them off with no problems.

The gun comes in a really nice case. I know this isn't very high on people's list of priorities but I've paid 3 times more for a gun from S&W and it came in a cardboard box. Getting a nice case is a pleasant bonus when you're buying a budget gun.


The Bad:

The manual safety is very stiff. I can flick it off, but I can't engage the safety while gripping the gun normally, I have to change my grip to get my thumb pad totally under the lever to push it up. I can't just flick it up with the inside of my thumb.

The slide is hard to rack. Other people have noted that the slide is hard to rack. I work out with Captains of Crush gripppers 3 times a week and I have to admit, the slide is not easy to rack. The slide rides inside the frame and there just isn't a whole lot of slide sticking out to get a good purchase.

If anyone ever needs to send this pistol in for warranty work – they're going to have to pay both ways. EAA won't issue an airway bill and the instruction for sending it in says to be sure to include $20 for return shipping.

Also there is only a 1 year warranty and only for the original owner. I guess I'm spoiled by lifetime warranties.

The trigger gives your finger a little thwack with every shot. I started to notice it after 50 rounds and the trigger slap really gets annoying if you’re going to try to spend a day at the range shooting the B6P


The Ugly:

Whatever coating they use on the manual safety and the slide stop lever is already showing signs of wear and I can see the sheen of bare metal starting to show through.

The double-action trigger is very heavy. I've heard it improves quite a bit with firing but right now it is barely usable.


The Mediocre and Miscellaneous:

I heard where so many people thought the single-action trigger was good, but I don't think it is. There is IMO, a lot of take up, about a 1/16th of an inch, and then maybe 1/8th of an inch of travel before the trigger breaks, just seems like a lot of travel for an SA trigger and the SA trigger is fairly heavy, at least for an SA trigger. My trigger also wiggles from side to side, there seems to be too much play - left to right movement on the trigger.


The sights are just so-so. They're a narrow affair and I would prefer a little bit more daylight between the front post and the rear notches, its just personal preference I suppose. They're three dot sights so you really don't need the daylight bordering the front sight. They're good enough for combat accuracy. I was able to create 3” 5-shot groups so they're not horrible sights.

The gun only comes with 1 magazine. I guess I can't complain about it though I wanted cheap and getting only 1 magazine is part of cheap.


General comments:

I realize that most of the comments are negative but if I think of it in terms of other options for a truck gun given that I wanted to go cheap, the B6P seemed the best option when I compare the B6P to the other cheapish guns out there. My criticism of the SA trigger is just speaking about an SA trigger in general. If I compare the SA trigger on the B6P to the trigger on the SCCY or LC9, the SAR B6P wins hands down – so I guess it is all relative.

My gun came with a 15-round magazine and it really is a 15-round magazine. There was some talk on forums that the magazines might say 15 but would hold 16 or 17 and I can tell you that the magazine I received will only hold 15 rounds. Yes I know the product description says "SAR 4.5" 16+1 polymer-framed, SA/DA B6P" but 16 rounds are not going in the magazine I received. Mec-Gar does make 17rd and 19rd magazines for this gun.


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It comes zip-tied, with a silver sticker on the trigger guard that says "Quality Control is Made"

I'm going back and re-watching and re-reading all of the reviews because I don't think anyone mentioned the warranty or that the owner would have to pay shipping both ways.

I didn't find out until I read the manual.

From what I've heard it takes newer CZ 75B mags - the magazines with two notches cut in the magazine. It takes the Mec-Gar 17 and 19 round mags for the CZ 75B.

These folks have put together a magazine compatibility master list for CZ clones:

http://czechpistols82792.yuku.com/topic/8190/Magazine-Compatibility-Master-List?page=1#.VdvNxMaFO1s

And here is a video of an owner demonstrating that Mec-Gar CZ 75B mags go into his SAR B6P. They seem to work...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgGKjN8bZSE


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Sportsman's Guide is also offering some pretty low (member's club) prices for the Mec-Gar CZ 75B magazines so I might buy from them in the near future.

I am kind of debating about it... I purchased this SAR B6P as a cheap truck gun, and it is easy to go crazy buying "stuff" for any gun and pretty soon you've spent a lot of money on what was supposed to be a cheap proposition. I still have to get a vehicle holster so I'm trying to keep the total money I spent on a truck gun to a minimum.

Sometimes I end up with spare ammo like spare change - I don't know how it happens but I'll have 1 or 2 rounds when I come back from the range so I throw it in a box. Anyway, I had 15 rounds of assorted FMJ - 115gr to 147gr, I added a couple of Federal 115gr Champion and shot that through my B6P tonight. Also, I didn't clean it after the first range trip. I put 50 rounds of Federal Aluminum through it followed by 17 rounds of the ZQI 123gr "NATO" and 17 rounds of Wolf 115gr steel-cased ammo.

I didn't have any problems, the gun just shoots, but I'm still not enjoying the trigger slap

I purchased the 19rd Mec-Gar CZ 75B magazine for this - MGCZ7519AFC. The magazine fits but not smoothly, I really have to slap that mag in there otherwise it doesn't click in. I'm sure there's nothing wrong with the magazine - its not technically made for the SAR B6P, the B6P is just close enough to a CZ 75B that the magazine happens to work (with a little effort).

I'd advise checking the mag too - to make sure it is fully seated.

The magazine ejects OK, it just doesn't seat without some force. I'm going to take it to the range to test functionality.

This will be the mag that is in the gun, I'll use the magazine that came with the SAR B6P as the spare - I wouldn't want to use this 19 round Mec-Gar mag during a stress reload.

So I read on the CZ Forums that some other owners were having the same problem and they just took a Dremel to one of the slots and fixed it.

If you look at the magazine face-on, (as if the bullet tips were facing you), you can see the slot on the left is a little lower than the slot on the right. (If you're looking at the back of the magazine, this would be the slot on the right).

So I went to Home Depot and bought the diamond tip for my Dremel. I took a little less than 1/32" off the top of just the slot on the right and the mag goes in easily now, but still fits in tight and releases fine.

SAR B6P on sale now for $229.00 + 9.99 shipping

I really fricken hate when I watch prices for months and get what I think is the best price on a gun, and then it goes on sale for even cheaper than what I bought it.


https://www.slickguns.com/product/eaa-sar-b6p-9mm-full-size-pistol-26499


I purchased my B6P for a total of $241.43 from Sportsman Guide. :banghead:

You do realize the price difference between what you paid and the advertised price is a whopping $2.44................right????????

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I was ripped off !

Up until today I purchased the SAR B6P at the lowest price anyone could ever have possibly paid for that gun. It was the best deal...

until today

I am curious if anyone has tried swapping slides from the compact to the full size and vice versa...?

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I'm pretty sure it works. The rails are in the same spot, the guns are identical from the forward set of rails to the back. The only differences in the guns are forward of the forward rails, actually they're identical to just forward of the trigger guard. . Obviously the compact has a shorter barrel, shorter slide and the frame.

The slides even swap between the B6P and the K2P:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsMfJMvYNOk